While most eyes have been on the race for the General Election, another very important election has yet to hear the starting gun. The country’s largest trade union, Unite, must hold an election for General Secretary: but so far the official “front runners” are full time officials, already holding senior office in the union.

Their main challenger from the left is JERRY HICKS, the man who last year rocked the union when he beat both right wing candidates to come second to Derek Simpson in the ballot for Joint General Secretary.

Jerry, a victimised former convenor at Rolls Royce, is the best-placed and so far the only rank and file challenger: his campaign is building on last year’s result.

JOHN LISTER caught up with Jerry writing receipts for the latest clutch of donations he has been receiving from supporters young and old across the country, who see his campaign as the best hope to recapture the union for the members.

How does Jerry see the situation of the union in the aftermath of the BA cabin crew dispute?

“I put out a press release which was widely covered, which was critical of Unite’s joint general secretary Derek Simpson for condemning the decision of the strike committee to call 12 days of strike action as “over the top”.

The strike call came after a ballot with an 80 percent turnout, in which 92 percent of members involved had voted to strike.

But instead of encouraging this resistance to BA management Simpson undermined it, training his guns on his own members, and not Willie Walsh and the employers who have been successfully exploiting the anti-union legislation.

Simpson preferred to have a go at his own members rather than the one judge who was able to overturn the democratic decisions of thousands of union members.

Nor has he been willing to criticise the Labour government, which after three terms and receiving millions of pounds of our members’ money in affiliation fees has done nothing to repeal the anti-union laws.

Simpson’s attitude gave the green light to Walsh to attack. And the three months of delays between the initial strike call and the action beginning allowed Walsh and BA to put together a massive scabbing operation to further undermine the strikers.

If my anger at what Simpson could have been increased, it was by the silence from anyone else in the Unite leadership: they all failed to take him to task. These people are leaders of our union: some of them want to become General Secretary of the whole union: yet they said nothing as we went from the fanfare over the large majority for strike action, to fiasco – and farce.

Some 60 of our BA members are now suspended, seven of them from the strike committee. Our placards on the first picket line read “We have offered a 2.5 percent pay cut”: but then we saw our union begging Walsh to put his offer back on the table, and then wind up cap in hand pleading with the BA board to intervene.

I have no idea where the phrase “lions led by donkeys” originated, but I do know now where it is best suited.

This whole episode has fed the confidence of Walsh, and of other employers. It’s no coincidence that this successful injunction against Unite was quickly followed by an injunction against the RMT.

Can any Unite member not have felt a sense of humiliation, anger and frustration at the sight of a Unite member engaged in a legal strike to defend their terms and conditions being interviewed in a darkened BBC studio, using an actor’s voice to protect them from victimisation by the boss? This is in 2010, with the biggest union in the country, and potentially the most powerful, behind them. If ever there was a need for fundamental change in the union it’s now.

We have to change the union’s subservient relationship with the Labour Party, and as a minimum ensure that we support only MPs who support our policies, including the repeal of the anti-union laws.

The union has to be returned to its members: it needs to change from a business-run union to an organisation in which the members take decisions and the union fights to carry them out.

We need a union that when the chips are down, and something is so obviously wrong, is prepared to confront the twisted, anti-worker laws, instead of complying with them.

As a class we are staring into the abyss – in which the axes of evil are being sharpened to a razor edge, and they are set to be wielded against us as soon as the general election votes are counted. We need to take a stand and fight.

The public sector will feel the wrath quickest and first. It has been tremendous to see Mark Serwotka reelected for another term to lead the PCS in its series of strikes to defend civil service jobs, and their terms and conditions. Unite has a big public sector membership: and we should be working towards coordinated action with the PCS and other unions against public sector cuts.

We need to instil confidence in our own members. We know that workers will be emboldened if they see a victory anywhere, and strengthened if they see any employer knocked back. Many will see and feel the courage of the Greek workers fighting back against massive public sector cuts.

But leadership makes a big difference. Bob Crow in the RMT and Mark Serwotka have shown what a difference there can be when you have a leader who does not pour water on the fire or resistance, but fans the flames of hope.

Do Unite members want leaders who will rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic?

That’s what they would get if they elect one of the candidates already holding high office in the union who has let the Labour government get away with it for 13 years.

I think they are ready for a fightback, and a leader who is genuinely a member of the union like they are, with the union and for the union.

I am not only a rank and file candidate, I was actually offered a full-time job in the union and refused it on the principle that officials should be elected by the membership.

Last year when we stood, coming second, confounding all the critics who dismissed my chances, the campaign had to be driven by me. But now there are already support groups in over a dozen towns and cities, and active campaigning is under way in many more across the country.

This campaign won’t be won in hustings, fringe meetings or internal discussions and navel gazing, but in the workplaces, picket lines and rooftop demonstrations.

That’s where I’ll be found – as a candidate, and as General Secretary if the members put me in the top job.”