Dear All,
Here is a brief interim report back from the Birmingham Stop The War Coalition AGM.
There were about 100 people present in the Sports Centre..it must have been expensive as we were told that the meeting had cost the Coalition £400 (!).
After hearing from a F.B.U. official there was a general antiwar speech by the Coalition Chair Salma Yaqoob. There then was a motion put forward by Salma Yaqoob and the SWP's Lynn Hubbard which called for the Coalition's 'Delegate Forum' to meet every 6 months, and for 'bona
fide' delegates to be 'invited' to attend. Copies of the motion were put placed in the hands of everyone present. Instead of focusing on the specifics of the motion, the seconder, the SWP's Lynn Hubbard instead gave a breathless recapitualtion of the actions the Coalition had carried
out in the past year. Of course I am in no way suggesting that she was delibrately trying to draw an equation between being against the war and support for the Coalition/SWP motion on the organisation structure of the Birmingham Coalition.
It will be recalled that the Coalition committee gave activists only a week to put together any alternative motions, ammendments or to put people up for election. So it was to a tight deadline that Bernie Macadam of Workers Power group and active in the Handsworth STWC and the Network put forward an ammendment.
Two of his ammendments were accepted by the Coalition whereas the third proved more controversial. Sadly, by accident I am sure, there seemed to be no copies of Bernie's ammendment for people to see.
After Bernie spoke, Socialist Resisitance's Bob Whitehead representing the Stirchley Stop The War Coalition seconded..explaining why he supported Bernie's ammendment which wanted the Delegate Forum to meet at least every two months rather than the six the Coalition/SWP favoured. The danger being of course that with such irregular meetings the real power would reside not with ordinary activists but with the Salma Yaqoob/SWP/Socialist Action cabal that currently run the Coalition.
A number of people spoke against the motion, including disgraced and recently sacked now ex-SWP full timer Ger Francis. Rather then say why he was against delegates meeting on a regular basis Ger launched mainly into reasons why we should be against the war..again insinuating that those who disagreed with the Coalition/SWP were pro-war.