Your back's against the wall.

[alexsarll]

Isn't this weather splendid? I donned my mask a few streets before reaching The Beautiful & Damned last night, just to match the mood of the night even more to a horror silent. Although - they never mention in the comics how much a mask feels odd, restricts your vision, heats up your face. As against cloaks which, for all the jibes against them in The Incredibles and Watchmen, I've always found remarkably easy to wear.

Anyway, I hadn't been planning to go online today, but as it turned out I needed to send this:

To whom it may concern,

I wish to leave the National Union of Journalists. I am unfamiliar with the procedures for this, and understand there may be a notice period involved; if so, please start it immediately.

For some time I have felt uneasy at the Union's stance on a number of issues. Each time I read The Journalist, or see coverage of the NUJ elsewhere, I see laudable work within the NUJ's remit of protecting the nation's journalists, encouraging unbiased reporting and fighting for decent pay and conditions. But I also see far too much international politics. Even if I agreed with the stances being taken, I would consider this mission creep to be deeply dubious. But I do not agree. I see the NUJ supporting Venzuelan demagogue Hugo Chavez and his government's smears against NUJ member Phil Gunson. I read endless pieces attacking Israel and any restrictions it places on reporters, while overlooking the far greater censorship practiced by Israel's regional enemies. I see a tendency to take the side of Islamists against our democratically-elected government, all in the supposed name of 'liberal' ideas. In summary, I see another symptom of the deep confusion of the British Left, which apparently still believes that 'my enemy's enemy is my friend', and that 'my enemy' is by definition the United States of America.

Having felt this way for some time, I had told myself I would give The Journalist one more chance to allay my fears. Yesterday, the January/February issue arrived, and what did it contain? Objections from Phil Gunson and The Economist over the NUJ's stance on Venezuela, but no response to these. A double page spread on the wonders of the niqab. Utterly spurious arguments as to why CND affiliation has anything to do with the business of the NUJ (yes, you printed counter-arguments too - and coherent ones, but the preference of the article and the NUJ still seemed clear). A large article on US funding of Reporters Sans Frontieres, alongside a much smaller sidebar about the censorship practiced in Castro's Cuba. And finally, a piece convoluted even by the increasingly ludicrous standards of 9/11 conspiracy theorists, arguing that suicide bombers do not exist but that if we continue to report that they do, this will bring them into being and we'll only have ourselves to blame!

If there were any real chance of the NUJ winning recognition at [my employer], then there would at least be some conflict between honour and self-interest. As is, I no longer wish to be a member of an organisation which is losing sight of its core mission and gaining some disgusting bedfellows in the process.

Yours,
Alex Sarll
(Ex-)Member number XXXXXXX

Comments

[fivelongdays.livejournal.com]

Well said.

As an NUJ member and activist (Secretary of the Yellow Advertiser's Chapel), it baffles me that the Union spends far too much of its time trying to be important, rather than fighting for better pay for us Hacks. Were it not for my pay being so utterly pisspoor, and the fact that we'll be getting sold off next year, I'd have left myself.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

It's good to know there's still some sanity within the union; well done to those of you with a proper investment who are staying and fighting. For myself, I figured, better to cut my losses, both moral and financial.

[pippaalice.livejournal.com]

Does that mean that card I have is a collector's item now? *puts it on eBay*

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

You kiss-and-tell git! ;p

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, you ruined my game of "guess Livejournaller from first few lines"! I had you as froupster for a good microsecond. (And if you haven't met, you should, blatantly.)

Well done on your letter, I do fail to see how journalism and politics should mix. Being a scummy working class kid (by which I actually mean that too many drinks preclude making a coherent argument, coherently) surely journalism means the simple act of recording the news, not necessarily judging it?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes, we have - last night, in fact; though we'd both been in the same place on previous occasions, this was where we finally confirmed who each other were.

And thank you. And yes, to an extent; while I think an individual journalist can certainly have an agenda, the umbrella union should be neutral.

[freddster.livejournal.com]

Indeed we did finally meet *properly* behind masks! Mine was very comfortable and I wore it all the way from Anna's house to the Boogaloo. Well, it *was* very comfortable until the elastic broke and I re-tied it too tight, thus my left ear is still numb.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I was amazed in the morning by the realisation that the mask edges I'd customised were more even than the ones with which it was manufactured. One would almost think mask maufacturers weren't planning on regular use by adults!

[missfrost.livejournal.com]

Oh good, I love Suzi.

It's very difficult, to me, being raised as a socialist and being taught that the unions are ALL POWER to find that you disagree with them sometimes. Obviously you'll never agree with any party or union 100%, but you have to balance it, somehow. Actually my love for Ken is from him doing some protest walk near us when I was a kid, and my dad praising Ken to the heavens (this must have been 75/76) and it's very difficult sometimes to separate person from politics.

See you on your birthday!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I loved Ken for a long time, he's just made one bad call too many of late.

The not-agreeing-100% thing is very hard for me; it's why I could probably never be a member of any political party. Or, as it now turns out, union.

[darkmarcpi.livejournal.com]

As is, I no longer wish to be a member of an organisation which is losing sight of its core mission

This was pretty much the reason the Executive Committee of my Students Union that I was on took the decision to disaffiliate from the NUS.

Unions are their to represent the interests of their members, not force political stances upon them - even if that stance is in itself an honourable one.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the NUS, or the training scheme for wannabe Labour MPs as it was rapidly becoming.
Given the discounts, there was at least some benefit there, so I mainly just voted for absolutely anyone who stood against Labour students.

[dignam.livejournal.com]

Bravo. Of course I had no idea about any of this before just now, but I think both your politics and your ethics are quite on point, and I hope that letter has its intended effect, because it's been truly aimed and strongly shot.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'd be surprised if I was the first, to be honest, but hopefully if there are enough of us someone may start to take notice. Well, either that or they'll just denounce us all as tools of the CIA.

[moleintheground.livejournal.com]

Thing is, though, if all decent lefties leave the unions and walk away from the (maddening) debate, then that becomes the position of the left.

Says I, I've vowed to never talk politics with anyone I don't know ever again,

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, but I just don't feel I've got the time or the emotional energy to have any chance of pulling them back. Indeed, in general I'm losing interest in the idea of saving the world; I think I'd rather just spend the time watching DVDs instead.

[alexdecampi.livejournal.com]

Charlie and I felt the same way about our masks. Much fun, but uncomfortably restrictive of one's peripheral vision. Still: masks! I can't get too annoyed at any evening which encourages me to be even more of a ponce than usual.