Birmingham Stop The War 'Coalition' :lynch mob style
Ygael Gluckstein | 18.12.2002 15:06 | Birmingham
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.
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.
Ygael Gluckstein
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
curious
18.12.2002 16:15
curious
Gerinfomation
18.12.2002 16:38
'curious' i pulled this of a list im on..
K
*Ger's constant bullying and aggression towards Miriam. I was there when he screamed at her she was a 'scab'. She has also had to endure the insinuation that she is a 'fascist' by the SWP at anti-racist meetings. Given that she is German I found that to be a racist smear. More than
once Ger has squared up to her. With the full knowledge and backing of many Bham SWPers
*Ger's campaign against Steve Godward which involved smearing him as a 'racist'. With the full
knowledge and backing of many Bham SWPers.
*Ger's vile smear of Mukhtar (and others) as 'Islamophobic'. With the full knowledge and
backing of many Bham SWPers.
* The PSC April Demo:
This saw a number of 'actions' by the SWP. One of which included with a megaphone (nice
one Lynne) trying to shout down the PSC speakers. Then the SWP (who are really nice just
misguided or so i'm told!) started to whip up the Asian youth who were on the demo by various
anti-police chants.
I witnessed several PSC people beg the SWP to tone it down as the police would attack and
there was a lot of elderly & very young people around, apart from the fact that police are going
to deal more harshly with a young Asian person than a middle aged, middle class white
SWPer. We were told to 'fuck off' by the SWP whilst Ger squared for a physical confrontation
with a female PSC member (but they are really nice people aren't they?)
The expected did happen: the police baton charged the youth with the result a pram with a
baby was overturned. My abiding memory will be the image of Jeanine and Christine from the
SWP shouting anti-police rhetoric through megaphones whilst walking backwards to ensure
that they were in no danger. When we challenged them about their actions they simply
laughed (I published an account of this at the time if anyone doubts the truth of this)
*My personal, witnessed experiences with Ger has been: his running away on the MayDay
2001 demo that Miriam organized...he then told people not to go to the police station to show
support.
He was aggressive towards me on many occasions..in fit of homophobic bile , as i came out
of a court appearance, he limped his wrist and lisped 'ohh poor thing' Whilst Steve Godward
witnessed a particularly nasty bout of Ger baiting me after a Socialist Alliance meeting. Ger,
who obviously suffers from some kind of personality disorder, would scream (and i mean
scream) 'you are worthless, you are nothing' and 'you are on the same side as the nazi's' (this
after Miriam and myself had rounded up 20 *gasp* working class people to show support for
the ANL...never again!). This was all with the full knowledge and backing of many Bham
SWPers.
*All the above is in addition to such highlights as the physical throwing on the floor of a young
child, bussing in SWPers from London to 'vote' at the last Bham Coalition agm, taking money
from Palestinians for SW paper under the lie that its going to 'your brothers and sisters in
Gaza' (the work of good but misguided people ???), the poisoning of the political atmosphere in
Birmingham and last but not least allegations, completely untrue, made by Ger towards
dissenters in the SWP which are of a nature so literally criminal even I wont repeat them (again
with the full knowledge and backing of many Bham SWPers)
This is by *no* means an exhaustive list and I have many of these documented which i may well make available on a wider basis should i ever get any abuse
from Ger (who has the fame of being on of the few fulltimers even the notorious SWP
CC couldn't stomach) or the rest of the Bham SWP.
K