LTB 683/17 – MOTION 84: CWU General Conference 2017 – CWU Boycott of The Sun Newspaper
No: 683/17
18th December 2017
TO: ALL BRANCHES
Dear Colleague
MOTION 84: CWU General Conference 2017 – CWU Boycott of The Sun Newspaper
Colleagues will be aware that the above Motion was carried unanimously by CWU General Conference 2017. The motion instructed the NEC to ”support the campaign for all retailers and vendors of newspapers to stop selling the Sun” as well as stating that “conference applauds the group called ‘The Total Eclipse of the Sun’ for their endeavours to rid the UK of this newspaper.
Our work in this regard has continued in line with motion to the extent that our branches in the North West have actively engaged with the campaign and on Merseyside in particular a number of large retail chains no longer stock the newspaper, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrison’s, Asda to name a few.
At the recent North West Regional Labour Party Conference the CWU moved a motion similar to that agreed at CWU conference, moved by Brian Kenny this was carried by the Conference. In other work UNITE taxi drivers Branch in Liverpool boycotted Sainsbury’s petrol stations as part of the campaign for their stores to stop selling the paper. It is clear then that the campaign is effective.
In line with our ongoing support for the campaign we have been reviewing our relationship with the publication.
Alongside its disgraceful coverage of the tragic Hillsborough disaster, this newspaper is an enemy to ordinary working people across the UK with its constant promotion of right wing politics and a vicious approach to anyone not supporting their agenda.
We have been working with the Communications Department to ascertain the level of engagement in recent times with the Sun and can confirm that every story on the CWU in the last two years has been negative towards us.
The Sun has historically been purchased by the department on a daily basis to form part of the news round-up which is provided to the senior officers. The department has suspended this order.
In short we do not believe there is anything positive to be gained by the CWU having any relationship with The Sun and we are loathed to commit our member’s money to an organisation which has done and continues to do so much damage to working people.
We therefore believe it is right for unions to take a formal stance on issues such as this so we are recommending that the CWU takes a formal position of a total boycott of The Sun on a union-wide basis and gives suitable publicity this decision.
Any enquiries on the content of this LTB please forward to gsoffice@cwu.org
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary