Some time ago we were made aware that the trades union Certification Officer was at last actively investigating several complaints made against the BNP/Patrick Harrington version of the fake union, Solidarity.The complaints were made by members of the original, official Solidarity Executive, sidelined by Harrington and Nick Griffin when the union was effectively hi-jacked last year, and more recent complaints have been made by supporters of the Unity and allied websites who were concerned that the Certification Officer might be tempted to avoid involvement, given the complexity of the case presented and the veritable viper-pit of personalities involved.
The website of the Certification Officer now carries the following notice:
APPOINTMENT OF INSPECTOR - SOLIDARITY
On 22 May 2008 the Certification Officer appointed Gerard Walker, Assistant Certification Officer, as an Inspector to investigate the financial affairs of the trade union Solidarity. The appointment was made under Section 37B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The Inspector's terms of reference are to investigate the financial affairs of the trade union Solidarity between 1 November 2005 and 24 November 2007; as regards;
a. the production of receipts for expenditure,
b. the operation of the Solidarity Paypal account,
c. withdrawals from the Solidarity HSBC current account on 20 and 25 September 2007 and a transfer to the Solidarity HSBC current account from the Solidarity HSBC Money Manager Account on 20 September 2007,
d. cheques cashed from the Solidarity HSBC current account between 18 January 2007 and 4 June 2007,
e. payments made to Mr Patrick Harrington from the Solidarity HSBC current account between 1 February 2007 and 1 May 2007,
f. the freezing of the Solidarity HSBC Current Account and Business Money Manager Account in 2007,
g. the opening of a Bank of Scotland account in the name of Solidarity in 2007,
h. the appointment of Accentuate PR Company by Solidarity in 2007,
i. the appointment of the auditors of Solidarity's accounts for the years ending 31 December 2006 and 31 December 2007 and
j. any other matter, with the consent of the Certification Officer, indicating a financial irregularity within the description set out in section 37B(2) of the 1992 Act that may come to light during the investigation of (a) to (i) above.
The terms of reference exclude the Inspector from reaching any conclusion on the legal issues arising out of the unresolved dispute within Solidarity about the application of its rules to its governance, the resolution of which requires either internal agreement or judicial determination.
The final paragraph is a clear enough statement that the Certification Officer intends to make no judgement or ruling on the legality or otherwise of the Harrington takeover, and so, whatever the outcome of this investigation into the financial affairs of Solidarity, the fake union will remain in the hands of Harrington and the BNP - unless the official Executive have the wherewithal to take the matter to law.
We do not expect them to do so, but we can state that in the unlikely event of control of the union being returned to them, then the official Executive intend to liquidate Solidarity due to the taint of its association with the BNP and Harrington - though this had not previously been a concern to Solidarity's leaders.
On the rarely visited website maintained by the hi-jacked version of Solidarity, Harrington republishes the investigation schedule, adding:
We keep an open-mind as regards the motivation of the Certification Office. It is possible that they are a neutral party simply responding professionally to a series of malicious (and potentially defamatory) allegations. We caution any third party from making unfounded or premature statements regarding this matter.
It is a very strange thing indeed that the supposed General Secretary of a supposed trade union only thinks it "possible" that the Certification Office is a "neutral party", as if he had no idea what the Certification Office existed for. Note, too, the clear threat in the final sentence, obviously intended for our eyes.
Harrington ends: "Members can rest assured that we will deal with this matter in a businesslike fashion and our services will continue to be delivered as normal."
Exactly what these "services" are is open to question, since our contacts within the Harrington/BNP Solidarity have seen very little of service and very much of waffle and grandiose promise for their £5 per month.
Solidarity has clearly failed.
As we have seen in past articles, it is very far from being the "One Big Union" of Harrington's vaulting aspirations, having only 211 members (allegedly), and having stirred little interest among the BNP membership at which it aims itself. Its annual conference was a tawdry hole and corner affair hedged about with tight security, and attended by only 27 members - almost a third of those sitting on the Executive platform.
Its much-promoted May Day activities boiled down to some desultory leafleting at two distant locations by a tiny number of members (four, we believe) armed with scruffy hand-made placards.
And, of course, it has taken on only one case since its inception, that of sacked teacher Mark Walker, a BNP man advised by the useless "fighting union" to find himself a lawyer specialising in employment law.
As there really is no beginning to the successes of the Harrington/BNP Solidarity, and as we're in danger of repeating old and all too familiar news, we'll leave it there.
At this time we have no idea of the probable timescale of Gerard Walker's investigation into Solidarity's finances, or even whether Mr Walker intends either to interview the main protagonists or to accept their written submissions, but we'll bring news of the outcome as soon as we have it.
6 comments:
We keep an open-mind as regards the motivation of the Certification Office. It is possible that they are a neutral party simply responding professionally to a series of malicious (and potentially defamatory) allegations.
Pat Harrington aka The Great Fantastist is celarly troubled by a highly disturbed state of mind, bordering on paranoia and extreme neurotiscm. He, like His Master's Voice aka Nick Griffinm is seeing plots and conpsiracies every where.
The deranged "leader" of the tin-pot union aka Solidarity, is noe suspecting that the statutory body appointed by Parliament to regulate trade unions is in some way in league with the other faction, or some part of a State-controlled plot to prevent this "major threat" to the System.
Yes Mr Harrington.
Just keep taking the pills there you go.
And yes, Mr Harrington, you ARE a General Secretary of a very big and powerful trade union.
"More sedatives for this patient nurse!"
Not long ago there was a campaign against the bank which had the BNP's accounts to drive them into closing those accounts. Has there been any similar campaign by the left to get Silver & Co to stop working for the BNP?
Is is true that Solidarity and its fake General Secretary are going to represent prostitutes?
Harrington has always had "something of the night" about him and such claims suggest that he is literally descending into the night to go after the union membership of sex workers.
What will Harrington do now that Unity are on to him and exposing him and his activities to the world?
Harrington delights in attempting to 'expose' Unity on his tacky blog but Unity are merely publishing the truth and using facts.
Harrington hates facts when they contradict him.
He's now busily trying to defend the son of the former famous fascist leader, Oswald Mosely. Max Mosely was exposed by the News of the World engaged in sex with prostitutes.
Fair enough one might say.
But why does Harrington seem so keen on defending him?
Is it because his father wore a black shirt, or because he wears nothing whilst cavorting with prostitutes?
Maybe I am making something out of nothing here and Harrington is merely trying to defend the liberal right of individuals to do what they want with whoever they want.
Is anyone going to investigate and expose the other fascists sitting on teh board of The Great Big Huge Onion?
I am sure anti-fascists can dig up a lot on ex-National Fronter Harrington, but waht about fellow ex-National Fronter Graham Williamson, he of the same bunch of swivel-eyed lunatics of Third Way as Harrington himself. He's the owner of that fake "PR company", Accentuate, created under very dubious circumstances and taken on board Solidarity by Harrington under even more very, very dubious circumstances. Can Norfolk Unity dig up any more on this one?
Then there is (apart from the Walker Bros failures) that ex-Labour Party snout, Garry Arronnsen from Liverpool who stands for the BNP, that BNP ballerina who pretended to have a relationship with barnbrook for the purposes of the London Mayoral elections, David Durant (also of Third Way), andthat Ulster fascist, David Kerr, who seems a most interesting character. He runs the Third Way funds for fascists called The Judhe Learned Hand Charity, although it's not a charity and is another fake organisation designed to avoid tax and to keep Third Way funds. It also apparently has links with the BNP front group, Civil Liberty.
David Kerr is a veteran fascist and his association withe Harrington goes back a number of years. Kerr was involved in the infamous Ulster Worker's Strike.
All anti-fascists must hope that the Certification Office does its job and expose the ramshackle corruption and financial mismanagement at the heart of Solidarity.
We hope that they do their job and once their work confirms the worst they must deregister the union.
If not the other Solidarity exec must close it down as it is literally a rotten union.
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