According to a mysteriously leaked resignation letter, four leading members of Globalise Resistance's Steering Committee have resigned with immediate effect, citing the undemocratic takeover of the organisation by the SWP to further its own interests in the organising the European Social Forum in London in late 2004. It is not clear who leaked the letter, but as a journalist, I felt duty-bound to put this information in the public interest. The text follows below.
Dear Steering Committee
With regret we announce our immediate resignation from the GR Steering Committee. We are sure that many of you will have suspected our deep dissatisfaction with the organisation for some time, so we would like to clearly lay out our reasons for resignation.
It is no secret that GR is dominated and controlled by the SWP. Nor is it a reason, we believe, not to appreciate that it has been a vibrant organisation, which has carried out many inspired national and international actions and forged many new working relationships. This, of course, is why we became involved in the first place.
More recently, however, GR has taken on a rather more specific persona. It has become the mechanism through which the SWP engages with the European Social Forum process. Far from being an active, grassroots group incorporating different perspectives as it claims to be, with some natural tensions cropping up from time to time, GR has come to represent a very specific agenda. The agenda has not been endorsed by the Steering Committee and it seems to us one which is primarily aimed at increasing the profile of the SWP within the movement.
While of course we have had concerns about this for some time, last year we sat through many meetings where we not only disagreed with GR but actively opposed its line, as iterated through leading members of the SWP - increasingly the only public representatives of GR. Within the ESF and more widely, we believe the SWP has followed a course which endangers the process as a whole and is proving detrimental to the building of a pluralistic movement capable of radical action in the UK. As the ESF process gathers momentum in London the situation is simply untenable for us, and we no longer feel able to lend our support, by being on the Steering Committee, to GR's position.
None of this means we will not continue to keep cordial relations with, hopefully, all of you. We continue to recognise that GR has a role in the movement, and we look forward to working with you on various actions and projects, which come up. We think it is more honest and more effective to do that from a position outside of GR.
Best wishes,
Naima Bouteldja
Nick Dearden
Asad Rehman
Omar Waraich
With regret we announce our immediate resignation from the GR Steering Committee. We are sure that many of you will have suspected our deep dissatisfaction with the organisation for some time, so we would like to clearly lay out our reasons for resignation.
It is no secret that GR is dominated and controlled by the SWP. Nor is it a reason, we believe, not to appreciate that it has been a vibrant organisation, which has carried out many inspired national and international actions and forged many new working relationships. This, of course, is why we became involved in the first place.
More recently, however, GR has taken on a rather more specific persona. It has become the mechanism through which the SWP engages with the European Social Forum process. Far from being an active, grassroots group incorporating different perspectives as it claims to be, with some natural tensions cropping up from time to time, GR has come to represent a very specific agenda. The agenda has not been endorsed by the Steering Committee and it seems to us one which is primarily aimed at increasing the profile of the SWP within the movement.
While of course we have had concerns about this for some time, last year we sat through many meetings where we not only disagreed with GR but actively opposed its line, as iterated through leading members of the SWP - increasingly the only public representatives of GR. Within the ESF and more widely, we believe the SWP has followed a course which endangers the process as a whole and is proving detrimental to the building of a pluralistic movement capable of radical action in the UK. As the ESF process gathers momentum in London the situation is simply untenable for us, and we no longer feel able to lend our support, by being on the Steering Committee, to GR's position.
None of this means we will not continue to keep cordial relations with, hopefully, all of you. We continue to recognise that GR has a role in the movement, and we look forward to working with you on various actions and projects, which come up. We think it is more honest and more effective to do that from a position outside of GR.
Best wishes,
Naima Bouteldja
Nick Dearden
Asad Rehman
Omar Waraich
Comments
Hide the following 5 comments
4 down more to go?
12.02.2004 02:15
sects suck
some people are a bit slow
12.02.2004 16:11
after the most successful demo in recent years the J18 of 1999. seeing that the anarchists could not be co-opted into the SWP labour-left, , GR was floated as a counterbalance. even the name was nicked; it had been taken from another independent marxist groupings headline of summer 1999, which read "now globalise the resistance"
bitslow
read their letter
13.02.2004 12:31
kurious
who they are
13.02.2004 15:28
Asad Rehman was or is events manager for Amnesty International and has acted as a national spokesman for Stop the War. Has written atrticles for socialist worker.
Naima Bouteldja is a French-Algerian activist who has written for Voice of the Turtle, member of ATTAC France.
Omar Waraich describes himself as a "student member of the Stop the War" movement. SOAS Black student's officer. Spoke Last year in US for CAN (a national student causcus against war)
Nick Dearden is a campaign officer with War on Want.
google search
Who are they?
14.02.2004 22:14
Nick Dearden is War on Want's Global Justice Officer
Asad Rehman was events manager for Amnesty International. He is a member of the Stop the War Coalition's Officers Group and a representative on the Steering Committee for the Newham Monitoring Project. (long history of working with SWP)
Omar Waraich was SOAS Student Union's Black Officer. He is Chair of the SOAS Palestine Society and a Student Rep on the Stop the War Coalition Steering Committee with Helen Salmon. (also worked closely with SWP)
swss