The Stage

Members’ political freedom upheld by Equity

Published Tuesday 29 May 2007 at 14:20 by Alistair Smith

Proposals to change rules so members of the British National Party could be expelled from the union have been rejected.

The ARC voted to remove clauses in a motion put forward by the union’s Minority Ethnic Members’ Committee, which sought to delete Equity rule 3B(p), acknowledging “the right of individual members to hold and express their personal political and other beliefs both in their private and personal categories.”

If passed unaltered, the motion would have given the union the power to expel members who “encouraged, or participated in the activities of, any organisation whose policies and aims, either expressly or by implication, promote racial hatred or the supremacy of a particular racial group or groups over others.”

The proposal was made in response to events earlier this year when English National Ballet principal and Equity deputy Simone Clarke was exposed as being a member of the BNP. At the time, Equity offered the performer support in response to mass protests outside the London Coliseum, where she was performing, and said that if she was treated unfairly by her employers it would offer to represent her.

Speaking at the conference, Roxanne Clinch, from the union’s Minority Ethnic Members’ Committee, claimed that rule 3B(p) ought to be deleted. She said: “We object to the fact that a rule within our own rule book could have required the union to defend at a tribunal a member’s right to belong to a far right racist organisation… the rule should be bloody deleted.”

Vice-president Jean Rogers warned that the removal of the rule would be a “disaster to democracy and civil liberties.”

She added: “The rule protects all members from the sinister shadow of the thought police and protects the rights for us all to have the freedom to be ourselves.”

An amended version of the motion was passed which decided to put to referendum the suggestion that two new clauses be entered into the Equity rule book, saying that the union would “promote equality” and “oppose actively all forms of harassment, prejudice and unfair discrimination.” Rule 3B(p) will remain, unaltered.