The BNP's forthcoming EGM's Agenda !

Here it is folks...


Dear Colleague

As discussed in the last British Nationalist bulletin, the full text of the proposed changes to the party Constitution have now been published in full on the BNP website. These have been posted prominently on the Featured Articles section, which means that they will stay there in full view from now until the meeting. They are also being sent to you now at the bottom of this email, so that you can study them for yourself and pass them on to others.They will also be on display at the RWB itself.

The full current Constitution is also online (linked in the article itself) so that you and your members can compare the two and see the changes in full context.

Predictably, all the usual suspects - Lancaster UAF, the false flag 'nationalist' blogs run by Searchlight, the neo-Nazi cranks and various air-headed Tory types - are working themselves into hysteria about these changes, which they portray - in typical contradictory terms - as either 'dictatorial' or 'weak'. But rather than merely deciding to vote FOR anything that their unholy anti-BNP alliance opposes, you are asked to take a few minutes to study the proposals for yourself.

As you will see, the biggest change proposed by the four motions is related to future leadership elections. These proposals arose partly as a result of concern by very large numbers of local officials who were sick and tired of having to reassure good-hearted but less experienced activists that the Internet and media chatter about such things creating a 'crisis' for our party on an annual basis were wholly unfounded. At the same time as proposing to move forward to elections for four-year, fixed term leadership (starting with a compulsory leadership election next year), however, the proposals also fill the gap in the old Constitution, which leaves the arrangements for such contests purely at the discretion of the leader at the time.

The new proposals for the mechanics of leadership elections, and the shifting of the date to the Autumn so as to get them well away from the usual May/June election dates, were worked out after extensive debate by a Constitutional revision working party appointed by the Advisory Council earlier this year. It is hoped that the proposed commitment to a clearly fair and democratic debate will not only be appreciated by our members but will also reinforce the party's democratic credentials to a wider audience.

In addition, since the shift to a four-year term could be seen as handing more power to the leader (though, with only two leadership contests in the party's 26-year history so far, some may think that to claim so is to ignore reality), there is also an extremely important move to hand to the Annual Conference the power by a two-third majority vote in effect to pass a vote of 'No Confidence' in the leader and trigger a leadership contest in any year. It is hoped that this combination will both deny our opponents the opportunity to encourage and exploit rumours of annual contests by manipulated 'no-hope' candidates, and at the same time provide an important safeguard to prevent any leader, present or future, from trying to move beyond anything approved of by the majority of the Voting Members - the local officials and key activists who really make the party tick.

The Voting Membership's power over major policy changes will also be enshrined in the new Constitution if the motion is approved. This is not only what has already been agreed as the right way forward, but it would also put an end to the endless black propaganda tales that the leadership are planning to let in black members or similar nonsense.

The other particularly important change (several of them are minor, tidying up points) would be to allow future Constitutional amendments to be voted on by postal ballot. The Constitutional working party proposed this in order to deal with the potential problem that, when the Constitution was first written by John Tyndall in 1982, the entire membership could be fitted into a large number of meeting places. Since then, fortunately, a ten-fold membership growth means that, to get even a quarter of our membership into a meeting hall would be possible in so few venues that, quite apart from the huge cost involved, we would be extraordinarily unlikely to be able to find a venue willing to have us or to withstand the inevitable pressure from the far-left.

This is why it was decided by the Advisory Council that the end of the RWB was the only time and place practical for the holding of such a debate and series of votes, and why our working party decided to propose to include the option of postal ballots in future.

Not surprisingly, the usual little cliques of malcontents are all hoping that a natural desire to go home at the end of a busy weekend will leave the meeting short on officials and members with a mature attitude to serious organisation, and long on individuals who for one reason or another will be there to cause trouble or push their own personal agendas, rather than doing what is best for the party. We are not asking that you come along with your minds already made up, still less that you think in terms of voting in favour of the proposals automatically just because they are being proposed by the most successful leadership in the history of British nationalism. But we are asking that you make the effort to be there, to listen to the debate and to vote for what you genuinely think is best for the BNP - regardless of which way you judge that to be. And we ask that you also mobilise your local members to do the same.

Let's us this opportunity not only to further strengthen the foundations on which the British National Party is based, but also as a way to boost even further the attendance at this year's Red-White-and-Blue. No doubt you are already aware that the Labour council and the far-left's brave cyber-warriors and lock-supergluers are almost hysterical in their efforts to stop it going ahead, or at least to put people off and cut down our numbers and our fun. They know that the BNP is on a roll and they are desperate to inflict some kind of 'defeat' on us before the gathering economic crisis brings the time of explosive growth that puts us way beyond their league forever. So please come along, preferably on Friday 15th so that there are so many of us and our families there that it will be their morale that, yet again, takes a battering. See you there!


GENERAL MEMBERS' MEETING
Sunday 17th August 2008, 3.30 pm.
Political Marquee, Red-White-and-Blue Field. Codnor, Derbyshire.
Entry: Paid up current BNP members only. No charge. Current membershp card must be shown to gain entry.


Motion 1
Advisory Council

S.5.1. Replace “the organisers of the party's four strongest regions” with “all Regional Organisers”.

S.5.2. replace “three times a year” with “four times a year”


Motion 2
Leadership Elections

The whole of the existing Section 4 should be replaced with:

S.4.1. Elections for the post of National Chairman shall be held every four years, starting in 2009. Nominations shall open on 20th July in each leadership election year and close at noon on 10th August. The election shall be held on a 'one member, one vote' basis in a secret postal ballot of all members paid up by 1st of July.

S.4.2. Any member of the party may become a candidate for the post of National Chairman of the party provided that person has on or before the close of nominations is and has been a fully paid up member of the party for a minimum of five consecutive years, and has secured the signatures on his or her nomination paper of ten current Voting Members and one hundred members each with a minimum of 24 months continuous membership. Each member can only nominate one candidate.

S.4.3. Notification of a leadership election shall be issued in the September issue of British Nationalist, while the October issue will include an A4 manifesto sheet from each candidate (designed and supplied by them) and a ballot paper, and will be sent by post to all members, including those who normally receive their bulletins electronically.

S.4.4. A prerecorded debate between the candidates shall be publicised on BNPtv, a private page on the BNP website will give each candidate up to six sides of A4 designed by them, the party magazine shall give each candidate equal space to set out their ideas, and at least three hustings meetings will be held with equal time for each candidate in different parts of the country and be open to all paid up members from the areas in question. In the event that unavoidable external circumstances render any of these methods of communication impractical they may be omitted or replaced as decided by a simple majority vote of a special meeting of the Advisory Council.

S.4.5. The ballot papers shall be kept unopen-ed until the post has arrived on the third Thursday of October, where all received ballots shall be opened and counted under the supervision of two senior officials appointed by the AC who are not candidates, together with the candidates and up to two scrutineers each.

S.4.6. The election shall take place on a first past the post basis.

S.4.7. In any election year in which no nominations for the post of National Chairman of the party are received in accordance with Sub-section 2 of this Section, the currently serving holder of the post will be deemed to have received a mandate from the party to hold it for a further full term. In any election year where a leadership challenge is entered the currently serving National Chairman shall be deemed to be nominated automatically should he wish to stand again.

S.4.8. In event of a General Election being called before the ballot papers have been posted, the campaign may be suspended at the discretion of simple majority vote of the AC, resuming the schedule immediately after polling day.

S.4.9. If an outgoing National Chairman is a paid employee of the party and either does not wish to remain as such or is not required as such by the new incumbent, he shall receive severance pay in line with the statutory requirement, plus one month for each year served up to a total of eight years, and one week extra for each year thereafter.

S.4.10. The successful candidate in any such election will be considered as occupying the office of National Chairman immediately on completion of the counting of votes in that election.

Please note that the following proposed alterations are so closely connected to the changes proposed for S.4 that it is necessary to take them together with it as one composite motion 1.

S.5.6. The only other power of the Advisory Council shall be that it may call a General Members' Meeting by a two-thirds majority of Advisory Council members voting in a properly convened meeting with a quorum of two-thirds, even if this is opposed by the National Chairman. Alternatively the National Chairman may call such a meeting or postal ballot at any time he deems it necessary. Should such a meeting or ballot be called, it must be held within 40 days, and the matter which led to it being called shall be put to the members to decide. If a two-thirds majority of those voting should vote against the National Chairman then he is bound to accept that decision or to resign from the leadership, triggering a leadership election in which he may stand if he so wishes.

S.5.7. The National Chairman may also be held to account by a motion proposed and supported in writing by twenty Voting Members and submitted to the party's registered headquarters address not later than 14 days before the date of the Annual Conference. This motion shall then be debated and voted upon by all Voting Members at the conference and, if passed by a minimum two-thirds majority, a leadership election shall be triggered, using the procedures and time-scale laid out in this Constitution, but with the schedule starting from 14 days after the date of the Annual Conference. The previous National Chairman may stand in this election is he so wishes.

S.5.10. A member of the Advisory Council shall not be removed from the Advisory Council on the day of an Advisory Council meeting.
General Members' Meetings & Ballots

S.13.2. In the event of the National Chairman or the Advisory Council calling a General Members' Meeting, at least 14 days' notice must be given to all members by post with notification of the proposed motions. All members of the party shall have the right to attend and vote, subject to the provisions of Section 2, Sub-section 6 of this Constitution.

S.13.3. remove “not later than 28 days before the scheduled date of the meeting” and replace “National Chairman” with “Chairman of the meeting.”


Motion 3
Postal ballot option

S.13.5. General Members' Meetings may only be called by the National Chairman or by the Advisory Council in accordance with Section 5 of this Constitution. All matters which may be decided by a General Members' Meeting may also be put to the membership by postal ballot. The motions for such a postal ballot are to be decided by a two thirds majority of the Advisory Council or by the National Chairman and are to be sent out in the first available British Nationalist together with a ballot paper for each paid up member, who should have a minimum of 14 days in which to return the ballot paper. The opening and counting of the ballots is to be witnessed by the proposers and a minimum of two national officers, with all members of the Advisory Council entitled to attend should they so wish.


Motion 4
Determination of Core Policies by Voting Members
(Note: This is part of a rolling programme intended to transfer additional key powers to the Voting Membership, and further changes in that regard are expected in the future as the institution itself develops)

Remove Section 3.1.d.

S.13.4. Add Section 14 to list of protected Sections in S.13.4. and remove reference to ghost ss.6.

S.14.2. Change method of notification of any changes to the Constitution to “or publication on the party's official website.”

Add S.14.3. No proposals to change any part of Section 1 of this Constitution, or to change or adopt any major policy, are to be proposed to either a General Members' Meeting or in a postal ballot until previously passed by the Annual Conference of Voting Members.