THE recent passing by the NUJ of a resolution that called for a boycott of Israeli goods caused a great deal of disappointment amongst many members, and anger from others.
At the Manchester branch of the NUJ a meeting was held last week to discuss the boycott and the steps that could be taken to block the resolution. Below is a report from the meeting by an attendee:
Having been successful in mandating the Manchester NUJ branch delegates to vote against the anti-Israel resolution at Annual Conference, members of the branch have now succeeded in having a resolution passed at branch level to seek a way to prevent the resolution being put into effect.
Despite the fact that the executive and all the delegates, given a free choice would have voted for them, members decided to take the advice of the Union’s General Secretary Jeremy Dear and go back to the branch to put a resolution asking the National Executive to find a way to “prevent the enactment of the resolution”.
Following a heated debate which included the Chairman and executive members and one National Executive member putting their full weight against the resolution, quoting Union rules and trying to postpone the vote while the legal situation was clarified, the resolution was carried by 12 votes to 9. Opponents argued that it is unconstitutional to try to change a resolution between annual meetings and that a counter resolution should wait till next year’s conference
It was also suggested that the Union’s Legal Officer had confirmed that view to an executive member, but that has not been confirmed.
Among those supporting the resolution were a number of Life members of the Union, at least two of whom are long since retired from active journalism, who felt so strongly that this type of political activity within the union was not in keeping with their view that the Union should concentrate on the well-being of its members.
Despite the chairman warning that passing the resolution would set a “dangerous precedent”, the resolution calling for a way to avoid implementing the boycott will now be sent by the branch to the National Executive for consideration at their June meeting
Strangely one of the arguments put against trying to reverse the resolution which, among other things, calls for a boycott of Israeli goods, was that it should not cause concern as it was unenforceable and not binding on members.
One member who supported the move asking the executive not to implement the resolution challenged this, claiming that if this were the case the resolution should not have been allowed to stand at conference as it makes a mockery passing such controversial resolutions if they do not have teeth and can be ignored by members.
Those who succeeded in getting the resolution passed despite unanimous opposition from the executive, said after the meeting: “This proves that if enough people take an active interest in Union meetings and business that they can effectively get their voices heard. Our advice to members in other Unions who regularly have anti-Israel resolutions on their conference agendas is to get involved and stand up and be counted.
"We wish our fellow trade unionists in the UCU (University and College Union) similar success in opposing calls for an academic boycott of Israel at their conference on May 31/June 1. We believe boycotts are an ineffective, counter-productive and unacceptable way to express views about the highly complex situation in the Middle East."
Related article:
NUJ votes to boycott all Israeli goods
Update:
BBC correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones has started a site tracking the moves to stop the NUJ boycott.
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