21.11.2002

Where members cannot reach

The national council met on Sunday November 17. However, because of the choice of venue, several delegates, myself included, were unfortunately unable to attend. At the end of the last NC, during 'any other business', a comrade from Inverness called for the next meeting to take place in that town. This was not voted upon, but, as we were breaking up, national secretary Allan Green jokingly said: "OK, November 17, in Inverness". Apparently the Inverness comrades took the comment seriously and went ahead and organised the meeting. That is how the executive came to decide that the national council would be held in the far north of Scotland. In the circumstances the executive could almost be forgiven for making a one-off decision that would inconvenience the vast majority of comrades. But it does not end there. The venue was subsequently changed "¦ to Fort William - somewhere even more inaccessible for most comrades. To travel from any of the four main cities in Scotland to Fort William on a Sunday is pretty much impossible if you have to rely on public transport. From Glasgow it takes four hours by train; from Edinburgh five hours, 30 minutes; from Dundee seven hours; and from Aberdeen over eight hours. Yet the travelling time is irrelevant when you consider that the only train comrades from any of these cities could take on a Sunday arrives in Fort William at 10pm - several hours after the NC was due to finish. It would have been easier to get to the meeting if it had been held in London. Many comrades who drove to Fort William had to leave a day early. There appears to be a line of thinking within the SSP that sees moving major meetings to out-of-the-way places as being more democratic and inclusive. In fact it is the opposite: while they are more accessible for a tiny number of comrades, attendance is a huge obstacle for the majority. This brings me to an item that was discussed at Sunday's meeting - by those comrades able to get there, that is: the venue for next year's conference. This was originally scheduled for the weekend of February 15-16, but had to be changed when it was realised that this date clashed with the day of action called by the European Social Forum. However, nowhere suitable could be found in the capital - nor, it was said, in Glasgow - for an adjacent weekend, so the SSP now has to look elsewhere. Comrade Green put forward a truly bizarre 'solution'. He proposed that the conference be held in Rothesay (an island off the west coast). Again this would involve complicated travel arrangements. While the journey from Glasgow - by train and ferry - can be done in around two hours, comrades travelling from most other places would first have to come to Glasgow, with all the inconvenience and delay of making their connection. There are much more credible options outwith Edinburgh and Glasgow, such as Dundee or Aberdeen, or smaller places like Perth or Sterling, which are situated centrally and served by more regular public transport. In order for conferences and major meetings to be as democratic and inclusive as possible, they must be held in locations where the vast majority of the membership can attend with the least difficulty. Comrade Mary Ward proposed that national council should not take a decision on the venue for our 2003 conference and that the executive should look into other options. Fortunately this was unanimously agreed. It now seems that a Glasgow venue can be arranged after all. Sarah McDonald