"Let’s allow the public to be the judge about the course of action and conduct of the secret clique in Stopwar.ca. Let’s not have just a vote of 17 to 5 or 15 to 7 tomorrow, but hundreds of thousands of votes by the masses, not only in Vancouver, not only in BC, but in Canada and beyond, about this fight between David and Goliath."
- Ali Yerevani, in his letter to the secret clique in StopWar.ca; October 14, 2003

In recent months, StopWar.ca, the major anti-war coalition in Vancouver, has politically split. This split has long been a barrier to the effective work of the coalition, but only recently have the political differences behind this split in StopWar.ca been carried out organizationally and structurally in the coalition. These differences have been fought out between two increasingly polarized positions: First, to build a movement against the occupations of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, and second, to shrink StopWar.ca into a quiet, slow paced lobbying group to deal with issues of the parliamentary politics within Canada.

Because of their refusal and inability to deal with these differences through discussion and debate in meetings, the 'lobbying tendency' has formed a secret, undeclared, unsanctioned circle of power of its leadership. This 'secret circle' has discussed strategies through email, phone and casual meetings for some time in order to isolate, silence, disempower and demoralize the 'movement building tendency'. These conspiracies have resulted in the consistent structural and organizational manipulation of StopWar.ca by this secret circle in opposition to meaningful and open dialogue. The movement building tendency has just as consistently produced documents clearly and patiently outlining our positions and pushed for open discussions in StopWar.ca meetings to overcome these barriers to the effective functioning of the coalition.

On October 8th the secret circle called a secret meeting to expand the unlisted membership of this circle and to strategize and make decisions against the movement building tendency's continued involvement in StopWar.ca. This meeting was not announced to or sanctioned by StopWar.ca. It was a secret meeting with an exclusive invitation list. No-one associated with the movement building tendency were informed of or invited to this meeting. At this secret meeting, the secret circle made a decision that will deeply affect the life and functioning of StopWar.ca and the anti-war movement in Vancouver: they decided to split the coalition by expelling the most dedicated elements of the movement building tendency from StopWar.ca. This expulsion is scheduled to take place at the StopWar.ca general meeting on Wednesday October 15, 5:30pm at the Maritime Labour Centre in Vancouver.

The purpose of this document is to educate people throughout Vancouver, the Lower Mainland and the Province of what is necessary to build a movement against war and occupation. We understand that the only hope of preventing a split in StopWar.ca is to publicize the case against the expulsion of Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance. Everyone in the city must be able to become involved in this case that will directly affect the life and work of the anti-war movement in Vancouver in this time of permanent war, invasion and occupation against oppressed countries and people by the US, Canada and other imperialist powers. In the days following this public statement, we will be publishing a complete document outlining the history of StopWar.ca to be able to learn completely from this case and not have to repeat it again. We hope that by making this case public we can stop the expulsion of Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance to build unity in StopWar.ca and then to build a broad, effective and inclusive anti-war movement in the Lower Mainland against this terrible era of imperialist terror, war and occupation.

The Formation of the Secret Circle:

The first instance we are aware of in which the purging of Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance is directly mentioned is in an email from Jef Keighley in early September. The day before this email was sent out to select members of the Coordinating Committee of StopWar.ca, Jef introduced a notice of motion to the general meeting of StopWar.ca.

This notice of motion outlined a change in the structure of the coalition towards becoming a smaller bureaucracy in which only members of recognized member organizations would be allowed to vote in general meetings. At this same meeting, of September 3rd, 2003, Jef introduced a radical departure from the previous strategy and politics of the coalition: to focus on opposing Paul Martin instead of focussing on opposing occupation and war. When Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance spoke against this suggestion the discussion ended and Jef introduced his notice of motion.

Following Jef’s notice of motion, Sid Schniad distributed his own notice of motion: for the destruction of the Outreach Committee. Even in this proposal's wording Sid's intentions were clear: "The existence of this enormously broad mandate has allowed a situation to develop in which the Outreach / Education Committee has become a parallel centre of decision making power, often acting on its own or in conflict with decisions taken by the coalitions general meetings." Sid's motion to break the Outreach Committee into three pieces was intended to stunt the effectiveness of Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance in the coalition.

The first email below was sent by Luay Kawasme, member of the Coordinating Committee of StopWar.ca questioning the timing of this motion. The following email was sent by Jef explaining why he proposed these structural changes:

_____________________________________

From: Luay Kawasme

September 3, 2003
Dear CC,

Jef passed a notice of motion requesting a change in the voting structure. Despite the fact that Jef's motion is important and healthy to the coalition on the long run, but I believe that it represents a divisive issue. It might be the reason for some groups to walk out of the coalition. We are already facing difficulties in mobilizing to September 28th. Therefore, I strongly recommend tabling the motion until the following meeting or later. Let's focus our next meeting on Sept. 28th event.

Luay

From: Jef Keighley

Sept 4, 03

Luay:

Please give me a call at work (604-------) or on my cell phone (604-------). I left my phone list with your number at home. I am addressing your legitimate concerns, but am copying the CC because I think my comments should be up front for all to see.

I fully appreciate your concern that the restructuring motion I will propose has the serious potential to have some groups such as Fire This Time/Youth 3rd World Alliance depart the coalition. I do not believe StopWar.ca is viable with their continued presence where each and every meeting is a forum to pontificate on their rigid and yet aimless rhetorical 'political theorizing'.

I am a Socialist who is well read on political economy and international relations, in addition to my obvious labour background. I am dumbfounded to identify what coherent political views they adhere to. I am of the view that if a split is necessary, and I think it is, then it should happen sooner rather than later, so that the rest of us can get on with doing the Peace and Anti-War movement we know is so desperately needed. I would rather be somewhat disrupted from our organizing September 28th than to paper over what I believe are irreconcilable differences for the sake of a transparently false 'unity' only to have to deal with the issue as we build towards the more important international date of October 25th. Acting now will allow us to arrive at Christmas with the knowledge that we have weathered the storm with organizational integrity rather than still be contemplating a coalition in tatters.

I think we can count on the good will of many organizations and activists to help us get through what will be a rough patch in the weeks ahead, but I do not think we will be able to maintain that support if we ask them to simply bide their time as we patiently wait for the 'right time' to take corrective action. You will recall that Ali issued a declaration of "War" at the end of July 9th StopWar.ca meeting and apparently Ivan muttered the same declaration as he departed the August Coordinating Committee meeting. When one declares 'war' it is always wise to have your troops in line and your weapons ready in advance, otherwise all you end up doing is announcing a failed insurrection. It is also foolish to expect that those you threaten are expected to wait passively until your forces are ready for the attack prior to planning and effecting their own defence. This is a classic case where a good defence is a good offence. I intend to do my part to ensure that Ali's and Ivan's outcome is a failed insurrection. I am not persuaded to hold back and allow them to do yet more damage to our coalition than they have already done, attacking the integrity of virtually everyone not in their inner circle, with expected impunity.

I am not in the habit of making idle threats and I am not doing that now. I intend to act. I genuinely appreciate your sentiments about getting the organizing work done and not spending time on the structural changes I propose. I know you are a committed, talented and humane social activist who is a credit to StopWar.ca However, I am not going to be persuaded to postpone dealing with what must be done. I have no intention of spending our second year of existence continually dealing with political adolescents. Indeed, if we were foolishly prepared to do so, I do not think we would live to see StopWar.ca's second anniversary, and that would be politically irresponsible. I hope you will join in that effort. Please do give me a call at your convenience.

In Solidarity,

Jef Keighley

_____________________________________

At the following StopWar.ca general meeting on September 17th the re-structuring motion passed without meaningful discussion. All clarifying amendments that were introduced were immediately defeated. The meeting was far larger than the numbers of people involved in the coalition and there were many faces that had not been seen at Stopwar.ca meetings in the past.

Following this meeting, Sid Schniad made discriminatory comments against the young people in Youth Third World Alliance, calling them “idiot, know nothing students.” Ivan Drury, member of Fire This Time, brought a complaint against Sid for these comments, following the protocols of the anti-harassment policy that Sid himself helped to draft. This complaint was ignored and dismissed as “bullshit” by the secret circle without investigation, discussion or decision by the Coordinating Committee. The secret circle again, as with the dismissal of a previous complaint brought against someone for performing a homophobic and physically violent assault, sidestepped the authority of the general meeting and the Coordinating Committee to protect someone within the secret circle.

Although they had passed their motions to regain control of the coalition, the secret circle realized that the people who do all the foot work for the coalition would continue to work for the movement no matter what motions were passed. The ultimate problem the secret circle has is that they do not represent the movement and do not have a presence in the streets, campuses and workplaces of the city. Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance are directly connected to this international movement. In order to withdraw StopWar.ca from this movement, the secret circle has to get rid of Fire This Time and Youth Third-World Alliance.

The following email from Charlie Demers to Sid Schniad outlines this need while illustrating the desperation of the secret circle to maintain their unprincipled unity for their only common goal: a safe place in a StopWar.ca controlled by the elite of the secret circle (which includes Sid Schniad):

_____________________________________

From: Charlie Demers

To: Sid Schniad

September 19, 03

Dear Sid (I have cc'd this to Derrick, Mable and Jef, because it concerns them as well)

just thought that I would write a few lines explaining my "heartfelt dismay" after the last meeting; I appreciate your e-mail, Sid, as well as genuienly appreciating your frustration. Hopefully, by the end of this e-mail, you will better understand mine.

Let me start by saying that I know that we want the same thing in the short term, and I think that we want the same thing in the long term --- that is to say, we all want FTT gone with the coalition largely in tact (short term), and we all want for Stopwar.ca to be able to continue to do principled opposition to the war/occupation and avoid ambiguity or paralysis (a la End the Arms Race) in the long term. These goals are linked. FTT has to go, and I make no bones about that. I have worked with Ali before, and have found him to be a manipulative, unethical, hypocritical and destructive force. Ivan is a confused, arrogant, belligerent man-boy that can't be counted on to make it through a half-hour period without a serious change of political direction (usually order from above). They are a toxic presence in the meetings --- general and otherwise --- and I'll breathe a sigh of relief when they finally storm out and let those of us who are really responsible for bringing radical politics to this coalition (by which I do not mean just PSG, I hasten to add) get on with our work.

In case I haven't made myself clear, Sid, let me lay it out: I want to co-operate. What stung me during the last meeting was that, having co-operated so readily and having demonstrated our common cause for the first half of the meeting, you and Jef ignored my request to table the structural discussions until after September 28. I'll explain why. My feeling was that our side had won some substantial victories already that meeting; we had undermined FTT's attempts at making political hay of July 9, we had demonstrated an inter-generational, labour-CESAPI-radical united vote that had succeeded in marginalizing them. By moving on --- victory under belt --- to the business of building the 28th, we would have undermined Ali's claims to the "Youth Third World Alliance" that he and Ivan are the only serious political force in the coalition. We would have left him without a legitimate grievance, without any way to play the victim card.

I am interested in seeing them go, but only on a principled basis. This is not for any abstract moral purposes. I think of someone like Lawrence, who I don't want to see won over to FTT as a result of the bullying he experiences. I'm thinking of Youth-TW-Alliance members like Thomas, who are sincere in their dedication but need a new example of political leadership (maybe my own teenage years in a Trot-sect grant a nostalgic quality to my sympathy in this case). In the effort to cram throught these structural changes, people like Lawrence and youg members of Youth-TW-Alliance were heckled and jeered as they spoke, (in my view) needlessly driving them further into Ali's arms. So long as Ali can cynically pose as the harbinger of democracy in the coalition, he will retain the respect of those kids.

Anyways, I bring this up only to explain my differences with your tactics last meeting, not to continue the debate. I know how you feel and I respect it. Sid, you've gotta know by now that I like you a lot, and respect the work you're doing. What you, Jef and Mable need to understand about how upset I was after the last meeting is this: Like it or not (Hell, whether I like it or not), I look up to you guys for an example.

I don't mean to suggest a didactic relationship, nor do I mean to suggest a relationship not based on equality. All I mean is that folks like you three are part of the newly-ascendant Left wing of Labour, which has started to rustle itself up to a place of prominence again in the wake of the Reagan-Thatcher-Mulroney assault on the conservative labour/corporate compromise. Intelligent young people like myself --- who've either come up through the sectarian tradition or else been pre-emptively alienated by the faux-Left poseur bullshit of the Kalayaan Centre, the International Socialists, the Communist Leaugue, et cetera --- know that you guys are the only game in town. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you have the responsibility to prove to us that the kind of pragmatic compromises we need to make can be done so on principle, while retaining the high working-class morality to which we all adhere. Those of us who watch Bill Saunders or Terry Engler jeer at a young woman who doesn't understand Robert's Rules of Order (and who's been conned into joining a bloc with a charismatic con-man who cites his revolutionary credentials from 1970s Iran as his basis of legitimacy) will find that a hard leap of faith to make.
Anyways, I hope that there are no hard feelings; you have my support next meeting and I hope that soon we can return to the real business of building an anti-war movement in this city .

In Solidarity,

Charlie

_____________________________________

In the time between the general meeting of September 17 and the one of October 1st, Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance were extremely busy organizing for the September 28 day of action against the occupation of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. We had just finished the Student Week Against War (September 10 to 22) and had come out of it with well over a hundred contacts with new students from campuses all around the Lower Mainland. These students and young people have the potential of being the source of new energy the anti-war movement is so desperately in need of. The Student Week Against War was organized on 10 different campuses by StopWar.ca almost entirely through the efforts of Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance. It was through these efforts that the success of the September 28 demonstration was possible.

Despite the success of September 28 and the disproportionate amount of young people present, the secret circle derided the efforts of Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance. The first meeting of the Student-Youth Committee was called for September 25 off of the success of the Student Week. At this meeting, as required by the structure of the coalition, a Student / Youth representative was elected to the Coordinating Committee of StopWar.ca. The secret circle sprung upon this and declared that "StopWar.ca has no Student Committee."

At the October 1st general meeting, Sid's motion for the dissolving of the Outreach Committee was heard. The motion was never voted upon. Shannon Bundock, coordinator of Fire This Time, was repeatedly and aggressively interrupted while introducing an amendment to the motion. These interruptions escalated into a yelling match. Sid Schniad intervened over the chair, Haseena Majeed, to put forward a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried.

After the meeting, the secret circle and their periphery attacked Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance with discriminatory attacks based on age, race and sex: “How long you been doing’ this for, youngster?” “You’re one smart chick.” “You think that just because you’re not white you can run around calling everybody racist.” All of these exchanges were documented and will be released as part of the history of StopWar.ca in the future.

Following the collapse of this meeting, the secret circle called its largest meeting, inviting an exclusive list of people inside to conspire against Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance. Lawrence Boxall, a self-declared ‘neutral’ party in the split, was invited to the meeting to bring his proposal for a structural remedy to the political problems in the coalition. He sent an outline of this proposal to Fire This Time over email. While Fire This Time accepted his mediating proposal, the secret circle rejected it, settling for nothing less than the expulsion of Fire This Time and Youth-Third World Alliance. The following emails outline their strategy:

_____________________________________

From: Derrick O'Keefe

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Sid,

So I don't think I will be able to attend tonight's meeting, which PSG as a group has decided not to attend. But we'll see, I know Eyad strongly thinks we should be there so we are looking at our decision.

Needless to say, my feeling is that we must keep the coalition together --the continuity StopWar.ca has built up in even one year is important and significant in this city. Personally, I have invested an enormous

(probably too much for my own good) amount of time into this coalition, and I'm frankly a bit at the end of my rope with the whole business. I was hoping to step back somewhat from politics this month and concentrate on work and personal matters, and this is part of the reason I just don't feel I have the energy for all this maneouvering. I want the coalition to be functioning and able to build October 25th and beyond.

Sid, I have also frankly been really taken aback by the emergence of Haseena and her unlimited political confidence. One reason I'm relieved that I'm probably not going to tonight's meeting is because I can predict that half of it will be listening to her talk. I think I am going to say in our next CC meeting that it was a mistake that she chaired and that she should recognize objectively her our abilities. I will do it in a polite way, and although Ali might characterize this as sexist and patriarchal, that will just be his par for the course opportunistic crap.

I know that I can be confrontational and that you have said that I sing two different tunes depending on the audience, but I want you to know that any wavering has only be sincere striving to do the best thing for the coalition politically. As for the confrontational, well you can handle yourself so I don't think I need to apologize for any of that. The point I'm trying to make is that I consider you a very important ally in this city, especially but not solely for being a labour voice that has consistently stuck your neck out in defending the Palestinian cause.

In solidarity,

Derrick.

From: Sid Schniad

To: Derrick O'Keefe

Date: October 8, 03

THIS MESSAGE IS PERSONAL. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD IT TO ANYONE. (I'M GETTING DIZZY WITH ALL THE FLURRY OF MESSAGES THAT ARE FLYING AROUND.)

Derrick,

Thank you very much for sending this message. I consider it an important personal effort at building solidarity. As I said to Eyad when he phoned Monday night, I don't understand PSG's decision not to participate in tonight's meeting. As far as I am concerned, the purpose of tonight's meeting is how to proceed to ensure the continued viability of what has become a very important coalition.

From my perspective, we cannot indefinitely continue to proceed in the manner we've been proceeding for very much longer. People are simply losing patience and their willingness to put up with FTT's manipulations, etc. I know you and Charlie feel that the responsibility lies with both sides of this divide. But I honestly believe that our problems have arisen as we have tried -- unsuccessfully to date -- to deal with them. Having said that, something must be done to change the internal dynamic that exists. It's not sufficient to say "A pox on both your houses." If you guys have a better way of handling them, I'm all ears. And I believe a lot of other people would be all ears, as well. Re: Haseena. I can't tell you how choked I was with the way she seized the role of chair last week AND the way she fucked up the running of the meeting. But she phoned me last night to apologize for the way she had behaved. I can't say definitively that she has come to an understanding of how she helped fuck things up. But I'm willing to cut her a bit of slack for the time being, anyway. So I urge you to put your concerns about what she said and did on the back burner, for now anyway. The last thing we need is to provide Ali & Co. with more fuel. Regarding the issue of being confrontational -- I think that both you and I are inclined to indulge ourselves in temper, sarcasm, etc. and that these are not desirable political attributes. Rather than accepting these attributes in ourselves, I think that we both have some work to do here. (This applies to Charlie, as well; he's a genius of the sarcastic one-liner,etc. While I tend to like that kind of stuff -- especially when it's aimed at people I'm disagreeing with -- it's not a constructive means of political intervention.) In closing, I'd like to make a final plea for you and Charlie and the rest of PSG to be involved in what I hope can be a collective effort to get things straightened out within the coalition by coming tonight. If you read between the lines of Lawrence's message to Ivan, you'll realize that I've been talking to Lawrence quite a bit about his proposal for an alternative to a confrontation/expulsion. In fact, I have asked him to come tonight to try to pursuade the people who are invited to the meeting that his is a better way to handle things. (DO NOT SHARE THIS INFO WITH ANYONE.) If you want to come, let me know and I'll give you the details. Thanks again for your message. I share your sense of fatigue and despair. Hopefully we can live long enough to get all this shit behind us and focus on opposing war.

In solidarity, Sid

From: Lawrence Boxall

Wed, 08 Oct 2003

Hi Derrick,

God, I was glad to hear from you at last. The last week feels like ten years to me. I have become privy to such a lot of confidential information from the the "labor bureaucrats, liberals and old-time radicals" that I am beginning to feel contaminated and needed the antidote of your email that I just received. So they've invited me to the "secret" meeting (fuck, talk about boy scouts) with the clear understanding that I am not part of their group but have the same ultimate aims of opposing war and supporting self determination and am there simply to present a proposal for reconciliation. So we shall see what happens.

I too have had to deal with a lot of financial and domestic issues and need to restore balance in my life and also to get some sleep. I need a 96-hour day.

So, if this really was supposed to be a secret meeting, then I have just blown it with my email to Ivan. Oh well, so I've opened the window to let some fresh air in. I hope I haven't blown my chances of being heard by the participants of the secret meeting.

Is there an outreach meeting tonight?

Regards,
Lawrence.

From: Jef Keighley
October 8, 2003

Dear Friends:

Further to our meeting last Wednesday and the banning/expulsion of the named parties, I had a good conversation with Charlie Demers on Friday, who in turn had been in lengthy conversation with Mordecai. Charlie put forward the proposition, which I think makes a lot of sense, that given the Outreach Committee's action aimed to completely usurp both the General Meeting plus the CC by printing the October 25th poster and arranging for speakers without any authority and/or consultation, we should consider the banning/expulsion as the first order of business on Wednesday rather than via notice of motion for 2 weeks further down the line and 2 week more damage. I think this makes a lot of sense. Why give those who are clearly acting to destroy what we have built more time to wreak havoc.

As a reminder to an earlier email, having heard of the unauthorized printing, Irene and I decided that it would be wise to call the printer and let them know that no further printing can be authorized unless specifically cleared by Irene on behalf of the CC, and to drive the point home, that if anything is printed without such authorization, we will not pay for it and the printer will be on the hook for the ink, paper and labour. I necessary quick response which we can discuss at Tuesday's meeting.

So as not to bog down our Tuesday meeting I will move that we do not act on Ivan's groundless allegations against Sid because 1) Ivan's version of events is by his own admission hazy, 2) he is not alleging he was harassed, 3) he has self appointed himself an advocate for speculative, unnamed persons, and 4) it's just plain bullshit anyway.

Haseena's initative to put a hold on the posters at Coop Books makes sense.

In Solidarity,

Jef Keighley

_____________________________________

The Expulsion of Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance:

On Tuesday, October 14, 2003, Ali Yerevani, member of Fire This Time and of the Coordinating Committee of StopWar.ca, sent the following email to those we are aware of being involved in the secret circle and the rest of the Coordinating Committee:

_____________________________________

To the members of the secret grouping in the Coordinating Committee:

Let me start by outlining exactly what we know about your current conspiring and plotting to have Fire This Time as well as individuals (and possibly Youth-3rd World Alliance) expelled or banned from Stopwar.ca.

We know that a meeting was held this past Wednesday, October 8th, at the exact same time as the scheduled Outreach Committee meeting.

We know that this meeting was carried out without the consent of either the Stopwar.ca general body or the coordinating committee. It was never discussed through the general membership that this meeting was to take place, and it was never announced to the general membership that this meeting was to take place. Instead, certain people involved in the coalition were invited to come, to the exclusion of the majority of the Stopwar.ca membership, specifically to deal with internal affairs of Stopwar.ca.

Therefore, this meeting was never sanctioned by the Stopwar.ca general membership. It was closed, selective, and exclusive, and therefore undemocratic. It was also intended to be secret.

We also know that decisions were made in the secret meeting on October 8th, including the drafting of a notice of motion regarding when, and how, to expel/ban Fire This Time, and/or individuals, and/or Youth-3rd World Alliance from Stopwar.ca, based on the charge of ‘disruption’.

We know that Lawrence came to the secret meeting with a proposal intended to avoid a split within Stopwar.ca, a proposal that he gave to us, and a proposal that we support. We know that this proposal was rejected by those who attended the secret meeting.

By all definitions, this was a meeting of a secret clique that is operating within Stopwar.ca, and due to the undemocratic, unauthorized, and unrecognized nature of the meeting, any decisions made within this unrecognized clique are invalid.

We know that since the secret clique’s meeting on October 8th, it has been decided that, rather than wait any longer, the secret clique wishes to try and expel Fire This Time and certain individuals at tomorrow’s Stopwar.ca general meeting. It is intended by this secret clique that this will be the first item on the agenda, and this secret clique hopes to have those expelled leave before carrying out the rest of the agenda for the meeting.

This is only the latest example of a smear campaign based on gossip and undemocratic decisions that has been waged against Fire This Time and Youth-3rd World Alliance at least since April. The secret clique waging this campaign, which is made up of the majority of the Stopwar.ca Coordinating Committee, but also includes a periphery with several prominent and not-so-prominent activists of the Vancouver left, has been discussing the need to drive Fire This Time (and possibly Youth-3rd World Alliance) out of Stopwar.ca for at least a month now.

This secret organizing has been going on for a while in Stopwar.ca and in the Coordinating Committee. Rather than discuss the political differences that exist between the various groups and individuals involved in the coalition, and rather than allowing for a majority and minority so that we can continue our work despite these differences, this clique has maneuvered to drive us out of the coalition and suppress our voice.

This, despite the fact that FTT and Y3WA are the most active groups working to build Stopwar.ca, and have been since the official US-led war on the people of Iraq began in March. Just recently, with the help of the newly-formed Student-Youth Committee, we have been able to organize over a dozen forums and events on different campuses throughout the lower mainland in the last month. The Student Week Against War, which was predominantly an initiative of Y3WA and FTT, was a highly successful initiative, and resulted in the establishment of a much-needed Student-Youth Committee (even though the majority of the secret clique did not accept the representative from the Student-Youth Committee against what was clearly established in the Stopwar.ca structure in February). This work on campus, initiated largely by FTT and Y3WA, was crucial for bringing out the large number of students and youth to the September 28th rally that made it such a success.

Despite an awareness that this secret clique was operating against us, we have tried to not be provoked by their attacks on us and on the political vision that we are trying to establish in order to build a broad-based, effective antiwar movement in the lower mainland that is part of an international movement against war and occupation. We have tried to be calm and disciplined, and have tried to convince Stopwar.ca about the best political line for the coalition without confusing people with other issues which are a distraction from building a broad and effective antiwar movement. We have done this knowing clearly that the secret clique has all along wanted to turn this coalition into a certain campaign with a specific agenda for certain political groups and parties rather than build an antiwar movement.

We have been committed to maintaining the organizational unity of Stopwar.ca and preventing a split, as a split would clearly not have a positive effect on the antiwar movement in Vancouver.

We have been committed to this despite all of the bureaucratic and undemocratic maneuverings by this secret clique against us; despite our voice not being recognized in the general meetings; despite attempts to shut us up; despite the character assassinations and personal attacks; despite the provocations by the chair in the October 1st general meeting; despite being cut off repeatedly by the chair and prevented from expressing our ideas and differences; and despite the provocations by supporters of the clique, who didn’t allow Shannon, the Coordinator of FTT, to finish her talk just before the meeting was shamelessly adjourned in the middle of discussion.

Despite the fact that we were against the bureaucratization of the coalition by implementing the one-organization-one-vote structure, we accepted the majority decision and abided by it, even though our members and supporters, which previously made up a narrow majority or minority when voting on major decisions, now have at most a half dozen votes.

All these maneuverings and manipulations that are outlined above are proof that this secret clique, with the help of some members of the Vancouver status-quo left, want to suppress the voice of dissent in Stopwar.ca.

These are some short excerpts of correspondence of the secret clique within the coordinating committee as well as its periphery, which outline the conspiracy to have us expelled or banned from Stopwar.ca. This is but a sample of the dozens and dozens of copies of correspondence between members of the secret clique that we currently have at our disposal:

“Further to our discussion last Wednesday and the banning/expulsion of the named parties, I had a good conversation with Charlie Demers on Friday, who in turn had been in a lengthy conversation with Mordecai. Charlie put forward the proposition, which I think makes a lot of sense, that given the Outreach Committee’s action aimed to completely usurp both the General Meeting plus the CC by printing the October 25th poster and arranging for speakers without any authority and/or consultation, we should consider the banning/expulsion as the first order of business on Wednesday rather than via notice of motion for 2 weeks further down the line and 2 week more damage... Haseena’s initiative to put a hold on the posters at Coop Books makes sense.” – Jef

“The idea of acting against FTT this Wednesday makes sense to me…There is every likelihood that if it is on the agenda, it will not be possible to deal with anything else, since we can expect them to go nuts…Perhaps a temporary adjournment after dealing with that issue, so we can make sure they’re out of the room?” – Sid

“There are a number of issues we need to iron out if we are to introduce a motion this week asking the general body to expel FTT and the individuals previously discussed, particularly if we want to make sure that it passes successfully with a minimum disruption and a minimum potential for a three way split… Assuming we have a meeting with Ali present today, could we caucus briefly (30-45 min) at the Brazilian Cafe (commercial and charles) after the Cc meeting to deal with the following issues.” – Haseena

“I have a 6:30 PM meeting in NewWest tomorrow and cannot make the cc meeting. Don’t have too much fun without me!!” – Mable

“How do we deal with Ali at the Tuesday steering committee? We could use it as an information gathering session to confirm how it was the Outreach Committee made the decisions to print the poster, the numbers printed, speakers, etc. Then use that information to hang him out to dry on Wednesday.” – Jef

“I think it is important that on Tuesday, as well as Wednesday, that we have a productive meeting. Not that it should be necessary, but if Ali were to be really confrontational I would suggest adjourning and taking our meeting elsewhere.” – Derrick

“I think that Jeff and Sid’s suggestion of dealing with the expulsion at the beginning of the meeting makes sense so that we can continue with the meeting after they have left…Do you think we will need some security in the parking lot, just in case? I’m not sure what to expect if they get mad about the expulsion.” – Therese

“Although I think you have valid concerns about it being divisive, I think this needs to be done. If we had it in place before, the so called “fact finding report” would not have been in circulation.” – Irene

“I fully appreciate your concern that the restructuring motion I will propose has the serious potential to have some groups such as Fire This Time/Youth 3rd World Alliance depart the coalition. I do not believe StopWar.ca is viable with their continued presence where each and every meeting is a forum to pontificate on their rigid and yet aimless rhetorical 'political theorizing'… I am of the view that if a split is necessary, and I think it is, then it should happen sooner rather than later, so that the rest of us can get on with doing the Peace and Anti-War movement we know is so desperately needed. I would rather be somewhat disrupted from our organizing September 28th than to paper over what I believe are irreconcilable differences for the sake of a transparently false 'unity' only to have to deal with the issue as we build towards the more important international date of October 25th… I am not in the habit of making idle threats and I am not doing that now. I intend to act.” – Jef

“ I know that we want the same thing in the short term…that is to say, we all want FTT gone with the coalition largely in tact…FTT has to go, I make no bones about that. I have worked with Ali before, and have found him to be a manipulative, unethical, hypocritical and destructive force. Ivan is a confused, arrogant, belligerent man-boy that can’t be counted on to make it through a half-hour period without a serious change of political direction (usually from above)… My feeling is that our side had won some substantial victories already that meeting; we undermined FTT’s attempts at making political hay of July 9, we had demonstrated an inter-generational, labour-CESAPI-radical united vote that had succeeded in marginalizing them.” – Charlie

All the correspondence that these samples were taken from has been categorized and put together into a document, and has also been put together as a media package for potential public knowledge. We would also add that virtually all of this correspondence quoted above was not circulated to the entire Coordinating Committee, but was only sent to select members of the secret clique to the exclusion of Ali.

With these types of attacks, these attempts to force a split in the coalition by driving out the most active and dissenting elements of Stopwar.ca, we regret that we are left with no alternative but to defend ourselves, and to defend the working class principles. If the secret clique does not change course and cease in its plotting to drive us out of Stopwar.ca, we will unfortunately be left with no choice but to go public with the actual detailed correspondence of the secret clique, with names, dates, and all particulars that clearly show the bureaucratization, maneuverings, character assassinations, and political manipulation of Stopwar.ca that are being concocted with the aim of diverting the coalition towards the politics of particular parties and groups. This will include a press conference on Wednesday with a prepared package for the media. Let’s allow the public to be the judge about the course of action and conduct of the secret clique in Stopwar.ca. Let’s not have just a vote of 17 to 5 or 15 to 7 tomorrow, but hundreds of thousands of votes by the masses, not only in Vancouver, not only in BC, but in Canada and beyond, about this fight between David and Goliath.

As mentioned above, all this could be avoided, and the unity of Stopwar.ca preserved, if the secret clique ceases its current trajectory that is sure to be a dead-end path of destruction in terms of building a broad, effective antiwar movement. We don’t think this split by way of expulsion or banning is necessary within the coalition, nor is it in favour of building an antiwar movement. We will await your decision until 12 midnight tonight before we go ahead with sending our press release calling for our press conference.

Our concrete demands, which will have to be met in order to avoid us having to go public, is that building and planning October 25th be the only item on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting. If this demand is not met, we demand that:

1. This issue of the secret clique’s conduct is on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting if a move to expel Fire This Time, Youth-3rd World Alliance, and/or individuals is on the agenda, and

2. Any move to expel Fire This Time, Youth-3rd World Alliance, and/or individuals be carried out with due process. This means that

A. The charges against said parties are articulated

B. An opportunity is given for those who have been charged to present a proper defense, including a notice of motion allowing those accused at least 2 weeks to prepare their defense, and

C. The final decision on any motion for expulsion is carried out by a democratic vote in a general meeting after proper discussion of the charges.
When thinking about your decision, you should ask yourselves: do you really want two Stopwar.ca’s in the Lower Mainland? If this happens, have you thought about whether or not Stopwar.ca is a registered name?

Please contact me with your decision in writing by midnight tonight to aliyervani@______ before we send out the press release. I can also be reached on my cellular phone at (604) ___-____.

Salaam,

Ali
Coordinating Committee Member, Stopwar.ca

Outreach Committee representative

Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice

_____________________________________

Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance are StopWar.ca:

Counter-democratic maneuvering, malicious attempts at character assassination and corrupt secret meetings based on the unprincipled unity of opportunism, with each party prioritizing their own interests are all characteristics of the secret circle of StopWar.ca.

The primary notion in the points of agreement of StopWar.ca, upon which all other points are based and dependent, is the drive to build the broadest anti-war coalition possible. The actions of the secret circle fly against this point of agreement and against all notions of democracy and inclusion that the anti-war movement as a whole is based on.

All of this may be excusable if the secret circle were trying to break a truly destructive force from the coalition. However, even if it were the case that there was a grouping in the coalition that was set on destroying the anti-war movement, it would be the responsibility of StopWar.ca as a whole to chase this tendency out of the coalition through collective discussion, decision making and action.

Far from being hostile to the anti-war movement, the groups that have been confronted with these double standards, this manipulation of structure and process, and that have been the subject of these secret purging meetings are the same groups that have organized and carried out more than twenty educational events against war and occupation in the past month. Fire This Time puts out a monthly newspaper that focusses consistently against occupation and on building an effective anti-war movement and distributes 8,000 issues a month for free throughout the Lower Mainland. Youth Third World Alliance works tirelessly to organize anti-war groups on College, University and High School campuses throughout the Lower Mainland. Both groups spend hundreds of hours a week collectively leafleting, postering and tabling against war and occupation.

The greatest irony is that while the secret circle was meeting discussing strategies to purge Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance from StopWar.ca for ‘being disruptive’, the members of these groups were at a StopWar.ca outreach meeting discussing strategies to build StopWar.ca and the October 25 day of action.

Fire This Time and Youth Third World Alliance have prepared for these actions against us. These attacks have been broadcasted by the consistent undemocratic treatment of us in meetings since the bombing of Iraq began and through the rumor mills of those peripheral to the secret circle. When the secret circle attempts to expel us, they will find that this is impossible. We are committed to organizing against war and occupation and will not accept the limitations imposed on us by people and organizations with hidden agendas. Also, we have registered the name of StopWar.ca as a society under the names of members of Fire This Time. We cannot be expelled from StopWar.ca; not politically, not structurally and not legally.

The corruption of part of the left has helped Gordon Campbell’s ascension to power and has allowed the continued devastation that poor and working people are facing the world over. In order to oppose imperialist war, occupation and devastation, we must first construct the tools with which to fight.

In Solidarity with the struggling people of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan;

StopWar.ca

Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice

Youth-Third World Alliance

Contact:

Shannon Bundock
604-340-9670