SCM Conference

I feel some comment is needed from someone within Victoria SCM in response to Peter Cullen's article about our Summer Conference, in the first issue of Salient this year. Having been approached by many people, asking about Peter's comments I must reply that basically I agree with him; Summer Conference tried to do the impossible and hence failed to achieve its aim. It tried to resolve, through group processes, differences within the movement which are really basic to its existence.

SCM encompasses a diversity of people seeking to understand the meaning of liberation within their own lives and that of the world at large. For some, often those who have been involved in the movement longer, this leads to an involvement in social and political activities. For others, it is the interpersonal element of this liberation process that they wish to emphasise more. Summer Conference was an expression of this diversity within SCM and of the tension that arises when branches or individuals tend to emphasise different aspects within this total field of liberation, at the expense of others.

What I would like to assert is that this tension can be a creative one. Since Summer Conference, there has been critical discussion of the nature and role of the movement which is destined to involve us in future structural change in order to more effectively serve the people. People must be prepared to learn from conference that tensions within SCM are not going to be resolved. Rather, we can learn from such differences while still progressing towards a common goat of a more just society. A movement which contains differences is alive and to resolve these differences could mean the death of the movement.