As I’ve featured in news reports about Green conference, I wanted to give my view. I am a huge supporter of motion E12 (“Zionism is Racism”) and my interventions were all aimed at making sure that it was passed.
Before we even began, the ballot system disintegrated and broke immediately. This tech failure remains a mystery. At one point the Chair tried to hold an unsafe ballot using show of hands on a publicly accessible Zoom call. Since this would have likely led to motion E12 being forced off the agenda due to Zionist wrecking, I raised a No Confidence vote in the chair. She backed down, waited for the tech team to fix it. We kept E12.
Then, 3 of 5 members on the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) attempted to take control of the party. They tried to pass a “report” that would give them power to veto motions, reject amendments, interpret rules – with nobody able to overrule them. These 3 members are known transphobes who hate Zack Polanski. The other 2 SOC members opposed the coup.
We voted AGAINST this power grab despite blatant bias from the chair. However, the chair then attempted to bring conference to an end without any policy debates, on the basis that we had rejected the report. This was not necessary – all SOC needed to do was amend their report, drop the coup, and we could carry on. I raised a No Confidence vote to prevent her from ending conference. Then the TERFs capitulated. The coup sections were stripped from the report, we passed it as amended, and conference resumed. I tried to withdraw my VONC, but the acting chair ignored me.
We then reached policy motions. We knew E12 would pass, as long as a vote was held. I advised Green members to expect obstruction. I said the Zionist faction would speak against uncontroversial motions in an attempt to cause endless debate, offer pointless amendments they didn’t really want, propose endless procedural motions and try anything they could to prevent a vote on E12. I was called paranoid, told to stop assuming bad faith, and ordered to read the party’s Code of Conduct. We then watched in horror as everything that I predicted came to pass. Literally everything.
We began running out of time. I proposed to extend debate. This passed. Then, we made it to motion E12 with 5 minutes left. The proposer of the motion, the amazing Lubna Speitan, gave her speech. Conference was then immediately ended, as we ran out of time. Zionist wrecking won the day. A small group of bitter pro-Israel activists, outraged that they as Zionists were not given a veto over a motion written by Palestinians, used procedural tricks to prevent a Palestinian woman from speaking about her own oppression, and block her from seeking justice for her family.
We had the numbers. Zionists had the procedural tricks. And because Green members are generally nice, generous people who like to assume good faith and think the best of everyone, they were blindsided by a deliberate campaign of obstruction. I hope they learn from this.
The behaviour of Zionists at this conference was repulsive. I want to take this opportunity to apologise to Lubna, because she deserves a formal apology from the party for how she was treated and I doubt she will get it. She and her supporters were treated as intruders and bullies for the “crime” of proposing a motion to conference calling for justice and peace, and called “antisemites” for refusing to hand Zionist saboteurs a veto over any and all motions related to Palestine. I am so, so angry at what was done to her. She, and all Palestinian members, deserved better.
In Autumn, we will pass “Zionism is Racism”, and we will drive supporters of apartheid and genocide out of this party once and for all. Supporters of the animal state of Israel must not be welcome in the Green Party, and passing this motion is a first step towards ensuring that there is at least one party in the whole of Britain that serves the interests of ordinary people, rather than serving the murderers and war criminals in Tel Aviv.
In solidarity and love,
Eleanora Ní Chualáin
(Sometimes known as Stats for Lefties)
Stats for Lefties 