Solidarity is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

formed in late 2005 by the far-right

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam ...

(BNP). It is named after the Polish trade union ''

Solidarność Solidarity (, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" ( , abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”''), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard, Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Polish People's Rep ...

'', and its logo (which it has trademarked) is also inspired by that of the Polish union. Solidarity recruits from all industrial sectors and professions. Solidarity has already stated that it has no plans to apply for affiliation to the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...

(TUC) and will not be bound, therefore, by agreements not to poach members from other unions.

Leadership

The first union president was Adam Walker, a BNP member and three times a parliamentary candidate (in

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in 2010 and 2017 and in

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in 2015). Since 2015, he has been chairman of the BNP, following the departure of

Nick Griffin Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British far-right politician who was chairman of the British National Party (BNP) from 1999 to 2014, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England from 2009 to 2014. Follow ...

as leader. Walker was subsequently replaced as union president by David Kerr. Kerr was replaced as president in November 2019 by Glen Nicklasson. The union's general secretary is Patrick Harrington.

Controversies

BNP funding

In a 2006 report in the newspaper '' Wales on Sunday'', John Walker, then national treasurer of the BNP, claimed that the union was likely to contribute funds to the party: Solidarity's general secretary, Harrington, responded in a letter to the newspaper that this was Walker's "personal opinion", that the recipients of union grants would be decided directly by members, and that members could opt out of the political fund if one were to be established. Solidarity's annual returns to the Certification Office from 2006 to 2018 indicate that the union has not established a political fund.

Alleged front status

Allegations that Solidarity is a BNP front organisation were first made by '' Searchlight'' magazine on the Stop the BNP website on 24 January 2006 and repeated by Barrie Clement in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' on 1 February 2006.

Membership numbers

In figures filed with the Certification Office for 31 December 2019, Solidarity said it had 173 members, up from 139 in the previous year. The same figure for 2022 stated the union has 192 members.

References

External links

Solidarity websiteCertification Office annual returns
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solidarity - The Union For British Workers Trade unions in the United Kingdom Organisations associated with the British National Party General unions Trade unions established in 2005 Fascist trade unions