International Socialist Resistance (ISR), England and Wales, national meeting Saturday 6th July 2002.

Over 40 young people from across England and Wales attended the national ISR meeting on 6th July in London.
People from London, Kent, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bradford, Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton, Manchester, Merseyside, and many other towns and cities attended the meeting.

The first national meeting was held in the beginning of the year, and it was agreed that we should try and have a national meeting around every three months in the run up to the national conference, which is due to be held at the end of the year.

How to get organised and fight against racism

The meeting started with a discussion on anti-racism - how to organise against racism and groups such as the BNP (British National Party) who won three councillors in Burnley, Lancashire earlier this year.

There was a really good discussion, with ISR members speaking about their own experience in organising campaigns against groups such as the BNP. There was also discussion on the recent rise in votes for other far-right candidates in elections across Europe, such as Le Pen in France, and how we need to continue to build local campaigns across Britain and internationally and get as many young people organised together and involved in anti-racist campaigns around issues that all young people have in common, such as jobs, homes, free education and services. It was also discussed about the importance of the anti-capitalist movement being involved in the anti-racist campaigns that are being built internationally. The anti-capitalist movement has a lot to add to fighting racism and the quote by Malcolm X; 'you can't have capitalism without racism' is as true today as it has ever been.

Building ISR

The second part of the meeting was on building ISR in local areas, the meeting separated into four groups, so there was a chance for everyone to speak. Many good points came out the groups including reports from ISR groups work. The campaign against war and with that the arms trade has been getting a lot of support across the country, and with Bush talking of possible attacks on Iraq, this issue will not go away and demonstrations, leafleting etc need to be organised against war and the arms trade.
In Leeds, Yorkshire, a protest outside Gap against low pay and exploitation was really good, and it showed how these protests are important to ensure as many people know about ISR in local areas as possible. The need to properly advertise for meetings through leafleting etc was raised and the importance of our campaign against low pay, particularly over the summer, where many young students are being forced into low paid, part time unsafe work - and under 18 year olds, being exempt from any minimum wage will be receiving even lower pay and therefore being more exploited. Also, our international campaign against the commercialisation and privatisation of education is still really important, even though it is now the summer holidays for the next couple of months.

This week, the New-Labour government has announced they are likely to raise the current level of tuition fees in universities, scrap low interest rate student loans and allow the top universities to charge top-up fees for their courses. These continued attacks on higher education are also coinciding with attacks on education at all levels across Britain, but also internationally. It was also raised about the importance of finance, and that we need to raise more through members and Trade Union affiliation.

Future national and international dates of meetings and action

ISR national meeting
It was agreed we would have our next national co-ordinating meeting on Saturday 31st August, before the new term starts (See main page fopr date and time info)

National day of action against the commercialisation and privatisation of education.
On 9th October, we agreed to hold a national day of action against the privatisation and commercialisation of education, and that strikes, protests and occupations could be organised in schools, colleges and universities.

European Social Forum
We agreed to send people to the coming European Social Forum (ESF) event being help from 7th-10th November in Florence, Italy. It was agreed at the World Social Forum, earlier this year, where over 100,000 people participated in the meetings / discussions etc that there should be an ESF set up. The ESF is estimated to be as big as the World Social Forum, and there will be ISR members from across Europe taking part in the meetings, giving out leaflets, talking to people etc. We'll keep everyone informed of travel, accommodation arrangements etc when we get the information.

ISR national conference
On Saturday 24th November we agreed to hold the 1st ISR national conference for England and Wales. This conference would formally set up ISR, and allow ISR members to discus main campaigns of ISR and elect a structure for ISR to ensure it is a democratic organisation. So far this year, we have elected a national co-ordinating committee at each national meeting, which has a few representatives of ISR from most areas, who are responsible for passing national and international events etc, proposals on finance, actions etc that may come up to the ISR members in their areas. This conference was agreed to be held in London.

ISR co-ordinating committee
The following ISR members were elected to be part of the ISR co-ordinating committee - not every area is represented, mainly due to names not being given to go on before or during Saturday's meeting. Any other names to go on please get in touch with ISR on the above details.

Richard Mawson - East Midlands (Nottingham, Leicester, etc.)

Manny Dominguez & Amrita Huggins - Yorkshire

Mara Hill & Andrew McWhirter - Southern (Southampton, Oxford etc)

Michael Calderbank & Ben Cleworth - Manchester / Lancashire

Alex Gounelas, Matthew Dobson & Sarah Mayo - Wales

Michael Brierley - Merseyside

Paul Hunt & Max Toynbee - West Midlands (Coventry, Wolverhampton, Birmingham etc)

Chaminda Jayanetti, Vasseem Khan, Sarah Sachs-Eldridge
& Chris Rudd - London

If you would like to attend any of the above events / have any ideas on them or any of the campaigns ISR is building / want to raise any other points / want to help build ISR etc, please get in touch.

Thanks,
Clare James - on behalf of ISR England and Wales.