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A powerless out-of-touch clique on the Executive Committee has isolated themselves from the bulk of Solidarity members after their attempted coup d’etat failed. They tried to suspend General Secretary Patrick Harrington on vague insinuations about the union’s accounts. In desperation, they have produced a factional bulletin in order to confuse enough members to allow them to hang on for a little while longer. The pseudo-bulletin purports to ‘correct’ a previous official bulletin:
”Solidarity will not be attending the annual 12th July parades in Belfast or Southport due to the sectarianism [sic] of the parades. As a union we welcome all people from the divided communities of Northern Ireland and we are deeply concerned with positioning ourselves with positioning ourselves with a particular sector of the people due to the tensions that exist. We strongly approve of the peace process and respect and admire all the citizens of Northern Ireland and we would consider participating in cross-partisan events." This attitude needs to be deconstructed. The union has never declared an official policy on the Northern Ireland peace process although we are naturally glad that workers are no longer murdered as they go about their daily business. We do indeed welcome all people from all parts of Northern Ireland society. However, we’re not going to sit on our haunches and expect them to come to us. That’s why we are not sitting waiting to ‘welcome’ people who have never heard of us. That’s why we are not passing up the opportunity to distribute leaflets to the thousands out for the day in Belfast, Southport and Scarva at huge public gatherings of largely working class Britons. It is unfair to denigrate public displays of patriotic feeling as ‘sectarianism’. This reflects badly on the authors of the pseudo-bulletin. In today’s more peaceful environment in Ulster, much effort has been made by organisers and community groups to transform the annual Twelfth demonstrations into a festival of fun for all the family. Folk whose cherished traditions have been traduced are hardly likely to join our union if they think that the members of our Executive Committee despise them! As for ‘cross-partisan events’ we’ll be delighted to distribute leaflets there too as we did to lookers-on at the Belfast May Day parade earlier this year.
That's why we are going ahead with distributing leaflets at these events. The author of the pseudo-bulletin claims to expect to promote the union and its values at the annual BNP-organised Red-White-Blue family festival, but “ we shall not be providing workshops or grand speeches as implied in the last bulletin since it would jeopardise our position as an independent Trade Union”.
All political parties attract fringe events that are not organically connected to the event organiser. Single-issue groups and campaigns are interested in gaining support for their aims and objects from members of generally sympathetic political parties without prejudicing their organisational independence. This is just as true of the RWB as it is at the Labour Party Spring conference or even the Glastonbury Festival.
That’s why the union will be conducting fringe workshops at the RWB festival. The folk who attend this event will form the natural bedrock of grassroots support for the union. This opportunity to promote the benefits of union membership; to conduct fringe workshops and give a rousing recruiting speech to a potentially sympathetic audience will not be thrown away! We are not a cosy little vanity project for a do-nothing president and his hangers-on. We are a fighting, campaigning union. We do not expect to recruit members by posting up a website and hoping to attract them by some form of electronic osmosis. We are going out of our way to recruit new members and to represent the interests of ordinary, decent British workers
Financial Smears
The pseudo bulletin makes a number of vague and unsupported allegations about Union finances. Mr Hawke is quoted as saying that he has "strong reasons to believe that the AR21 form (accounts document) is highly inaccurate". He goes on to describe it as a "deeply dubious version of our financial report." We understand, however, that the AR21 has now been submitted by Hawke and Potter to the Certification Officer. We must ask therefore what "strong reasons" Hawke had not to sign the form which have so rapidly evaporated. Obviously if they have now decided that the form and accounts are OK (as originally presented to them) it was never "deeply dubious". No doubt the liars will come out with fresh allegations but they have no credibility. Fake Minutes Alongside pseudo bulletins the wreckers have also been pointlessly busy fabricating Executive minutes. They had a problem as they had managed to suspend Pat Harrington at an inquorate meeting to which he had not been invited. Their ingenious solution? Say that he was suspended at an earlier meeting which he did attend and produce fake minutes from the "recollection" of 'decent' Tim Hawke. The only problem is that two other non-Exec members were invited to that meeting and rejects his 'minutes' as incorrect. In particular they have sent statements to say that no investigation was proposed of Pat Harrington and that he was not suspended. This is also confirmed by a long trail of documents (emails and letters) which passed before and after. Not only, then, is their version of events untrue - it can be proved to be so. Contempt for membership The pseudo bulletin stated that the wreckers do "not recognise this EGM". Our Constitution is clear that 2/3rds of the membership may call an EGM. They have done so. Whether the wreckers recognise it or not it will be making binding decisions. Their attitude shows contempt for the membership who want to act to move our Union forward with a united leadership. Expect more misinformation We have deconstructed the pseudo bulletin. No doubt the wreckers will produce more. If you are on email we suggest you report anything sent from them as spam and drop a note to their service provider reporting their unsolicited mailings. If you get it through the post just recycle it appropriately! We expect that their next move will be to announce that our General Secretary has been expelled from the Union by their kangaroo committee! This will be treated with the same contempt as their earlier pronouncements. They have no power and consequently will be ignored. They are facing a resolute body which recognises them for what they are. They have no way of winning and no way of going back.
Third Way Statement on Solidarity
The Executive of the Third Way fully support the Solidarity Union's calling of an Emergency General Meeting for July 14th. The disruption of the vital work of Solidarity at such an early stage of its development is difficult. There has been a great deal of speculation as to the causes and motivation of the small number of individuals involved in this disruption. We do not profess to have all the answers but we can say this. The unprofessional treatment and sniping directed at the General Secretary (and a member of the Third Way's Executive) commenced almost from the beginning. We believe that these individuals did not appreciate our involvement for political reasons. Whether that stemmed from a fear of our positive and well-founded ideology or fear that we would make the Union successful we do not know. Being a Libertarian body we are prepared to work with all manner of individuals and groups if they
a) Broadly support a common and specific cause
b) Is a legal and 'sane' body.
Our involvement does not imply and endorsement of the opinions of others. It simply indicates that we are prepared to work in coalition with anyone who shares our views on the matter at hand. We support the Solidarity Union because it robustly defends o member’s jobs from globalisation (reflecting our nationalism) and does not persecute political rivals/opponents (reflecting our liberalism). Such a Union is long overdue. We are confident that the steadfast and loyal members of Solidarity will resolve this minor if somewhat irritating disruption in due course and then we can all get back to building one Big, and successful, Union! We assure you that your comrades and brothers in Third Way continue to back you 100%.
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