The following letter is a proposal to the National Council of the Coalition of Resistance from the officers group.
Dear Coalition of Resistance National Council members
The Coalition of Resistance officers would like to put a proposal forward in light of the growing People’s Assembly movement.
The Coalition of Resistance has always wanted to see and develop one unified, national campaign against austerity. The People’s Assembly is well on the way to becoming that now, with over 80 local groups and support from a wide range of unions and national campaigns.
Without the work of the Coalition of Resistance over the last 3 years it would not have been possible to launch such a broad and diverse movement. It was Coalition of Resistance that initiated the project and all our local and student groups have played central roles in forming much broader People’s Assembly groups in local communities.
The Coalition of Resistance still has general wide support. Over 20,000 people ‘like’ the Facebook page; we have built up an email list of 15,000; 150 local trade union branches or campaign groups were affiliated in 2010; and last month regular standing orders to the organisation totaled £700.
It is not our intention to wind up the organisation, as we do not want to throw away the reach we may have in the wider movement. We should continue as a loose network, keep the Facebook and twitter accounts running but direct all supporters to get involved with the People’s Assembly. We also propose that, going forward, all finances, liabilities and resources become the responsibility of the People’s Assembly.
The People’s Assembly is still in the process of setting up formal structures for affiliation, committees, etc. This will be decided at the Recall People’s Assembly on 15 March 2014. Coalition of Resistance will send out another proposal after this conference for how we continue to work in light of the decisions made there.
We intend, either by motion from CoR or through influencing the drafting of conference documents, to seek to commit the People’s Assembly to the sort of aims that the Coalition of Resistance espoused. Appended below is a draft motion based on the ‘What is the Coalition of Resistance?’ statement in CoR website’s ‘About’ section.***
We understand some did not receive the notification of the National Council meeting on Saturday 30th October We apologise for this and for the short notice given. Those who attended discussed and agreed with the CoR Committee proposals, but to facilitate the fullest involvement, we are circulating this to the whole National Council asking for everyone to approve these proposals.
If there is significant disagreement in response to the COR Committee proposals then we will organise a meeting as soon as possible to make the final decision. If you would like any clarification please do get in touch.
We are asking you as National Council members to reply within one month of the date of this communication (16 Jan 2014).
We thank you for all your work and your support for CoR and look forward to continuing our work with you as we all become active through our local and our National People’s Assembly.
With very best wishes in solidarity and expectation of successes together in the year ahead,
In solidarity,
Sam Fairbairn, Secretary
Romayne Phoenix, Chair
COR
***Draft CoR Motion for The People’s Assembly Recall Conference 15 March 2014
The People’s Assembly:
1. is a broad united national campaign against austerity, cuts and privatisation in our workplaces, community and welfare services, based on general agreement with the signatories’ Founding Statement.
2. is linked to no political party, committed to open non-sectarian working and dedicated to supplementing, rather than supplanting, trade union, student, pensioner and community opposition to austerity measures.
3. is based on affiliation by individual supporters, unions nationally and locally, anti-cuts campaigns, and other student, pensioner, unemployed, disabled people’s, women’s, Black people’s, youth and LGBT campaigning organisations.
4. aspires to support, encourage, coordinate joint action, and facilitate a transfer of experience rather than to command.
5. encourages the establishment of new local campaigns and/or People’s Assemblies.
6. organises newsletters, a website, twitter, Facebook and social media, meetings, conferences, lobbies, rallies, marches, demonstrations and other events.
7. vehemently opposes all proposals to “solve” the crisis by discrimination or scapegoating on grounds of disability, race, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation or identity.
8. liaises closely with similar movements in other countries resisting austerity measures.
9. encourages a wide debate on how to protect the welfare state and develop an alternative programme for economic and social recovery.
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This is the only sensible approach.
I have been contributing to CoR and the People’s Assembly over the last few years, as well as to other organisations such as Save Our NHS.
We all want the same thing : an end to so called “austerity” which is simply a mechanism to shift money from the public to the private sector – from the poor to the rich.
Well done and lets get on with one campaign under the banner of People’s Assembly.
Jim Moores