18.12.1997

Message to SLP members

Agreed statement of 57 congress delegates and observers

The SLP congress has been seen to be a complete travesty of democracy.

In the absence of a membership report, news leaked out from those recording the votes that one organisation had a block of 3,000 votes, a majority of over two thirds of those to be cast. This meant that debate was meaningless. This one organisation was ensured that its point of view would prevail, regardless of the view of the majority of delegates. A clear example of this was the vote to dissolve the black sections.

The congress has been denied the right to ratify the constitution or propose an alternative.

The congress was presented with a complaints/disciplinary procedure only when delegates arrived. Delegates did not have the chance to properly read it and yet were expected to vote in what is an act of faith in the NEC.

The method of the leadership is a sectarian and profoundly undemocratic one. It is taking the organisation down the road of becoming a political sect, dominated by the general secretary, in a way parallel with Blair and New Labour.

The tragedy of this is that the ‘honeymoon’ period of the government is beginning to crack. If the SLP were to be developed as a forum for unifying all those who are opposed to the political direction of the government, and an organiser of struggle against it, it could quickly develop into a party of some tens of thousands.

Fifty-seven delegates and observers present at the congress on Saturday December 13 convey to the membership of the SLP our complete opposition to the actions and methods of the leadership which is destroying the possibility of the SLP growing and becoming a real alternative to New Labour.