By Kieran James Paterson (UNISON Young Members activist and co-convenor, UNISON Members for Ukraine)

The 2025 UNISON Young Members conference in October voted down, not overwhelmingly but decisively, an amendment from the union’s London Young Members Forum to a motion on war and peace saying that the national National Young Members Forum should note UNISON’s pro-Ukraine policy and work with Ukraine Solidarity Campaign and Palestine Solidarity Campaign to develop training.

The argument was entirely focused on USC.

Opposition to the amendment was largely driven by members of the Communist Party of Britain / Young Communist League who, despite relatively small numbers, have a large influence UNISON’s Young Members campaigns. Some may be surprised to learn that the CPB and YCL are usually allied with the more “moderate” wing of UNISON, which recently lost the General Secretary election to left-wing network Time for Real Change. That said, in UNISON, the issue of Ukraine largely cuts across this sort of factional divide.

Two things stood out:

  1. Bad and disingenuous political arguments made against Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, hiding arguments against solidarity with Ukraine and against the Ukrainian cause.
  2. The use of tactics that were sharp to the point of being undemocratic to prevent real political debate on the issues, allowing anti-Ukraine voices to completely dominate.

It is worth adding that UNISON’s National Young Members Conference has until now been quite a small event. Partly because delegates come from Regional Young Members Forums rather than from UNISON’s many hundreds of branches. This conference actually voted to change that despite some opposition so… watch this space.

We feel confident that the great majority of Young Members in UNISON sympathise with the Ukrainian people and their trade unions; and that with real democratic debate a pro-Ukraine position would win out. Meanwhile we will continue organising to build solidarity with young workers and trade union members in Ukraine. Please get in touch if you’re in UNISON and would like to help. You can email us via UNISON Members for Ukraine unisonukrainesolidarity@gmail.com

Below is a more detailed report of what transpired at Young Members’ conference, and of arguments and tactics that were used against our amendment.

Debate Summary

I moved the amendment on behalf of Greater London Region Young Members Forum. This was a “grouped debate”, so the motions and then the amendment were moved one after another before the debate opened.

Both motions and the amendment were then voted on separately / individually but the results of were taken together to form one composited motion (amended or not).

1: The Alternative Defence Review (for which see here and here)

The majority of the arguments deployed for the motions were adopted from the “Alternative Defence Review”, and in fact, the text of the motions is a model Stop the War Coalition motion (see links above).

When moving the motions, speakers (seemingly on purpose) did not mention the amendment, Ukraine, or USC at all during their speeches. These topics only came up in the subsequent debate.

Movers focused on usual StWc arguments which were stated in the motion text:

  • Increased military spending does not make our world safer.
  • We must instead continue to push for spending on our public services.
  • International aid does help to make the world safer and must be restored along with spending on public services and other elements of the welfare state.

This put forward a binary choice, we cannot have “welfare and warfare” with “warfare” being synonymous with defence spending. It also fails to distinguish between military spending for different purposes (eg aid to Ukraine vs UK nuclear weapons).

A physical copy of the ADR was held up, with speakers encouraging everyone to read it and (supposedly) understand the facts.

2: Moving the Amendment

I moved the amendment with the following speech:

“Chair, Conference, Kieran James Paterson from the Greater London Region moving amendment 20.1 as part of the group debate.

“The Greater London Region Young Members Forum notes and acknowledges the many important statistics outlined in the main motion.

“Perhaps most importantly of all, that the current increases to defence spending are not being matched with sufficient investment in our public services.

“This motion covers a really important and urgent topic, especially for us as Young Members, who often bear the full force of cuts to public services.

“As someone who works for the NHS I see the effect of these cuts every day.

“In my ICB [NHS Integrated Care Board] alone, 50% of staff will be made redundant in the coming months.

“The consultation for this process starts on Monday, and 1 in 2 of us will not have a job by next April.

“Make no mistake, this will have a huge impact on the quality of care we are able to provide in our communities.

“For this, and many other reasons, we must continue to push for increased spending on our public services, and this will involve examining the balance of spending across all areas.

“But Conference, let’s be very clear about this, this balance is an extremely complicated one, with wide-ranging implications not just here in the UK, but also abroad.

“That’s why it’s important that as trade unionists, we get this right, and we maintain our union’s strong positions on international solidarity.

“This amendment seeks to add two organisations for us to work closely with when promoting campaigns, events, and training in the future.

“UNISON is affiliated to both the Palestine and Ukraine Solidarity Campaigns following democratic votes at NDC [UNISON main National Delegate Conference].

“And we chose these two organisations for this amendment partly because there have been very recent motions passed at both NDC 2024 and 2025 reaffirming our solidarity with the peoples of both countries and outlining our commitments to them.

“The Palestine Solidarity Campaign stands for peace, equality, and justice and works against racism, occupation, and colonisation. They actively support the Palestinian people’s struggle for the right of self-determination, and the right of return, by organising campaigns, events, and protests which have had an enormous effect on public perception and the government’s response.

“The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign works to organise solidarity with the Ukrainian labour movement, and campaigns for the rights of the Ukrainian working class and their democratic rights. USC supports and builds direct links with independent socialists and trade unions, while supporting the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own future free from the influence of Russian or Western imperialism.

“Importantly, both of these Solidarity Campaigns work closely with the communities in both countries to understand their needs and desires, and then feed this information back to us here in the UK so that we can organise around it.

“Involving these two organisations therefore doesn’t only bring more British-based activists into the conversation, but it would also directly bring in the voices of the Palestinian and Ukrainian people themselves who have a deep understanding of the effects of war on their countries.

“Finally, Conference, we do of course recognise that there are many other countries around the world suffering as a result of global instability; and are also the victims of continuous, blatant war crimes.

“For example, we cannot and must not forget Sudan, we should also consider affiliating to relevant solidarity campaigns or groups so that we can stand with the people of Sudan in the same way we do with Palestine, and Ukraine.

“It is our responsibility as trade unionists to stand up for the global working class, to act in solidarity with them, and to fight imperialism in all its forms no matter who it is perpetrated by.

“Conference, from Ukraine to Palestine, occupation is a crime, please support the amendment.”

3: Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Constitution

One cherry-picked section of the USC constitution was the key point deployed against the amendment (from Section 3 – Aims):

c. To support the right of Ukrainians to resist the occupation and annexation of their country, and to obtain the arms necessary without conditions.

The phrasing of “to obtain the arms necessary without conditions” was argued to mean that USC:

  1. Wants to support defence spending in the UK above all else, even at the expense of other public services, making USC incompatible with the substantive motion.
  2. Actively contributes to the “murder of the Ukrainian working class” (a direct quote from one speaker) by supporting a war agenda rather than looking for peace.

The entire “debate” became a series of people saying that because USC supports Ukraine getting the arms it needs to defend itself that means it wants to increase UK military spending at the expense of public services, thereby making the amendment a “wrecking amendment” which should be voted down.

It was also stated that “if London Region wants to have a debate about Ukraine, it should submit its own motion” by a speaker against the amendment.

4: Group debate format

The usual convention of debates (including on amendments) is alternating between For and Against speakers (if there are any).

All of the above issues were compounded by the structure of the debate which disadvantaged the amendment. As it was a “group debate” speakers could sit in either the For or Against seats and speak For the motions whilst speaking Against the amendment.

This created an unbalanced debate where every speaker in each seat could argue against the amendment. Movers of the motions were also given a right of reply before voting whilst the mover of the amendment was not, this resulted in a situation where (despite a long debate) nobody was able to speak For the amendment or tackle the arguments which had been made against USC.

It looked to me like the YCL mobilised effectively in advance, taking advantage of this weakness, and ensured all For and Against seats were packed with YCL members meaning they completely dominated the debate. One person was going to speak positively for the amendment but ended up about 6 people back from speaking, just before this person was going to speak a Point of Order was tactically put in to “put the question” and move to the vote.

This led to perhaps more than 60% voting against the amendment.

For all documents etc from the conference, see the UNISON website here

Motion 6: AGAINST THE DRIVE TO WAR FOR OUR FUTURES (Carried)

Conference notes that the Labour government’s Strategic Defence Review has committed to increasing defence spending to an increase of 2.5% of the GDP by 2027 with an ambition to reach 3% by the next parliament.

Conference notes that the Strategic Defence Review notes that Britain will move to ‘warfighting readiness’ by establishing a more lethal ‘integrated force’ for the future to strengthen defence.

It also proposes to bring in a ‘military gap year’ to encourage young people to sign up to the British army to address the national youth unemployment crisis.

Youth unemployment increased to 14.2% in March to May 2025, up from 13.8% to the previous year. Conference believes that youth unemployment is intrinsically linked to cuts to our public services, which are in complete crisis. This Labour government has also combined the need for increases in military expenditure with further cuts to Personal Independence Payments and Universal credit.

Conference notes the Prime Minister’s comments when launching the Strategic Defence Review which said ‘defence had to be prioritised above other public services.’

Conference welcomes 2025 National Delegate Conference’s policy on opposing any increases in military expenditure.

Conference believes that militarisation has distorted national priorities which fuels global insecurity, undermines international law, harms the environment, and has diverted investment from public services and social infrastructure.

The Alternative Defence Review commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) shows that increased military spending is economically inefficient, environmentally destructive and socially regressive. In addition, increased military spending offers very limited job creation whilst stifling a more sustainable and just economy.

Conference believes our country could play a role in working for peace, focusing on the prosperity of the youth of this country and prioritising diplomacy and global cooperation.

Conference calls upon the National Young Members Forum to:

1) To create a factsheet using the Alternative Defence Review, to combat the myths that increased military spending will combat youth unemployment.

2) To oppose the Strategic Defence Review’s ‘military gap years’ for young people.

3) Raise awareness on the issue of increased military spending by holding webinars on the Alternative Defence Review.

Motion 20: YOUNG MEMBERS NEED WELFARE NOT WARFARE (Carried)

Conference notes:

1) The government’s Strategic Defence Review which advocates for an increase in military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and to 3% by 2029, figures which the government has committed to meeting;

2) Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s subsequent commitment, announced at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in the Hague in June, that his government would seek to meet NATO’s new target of increasing military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035;

3) The cuts to international aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP, in contrast with Labour’s manifesto pledge to “regain Britain’s global leadership on development”, which led to the resignation of International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds in February 2025;

4) The planned cuts to disability benefits, which have been scaled back from the stated £5 billion target following public pressure and parliamentary rebellion, but which are still likely to lead to increased numbers of families suffering poverty;

5) The two-child cap on benefits, which affects 1.5 million children of whom 42% suffer child poverty;

6) UNISON’s existing policy, affirmed at National Delegate Conference 2024 when an amendment from the National Young Members’ Forum (NYMF) was accepted by overwhelming vote, opposing all increases in military spending and recognising that these are inversely correlated with welfare spending.

Conference believes:

1) That increased military spending does not make our world safer;

2) That we must instead continue to push for spending on our public services, which are our young members’ workplaces as well as essential social supports;

3) That international aid does help to make the world safer and must be restored along with spending on public services and other elements of the welfare state.

Conference calls on the NYMF to:

1) Work with the National Executive Committee and Labour Link to continue to push UNISON’s strong anti-war and pro-welfare policy;

2) Consider organising events for young members in collaboration with UNISON affiliates including Stop the War Coalition (StWC) to educate on UNISON’s position and appropriate methods of campaigning for welfare, not warfare;

3) Publicise StWC campaigns and actions to young members nationally.

20.1 Amendment: AMENDMENT TO MOTION 20 (Fell)

In the “Conference notes:” section, add new point 7):

“7) UNISON’s strong international policies including those passed at National Delegate Conference 2025 (“Building Support for a Palestinian State”) and National Delegate Conference 2024 (“Solidarity with Ukraine and its Labour Movement”).

In the “Conference calls on the National Young Members Forum to:” section, within point 2) and point 3):After “(StWC)” add: “, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Ukraine Solidarity Campaign”

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