Bid to unseat SoA chair Joanne Harris fails after members’ vote 

Members of the Society of Authors (SoA) have overwhelmingly voted to keep Joanne Harris as chair of the management committee.

A group of 10 authors from the 12,000-member organisation, including Julie Bindel and Amanda Craig, proposed a resolution for the society’s annual general meeting (a.g.m.) yesterday evening (Thursday 17th November) calling on Harris to leave her post, claiming her comments and behaviour are “not compatible with the society’s goals of protecting free expression and their policy of dignity and respect”.

The resolution, the sixth on the agenda, was voted down, with 608 members (81%) voting against the removal of Harris, to 143 (19%) in favour. In total, the meeting was attended by 571 members virtually. Some members who were not able to attend the meeting voted by proxy. 

An additional, seventh, a.g.m. resolution from Bindel and others called for the society to review “how to pursue its stated aim ‘to protect free speech’ and put in place a robust framework to do so, including a member and management committee working group that looks at how best to protect the fundamental right of all authors to express themselves freely within the law, and to uphold the impartiality expected of the society, including all who govern and work for it”. This should include a sub-committee of the management committee, the resolution stated. This resolution was also voted down, with 161 voting in favour and 593 against.

The discussion surrounding the votes on resolutions six and seven was heated at times. One person raised their hand to say: “I find it extremely distressing to see this kind of fighting among people who should all be supporting each other, and the people who have taken on the job of representing us.”

On hearing the result of the resolution six vote, one member unmuted themselves to declare they would be cancelling their subscription. 

After a statement read out by one of the proposers of both resolutions six and seven claimed Harris had contributed to “a culture of fear” and that the society had “failed in its stated mission to create an environment where all are afforded an equal voice” – calling the move to unseat her “a last resort”, Harris responded that she had been targeted by “a relentless campaign to intimidate me into validating a [gender critical] position or to link my private views with my position at the SOA.

“There has been an intense, I would say obsessive, scrutiny of everything I’ve said and done online with a view to attacking me,” she said. 

Responding to resolution seven, SoA chief executive Nicola Solomon said: "We aren’t a freedom of expression organisation. We protect free speech in many ways. But it isn’t a stated aim of the organisation. That’s the remit of English PEN and Index [On Censorship]. We are [...] a union. Our overriding strategic aim is to empower professional authors with knowledge, support and community and to work for an environment that helps sustain and nurture their careers."

A resolution that the SoA undertake a consultation on the roles of the council, president and management committee and makes recommendations to the 2023 a.g.m. was passed. The author Philip Pullman stood down as president in March, with no successor appointed, and a number of resolutions addressed how to deal with that absence.

After the meeting, the SoA outlined its next steps. On resolution six, it said: "The Society of Authors is a democratically run organisation. The election of the management committee is part of that democracy, as is the election by the management committee of a chair – and so too is members’ right to raise any concerns they may feel. Members overwhelmingly opposed the resolution and endorsed their support for Joanne Harris as chair.

"We look forward to continuing to work with Joanne Harris as chair and the rest of the management committee, including new members Nick Rankin and Harriet Evans."

On resolution seven it added: "Although freedom of expression is not a core ‘stated aim’ of the SoA, we nevertheless already do a great deal of work to promote it. The results of the vote on resolution seven will not change that. In particular, we will continue to lobby and work with our partners against threats to freedom of expression at home and overseas, and we will continue to work with individual authors whose freedoms have been limited, contractually or otherwise."

In January Harris was re-elected to the position of chair of the SoA’s management committee after an initial term and will hold the position until 2024.