Labour’s internal elections – why to vote for left candidates
JVL Introduction
Marion Roberts, who is one of the members of JVL’s Executive Committee, writes here about why she is standing for a position on the National Constitutional Committee, despite the NEC passing Keir Starmer’s late motion to bar Jeremy from standing as a parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party. As she says: “The National Constitutional Committee can offer some help because, set up as it was to be independent of the National Executive Committee, it represents a past attempt to ensure fairness in disciplinary processes. Its function in hearing appeals should be restored and acted on. The Party needs members representing the diversity of Jewish opinion.”
Marion’s heartfelt words are certainly shared by many who have not (yet) given up. If you are still a member, please support her and the others standing to get the necessary CLP nominations so that they can defend the left and defend democracy in the Party.
This article was originally published by Labour Hub on Sun 2 Apr 2023. Read the original here.
Why I’m running for Labour’s National Constitutional Committee
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Good luck Marion – and please can you convey my sympathy with and anger over Corbyn’s treatment to your relative? In the grand scheme of things, personal feelings like these are of no importance but their expression may slightly offset the hurt and betrayal Corbyn must feel.
I think we all should be looking to the various “levers of power” available to us as individuals to change the loathsome circumstances we face politically now for something better. Marion will hopefully gain more influence by winning the seat on a committee with power inside the party. Other JVL readers will have their own contacts within Labour and may be able “nudge” things onto a better path as opportunities arise. I take encouragement from the starlings! It only takes one small move from bird in a large flock to change the shape of the whole “murmuration”.
I was on the point of leaving the Labour Party when a similar plea was made to vote for Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi in the NEC elections. So I stayed my pen and did not write the intended rude letter to Keir Starmer handing in my resignation. Result? The b’stards expelled the wonderful Naomi on the eve of the party conference. I am once again ready to write that rude letter to the dictator and I think this time it will take more than the hope that Marion or anyone else can change what has become an unashamed right wing dictatorship of vipers. They are probably already looking for a ‘reason’ to expel you, Marion. Enough really is enough!
Labour International (LI) CLP is outside the UK regional structure so we have to have a named person from the NEC, who unfortunately happens to be Luke Akehurst. One of his roles is to be the returning officer for the CLP exec committee. We recently discovered that during our CLP exec election process he sent an email out to to some of our members advising them to vote for the Labout To Win/Labour First candidates.
What doesn’t he understand about neutrality when performing the Returning officer rolw?. He isn’t a member of LI. We’ve sent a formal complaint, but don’t even expect to get a reply..
It’s not impossible for the left to adopt a ‘Combination Tactic’.
Those who are out of the party can organise the alternative, and those who are still in can maintain the opposition.
Those who are out will need to decide whether to support good labour candidates at elections.
Those who are in will need to build a profile both in and outside the party.
There will be questions that divide us, like a policy towards the war in Ukraine, or more mundanely, whether to maintain the trade union political levies.
But we can live can live with these, because unlike the bureaucratic right-wing, we believe that these are valid topics for discussion. Because we support free speech.
As I’m sure you all know that members of the CAC also have a very important role, masterminding the horse-trading re. the compositing of resolutions submitted for being debated which goes happens on the eve of conference. The Chair of the CAC has been for seemingly ever, Harry Donaldson, a time-served Union man attracting support from his cohort and firmly on the right of the party even though a union man. He was Chair in 2018 when I was our CLP delegate and my guess is that he will still occupy the post this year.
When the 2018 conference voted on the proposal to accept the CAC report (usually a formality) but a move was made to ‘refer’ the CAC report, to in effect reject it. The reason for the rejection was that the NEC had proposed several motions which were first revealed on the morning of the first day, which, in my opinion, designed to rule out CLP motions unwelcome to the NEC, which touched on the same topic. A clear majority of delegates in the CLP section voted for rejection but were outnumbered by the TU section which voted to accept. This made me realize the difference in the way Unions worked at conference compared to CLP delegates. Although legitimate, a Union will have decided, with reference to other Unions, how they will vote on any particular motion, should that motion be debated. The CLP delegates on the other hand, often proudly declaring to be a ‘first time delegate’, are in the main acting individually, often without a mandate from their CLP, putting them in the position of children facing seasoned campaigners on any issue where interests of Unions and CLPs diverge.
Just one of the long-standing means of gerrymandering the conference and hence party policies. There is much cause to despair if the party will ever be run democratically.