Delegates & Mandates

Just looking through the Labour Party’s rules, as you do. They state, in Rule, 3.3.1.B

When a Party conference is called at short notice, the secretaries of affiliated organisations and CLPs shall, on receiving the summons,instantly take steps to secure representation of their organisation in accordance with the constitution and these rules.
The special conference called to discuss the Collins Review was convened in breach of this rule, the National Office (i.e. the Compliance Unit) ruled that the delegates from the previous conference would represent the CLPs/Affiliated Organisations. I might be misunderstanding the meaning of “secure representation”, but since attendance is not mandatory,  I don’t think so.
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Racism

At Tory Party Conference, earlier this week, the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd proposed that employers would be asked to monitor their foreign workers; of course, some wags immediately suggested that they be made to wear a badge; it worked so well last time. …

Zombies

A bunch of New Labour survivors are presenting the idea that the Labour Party’s commitment to winning public office means that this is the only way in which the Labour Party should look to change society; they contrast this with Corbyn’s ambition to build a movement. In this article, “A hijack or a mutiny? Labour, leadership and the left”, Jeremy Gilbert dissects this claim by studying the rules and referring to the Labour Party’s history.

He also at the nature of movements and parties; the road to elitism and concludes with the statement, that the party has not been hijacked by arrivistes and entryists, but that this is a mutiny; the membership, even those who joined before 2015 want to turn to the Left and rebuild Labour’s campaigning movement.

Bea Campbell, in an article called Corbynism, also writes about movements and Parties and examines rump New Labour’s inability to evolve; she pointed me at the Gilbert article. She says,

The surprising dullness of candidates challenging Corbyn during the first leadership election campaign, and their performance since then, is indicative — it is a kind of mute inability to connect with the impact of 2008 and the neo-liberal implosion; it renders them the living dead.

As summed up by one of the speakers at the CLPD rally, it isn’t a choice between electoral politics and a movement, we need both; something that was understood in the ’70s and ’80s. It was also understood more recently when the local Labour Party supported, maybe incubated the movement  to “Save Lewisham A+E”. …

Chilling Effect

At Conference I have just spoken against the Regulation of Powers Bill/Act at the Home Affairs Policy Seminar. I mentioned that Labour has removed “Economic Security” from the list of grounds for spying on people, but that the authorising of “bulk powers” and the desire of the intelligence services to find bad people by comparing them with good people and the need to trawl all the UK’s Internet traffic is creating/will create a chilling effect on the right to free speech.

I also made the point the Labour Party’s bureaucracy’s similar trawling of people’s social media spores also creates a chilling effect;  there are people in the Party that are avoiding social media other than with friend and family, and even unsure on using the new my Labour app. …

Morning all

The morning session was kicked off by the traditional CAC shenanigans. They had ruled out any discussion on the economy and austerity on the grounds it wasn’t contemporary. Doh! Three organisations moved reference back.

The NEC have collected all their rule changes into a single omnibus amendment, this includes some technical stuff, but also two new members of the NEC appointed by the Leaders of the Scots and Welsh Parties and making voting against a council budget a disciplinary offence.

The use of an omnibus motion was questioned in the reference back debate as was the absence of a debate on the economy and the ruling out of discussion on branch rights in MP selections. I voted to uphold the reference backs, the conference disagreed …

Thirst

I had a great time last night, some friends arranged a get together of some party comrades, not a large meeting but I met two recent joiners and had the chance for a longer chat with someone I’d known for a while. A fascinating wide ranging conversation about how to organise, how change occurs, the impact of the European radical left, ideas from global development politics, the dichotomy between the old and the young and the roots of the current left insurgency in the UK i.e. the life experiences that had led people to where they were.  And people say there’s no thirst for theory! …