Salter Lecture: Jeremy Corbyn is Banned

by Sheila Taylor.

The QSS Summary and website post:

On 11 February the BYM Trustees recommended that our Salter Lecture on ‘War & Peace’ should not go ahead at the same time as Yearly Meeting if Jeremy Corbyn were one of the speakers. On 23 February QSS produced a Summary of the situation, expressing our concern and our feeling that this decision was giving way to the establishment and the media.

We sent our Summary to the Trustees to explain our view, and a meeting was arranged for Sheila to have a discussion with Marisa Johnson and Paul Parker. We also sent it to the two other BYM decision-making bodies: Meeting for Sufferings and Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee, asking for it to be circulated to their members, but we were told that was inappropriate.

On 29 February an item was therefore posted on the QSS website headed: ‘Will Quakers ban Jeremy Corbyn?’. This was the first public mention of the Salter Lecture issue, and for some people in inner-Quaker circles it caused what they described as a ‘media storm’.

Communication with QSS members:

Discussions with BYM about the Salter Lecture had actually been going on since September. All that time we were hoping for a resolution that would be acceptable to both sides. However, the Trustees’ decision seemed to make this impossible. So on 1 March we sent QSS members our Summary of the situation, and within two days we received 31 responses from members expressing dismay, disappointment and a considerable degree of anger.

QSS talk to Management (1 March):

When Sheila met with Marisa and Paul on 1 March, she pointed out that Jeremy Corbyn’s office had still not been able to confirm his availability for July. However, she also stated that QSS could not possibly disinvite a speaker whom they considered perfectly appropriate. If Jeremy were unacceptable in Friends House, QSS would be obliged to hold the Salter Lecture elsewhere.

Marisa declared that she would happily speak to Jeremy Corbyn in person, explain the situation and ask him to withdraw. Sheila therefore arranged a meeting for this extraordinary conversation to take place.

Meeting for Sufferings (2 March):

The Trustees had sent their report on the Salter Lecture to Meeting for Sufferings as a ‘Confidential Minute’, which was not revealed until the actual meeting. So when Marisa spoke to the minute, members were unclear about the background and the implications. The report was accepted, with just a few queries from members who had seen the website or read the QSS Summary.

The meeting with Jeremy Corbyn (14 March):

Sheila and Marisa met Jeremy over a cup of tea in Portcullis House. He was very gracious, but said he was sad and disappointed with the Quaker position. He had spent five years combatting the lies told about him by the Labour Party and the media. Quakers had also experienced persecution, and he felt it would be a shame if they allowed others to set their agenda.

The meeting was warm and friendly. In response to Marisa’s request, Jeremy said he would do whatever QSS wants – speak or not speak. He wanted to maintain his close connection with QSS, so if July were not possible, he would do another event for us some other time.

Yearly Meeting Agenda Committee (16 March):

Last weekend YMAC met to decide the final agenda for Yearly Meeting. Mary Aiston introduced the item on the Salter Lecture, accompanied by Marisa. Nearly two hours were spent discussing it and producing a Minute, which was sent to us. (Attached.) It is disappointing, though hardly surprising. Essentially everyone involved in this procedure has accepted the recommendation of the Trustees. On the positive side, I gather that YMAC expressed a great deal of respect for QSS and much enthusiasm for the Salter Lecture and for this year’s topic. Members stated how keen they were that the lecture should go ahead.

Ironically, if Jeremy is not available in July anyway, this whole debate will have been unnecessary. Paul Ingram is eminently qualified to speak on War and Peace, and is happy to do the lecture on his own or with another co-presenter.

What concerns are there now? (22 March):

In the autumn we were told the concerns about Jeremy Corbyn speaking at the time of Yearly Meeting. These were based on the public perception that he is anti-semitic, and on the assumption that his presence would attract a great deal of negative media attention. They were:

The anticipated media attention, including on social media, could be overwhelming for staff. It would distract from the themes of Yearly Meeting. The distraction would mean that QSS fails to achieve the aim of our lecture topic. Quakers could be seen as condoning anti-semitism. It could damage BYM’s relationship with the Jewish community. It could endanger the Ecumenical Accompaniment programme in the Middle East.

I feel the discussion has been changing over recent months. The YMAC minute does not mention most of these points (media, YM themes, lecture topic, antisemitism, Jewish community). As for the EAPPI programme, the only danger stated is that participants might get their entry visas refused – by the Israeli government.

Interestingly however there is a new concern mentioned for the first time by YMAC. They say: “We are aware of the risk to relationships within our Yearly Meeting community, posed by one group exercising authority over the decisions of another, when we are all trying to move forward in prayerful discernment.” And they ask QSS to “consider the risks identified…….to relationships within Britain Yearly Meeting”.

This is very vague, but QSS has picked up much resentment from members and other Friends about the power of Trustees, interfering in the Salter Lecture and unfairly influencing others’ opinions. Personally I regretted that QSS were not allowed to express our views directly to the decision-making bodies. There seems to be a problem about who is allowed to query what, not just in public but also internally. And it was worrying to have it implied that any other speaker we might choose should first be ‘run past’ the management team. I thought that Jeremy Corbyn was a one-off case, but perhaps some people would like a veto on all future Salter lecturers!

Sheila Taylor (Salter Lecture Coordinator)

The YMAC Minute

YMAC 2024-3-11 Salter lecture

We receive paper YMAC 2024 03 12, Salter Lecture, which has been introduced by Mary Aiston. We have been joined by Marisa Johnson, the Clerk to Britain Yearly Meeting Trustees, for this agenda item.

We are asked to decide whether to agree to the Quaker Socialist Society’s request to hold a Salter Lecture, on the subject of war and peace, delivered by Paul Ingram and Jeremy Corbyn, at Friends House during Yearly Meeting. If the lecture does take place during the time of Yearly Meeting (at Friends House or elsewhere), we are asked to decide whether it should be included in the Yearly Meeting programme.

We are grateful to Britain Yearly Meeting Trustees for identifying risks associated with the proposed lecture and for explaining them to us. We are grateful to the Quaker Socialist Society for communicating with our clerks during the period of exploration of these questions. We are glad to hear that the clerk to Trustees and the Salter Lecture Coordinator have met with Jeremy Corbyn to explore the issues with him.

We have met together, acutely aware of the risks associated with each way forward from here. We do not wish to be swayed by fear of controversy, and we are aware of the fast movement of information and speculation on social media and elsewhere.

We note that Britain Yearly Meeting’s work in Israel and Palestine is particularly vulnerable at this time, and that this work may be put at critical risk by the conversations that we would expect to arise around a lecture held in the proposed way and including Jeremy Corbyn as a speaker.

We are aware of the risk to relationships within our Yearly Meeting community, posed by one group exercising authority over the decisions of another, when we are all trying to move forward in prayerful discernment.

We ask that the Friends in the Quaker Socialist Society tasked with arranging the Salter Lecture consider the risks identified both to peacebuilding work in Israel and Palestine and to relationships within Britain Yearly Meeting, and either:

• arrange for the Salter Lecture to go ahead in Friends House at the time of Yearly Meeting, delivered by Paul Ingram, or:

• make alternative arrangements for a venue for the Salter Lecture that may include Jeremy Corbyn as a speaker. This could be at the time of Yearly Meeting or at another time.

We agree not to publish details of the Salter Lecture as part of the Yearly Meeting programme if the latter choice is taken.

We recognise the difficult decision ahead for our Friends in QSS, and we offer them our prayerful support as they move forward with this. We send this minute to the Quaker Socialist Society and to BYM Trustees.