Tag: labour

Published on by Dave

The Socialist International

One of the issues raised while considering Venezuela, is the suggestion that since Jose Guaido’s party, Voluntad Popular is a member of the Socialist International, Labour Party member’s should be supporting him and his party; interestingly the Labour Party is no longer a full member of the SI, having downgraded its membership in favour of the Progressive Alliance, which sort of means something else in the UK.

I’d like to find out why and still love the badge.

I was pointed at The Slow Death of the Socialist International which deals with the history of the SI and describes the split which occurred in 2012. In the words of Jack Black, long story short, the European social democrats became unhappy with a number of recent affiliates, questioning their commitment to democracy and social democracy or socialism and lost the General Secretary election in 2012. The author seems unimpressed with where both organisations have ended up. I can see why.

Published on by Dave

IUSY 77

I attended the IUSY 77 Congress in Stuttgart, as part of the Labour Students delegation and stayed for the summer camp. I still remember some of the fabulous conversations I had and the amazing campaigning comrades that I met from the (West) German JUSOS and other parties across the world.

Were you there? Do you remember me?

Published on by Dave

New Labour and Party Management

An unfinished white Paper by Emmanuelle Avril of the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. The paper is called, The (Unintended) Consequences of New Labour: Party Leadership vs Party Management in the British Labour Party. and was presented to the Political Studies Association 2015 conference, in March so before the election. The abstract states,  Continue reading “New Labour and Party Management” →

Published on by Dave

Labour’s Leadership Election Timetable

Last Month, Harriet Harman writes,

As well as mounting a strong opposition to the Tories and understanding the lessons from our election defeat, we need to get on and elect a new Leader and Deputy Leader.

The NEC met this afternoon to decide on the timetable for the leadership election, ….

This leadership election will be run under the new rules we agreed last year: a broad and inclusive contest with one person, one vote. Continue reading “Labour’s Leadership Election Timetable” →

Published on by Dave

London Labour’s Mayoral Candidate Selection

The Labour Party is undertaking a process to choose a candidate to run for Mayor of London. This process is in four parts,

  1. Application Stage – now complete
  2. Nomination Stage – closes 10th June
  3. Selection Panel Stage – currently advertised as complete  on 13th June
  4. Voting – starts 12th August, finishes Noon 12th September

The misleadingly named Nomination stage is (to be) performed by members at all members meetings and by affiliated organisations according to their own rules. Candidates need five nominations to be considered in the Selection Panel stage, there are 72 Labour Party membership organisations in London, together with at least 13 trade unions plus the socialist societies, five is not a high threshold.

The Selection panel stage will be closed and opaque, and has previously caused some controversy, but its one of the reasons that the nomination stage takes place to allow a visible indication of support; perhaps they’ve learnt from the European Parliamentary selection.  (The panel consists of 6 members and may have been chosen by lottery.)

Voting will be done by all London members, affiliate members and registered supporters, will be conducted using a secret postal ballot (or on-line). There are no “colleges” so each vote is of equal worth. This is the “One Member, One Vote” closed primary promised when Labour’s Special Conference adopted the recommendations and rule changes of the Collins Review. You can join, or become a registered supporter by going to  the Labour’s Party’s join us page. Affiliated membership is via your trade union or an affiliated socialist society.