Sample motions calling for special conference

The Trotskyite-Cliffite Terrorist Centre* is unsurprised that the Central Committee continues to make the rules up as it goes along. Pravda* lays it on thick. For an interventionist denial of reality!*

The party has seen a lot of discussion and argument since conference. And these issues will no doubt be raised at the National Committee (NC) meeting on 3 February. The 50 comrades elected by our recent conference will want to have their say.The NC is an important political body whose task is to question, advise, guide and assist the CC. There will be report-backs from the 3 February NC to branches.Comrades have complained about some of the material that has appeared on blogs, Facebook etc. People are tired of slurs, lies and unsubstantiated allegations. Such matters, and what action to take, will also be discussed at the NC.We need to make sure we are not paralysed and do not become unable to intervene in the class struggle.We are moving ahead with the perspectives we agreed at conference. These were sent out last week in the post-conference bulletin. This is what our democracy looks like – debate, votes and elections involving all delegates and then carrying out the decisions in a united way.We are not going to overturn the decisions made two weeks ago by a very open conference, the highest level of our democracy.That is why the CC opposes the call for a recall conference, a demand that emerged even before the decisions of the 4-6 January conference had been sent to every member and which seeks to brush aside the decisions just made by the delegates.It is also clear that as part of the discussions some people are raising a wider debate about the direction of the party. This does not mean that everyone who has raised issues about the recent events is attacking our political tradition. But some are seeking to overturn important parts of what we stand for – and the politics we reaffirmed at conference.There are some people who want to replace a Marxist analysis of women’s liberation with one centred on patriarchy theory. Others believe that changes in capitalism have altered the structure of the working class so fundamentally that it is no longer the key element in the battle for socialism.Others, outside the party, are making attacks on the SWP as a way to buttress Labour.And in his article on why he is leaving the SWP, “Donny Mayo” attacks the party over recent events but then goes on to attack its attitude to Syriza and its failure to back Len McCluskey for Unite general secretary. He then delves deeper and claims there is a “global crisis of old-style Trotskyist Leninism” and that the SWP is an example of a “historically outdated model” and that democratic centralism has become an “increasingly cultish mantra”.We need to win people to our analysis of exploitation and oppression, Leninism today, and the revolutionary party.Please note that if branches are going to discuss motions they should be circulated to all branch members in good time in advance. This is to ensure that comrades have a democratic right to take part in the discussion. After consultation with the chair of the Conference Arrangements Committee, any motions for a recall conference have to be in by 5pm on Friday 1 February. This is to make the NC aware of them.

What is to be done? Get your motions in to your branch secretary or district organiser, link up with all the comrades you've been chatting to on paper sales and after branch meetings who are as pissed off as you are, and make sure they get along to vote to support motions for special conference to sort this shit out.

The wording of the motion is not massively important as long as the conclusion is the same.

So you could go for something like this:

• Branch notes the deepening crisis of the party's reputation in the wider movement.
• Branch condemns leak to sectarian blog site but believes that the resulting problems will not be solved neither by expulsions and disciplinary measures, nor by circling the wagons and pretending there's no crisis - or there will be further resignations and we will enter terminal decline.
• Branch requests that cc convene a special conference with 1 month period of discussion for branches, fractions etc to discuss a way out of crisis for the party

Or you could keep it really simple, and go for something like this:

• Branch calls for an special conference in accordance with paragraph 4 of the SWP constitution.

Whether you go for the short and sweet or have a 3 page preamble, the most important thing is the conclusion, and to get the motion in, get it distributed round the branch to head off any bureaucratic blocking, get to your regular branch meeting and pass it before February 1st.

SOLIDARITY.

- "Tomás Ó Tuathail"

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* Note to the faux-outraged: these are known among humans as jokes.