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