I know I shouldn’t...."From: Owen Jones To: socialistyouth@lists.riseup.netCc: XXX and XX
: Tuesday, 29 January, 2008 2:08:59 PMSubject: [socialistyouth] Resignation Comrades,I'm writing to you to let you know I'm resigning as Co-Chair.Recently I betrayed the trust of SYN's other Co-Chair, XXX. This has caused an irreversible personal breach which I don't think is going to be healed.
To quickly explain: Both of us were preparing for the upcoming public meeting on Islamophobia. Originally we were going to invite a speaker from the Muslim Council of Britain, possibly to be balanced by the AWL's speaker suggestion. X had objections to this because of the MCB's stance on LGBT issues and therefore I agreed with her objections and disinvited her. Bob Pitt of Islamophobia Watch then made it clear he was going to decline to speak. X and I subsequently debated the original decision to invite the MCB and X once again made clear her entirely legitimate objections and strongly opposed an invite.
In a moment of total but unfortunately unforgivable stupidity,I forwarded our debate to Bob Pitt on the basis that I didn't have answers to her objections and therefore requested a response from him to them on the MCB's positions on LGBT issues.This was a total betrayal of X confidence on my part and as a result she no longer feels able to continue working alongside me.
Understandably she feels both hurt and betrayed. Given I caused this problem, it is my responsibility to resign from the organisation.This is very sad for a number of reasons. X has been my closest comrade for over a year and a half. We've worked together extremely on numerous issues and campaigns. I'm very sorry that I've ended our close political partnership and indeed our friendship.I also want to say that it's been a genuine pleasure. I've got to know some great comrades through SYN. I think the future of SYN is starting to look very bright.
From now on, I've got no doubt that SYN will be an activist-orientated organisation with a number of public meetings,campaigns and protests coming up. Comrades have come up with some great ideas about how to take the organisation forward. I think there are a number of really talented comrades who want to be involved and make SYN a massive success.
It's up to SYN members who they have as their replacement at the upcoming Conference. However, I want to suggest XX as an excellent candidate. I think that he's an activist who has the support and respect of everyone in SYN, who operates in a non-sectarian fashion and would take the organisation forward as it expands and develops. I hope comrades will give that some thought.I know there are some of you who will be very glad to see me go but,regardless of whatever political differences, it's been a privilege to work with many of you and I wish you all the best. I hope to stay in touch with many of you in the months ahead.Finally, I'm sorry to have let both X and all of you down. In solidarity,Owen
