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From: "Socialist Party" <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spintcom/post?protectID=061154178254146086112061001208229063098102196179053027181150010216106143228246200098201196211049016>
Date:
Wed Aug 6, 2003 6:28 pm
Subject: August 2003 EC
Minutes
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MINUTES
OF THE 12TH MEETING OF THE 100TH EC HELD AT HEAD OFFICE ON
SATURDAY
ON 26TH JULY 2003 AT
3.15PM
Present: S. Easton (Chair), J.
Bissett, M. Browne, R. Headicar, D. McLellan,
S. Parker A. Stair,
G. Thomas, S. Wigley.
Apologies: J. Carter (family
matters)
Minutes recorded by: D. O'Neil (General
Secretary)
1. Resignation from the 2003 Executive
Committee:
1.1)O'Neil (General Secretary) explained that he
had been in recent contact
with cde Carter and, because of recent
family events, it was now the case
that she was unable to attend
EC meetings. She apologised that she had not
contacted the EC
sooner but she had hoped that matters would have
resolved
themselves in time, and she would have been able to
resume attending
meetings.
Thomas & Wigley: "We accept
with regret Janet Carter's proffered
resignation"
Agreed.
1.2) Thomas & Wigley: "Call for nominations to be
made in the approved
manner." Agreed.
2. Adoption
of the minutes from the July EC meeting:
2.1) Parker &
Browne: "Moved to accept the minutes of the meeting of the
July
EC meeting." Agreed.
3. Matters arising from the
minutes of the July EC meeting:
3.1) Item 3.1 in the July
minutes: From the meeting of South London Branch,
2/6/03:"That
Comrade Gwynn Thomas be nominated for the post of Party
Auditor -
agreed. "That Comrade Howard Moss be nominated for the post
of
Party Auditor, subject to his agreement" - Agreed 5 -
0.
Browne & Wigley: "Move members nominated be appointed
as Party auditors."
Carried 9-0 (9 members present)
3.2)
Item 9.2a Notice of motion in the July minutes: Thomas "The EC
thanks
Lancaster Branch for its email of its June 2003 and that
in one month's time
I shall move that the EC rescinds its
decision of its 8th March meeting to
rename the Activities
Sub-Committee the Propaganda Sub-Committee and that
the
sub-committee reverts to the name of the Activities
Sub-Committee."
Notice of motion seconded by
Browne.
Thomas believed that the term propaganda had negative
connotations and
believed that the committee should revert back
to its previous name:
activities sub-committee.
Motion
carried 6-2 (9 members present) Division For: Browne,
Headicar,
McLellan, Parker, Stair, Thomas. Against: Bissett,
Wigley. Abstention:
Easton.
3.3) Item 5.5 in the July EC
minutes: Advertising in the New
Internationalist as per
Resolution passed at this year's Conference: Parker
of the
Advertising Dept had contacted the New Internationalist in
connection
with this matter. The magazine had got back in contact
with us and informed
us of the following rates for advertising in
the magazine:
· A quarter page advert would cost us £600.
This advert can be
either black and white or in colour, and the
advert can appear at any time.
· Leaflet insert would cost us
£75 per thousand. The minimum amount
of copies stipulated for
carrying such an insert is 20000. Therefore, such
an insert would
cost a minimum of £1500. If it was the case that we wanted
to opt
for an insert, we couldn't go ahead with such an insert for at
least
six months. We would have to contact them in September to
find out what
their schedule is for particular themed issues. It
would be preferable to
put such an insert in an issue on
'anti-capitalism', for example. The
current UK circulation of the
New Internationalist is 45000, and there was a
further
circulation of 8 - 10000 for the rest of the
world.
It was pointed out that we were specifically
bound by the Conference
resolution itself, and that the
Advertising Dept would have to opt for the
quarter page
advert.[1]
Wigley & McLellan: "That we take the quarter
page advert and we refer it to
the Advertising Dept for a
suitable advert." Carried 9-0 (9 members present)
3.4) Item
6.1 in the June EC minutes: Hard Copy of Conference
Resolutions
and Party Polls: Wigley had not been in attendance at
the July EC meeting so
wished to speak on this matter now. He
informed the EC that he would be able
to produce a hard copy of
Conference Resolutions if and when the Party
wanted it. He
explained that it would only take him two to three days to
knock
a presentable hard copy version into shape. Thomas asked how far
the
Conference Resolutions and Party Polls went back? Wigley
explained that they
dated back to 1932. There was a simple
explanation for why they only started
in 1932; prior to 1932 it
appears that the minutes and Conference reports
were handwritten.
He further explained that when he was previously Head
Office
Organiser in 1999 he had undertaken to transcribe the
handwritten
Conference Resolutions and Party Polls from 1904
onwards but such a job is
very time consuming. Thomas pointed out
that when the hard copy is produced,
appended on the end should
be a note to explain that some documents are
missing. When he
previously was doing research on the Party during the First
World
War, he noted that the bound volume of the 1916 EC minutes
were
missing. He had made enquiries about this to both cdes
Perrin and Coleman,
and they both confirmed that they also had
never seen these minutes when
they were doing research on early
Party history.
It was agreed that a notice be appended to the
end of these minutes to ask
if any Party members have copies of
these minutes.
It was also agreed that cde Wigley go ahead
with producing the hard copy of
the Conference Resolutions and
Party Polls.
3.5) Item 5.6 in the July EC minutes: Party Rule
book on the Website[2]:
Wigley explained that the updated Party
Rule book was now available for the
Internet Dept to put on the
Website when they so wish. It was also the case
that when the
hard copy was produced, if and when it was converted
into
html[3], it could also be put on the Party
website.
Wigley & Browne: "This EC resolves: 1)Since the
rulebook is already in
electronic format, the Internet Dept
should be asked to post it on the
Socialist Party of Great
Britain website as soon as possible.2) As soon as
the hardcopy of
Conference Resolutions and Party Polls is fully
electronically
prepared, it should be sent to the Internet Dept for
treatment as
above." Carried 9-0 (9members present)
3.6) Status of the
September 2002 minutes, Autumn Delegate Meeting 2002 and
the
second half of the Annual Conference 2003 Report. Still being
written
up. Noted.
4. Emergency
Business:
4.1a) Oleg Vernik and the 'World Socialist Party of
Ukraine': O'Neil
(General Secretary) circulated the following
documents/emails relating to
this business to the EC: 1) Email
from Vasya Petrov of GPRC, dated 22/07/03,
to Adam Buick and the
Head Office email address, regarding "Potemkin
Villages in Kiev".
2) Email from A. Buick, dated 25/07/03, (West London
Branch)
regarding the Ukraine business to the EC. 3) Email from D.
O'Neil
(General Secretary), dated 25/07/03, regarding the Ukraine
business to
SPINTCOM/SPOPEN and the Companion Parties and Groups.
4) Email from J.
Thompson, dated 26/07/03, of the Socialist Party
of Canada (General
Secretary of the Canadian Party, but writing
in a personal capacity.
regarding the Ukrainian business.) 5)
Email from D. O'Neil, dated 26/07/03,
in reply to J. Thompson and
the points he raised in his email.[4]
O'Neil, the General
Secretary, gave a verbal report which outlined a
chronological
account of how we had first came into possession of
information
that suggested that the Ukrainian group[5] were in fact
a
Trotskyist group connected to the CWI[6] which had perpetrated
a
sophisticated scam against nine or ten political groups in
America and
Western Europe, ranging in politics from De Leonism
to Left Communism to
orthodox Trotskyism. Both Head Office and
Adam Buick had received an email
from Vasya Petrov of the
GPRC[7], entitled 'Potemkin Villages in Kiev' last
Tuesday (22nd
July). In this email, Petrov alleged that Oleg Vernik and
his
group had conducted an ongoing scam against political groups
in the West
dating back to 2000. The bottom line for why they
were doing this was to
secure money to fund their group's
activity in the Ukraine. Though this
email from Petrov was
initially treated with caution, cde Buick forwarded
the email to
Spintcom on the 23/07/03. On the 25/07/03, cde Buick,
confirmed
via an email addressed to the EC what he felt was proof
that it was in fact
the case that we were the victims of a scam
by Oleg Vernik and this
Trotskyist group based in the Ukraine.
O'Neil also during this time
searched the name Oleg Vernik on the
Google Search engine, and found a
photograph of the self same
Vernik[8], in which he was described as leader
of the Ukrainain
section of the CWI. Vernik was in fact the person who
called
himself 'Semyon Shevchenko', and who had visited and addressed
our
Annual Conference in 2002 as a fraternal delegate from the
'World Socialist
Party of the Ukraine.'
During this time,
O'Neil also circulated the email from Petrov to the
Leftist
Trainspotters email discussion list, asking members on the list
if
they could throw any light on the matter. He received private
email
correspondence from Julien Vandermissen , a member of the
Belgium section of
the CWI. Vandermissen confirmed that it was
Oleg Vernik in the photograph
and promised to contact the CWI
leadership on this matter.[9] O'Neil also
corresponded with John
Carmaro, an ex-member of the CWI (and now a political
opponent of
the CWI), who suggested that this was a scam that may have
also
involved members of the Russian section of the CWI and the
CWI full timer in
the region, Rob Jones.
O'Neil also
contacted two of the other organisations mentioned in
the
original email who were seemingly also conned. The first
group he contacted
were the Trotskyist group, Alliance for
Workers Liberty. He spoke to Mark
Osborn of that organisation,
and he has since learnt that the AWL sent a few
hundred dollars
to their 'Ukrainian section'[10] for translation work. He
also
telephoned Charmaine Skelton of the Ashbourne Court Group to
explain
that in all probability they were always victims of the
same scam from the
same group. He had sent to her and other
members of that group, via email,
the information he had to hand
at the time regarding the Ukrainian group.
When this matter
was opened up for discussion, Thomas said that the Party
should
not beat itself up too much over this business; not only were
we
taken in by the Ukrainian delegate when he came over and
addressed our
Conference, but it appears Immigration Officials
were also taken in. Wigley
agreed that the Party should not blame
itself too much over this matter but
at the same time the Party
had to learn the lesson that it could not operate
beyond its size
and structure. He hoped the Party would take this on board
when
delegates met at ADM to discuss the matter of the WSM. We have
to
recognise that the Party exists primarily in London and a few
other big
cities. Headicar acknowledged that this was obviously a
blow for the Party,
especially coming so soon after the Sarkar
business. Such problems will
unfortunately arise but we do have
to still operate on a basis of trust
within the socialist
movement and rely on our judgement. However, he did
feel that
there must be another way of dealing when individuals
and/or
groups contact us to say that they are forming a Party
overseas. There
should be a timescale in place in proving their
independence from our Party.
O'Neil felt there was a need for a
full statement within the pages of the
Socialist Standard and on
the Website explaining what has happened in the
Ukraine. We also
need to find out how much money we sent to this
fictitious
Ukrainian group, and how much we spent in total
relating to the whole
Ukrainian business. We also need to find
out if the CWI itself was involved
in this scam. He was also of
the opinion that there should be a statement on
the World
Socialist Party (India) business within the pages of the
Socialist
Standard at the same time. Parker disagreed with the
comments of the last
speaker. He believed we should be minimising
the language of internal
differences within the pages of the
Socialist Standard, and maximising the
case for socialism.
McLellan agreed with cde O'Neil that there was a need
for a
statement on this matter within the pages of the Socialist
Standard.
Easton was of the opinion that different things were
being discussed here.
The Indian Party are obviously sincere in
what they choose to do, whereas
the Ukraine business is
different; it was a scam. He wondered if the
Ukrainian group's
motivation was purely financial gain, or was it the case
that
mischief was also a motivating factor. He agrees with cde Parker
that
the pages of the Socialist Standard should not be filled up
with lots of
pages on this business but he did feel there was a
need for a statement on
the matter of some nature. Browne was of
the opinion that we should not do
too much too soon on this
matter. He suggested that the General Secretary be
instructed to
prepare a report on this business for next month's EC
meeting.
Only then do we commit ourselves on the matter. We could
also forward that
report to delegates at the forthcoming ADM.
Bissett defended the suggestion
of fully disclosing this matter
within the pages of the Socialist Standard.
Apart from anything
else it will be a warning to any other individual or
group which
may in the future consider trying to con us that we will
expose
them within the pages of the Socialist Standard. O'Neil
replied to Cde
Browne's suggestion that we should defer this
matter a month before we take
a decision on the matter by
pointing out that this whole business had
unravelled via the
internet in a matter of four or five days and if we put
matters
off a month events will perhaps overtake us. It was us who
exposed
this scam, and we shouldn't lose the initiative now. As
well as a statement
appearing in the pages of the Socialist
Standard, the statement should also
appear on the website as soon
as possible. This is what we did previously
when we published our
response to the attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11 a
couple of
days after the event on our Website, and the Party leaflet we
put
out on the Firefighters Strike late last year on the website
which later
appeared in the Socialist Standard.
Wigley
& Thomas: "That this Executive Committee instructs the
Editorial
Committee to publish an article explaining the recent
problems with the
Ukrainian Party as soon as possible on the
internet, and in next month's
Socialist Standard."
Parker
& Browne: "Moved amendment to replace "article" with
"statement".
Amendment carried 8-0 (9 members
present)
Wigley & McLellan: "Moved amendment to delete
"internet" and replace it with
"Party website"." Amendment
carried 9-0 ( 9 members present)
Substantive motion: "That
this Executive Committee instructs the Editorial
Committee to
publish a statement explaining the recent problems with
the
Ukrainian Party as soon as possible on the Party website, and
in next moth's
Socialist Standard." Substantive motion carried
9-0 (9 members present)
4.1b) NOTICE OF BUSINESS: Wigley put
forward the following Notice of
Business for the September EC
meeting: "That we consider in detail the
implications of our
recent problems in international organisation for the
future
operations of our Party overseas."
4.2) Premises Dept [Cde
Stair asked that this item be taken now because he
had to leave
the EC meeting early. This was agreed.]
4.2a) Stair explained
that as most EC members present today will notice,
there has been
substantial work done in recent weeks in both decorating
Head
Office and also repairing parts of the building. A Party
member, Roy Beat,
was being employed to do the work necessary at
£250 a week. It was also the
case that Premises Dept was bringing
in the services of a carpenter to
repair the office doors where
the panels have been previously smashed; the
wooden steps leading
down into the basement; and to replace the inner front
door at
Head Office because the current inner door's bottom pane of
glass
was cracked and the door was now unsafe. He asked that the
EC approve the
expenditure currently being undertaken on Premises
work and to sanction
further work on Head Office. Wigley
supported the proposals put forward by
cde Stair on the current
premises work. It may appear to be a large
financial outlay on
the part of the Party but we have to recognise that the
work
undertaken now is work that should have been done in the past
ten
years. The Party is now spending a Premises Dept budget that
it should have
been spending in the last ten or fifteen years. He
also pointed out that cde
Lambert is also in the process of
sorting out the plastering work for the
Head Office
toilets.
Wigley & Stair: "That: a) the work already done
and reported by the Premises
Committee be approved; b) we approve
the employment of a carpenter for one
week at £250 a week; c) we
approve the continual employment of a decorator
for up to three
weeks at £250 a week.
Motion carried 9-0 (9 members
present)
4.3) Publications Dept
4.3a) 'Are We
Prisoners of Our Genes' pamphlet: Publications Dept had
contacted
Anglia Dept for a quote for the printing of this
forthcoming
pamphlet. The Dept had received two quotes - at
varying print runs - for two
different formats for the
pamphlet:
Colour cover stapled booklet print run and price -
1000 print run = £1250;
1500 print run = £1415; 2000 print run =
£1480. The stapled cover is in the
usual format for our Party
pamphlets.
Colour covered slim book with thicker pages, with
the title of the pamphlet
on the spine and a gloss cover - 1000
print run = £1300; 1500 print run =
£1490; 2000 print run =
£1580. Stair explained that the attraction of a slim
book with a
spine style pamphlet is that there would perhaps be more
chance
of getting the pamphlet on bookshop shelves.
Thomas
asked how many copies we were likely to sell in the next
twelve
months? Stair replied that the Advertising Dept are
thinking of advertising
the pamphlet in the New Scientist.
Bissett agreed with the suggestion of the
higher quality
publication. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery
of
the structure of DNA. We could tie in our advertising of our
pamphlet
with this anniversary.
Wigley & Parker: "That
we approve the recommendation of the Publications
Dept, namely,
that we publish 2000 copies of the 'Are We Prisoner Our
Genes'
pamphlet in slim book format, rather than stapled booklet
format, at a cost
of £1580." Motion carried 9-0 (9 members
present)
[Cde Stair left the meeting at 5pm.]
4.3b)
Price of the 'Are We Prisoners of Our Genes' pamphlet:
Wigley
& Browne: "That the cover price be £3."
Wigley pointed
out that at that cover price we would have to sell 520 copies
off
the print run to cover our printing costs. Thomas was in favour of
a
higher cover price because it would mean there would be a
better chance of
commercial outlets stocking the Party
publication if they thought they were
getting a reasonable cut of
proceedings. McLennan was in favour of a £4
cover price, whereas
Headicar favoured £3.50. Wigley gave the figures of how
many
copies - depending on the cover price - the Party would have to sell
to
cover the printing costs: At £5 we would have to sell 316
copies; at £4 we
would have to sell 400 copies; and at £3.50 we
would have to sell 450 copies
to cover costs.
Parker &
Headicar: "Moved amendment to delete "£3" and insert
"£3.50"".
Amendment carried 6-1 (8 members
present)
Substantive motion carried 7-1 (8 members
present)
5. Accounts:
5.1a) Accounts for May
and June were circulated. Parker noted that once
again both
months indicate that the Party outflow far outstrips its
income.
If one takes out donations and legacies from the
equation, it is obvious
that Party members are not contributing
enough money.
5.1b) Browne & Easton: "Moved that the
Accounts for both May and June be
agreed." Motion carried 8-0 ( 8
members present)
6. Forms A:
6.1) A. Johnstone
(Edinburgh Branch): ex-member rejoining. Agreed to
accept.
6.2) R. Botterill (Central London Branch): contact
through reading the
Socialist Standard. Agreed to
accept.
7. Reports and correspondence from Depts and
Sub-Committees:
7.1) Publications Dept - Anton Pannekoek's
'Marxism and Darwinism': Bissett
of the Publications Dept was
proposing that this pamphlet by Pannekoek be
reprinted by the
Party with an introduction especially written by a Party
member.
[This introduction had already been written.] This pamphlet would
be
produced in the same fashion as the reprint last year by North
East Branch
of John Keracher's 'How the Gods were Made'; on the
Party photocopier on
demand.
Wigley & Bissett: "Agreed
that the pamphlet with introduction be produced as
suggested
(namely, photocopied as required at Head Office), and that
the
price be £1." Motion carried 8-0 ( 8 members
present)
7.2) Campaigns Dept - 'Capitalism? No Thanks!'
anti-business cards had been
printed[11] and were now available
from Head Office on request. These cards
were innovative way of
advertising the www.worldsocialism.org website.
[See
Appendix]
7.3) Health and Safety at Head Office:
Bissett, who was fully trained up as
a Health and Safety rep had
produced a seven page Health and Safety
statement policy[12]
which was set out to ensure that the Party brings: " .
. .its
general policy on Health & Safety as well as the organisation
and
arrangements for carrying out that policy to the notice of
all employees
(paid or voluntary), members and other users of its
premises."
Thomas asked how many qualified first aiders is
the Party supposed to have
on the Premises when, for example,
there is a Conference or ADM? Bissett
replied two first
aiders.
Thomas, taking note of 4.37 in the Health and Safety
statement[13],
suggested the following small addendum as 4.37a in
the statement: "All
employees and members shall operate all
plant, machinery and equipment in
accordance with the
manufacturer's instructions." Agreed.
Bissett had already
produced an eight page risk assessment of Head Office,
which he
hoped to submit to the next EC meeting.
Wigley & Thomas:
"Move that we adopt the safety policy as amended." Motion
carried
8-0 (8 members present)
8. Correspondence from
Branches, Groups and individual members:
8.1) Central London
Branch resolution from its meeting of the 23/7/3:"This
Branch
recommends the EC to set up an organising committee to prepare
for
one or more international meetings to propagate socialist
ideas as part of
the 2004 centenary of the Party and the
Socialist Standard." Carried 4-0, 1
abstention (5 members
present)
Parker explained that this resolution from his
Branch arose out of the
meeting on the last day of Summer School,
where about twenty members stayed
behind to discuss various
possible themes for next year's Summer School
which could tie in
with the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the
Party. He
was prepared to volunteer to be on such an organising
committee
if it was to be set up by the EC. Bissett mentioned
that the in the last
couple of years there have been a couple of
motions that had went to various
Conferences to have such an
International style Conference, where we would
invite delegates
from overseas, and it has been voted down both times. Also,
in
light of recent events in the Ukraine and India, there will probably
even
less enthusiasm for such an idea for a Conference. Thomas
agreed that the
Party has had its fingers burnt on overseas
matters in the last 12 months,
but he still didn't feel we should
cut off members overseas from the
hundredth anniversary
celebration. O'Neil (General Secretary) asked if it
was the case
that the EC had to reach a decision on the matter now? ADM
was
not that far away and perhaps it was the case that Branch
delegates should
decide on this matter. Headicar agreed that it
was important that we get a
sense from the wider Party of what we
should do next on this matter. Perhaps
we could leave this matter
until ADM, for the delegates to discuss. Browne
pointed out that
we still have a longstanding commitment to inviting two
fraternal
delegates from the World of Free Access (Gambia) to attend a
Party
event in Britain.[14]
Wigley & Browne: "That
this EC feels that the recommendation should be
deferred until
more information is available on the feasibility of such
a
meeting." Motion carried 4-2 (8 members present)
8.2)
Minutes of the World of Free Access (Gambia), dated 4/4/03:
Browne
asked if it was perhaps about time that the World of Free
Access (Gambia)
were recognised as a companion group within the
WSM, or would that be
premature? Headicar complimented them on
their minutes and how they conduct
themselves.
Noted.
8.3a) Email correspondence from B. Musemwa re:
reimbursement for payment to
Dinha and Associates: The General
Secretary circulated to the EC four pieces
of correspondence
received from cde Musemwa relating to the request
of
reimbursement for payment to the lawyers, Dinha and
Associates: 1) Email
from B. Musemwa to General Secretary dated
4th July 2003; 2) Email from cde
Musemwa to General Secretary and
Overseas Group Secretary, dated 8th July
2003; 3) Copy of a
letter from R. Cox [ex - Overseas Group Secretary] to B.
Musemwa
dated October 1999; 4) Copy of a letter from R. Cox to B.
Musemwa
dated 8th March 2001.
Thomas reading from the
original letter of October 1999 could understand how
there could
have perhaps been some misunderstanding on how much the
Party
could do for comrades in Africa. It did give the impression
of us being a
much bigger organisation with more physical and
financial resources than we
actually have. If such a letter came
before the EC today, he would urge that
it be sent back for
redrafting. He felt that the EC had done all it could on
this
matter. Parker agreed with the previous speaker and felt that we
should
note this correspondence and take no further action on
this matter.
McLellan & Parker: "We note the
correspondence." Motion carried 5-3 Division
For: Bissett,
Browne, McLellan, Parker, Thomas. Against: Easton,
Headicar,
Wigley.
[There was some confusion at the EC
table over the vote just taken and there
was a call for a revote
on the motion.]
Revote on the motion: "We note the
correspondence." Motion lost 4-4 Division
For: Browne, McLellan,
Parker, Thomas. Against: Bissett, Easton,
Headicar,
Wigley.
8.3b) Wigley & Browne: "That the
EC's previous decision on the matter
concerned stand." Motion
carried 8-0 (8 members present)[15]
9. Forms
E
9.1) Glastonbury 2003 - O'Neil explained that there was
going to be a report
on the Party's stall at Glastonbury in time
for this month's EC meeting, but
the revelations from the Ukraine
in the last few days had meant that he had
not had time produce
such a report. He promised that a report on the Party
stall at
Glastonbury would be produced for the September EC meeting.
Noted
nothing to hand.
10. Correspondence from
Companion Parties and Groups:
10.1) WSP (NZ) minutes of the
12/06/03. Noted.
11. Outside
Correspondence:
11.1A) Email from B. Sarkar of the WSP
(India) to V. Vanni (Glasgow Branch
of the Socialist Party),
dated 20/7/3: O'Neil (General Secretary) explained
that despite
this correspondence not being addressed to the EC itself, he
had
placed it on the Provisional Agenda because Mr Sarkar had chosen
to
circulate this reply, to private and personal correspondence
from V. Vanni,
to all the email addresses in his address book. He
felt it was important to
place this on the Agenda because Mr
Sarkar, General Secretary of the World
Socialist Party (India),
had still to reply to our Party's reply to the WSP
(India)'s
document in which they outlined their reasons for
disaffiliating
from us. He had written to Mr Sarkar again, asking
if the Indian Party would
be replying at some point to our
document, and he had yet to receive any
reply from Mr
Sarkar.[16]
11.1b) Wigley & Bissett: "This EC notes: 1)
The erroneous and offensive
nature of the correspondence to cde
Vanni. 2) That this EC is still awaiting
its own reply from Binay
Sarkar regarding its reply to Binay Sarkar's
previous
allegations."
When this motion was opened up for discussion
some EC members expressed the
view that the main emphasis of the
email should be in asking Mr Sarkar of
the World Socialist Party
of India why he has yet to reply to our rebuttal
of the serious
allegations he made against members of our Party in a
previous
document.
Browne & McLellan: "Moved an amendment to the
original motion so that point
two in the motion would now be
point one, and point one would be point two."
Amendment carried
6-2 (8 members present)
Amended motion now reads: "This EC
notes: 1) That this EC is still awaiting
its own reply from Binay
Sarkar regarding its reply to Binay Sarkar's
previous
allegations.2) The erroneous and offensive nature of
the
correspondence to cde Vanni;." Substantive motion carried 6-2
(8 members
present)
12. Any other
business:
12.1) Dates of the EC meetings for the rest of the
year: September EC
meeting - 6th September. October EC meeting -
4th October. November EC
meeting - 8th November. December EC
meeting - 6th December.
These dates for EC meetings for the
rest of the year were agreed.
12.2) Party Officer and Dept
reports for ADM - It was agreed that Standing
Orders would put
out a call to Party Officers and Dept Reports for their
reports
for ADM.
Chair of the next EC meeting: D.
McLellan
Meeting adjourned at
6.40pm.
APPENDIX
1916 EC
MINUTES
As noted in the minutes of this EC meeting, we
currently do not have a copy
of the 1916 EC minutes. If any
members can throw any light on these missing
minutes, can they
please contact Head Office.
COMMITTEE FOR WORKERS
INTERNATIONAL STATEMENT ON THEIR UKRAINIAN SECTION -
issued 5th
August 2003 on the Internet
Statements are currently
circulating on the web regarding the Ukrainian
section of the
CWI. These include the allegation that members of the
Ukrainian
section of the CWI have made approaches to other organisations
in
order to obtain finances on a dubious and false
premise.
Neither the International Secretariat or the
International Executive
Committee of the CWI nor the leadership
of the CIS section of the CWI knew
about this alleged activity.
Such dishonest methods of obtaining finances is
neither condoned
nor supported by the CWI and its leadership. The CWI is
proud of
its principled political approach on political and
organisational
questions. The finances of the CWI and its
sections are raised from the
international working class and
youth including the tremendous
self-sacrifice of our
membership.
The CWI is totally opposed to the methods
alleged to have been used by the
leadership of the Ukrainian
section and regard them as serious charges. The
CWI has therefore
suspended the Ukrainian National Committee and the Kiev
City
Committee pending the results of an investigation which is now
being
organised by the CWI. Following the conclusion of such an
investigation all
appropriate action will be
taken.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
[1]
Annual Conference 2003 Motion 6: "This Conference authorises
the
expenditure of up to £800 to either insert a leaflet
detailing Party
Literature in 10,000 copies of New
Internationalist or taking a quarter page
advertisement in the
same journal." (Carried - For 68, Against 16)
[2] Annual
Conference 2003 Motion 7: "This Conference instructs the EC
to:
1)Place and keep an up-to-date version of the Party rule book
on the Party
web site in a suitable format, 2) Prepare, place and
keep a display of
substantive motions carried by Conference,
party poll or general meetings of
the Party, on the same, where
it is practicable to recover them from the
records." (Carried -
For 96, Against 6).
[3] Hypertext Markup
Language
[4] These emails and others relating to the
Ukrainian business are available
on request from Head Office, but
are also already available in the archive
section of both http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spintcom/post?protectID=061154020185175194112154203245147187078145038136183193071193172194143142
and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spintcom/post?protectID=061154253115056116015097175004176063006143066198034027152006048067,
the two
Party email lists.
[5] The Ukrainian group had
contacted us initially in 2000 saying that they
were a grouping
called the 'International Young Workers' which had came out
of
student radical politics in Kiev and, through reading our material
on the
internet, had reached political positions similar to our
own. This grouping
are in fact 'Workers Resistance' (Robitnychiy
Sprotiv, RS) - the section of
CWI (Taafite "Militant"), and their
leader is Oleg Vernik who passed himself
off as 'Semyon
Shevchenko' when he visited Britain in February and March
2002 as
a supposed fraternal observer from the 'World Socialist Party of
the
Ukraine.'
[6]CWI is the acronym for the 'Committee for
a Workers International'. The
British section and the dominant
section within the International itself is
the group formerly
known as the Militant Tendency, and now known as the
Socialist
Party of England and Wales (SPEW). An orthodox Trotskyist
grouping
which were formerly deep entrist within the Labour Party
from the late 1950s
up until their wholesale expulsion from the
Labour Party in the early 1990s,
and are led by Peter Taafe.
(Hence they are sometimes known as the
Taafites.)
[7] The
GPRC are the 'Group of Proletarian Revolutionaries Collectivists',
a
group based in Russia. Their politics could best be described
as 'Left
Communist'.
[8] The picture of Oleg Vernik/
'Semyon Shevchenko' is on the following web
page:
http://www.geocities.com/gena6414/modern_vortex/Russian_revolution/nature_of
_states.htm
[9]
Since the EC meeting of the 26th, Julien Vandermissen has since sent
the
following email, dated 31/07/03, to Darren O'Neil:
"Comrade,
Just a few quick replies. I won't go into the history
of the name debate in
Britian in which I was not involved. That
also shouldn't be a point in
resolving the scale of Ukranian
scandal. On the so called split in te
Ukranian group they are
talking about 1 former member with a history of
mental illness.
Rob Jones didn't know anything about the whole scam, he
needs to
get a visa to get in the Ukraine and the Kiev group had been
very
strict in not telling anyone outside Kiev. We don't have the
money for a
regional fulltimer and the only money ever transfered
to the Ukranian group
was money collected by our Russians.The CWI
will produce a statement this
week on the suspension of the whole
Ukranian section. An international CWI
inquiry commission will be
set up to visit the Ukraine. The CWI was
informed of this through
your e-mail correspondence. They immediately
contacted Oleg last
saturday morning. Oleg denied everything but then had
an
emergency meeting of the Kiev leadership and after that he
admitted
everything. They will be informed today or tomorrow that
the whole Ukranian
group is suspended untill we know the scale of
this scandal in the Ukranian
group (about 60-65 members). Oleg
admitted having raised about 2,000 dollar
in this way. Money that
was used for political work for the local CWI group.
That is a
scandal and even just the inquiry commission will cost us
more
than that.
Comradely, Julien" [Spelling in the
original.]
[10] Ukrainian Workers Tendency
[11] See
4.2 in the minutes of the 10th EC meeting of 2003. (14th
June
meeting.)
[12] Available on request from Head
Office.
[13] All employees and members may make suggestions
to improve health,
safety and welfare within Head
Office.
[14] See 7.2 in the minutes of the 7th meeting of the
2003 EC, held on the
5th April: Browne & Headicar: "That the
intending visitors be invited to
attend Summer School 2004."
Carried 7-0 (7 members present)
[15] Item 3.6 in the minutes
of the 9th EC meeting of 2003 held on the 31st
May: Wigley &
Thomas: "That the decision of the May EC stand. Namely,
that
payment to Dinha and Associates will not be made as a
personal payment but
only by a cheque made payable to Dinha and
Associates."Motion carried 3-1
Division For: Bissett, Thomas,
Wigley. Against: Browne Abstention:
Parker,Stair
Wigley
&Thomas: "In light of Cde Musemwa's security considerations,
this
cheque should be a personal cheque from a Party member; sent
after suitable
confirmation from cde Musemwa as to the dorm of
cheque acceptable to Dinha
and Associates; and that the Party
member sending the cheque will be
refunded immediately from Party
funds." Motion carried 4-1 (6 members
present)
[16] The
General Secretary had emailed the Indian Party on both the
10th
May 2003 and the 24th June 2003. We have yet to receive a
reply to our
rebuttal or even an acknowledgement of our emails to
them.
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