We need to mobilise to stop Amnesty's foolish redundancies
Thursday 07 February 2013
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EmailAlthough Amnesty International's extraordinary general meeting voted overwhelmingly to oppose any "material reorganisation of the company" vigilance is still needed to stop senior management returning to their destructive redundancies policy.
While special resolution six dealing with the redundancies passed, resolution five which revoked the proposals did not get the necessary 75 per cent majority - only receiving 69 per cent support.
I was reassured that Unite's Alan Scott (M Star January 16) was confident that management were not taking any further action "for the time being."
But there is a risk that at the Amnesty AGM later this year managers will return to the false argument that resources should be diverted to other parts of the world where rights abuses are more acute.
In reality, cuts to Amnesty's British workforce would probably reduce revenue and take Amnesty's eye off the ball on key campaigns rather than free up resources for developed countries.
It's important that Morning Star readers who are also Amnesty members get to the AGM on April 13-14 at the University of Warwick in Coventry.
There will also be elections for the board of directors. The deadline for nominations is February 27.
Chris Purnell
Orpington
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