The Southport ADM has given the NUJ a strong platform to build a sustained campaign for action to resist a further assault on jobs, pay and the conditions under which we have to work. Here, Alan Gibson gives the highs and the lows of the conference and identifies some of the key issues in the coming year.

Industrial strategy

The most significant debate at ADM should have been on the massive composite 14, “Future of the Media”. Perhaps it was its sheer bulk that led to little debate about its contents. So it is worth spelling out its key instructions to the NEC, for these should inform much of what the NUJ Left campaigns on over the coming year:

“Launch a high-profile, active campaign to secure the future of quality content in the media. Such a campaign should involve:

1)    A co-ordinated industrial response to compulsory redundancies.

2)    A series of protests and activities around key company events.

3)    Exposing shareholder greed.

4)    Lobbying MPs.

5)    Using legal challenges to health and safety law.

6)    Building community-based campaigns.

7)    Organising a series of regional rallies to build towards a union-wide day of action….taking place in 2010.

8)    Triggering a public debate about media ownership.”

We should use the months before the NUJ Left conference in mid-February to widen the rank-and-file network of reps and activists right across the country, which is one of the founding principles in NUJ Left’s manifesto. Our focus should be on organising for regional rallies early in 2010 in support of quality journalism and in defence of our jobs and on building a huge, visible turnout outside the AGMs next year of the big employers, such as Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press and Newsquest.

Reporting the BNP

The biggest, and the messiest, debate was that over reporting the BNP. It reflected the deep concern journalists have over the fascists’ recent electoral gains and critically how journalists should report the BNP. An amendment to the main motion, calling for the NEC to back any member who refused to work with fascist councillors and MEPs, became an argument about the policy of  No Platform – one that revealed a good deal of ignorance about the strategy. Nonetheless, it fed into an important fringe meeting where speakers Pete Lazenby of the Yorkshire Evening Post, Yakub Qureshi of the Manchester Evening News and Weyman Bennet of Unite Against Fascism led off a detailed, practical discussion about reporting the Nazis.

A lot more needs to be done to address what is going to become a major problem for all media workers, and a proposal for a conference, before the general election, is being put to both the NUJ and BECTU.

ADM frequency and subs

Another controversial issue, although not one reflected in the final vote, was the NEC’s proposal to extend the time between ADMs from one year to 18 months. The argument against this – that it curtailed accountability, lessened democracy and was easily avoidable – was rehearsed at the NUJ left conference in October and put to ADM. However, the NEC won the day with a significant majority. Similarly the debate around increasing the subs was not really a debate, and again the NEC, having prepared the ground with swathes of data regarding the union’s finances won a resounding victory.

Gender balance, Afghanistan, Israeli boycott and climate change

The most controversial debate was on motion 57, which called for ADM to instruct the NEC to ensure a gender balance on all branch/industrial council delegations and nominations to union bodies. The NEC-backed motion was lost following a card vote – a turn of affairs that shows the left has much work to do to redress the chronic lack of women taking positions across the union.

The UK’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan received a mention on the floor of ADM, where Media Workers Against the War got its annual endorsement from delegates. MWAW also held an excellent fringe meeting with, among others, Sue Glenton, mother of Joe Glenton, the British soldier who faces charges for not only refusing to return to Afghanistan, but for speaking out on the issue. Again, several NUJ left members believe the issue of Afghanistan is something the NUJ Left should be highlighting over the next few months. The ADM also backed a motion welcoming the TUC’s decision to campaign for a partial boycott of Israeli goods – one that we should toughen up at the next ADM – and also backed a motion backing the Campaign Against Climate Change.

There are big tasks ahead for the NUJ Left, but the over-riding message from Southport was of unity in struggle, so we should not allow the weeks until Christmas and the holiday season to drain our enthusiasm. With NUJ Left now clearly established as a fighting force in the union, we should aim to put our ideas at the centre of every major battle the union takes on in 2010.

What did you think of the ADM? Please leave your comments below

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