Dear comrades,
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) recently sent out an e-mail reminding people that their Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be on Saturday, the 30th of January, 2027. More immediately, this means that over the next few months, there will be a process of discussion and deliberation within PSC to review and refine the organisation’s plans, which will be voted on at the AGM.
Whatever anyone may think of PSC (and certainly, like any organisation, it has real flaws and limitations), it is the only democratic mass organisation that we have for coordinating the Palestine solidarity movement across England and Wales (Scottish PSC is a separate organisation). Our movement cannot hope to win without coordinated, joined-up strategy at national scale, and that strategy won’t be sufficient unless serious scrutiny and debate go into forming it. PSC is the only democratic forum we have for doing that collectively.
The biggest problem with PSC’s internal democracy is simply the lack of engagement. In particular, the lack of youth engagement. Across the country, there are young activists doing brilliant work, but too often it’s completely disconnected from PSC’s national structures, and consequently can’t feed into national strategy in a coherent way. Sometimes this is just ignorance about PSC on the part of younger activists, sometimes it’s a response to real mistakes PSC has made, and sometimes it reflects a failure of local PSC branches to advertise themselves or to provide a welcoming environment to new activists.
Over the next few months, PSC’s national leadership will draft an annual strategy plan, which will be circulated to local branch committees for discussion and feedback, before a final draft is submitted for the AGM. There is then an open process for members or local branches to submit their own motions and amendments. Finally, there is a democratic AGM, where anyone who is a paid up member by the 30th October 2026 can attend to debate and vote on the strategy, motions, and amendments, as well as to elect the national leadership.
Engaging with PSC’s democratic processes is doubly important if you dislike PSC, if you think it has major problems or has made huge mistakes. The only way to course-correct is through its internal democracy. Even if you’re not a member, you can still contribute to that process and that debate. Talk to members. Write up your own ideas on strategy for the Palestine movement. Write a letter to Prometheus. Post about it on social media. Suggest motions and amendments, and discuss and scrutinise those submitted by others.
Left media should have a crucial role to play, but sadly have usually ignored this process. The standard of debate at PSC’s AGM is often low, but this is no wonder when there’s no relevant discussion in left media to inform it. Over the next few months, left publications should issue open call-outs for people to discuss the movement’s strategy, and eventually to propose and to critique specific proposals, motions, and amendments.
Solidarity,
Archie Woodrow
