SoA members vote against Gaza resolution

The Society of Authors (SoA) has voted against a resolution which called on the trade union to release a statement condemning Israeli violence in Gaza. At a meeting held last night (Thursday 2nd May), members voted in support of two further resolutions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and divestment in the books industry. 

During an extraordinary general meeting, 786 members voted for the proposed statement on Gaza while 883 voted against. 

The SoA’s management committee had already voted by majority to oppose the statement, saying: “As a trade union, our remit and mission is to support members in relation to the business of authorship. The SoA’s board has therefore taken a decision that the SoA should not publish a statement and, in doing so, incorporate our individual members’ voices into an assumed consensus via a collective statement on issues that are outside of our remit.”

The statement, proposed by 66 SoA members in March, reads: “The SoA condemns indiscriminate targeting of civilians and cultural infrastructure including churches, mosques, hospitals, schools, libraries and universities. The SoA calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and for Israel to uphold its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

The statement also criticises the “relative inertia” of UK publishing and expresses concern about the “unprecedented levels of censorship” that authors and publishing workers are facing “in response to their solidarity with the Palestinian people”.  

Members voted in support of two further resolutions, which called for the publication of statements on the use of copyrighted material to train AI models and fossil fuel investment in the books industry.

The proposed statement on AI outlines that SoA members “do not accept that any AI platform had or has the right to use their work without an express licence”: 1,833 voted for the resolution while 52 voted against. 

Meanwhile, the statement on fossil fuel investment reads: “The SoA recognises the urgent need for action, and the influence that publishing and the creative industries can have in this. As such, the SoA believes we must achieve a publishing industry free from fossil fuel finance.” It added that the SoA will write to publishing industry institutions and encourage them to divest from fossil fuel companies: 1,480 SoA members voted for the resolution, while 251 voted against. 

The Edinburgh International Book Festival was previously criticised for working with Baillie Gifford, its lead sponsor, which invests in some companies related to fossil fuels.