Chair's AGM Report

The reconvened CfS AGM was held on Saturday 25th March. After the procedural difficulties of the first part of the AGM, the previous Executive was tasked with redrafting the constitution and standing orders to allow for a clearer process and impaired gender balance in the Executive. The first act of the AGM was to pass these changes, and allow for the meeting and organisation to progress under the new rules. They are now on the website HERE. 

There was an agreement that an EGM would be called within 6 months to allow members an opportunity to amend the constitution and standing orders, and make changes for the following year. Setting a date for this will be tasked to the new Executive.

Speeches and elections for the new Executive then took place. We would like to thank everyone who took part. The new Executive Committee is as follows: 

Convenor: Neil Findlay MSP
Chair: Martyn Cook
Vice Chair: Lesley Brennan
Secretary: Sean Duffy
Treasurer: Linda Clarke
Women's Officer: Maureen Sharkey
Ordinary Members: Nathaniel Blondel, Mike Cowley, Agenda Feeney, Lisa Hughes, Stephen Low, Siobhan McCready

The women’s caucus then elected Maureen Sharkey as the Women’s Officer. The report back also highlighted that there will be a day away planned for the 6th-8th October. More information will follow about this in due course. We would also like to thank Hazel Nolan who provided the ambassador’s talk while the women’s caucus met. 

When it came to the debate on Momentum and CfS’s relationship with it, two motions were passed. The first of these reaffirmed that CfS would be the organisation that coordinates and mobilises the Labour left in Scotland. We will be a sister organisation to Momentum, but maintain our joint membership scheme (meaning CfS members can take part in Momentum elections and vice versa) and also voting to accept the reserved seat on Momentum’s new National Coordinating Group. We will circulate details on the vote for this reserved position shortly. 

The second motion passed was submitted by Edinburgh Momentum. It was in effect a unity motion. As CfS is a separate organisation form Momentum, we are in a position to work with both sides of the recent dispute in Momentum. The motion allows the new Executive to attend meetings of both groups and to try and foster unity.

This meeting allows us to move forward as an organisation, and I would like to thank everyone who attended and made it a success. The new Executive will be meeting shortly, so we will welcome any contributions or suggestions for the agenda, and notice of this will be circulate din the next week or so. Priorities for the Executive will include starting to build forums to engage our membership, as well as looking at campaigns for the coming year. 

There is much work to do.

In solidarity,

Martyn Cook
Chair, Campaign for Socialism