There was an attempt on Congress floor to overturn the decision of the Conference Business Committee to disallow, on spurious and bureaucratic grounds, an amendment calling for a ballot of UCU members before a boycott is implemented.
Congress has decided not even to consider balloting the members . Congress has decided not to hear arguments for or arguments against holding a ballot.
Engage 
May 27, 2009 at 11:55 am
Presumably this means that the UCULeft and their allies have a majority on both the Conference Business Committee and among delegates on the floor of Congress.
So we still have the ludicrous that Congress can pass boycott resolution(s), only to have the Sec Gen than tell them that they will be regarded/treated as null and void.
What’s the old cliche about having one’s cake and eating it…? Self-indulgence run riot, and meanwhile back at the white-board face, conditions and relative pay worsens and these idiots couldn’t care less, as long as they can stroke their own collective egos and let the membership go hang.
May 27, 2009 at 1:20 pm
So, while Sally rants about the need for Democracy at institutions, an unrepresentative grouping in her union continue to dictate policy while being answerable to no-one.
The irony of an academic union refusing to even allow itself to hear arguments trips over the line from comedy and heads straight for tragedy.
May 27, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Based on what I read at Engage this morning — this post and the couple below it — I get the feeling that (compared to previous congresses) this conference is going to do less to actually stigmatise and hurt Israelis, and more to demonstrate to the UCU rank and file that their union has been taken over by a deeply unpleasant clique intent on pushing its own private agenda.
For me, a Zionist non-member of UCU, this is relatively good news. For UCU members who want a union that represents their feelings and interests, it is very bad — unless they use that awareness to take the union back.
May 29, 2009 at 12:42 pm
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