THE SCOURGE OF MODERN DEMOCRACY

Anti-bullying alliance 'bullies members' (Lucy Ward, The Guardian, January 4th, 2005)

A high-profile government drive to tackle bullying has come under fire amid claims by a leading anti-bullying charity that it has been told to sign a gagging clause to be part of the scheme.

Critics, including MPs, have accused the Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA), an umbrella group of more than 50 voluntary, private and professional organisations backed by £570,000 government funding, of using bullying tactics itself in trying to suppress criticism.

ABA, whose president is the broadcaster and Childline founder Esther Rantzen, rejects the claims, saying it wants to "facilitate joint working" amid a wide range of members.

The alliance has told Bullying Online, which deals with thousands of inquiries every year from parents and children concerned over school bullying, that it must sign up to a compulsory "code of conduct" to be accepted as a member.

The code, which the ABA argues helps "maintain consensus", requires members "not to speak, write or brief against the alliance or any other member organisation". Among eight points, it also commits signatories "to treat all information about members and their work as confidential unless specifically stated to the contrary". The code says: "It is important that ABA members are mindful that public criticism of each other's organisation can be extremely damaging to the public face of the Anti-Bullying Alliance."[...]

The alliance, founded in 2002 but launched as a full government-backed programme last July, is charged with promoting national anti-bullying campaigns and providing national and regional support for schools and other organisations in tackling bullying.

It has set up a structure of nine regional anti-bullying coordinators, with a brief to create local anti-bullying networks among schools and social services and promote schemes to tackle the problem.

Bullying Online, run by nine unpaid volunteers and trustees, has attacked the scheme, arguing that five of the coordinators - each paid £30,000 a year for two days' work a week - already work addressing bullying for local education authorities. Another, coordinator for the south-west region, runs a commercial firm, Lucky Duck publishing, whose publications include materials for addressing bullying.

Polls consistently show that the public has a high level of trust in NGO’s and imagines them to be made up of disinterested altruists with no personal or institutional objectives. Some are good, especially in their early years, but many soon evolve into turf-protectors working in an apparently adversarial, but actually comfortable and symbiotic, relationship with the state.