Minutes
3rd April Meeting

Socialist Alliance UK Democracy Platform website

MINUTES OF SADP MEETING HELD ON APRIL 3 2004 AT CARRS LANE CHURCH CENTRE

1. ELECTION OF CHAIR - Dave Church was elected. There were 35 in attendance

2. WELCOME AND REPORTS - After the Chair¹s opening remarks, there were three reports given. Eric Chester from the USA SP gave a brief summary of SP activity in America. They had 1200 members and were trying to build a broad based Party. Nick Rogers reported from last weekend¹s SSP Conference. It was generally a very positive conference, and he felt the SSP was moving towards being a mass party. It already represented a broad swathe of workers. The Conference was well attended by young people, and there was a large RMT contingent. Conference had agreed to support integrated education, not faith schools as had been wrongly reported. Mike Davies from the AGS reported that the organisation now had 300 members, and was particularly strong in Yorkshire, London and the South East. Democracy, Socialism and the Environment were the key issues. We all needed to sort out how we take the green left forward after the SA, he argued, and suggested 3 possibilities: the AGS could expand; left groups could affiliate to the AGS; the SADP could negotiate with the AGS and others to chart a common way forward. He concluded by offering the electoral name AGS should anyone want it.

3. CONFIRMATION OF THE AGENDA - Dot Gibson moved that we keep to the published agenda, with the exception that the RDG resolutions entitled ŒThe Workers Party¹; ŒThe crisis of democracy and a democratic alliance¹; and Œ A Democratic and Republican Alliance¹ be remitted to a separate, special meeting. This was agreed by 13 votes to 6 with many abstentions

4. APOLOGIES - Rummy Hussain; Phil Pope; Chris Jones; Lesley Mahmood; Danny Thompson; Steve Godward; Bob Archer; Margaret McAdam; Terry Pierce

5. PROGRESS REPORTS ON DECISION MADE AT THE LAST SADP MEETING

a) Membership - Pete Radcliff reported that we had 59 members and 17 who had expressed an interest

b) Finance - John Pearson reported an income of £536.86, of which £284 was in membership subs. We had spent £489.10, the largest item being room hire for meetings. We thus had a balance of £47.76. He announced that Standing Order Forms were available. He suggested a Pooled Fare Scheme for SADP meetings, based on the minimum fare available, with the unwaged and those on strike pooling a figure of £5, the waged meeting any deficit. This scheme was agreed. The Meeting also agreed a vote of thanks to the person who had made our excellent banner.

c) Composition of the SADP organising Committee - it was generally felt that all affiliates should be represented on the Committee, including those organisations not in the SA, but it was agreed to retain the present structure for the time being. Sue Blackwell announced her resignation from the Committee - this was reluctantly accepted

d) Interim Statement - prepared and circulated by Pete McLaren: this was noted

e) Resolutions left over from Manchester DP and the AWL - they were moved as follows:

"The Democracy Platform supports branches and individuals who wish to continue activity under the banner of the SA and specifically to stand candidates in the June local elections. The DP will therefore facilitate the setting up of an autonomous network of SA branches that are prepared to undertake this independent activity" (Manchester DP)

"This meeting calls for

1. Supporting and encouraging local Socialist Alliances to continue to meet, to be active, and to contest council elections, using the electoral name that we register.

2. Supporting and encouraging local groups of SA activists who wish to continue to meet, to be active, and to contest council elections on the basis of the broad founding ideas of the SA, but are blocked by local majorities who wish to wind down the SA.

3. Facilitate the coordination of these active local groups through a federation of independent socialist alliances.

4. Work with that federation to promote:

A working-class socialist presence in elections;
Non-electoral political campaigning on various issues, on a democratic, working class and socialist basis.
Cooperation with other socialist groups;
Involvement in the trade union movement and with the various initiatives now afoot for working-class political representation and towards a new workers' party.

5. Work towards a new democratic alliance of socialists.² (AWL)

Steve Freeman moved the following amendment to the Manchester DP resolution:

³Delete ³...facilitate the setting up of an autonomous network² and substitute ³support and help to coordinate² in the last sentence.

In the general discussion, points were raised about the need to coordinate supportive SAs and groups (Bruce Robinson); the possibility of us coordinating a federation of independent SAs and a new democratic alliance of socialists, regenerating alliances from the past (Pete Radcliff); the SA is dead and will not recover (Tony Greenstein); the need to continue to fight both inside and outside the SA and maintain the principles of the SA (Pete McLaren); the need to be aware that the SWP could always reverse local SA decisions; the SA is only dead in some areas, the SADP already exists and we can use the name Democratic Socialist Alliance(Martin Ralph); the SWP will not give up its control of SA national resources - we can form an unofficial leadership and act in the name of the SA - we represent the one third of SA members who have consistently opposed the SWP - socialist unity is not dead (John Pearson); it was the movement of the disenfranchised working class that had given rise to the setting up of the Socialist Alliance in the first place. Objectively the Socialist Alliance is not dead because we are fighting for it, and it is now vital that it is linked to moves by workers, particularly the Liverpool dockers, to campaign for a new workers' party (Bill Hunter); the Manchester DP resolution describes what we are doing already, but we are not yet a federation of independent SAs (Dot Gibson)

It was agreed by 12 votes to 2 to move to a vote. Steve Freeman¹s amendment was passed by 18 votes to 7, and the substantive resolution in the name of Manchester DP was passed overwhelmingly. The AWL resolution was defeated 10 - 9

6.. SA CONFERENCE ON MARCH 13

A discussion took place about whether or not to mount a legal challenge to the unconstitutionality of the Task Group resolution. It was pointed out that litigation is very expensive, it would be difficult to persuade the new SA Nominating Officer to endorse SADP candidates even if we did win an injunction, and it was questionable whether socialists should use the capitalist courts against other socialists. Sue Blackwell suggested that local SA branches might be prepared to act as legal test cases which, if successful, could set a legal precedent for others. She expressed the hope that even if the SADP did not want to spend its national funds on legal action it would not stand in the way of branches which wanted to go down this route. Pete McLaren moved ŒThe SADP agrees to back investigations into a legal challenge being made by local SAs or SADP groups¹. This was passed by 15 votes to 8

7. THE NEXT STAGE OF THE SOCIALIST ALLIANCE

John Pearson moved the following resolution from Stockport:

1) The Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform rejects any notion that the SA has "failed" or that it is "dead". Any failure has been that of some of the component organisations of the SA, in particular the Socialist Workers Party, rather than of the unity project itself. The original impulse for unity of socialists that brought about the formation of the SA, remains valid, necessary and urgent.

2) The SADP represents the healthy forces within the SA, which deny the right of the liquidationist leadership majority to kill off our hard won unity project. As we stated in the 'Unity Appeal' that we distributed at the Socialist Alliance Conference on 13 March 2004, we seek to rally those who wish to defend, maintain and build the SA.

3) The 'Task Group' resolution, passed by the liquidationist majority at that Conference, is not only unconstitutional and therefore unacceptable, it also signified the unsuitability of the official leadership to continue to act as such. The SADP will seek to rally all those SA branches and individual members of the SA, who repudiate the official leadership and who agree to organise independently of them, in order to take forward the task of cementing the unity of socialists. We will do this by pursuing the SADP's founding aims of building a democratic and inclusive Socialist Alliance, by fighting to win support for and to develop, the SA programme, 'People Before Profit' and by working to take forward the project of socialist unity in the context of building a new working class party.

4) The SADP recognises that one possible reaction towards the outcome of the 13 March SA Conference, may be a tendency to turn to localism. We must discourage this, as it weakens our unity. In the context of the 10 June local elections in particular, it is vital that we project a national unity both in name and in programme. To this end, in response to the expected refusal of the SA Nominating Officer to authorise candidates to use the "Socialist Alliance" title on ballot papers, we urge branches and groups of members who stand candidates to use the title we have registered, i.e. "Democratic Socialist Alliance".

5) The SADP reaffirms its decision to reach out to other socialists and organisations of socialists, in order to build unity. In view of the actions of the official leadership at Conference, which fostered a split in the SA, it is clear that we were correct to open up SADP membership to comrades who are not currently SA members. We will now seek to accelerate that area of recruitment.

6) Finally, we will organise to secure a majority supporting the aims and objectives set out above, at the SA Annual Conference later this year. Should the official leadership of the SA refuse, or fail, to convene that Conference, the SADP will do so.

Points made during the discussion included the need for all SADP candidates to run under the same name and policies (John Pearson); local members must be allowed to make their own decision on what name they stand under to keep everyone on board (Dave Church); we should agree to unite as DSA to prevent fragmentation(Barry Biddolf). Tony Greenstein moved the following amendments

a) The deletion of Point 1 apart from the last sentence - agreed by 14 votes to 9

b) Change ³wish² to ³sought¹ in the last sentence of Point 2 - agreed by 10 votes to 8

c) Add ³or a similarly registered name²to the end of Point 4 - agreed by 14 votes to 5

d) Delete all of Point 6 - defeated by 14 votes to 7.

The substantive resolution was agreed by 19 votes to 1, and reads as follows:

1) The original impulse for unity of socialists that brought about the formation of the SA, remains valid, necessary and urgent.

8. PRIORITY ACTIVITIES OF THE SADP OVER THE COMING MONTHS

a) Area reports - Martin Ralph reported that in Merseyside it was hoped to stand 10 socialist candidates under the general auspices of the SADP but they could stand under different names according to local circumstances. They will use the name SA or DSA whenever possible, and whatever the SWP try to do about it. They would be standing alongside the SP, Liverpool Community Party and the SLP - a socialist challenge of about 27. He felt we must get the nomination mechanics in place quickly, and that policy was needed on the war, immigration, PFI and the corrupt use of private companies by local Councils. Dave Spencer reported that it had been hoped to also have around 27 socialist candidates.in Coventry, although none were SA, and CAWSA had been coordinating city wide meetings to facilitate this. The SP were standing in all 18 wards as part of this initiative, and so were RESPECT initially. RESPECT however had apparently now been ordered not to stand the 3 or 4 candidates that were going to part of this challenge, and even the local SWP were unhappy about this. Beth Aze from Manchester reported that the SWP had packed their recent SA meeting in Chorlton to decide that there would be no SA candidates, the SA would not meet again until after June 10, and 90% of the SA funds would be sent to RESPECT. SADP supporters had responded by producing a newsletter and moving out into South Manchester where there may be some socialist candidates. Sue Blackwell added that there would be socialist candidates in Birmingham. Dot Gibson suggested these reports be put on our web site - the problems socialists were now having shows what that SA Conference decision meant on the ground. Who will be opposing racism? We need to mobilise to support those who are standing, and travel to give practical support. Dave Church re-iterated the need to sort out the nominating process quickly and accurately

b) Registration of electoral name - John Pearson reported that the application for ŒDemocratic Socialist Alliance¹ was made 5 weeks ago, with Barry Biddolf as Nominating Officer and Pete McLaren as ŒParty Leader¹ Our registration cheque had been cashed 3 weeks ago, but we still awaited a decision. Dave Church suggested we use the logo as on our web site, with DSA rather than SADP - this was agreed. It was also agreed that we issue a Press Statement about our socialist election candidates nearer the time

c) SADP Election material - Pete Radcliff suggested we all circulate local leaflets, and that the web address be used on leaflets. John Pearson reminded the meeting that Dave Parkes was working on an anti BNP leaflet to supplement local materials. Mike Davies stressed the importance of suggesting people vote socialist, not just ³Don¹t Vote BNP²

c) Building links with left groups not in the SA/SADP - Pete McLaren suggested the Committee prioritise this. He welcomed ideas to progress it,. Pete Radcliff suggested we call local meetings of groups. Eric Chester suggested the SADP plan for a large Conference in 6 to 12 months and invite all left groups to participate. Jim Denham felt we should meet with the Labour Representation Committee The SADP Committee was asked to persue these ideas

d) RDG Resolution on Building the SADP

This meeting resolves to continue to build the SADP and continue the struggle against the current SA Executive, which is destroying the SA.

i) Support any local SA which seeking to stand candidates in the June elections

ii) In the event that any SA candidates are prevented from standing, we will begin a campaign of no confidence in the current leadership. We will carry this campaign into the working class movement.

iii) Plan a better intervention for the next SA conference

iv) Set up local SADP groups or rebuild local Socialist Alliances

v) Establish regular SADP Committee meetings.

vi) Encourage all SA's to affiliate to the SADP

vii) All affiliates to be invited to send one delegate to the Committee

viii) Set up a working group to develop a plan for an SADP paper

ix) Continue the unity appeal and campaign to win all SA Indies to the SADP

x) Produce an Open letter to the CPGB criticising their recent role and demanding they unite with the opposition against the liquidators.

xi) Organise working groups to campaign for a workers party and a democratic and republican alliance.

It was agreed to remit this resolution to the Committee

e) Linking with other initiatives - Dave Church stressed the need to forge links with the Liverpool dockers and other initiatives more formally for the future. Pete Radcliff moved, and it was unanimously agreed, that we welcome the Liverpool initiative and send a message of support. It was also agreed to sponsor a London meeting being organised by Dot Gibson

9. CONFIRMATION OF NEXT SADP MEETINGS

These were confirmed as advertised - May 15 and June 19 at USC, Gough St, Birmingham. The June 19 meeting would include the 3 RDG resolutions deferred from today, and would include an invite to other left political groups including AGS, SP, WP and the Liverpool dockers initiative.