The Stage

Equity election anxiety

Published Monday 10 October 2005 at 18:35

Following Roy Radford’s letter ‘Rule destroys democracy’ (Opinion, September 29, page 8), regarding red tape within Equity and forthcoming general secretary elections, I feel compelled to write.

As founder and chair of the Three Counties General Equity branch, I received an email from south east area organiser John Ainslie on September 12, asking general branches to consider organising “election meetings”. Our remit was that “all candidates must be invited to either attend or to send a representative and all candidates must be given an equal time to address the meeting and to answer questions. No vote for or against any of the candidates may be taken at such a meeting”.

At our next committee meeting on September 20, we discussed the request and remit. As a committee we meet every two weeks and as branch we meet every month, alternately in St Albans and Milton Keynes. This means we have little continuity of attendance so we voted to ask the three candidates to attend our first birthday party branch meeting on September 29, to introduce themselves, to mix, mingle and meet our members in the bar, having a drink and answering questions.

The next day, September 21, guest speaker coordinator David Girt phoned all three candidates and invited them to attend our branch meeting under the terms voted upon at our committee meeting. One of them was unable to attend but requested that we distribute leaflets. Another said yes. The third said they would get back to David, and we still await that call. I duly wrote and distributed to all 227 branch members our monthly newsletter informing them of the agenda and announcing that all three candidates had been invited.

On September 28 I received a message from John Ainslie saying he had decided the candidates were not to attend our meeting the next day and the current general secretary had decided leaflets couldn’t be distributed in their absence. The reasons given were that we were not being fair as not all three candidates could attend, we weren’t allowing them to perform their speeches, and weren’t allowing a question and answer session.

The candidate who couldn’t attend phoned me on September 29 to express their dismay at not being allowed to give the branch publicity leaflets to distribute. They were not at all concerned that the meeting would have gone ahead with only the two other candidates in attendance. Their only concern was that members did vote, and that whoever won didn’t win with a small majority due to apathy within the membership.

I then phoned and spoke with both John Ainslie and Ian McGarry, neither of whom could understand the main issue - that they were preventing members from meeting the candidates they were being asked to vote for, and that members are far more likely to vote if they meet candidates or receive literature in an intimate surrounding. I ended up rowing with both Ian and John as they wouldn’t see good common sense through the mud of bureaucracy.

I am passionate about my career and a passionate believer in Equity. My view is that the most important thing is to get members out of their armchairs and involved and to get Equity HQ meeting the members whom they represent. What better way to do this than inviting candidates to a party, rather than an election meeting? Knowing from personal experience the difficulties of putting bums on seats at Equity meetings and the high level of apathy among members, I am quite sure had we scheduled an additional ‘election meeting’ the only people in attendance would have been the Three Counties branch committee, John Ainslie and the candidates.

Wake up Equity council. Your Red Tape turns people away from the union. Actors aren’t interested in Public Liability Insurance. I’ve never needed PLI for any job I’ve ever done. While you continue to offer these things as reasons to join Equity and continue to run the union by red tape, you will continue to attract members who are interested in cheap incentives and aren’t passionate about both their art and their union.

Sarah Bowron

Via Email