Part Two..

By now the atomsphere was turning ugly as stooge after stooge got up to denouce the ammendment, which let us remember was only calling for the delegates to meet every 2 instead of 6 months.
James Cunningham then rose to speak and was subject to disgusting behaviour. As soon as he started to speak disgraced sacked now ex-SWP fulltimer Ger Francis was making comments. James was subject to cat-calls, sneers, abuse and people from the floor trying to
drown him out..contrast this to the silence to which the Coalition speakers rightly had when they spoke. I was standing at the back and had to turn several times to a Socialist Action person and demand that they shut up so I could hear James. At several stages people shouted
"let him speak!".
Particular 'honours' must go to Salma Yaqoob who continuedly from the platform heckled James and whilst the Coalition's Vice-Chair, Socialist Action's Doug Jewel did ask for order a few times he was seemingly hestitant to interrupt Salma as she poured out aggressive abuse
towards James.
Things got even worse as those of us who disagreed with the SWP/Salma/Socialist Action concept of democracy were insinuated as, wait you guessed it, 'Islamophobic'! One of Salma's stooges from the paltform waved a piece of paper in the air (what it said we couldn't see and no explaination was offered) saying " MAB did so much work (might be true but then neither the Coalition motion, Bernie's ammendment nor James' speech referred to MAB=Muslim Association of Britain, affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood)..i didn't sleep for 6 weeks before
the September demo..what have you people ever done..then on the coach you hand this filth
out attacking the muslims.attacking the muslims again"
The more SWP/SA and i presume MAB people got up to denounce 'them' as doing nothing..hmm wonder who organised the 2000+ demo in support of Palestine in April..but hey
lets not get the facts get in the way of anything! When one of the people i was with shouted her outrage at what i would call the 'democracyophobic' lynch mob mentality of Salma, the SWP and Socialist Action there was an outbreak of pseduo-laughter.
The ammendent failed, the motion passed and the Salma. Socialist Action and SWP lash up on the Birmingham Coalition committee was voted in again. Full credit to James for getting through his points against a hostile vicious little bunch and the heckling from the media savvy
Salma (i heard its on video tape too...any offers?)
My personal view is that the Birmingham Coalition with the troika of Salma, Socialist Action's Doug Jewel and disgraced sacked now ex-SWP full timer Ger Francis is dead as far as building a lively antiwar movement in Birmingham is concerned..sure they can pack an agm once a year but then we could too if we wanted but by counterposing democracy to activism they have become the Coalitions own grave diggers.