Eve’s resignation letter above refers to an email which was sent to PNT on 31 July by a dissident PNT director. This email was forwarded to the editor by another PNT director. Because we are publishing this statement without the author’s knowledge or consent, to protect them from retaliation, we are withholding their name.

X:

I’m glad you’ve brought this up, Glyn, as it gives me the chance to ask you something I’ve been wondering – how would you describe your politics?

From what I can tell

You’re not a pacifist: when you introduced yourself at the relationships meeting [see Muzammal’s interview on pp6 – 7] you told us how you hadn’t been involved in the movement for years, and then when the Ukraine war started you supported arming Ukraine and thought: ‘Oh I better buy a copy of Peace News to find out what the pacifist position is’.

You’re not a feminist: when several women told you to your face of their experiences of sexism with Trustees you dismissed them all out of hand and thought that was an end to the matter.

You’ve told us you’re not an anarchist, because you say it’s not democratic enough for you! Yet when presented with the audit that represents a unanimous position – 100 percent of all Housmans, PN and even the majority of Trustees that took part – you dismissed it as not representative and not deserving further discussion.

And now, when every single member of Housmans and Peace News staff and directors explained they have no confidence in you, you don’t consider that meaningful either, something to be brushed aside. Your opinion alone is the most important.

The staff and directors of Housmans and Peace News number 16 people. These are people who have committed their lives to the movement and to our groups. We have people representing some of the key peace and progressive organisations in Britain. I have so much respect for everyone involved. These are some of the politically soundest people I have ever had the pleasure to know.

Yet when this entire group comes to the same unanimous conclusion about what is going on, including losing all confidence in you, you are able to dismiss that as irrelevant and wrong. You alone are right whilst 100 percent of all staff and directors are wrong.

What kind of political position allows for that other than authoritarianism?

The culture of ‘poring over documents looking for tiny loopholes and omissions, rather than focusing on principles’ is one you alone have brought to our building.

‘Old school boardroom politics’ is how you once justified it in one of your emails.

‘Old school boardroom politics’ has been dismissed and replaced by more accountable models by peace groups for decades now, having recognised ‘old school boardroom politics’ as a process that achieves nothing but concentrating power at the very top and creating conflict with those below.

And this is exactly the conflict now being wrought on our organisations, and one which is currently on track to lead to the total destruction of everything that has been built up over decades. I, for one, am not going to let that happen.

This article originally appeared in Peace News 2674 (September 2024)