Agenda for next meeting and Motions for DM

Tuesday, 19 November, 7.30pm sharp
Red Roaster Cafe, St James Street, Brighton
Non-members welcome from 8.15pm

The next meeting will also consider motions for the NUJ Delegates Meeting.

Full agenda

1. Election of new members
2. Reports
3. Motions for DM (see below)
4. Any other branch business
5. Speaker: Dave Boyle
6. Questions and discussion

Will members please ensure they are at the Red Roaster by 7.30pm prompt.

Brighton & Mid-Sussex NUJ

Motions received for 2014 Delegates Meeting

Comments please to philmellows@btinternet.com

New membership category
This DM notes that:

• The proliferation of digital media has drawn many 'non-journalists' into journalistic work
• Many people performing journalistic work are not strictly eligible for NUJ membership, not only making them vulnerable to exploitation through, for instance, unpaid work, but also putting them outside the ethical framework the NUJ can provide through the Code of Conduct

This DM instructs the NEC to explore the potential and practicalities of a new membership category that will enable the recruitment of people who do journalistic work but do not see the relevance of the NUJ to themselves or may not be eligible to join.

Membership applications
This DM notes the complicated and confusing structure of the online application process to join the NUJ that may inhibit recruitment.

This DM instructs the NEC to sort it out please.

Press regulation
This DM notes

• The ongoing debate on press regulation and the fundamental disagreements between industry representatives, politicians, and special interest groups 
• The need for journalists - not editors or owners - to express a clear and representative view on regulation 
• The changing situation since the union's submissions to the Leveson Enquiry

This DM instructs the NEC to review the union's position and organise a union-wide ballot to vote for or against a system of independent press regulation underpinned by statute, thereby establishing a unified policy expressed by the whole membership.

War on austerity
This DM welcomes a motion carried by the TUC at its conference last September calling for mass joint strikes and peaceful civil disobedience across the country to “wage war on the politics of austerity”.

This DM notes:

• 13 million living in poverty, up by a million since the British government coalition came to power.
• 1.8 million families on housing waiting lists.
• half a million people now reliant on food banks.
• one million workers languishing on zero hour contracts.
• 2.5 million unemployed and 6.8 million more looking for more work.

This DM congratulates the TUC Congress for supporting unions taking co-ordinating action, including strikes, as the most effective way to break the cycle of pay restraint and cuts in jobs and services.

This DM agrees that an anti-austerity campaign should include mass industrial action, including a general strike, to oppose the cuts and the wrecking of the welfare state as well as a nationwide march against poverty in 2014.

This DM believes instead of proposing spending millions on war on Syria the money should be spent on waging war on food banks, putting people back to work, improving education and providing dignity for our elderly, not debt and despair.

This DM instructs the NEC to:

1. Campaign among the membership to support co-ordinated strikes with other unions against austerity cuts, pay and job losses in the media.
2. Campaign within the TUC for unions to name the day for co-ordinated strikes as soon as possible.

The Branch is also seeking nominations for the following posts

• NEC
• Ethics Council
• Photographers Council
• Industrial Councils - Broadcasting, Freelance, Magazine & Book, New Media, Newspapers & Agencies, PR & Information.