They basically fall into three camps
1. Openly trot (OT) - from the SWP or the Socialist Party, small political parties that gain influence through latching onto trade union disputes and demonstrations. Their banners are everywhere on every march ever that's ever been held. They give the banners with SWP on them out to ordinary folk that are happy to carry a placard with a slogan such as "no to health cuts" on it, nobody notices the SWP logo. So it looks like there are thousands of SWP supporters on the demo which of course there are just thousands of their placards. The SP comes from a group from the Militant Tendency that chose to leave the Labour Party.
2. Secretly trot (ST) - this lot are what's called entryists. They join the Labour Party and pretend to be a ginger group within the Party, at the moment called Socialist Appeal, but previously the Militant Tendency, in reality they are in a Party called the Revolutionary Socialist League. This party originally split from the SWP over whether entryism was an honourable thing to do or not. There is another group called the WRP but they are bit like the Peoples Popular Front of Judea, not really worth a mention.
3. Camp Followers (CF) - this is the biggest group and it varies in size constantly. They depend absolutely on the other two groups for their opinions and their activity. Without the trots this lot could be sensible trade unionists. Their hearts are in the right place, they want what all of us want, social justice for our members but because they are romantic they are easily led astray by the ravings of the real trots. They are used by the trots as cannon fodder often asking the most extreme question in meetings to draw fire from the real villains. You can spot this group as they usually have to read their questions off the back of an envelope.
Trot Super Stars
Dave Nellist, OT former Labour MP and Militant member. Now part of the Socialist Party active in Amicus in Coventry and in the Gazette group.
Ted Knight, OT former leader of Lambeth council expelled from the Labour Party for extremism. Linked to the Militant and the WRP, Ted is secretary of Croydon & Crystal Palace branch in London and is on the London Regional Council. Famous for boring the pants off of MSF conference delegates.
Gill George, OT Chair of East London Health Branch and member of the NEC, Gill is the trot commandant. She is on the politburo of the SWP. She tells the camp followers what to do. She is responsible for the strategy to take the gazette group but she rarely gets her hands dirty. Gill ties up the NEC with ridiculous motions like one calling for extra executive positions on the London Regional Council despite the fact that it never meets because there is never enough people at the meeting to make a quorum. The trots have bored everyone else to tears so they don't turn up.
Pete Gillard, OT partner of Gill and fellow SWP stalwart. Pete works in IT for himself and makes a lot of money. Pete is rumoured to be the IT brains behind Des Heemskerk's activities in covering his tracks when passing on information to David Beaumont.
Des Heemskerk, ST former deputy convenor at the ford radiator plant. He was booted out by his members as a steward before securing redundancy. Des is a member of the Socialist Appeal and of the Labour Party. Just like all secret trots he recoils when publicly challenged about his affiliations. A supporter of Derek Simpson's election he was rewarded with a cushy job in communications at Amicus but got sacked for attempting a coup against Simpson. Trots are only loyal to their party it seems. As editor of the Gazette he led the conspiracy against AGS Bayliss too.
Jimmy Warne, CF former chair of the Gazette group, Jimmy is no longer burdened by the weight of the brains he was borne with. An electrician by trade he gets his energy from the real trots. He was another supporter of Simpson's election campaign who got a job for his trouble, this time in the education department. He decided it would be a good idea to bite the hand that fed him and was even convinced by the trots that he should be the man to replace Simpson. An idea similar to replacing Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight with comedian Joe Pasquale.
Cathie Willis, a definite CF since her politics are uncertain, she could as easily be ultra right as ultra left. Her husband Phil is an ST member of Socialist Appeal but she was big mates with Sir Ken and Lady Renee Jackson before they fell out over a member of her department and a personal friend of hers was found to have embezzled £100,000 from the union. Her role has always been reconnaissance. She helped Simpson in his election passing information about a branch nomination fiddle run by supporters of Jackson. Her reward was a senior position back in the union's finance department. She was able to use this position to accumulate information to be passed on to right wing newspapers in an attempt to embarrass and manipulate the new general secretary into towing the trot line. There was plenty of embarrassment as the information was misrepresented but Simpson still refused to do the trots bidding.
Phil Willis, ST convenor at Terminal 5, is the chair of the sector committee in Amicus and an influential trot. He manipulates other construction section members on the NEC into voting with the trots. They voted against the merger and in favour of electing officials to replace officers taking redundancy, they did this because Phil Willis wanted to stand as National Officer for construction. Not motivated by cash, he'd have to take a pay cut to be an officer, but rather dedicated the infiltration of Amicus to further the revolutionary cause. Phil heads up the "Amicus campaign for democracy" campaigning for the reinstatement of Des, Cathie and Jimmy, the same group behind the attempt to replace a democratically elected General Secretary with Jimmy Warne. They also opposed members having a democratic vote on the merger demanding instead a special conference. Democracy for them is a movable feast.
Jerry Hicks, OT former convener at Rolls Royce may now work for the SWP as an organiser. Diminutive squeaky voiced fellow from the south west, sounds for all the world like a reasonable man. Sacked by Rolls Royce for calling wild cat strikes, not in itself a reason criticism but he used every unofficial action as a stick to beat the union with for carrying out the legal obligation of repudiation. Of course Jerry votes with his mates on the NEC for every proposal that will lead to the union being bankrupted.
Ian Alinson, OT shop steward from the IT and member of the NEC sector SWP (youth section). Ian sounds as plausible as Jerry and does in fact represent real working people. That said he is still a servant of the dark master and even wears Trotsky glasses so everyone can tell. Ian was an influential player in the North West group and for a while contributed to the drift of the group into lunacy. He has since been expelled by the group for voting against their agreed line proving once more that trots are only interested in democracy when it suits them.
David Beaumont, CF in chief there in no evidence that he belongs to a political party nor if one would have him, David is an IT geek. There is an IT theme through out the trot group it comes of spending too many hours in the dark playing fantasy computer games instead of talking to people. David is the giggling buffoon behind amicus.cc. He attacks not trot activity in the union, which is of course almost everything. He uses his time using the Certifications Officer, a Tory placeman established to restrict the activities of trade unions, to attack Amicus. He most famous actions were to force Roger Lyons to leave a month early costing the union £250,000 and holding up the Unifi merger with Amicus with a failed challenge that nearly bankrupted that union and leaving all their officers and staff without pay. He published documentation the sacked trots, Des, Cathie and Jimmy passed on to him and assisted Des to fool the tribunal into thinking him innocent.
Colin Walker, OT but has all the characteristics of a CF, another IT geek member of the SWP but this poor sap is childlike in his stupidity. A member of the NEC he takes his lead from Gill to the point of waiting for the nod from her before he puts his hand up and then stubbles over his prepared question.
Jed Dempsey, CF from the GPM sector, member of the NEC falls into the same category as Colin Walker only more so. He is always put up by Gill to make the most extreme and ludicrous points. So dopey in fact any further criticism would just be cruel.