The Nottingham Dispute: an intrepid view Since this dispute has blown up I have remained silent. When I attended a meeting of Nottingham City branch I felt so intimidated by the chair Mike Scott that I felt fearful that I was going to be physically attacked. I did nothing about this but just walked away however, the event was witnessed by those present. I was a founder member of LU and remained a by-stander for many months during 2013 because of the dispute and disunity in Nottingham. Eventually I came to the conclusion that matters would not be solved and left the party disillusioned and disappointed that there would never be a serious challenge to neoliberalism. I believe that many dormant local members feel the same. I first met Alan Story at a large People’s Assembly meeting in Nottingham last year where I witnessed him coming under attack because he had complained about the absence of a crèche for women who wanted to attend and had childcare responsibilities. It was my feeling that many women were in agreement with Alan’s point of view. At a second meeting earlier this year Alan invited me to have a coffee and persuaded me to re-join LU which I did early in the summer. I re-joined and my first priority was to unite the two branches in Nottingham. I worked conscientiously over the ensuing months to try and achieve this aim. I persuaded Alan to swallow his hurts and put LU first and work with me to unite the two branches. I initiated the now infamous planned meeting which brought about the present dispute suggesting to the city representative that Richard Johnson be asked to chair such a meeting. It was very clear in my mind that a motion should be proposed to members of both branches to form a single united branch and that the meeting be open to all supporters and friends. I suggested that a small group of us personally invite all members to attend the meeting. I did this in an attempt to make it democratic and open. These aims were, in my opinion, consistently resisted by a few people in the city branch. I suggested that Richard Johnson be asked to meet with me and Zbyszek in an attempt to negotiate this unity meeting. The city branch refused to negotiate on a motion being presented to members (please be clear that members of city and county branch are not in contention or dispute only at maximum 5 or 6 people) and to allow the attendance of supporters at the meeting (LU as a new party doing politics differently I thought would mean open meetings as in Podemos). Richard heard face to face the city’s objections to a meeting and their possible 6 months resolution process before I had opportunity to speak with him. When I returned from holiday I phoned Richard and then Zbyszek who both told me by telephone that the city’s proposals were non-negotiable. I never had the opportunity to meet with Z and R face to face. I had suggested to both Zbyszek and Richard that the protagonists Mike Scott, Liz Silver and Alan Story might be open to mediation, however, I was informed that this would not be possible as Mike Scott and Liz Silver did not want to do this. Alan had agreed with me to try mediation. When, in my view there was no longer a negotiation over the terms of reference of the meeting I personally wrote separately to Mike and Liz to ask then again to accept mediation but they refused. This was a last minute attempt to salvage matters. It appeared to me, after being told that they key issues for swift unity were non-negotiable and that mediation had been refused, that there was no prospect of unity within the immediate timescale. Indeed Richard Johnson suggested that bringing the branches together would take at least 6 months. (very close to or after the General Election). I was aware that at the last meeting of the Nottinghamshire branch that I had been unanimously mandated to negotiate on the above motion and attendance of non-members so suggested to Alan that we go ahead in the interest of the party to call a meeting of members to pass a motion to unite the branches immediately. Even this action was procedurally resisted. In the event 3 people turned up at the meeting which suggests that I might have been wrong or more likely members were fed up like I was of the phoney dispute. I have detailed notes of my telephone conversation with Richard and my confidential correspondence with Mike and Liz.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 18:20:46 +0000
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