Good luck to Labour’s Garston/Halewood CLP in its call to remove illegally-imposed NEC members
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, who has appointed herself to an unlawfully-created NEC position.
This Writer’s own CLP (Constituency Labour Party) was the first to try to get the undemocratically-imposed right-wing NEC members removed after a rigged vote in the Labour conference last year.
And no, I wasn’t the one pushing for it (well, not the only one)!
This seems an opportune moment to report back on what happened with that.
A while ago, I received evidence that NEC member Ann Black, who sits on that body’s Organisation Committee, had reported that the motion from Brecon and Radnorshire CLP, calling for the nullification of the vote on a package of 15 measures including the addition of two nominated NEC members from Welsh and Scottish Labour, had been “lost”.
Our motion stated that NEC chair Paddy Lillis, who had been chairing the party conference at the time the package of measures was considered, ignored calls for separate votes on each proposal, in violation of conference rules. This meant the vote he forced conference to make should be null and void.
Concerned about Ms Black’s claim – and about comments that CLP motions are regularly ignored by the NEC – a member of my local Labour Branch got in touch with that organisation and demanded to know what had happened.
They received a response from internal governance officer Rebecca Child, as follows: “The motion was tabled at the meeting of the NEC Organisation Committee in January and noted.
“The NEC accepted the decision of conference in respect of these matters and the rule changes as passed at conference are agreed.”
This indicates three things:
Firstly, the NEC has ignored the illegality of the conference vote on the changes including its new members.
Secondly, Ms Black lied about what happened to our motion – tying members of the local party up with trying to find out what was going on when they could have been doing better things.
Thirdly, it seems the claim that the NEC simply ignores motions from constituency parties is correct.
When my local branch discussed these developments last week, members agreed to work on a new motion to provide grassroots members with more influence on the NEC. A possibility is a petition page on the party’s website for members, similar to the government’s e-petitions page (but hopefully with more effect).
It seems wise to suggest, also, a mechanism of networking between CLPs, in order to bring matters of concern with party organisation and policy to the attention of members living elsewhere and build consensus to demand action from the NEC.
Labour is not a democratic organisation at the moment. That must change – and the only way it will do so is for members to demand it.
We await the result of the Garston/Halewood motion with interest.
This blog has previously highlighted the two additional, right-wing members levered onto Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to obstruct the party’s direction under Corbyn and h…
Source: Garston/Halewood CLP demands removal of unlawful NEC members | The SKWAWKBOX
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Why did Momentum recommend members to vote for Anne Black on the NEC? I am still baffled by that advice and will certainly ignore Momentum in the future
It was believed that Ms Black was a genuine member of the Labour Left Grassroots Network, rather than whatever she has turned out to be.
Momentum, and the rest of us, were deceived by a lie.
What a start to a Sunday. I get enough pictures of the eejit Dugdale on our local pages. I thought your blog was a safe haven, Mike.
I bet it jolted you awake better than a strong, black coffee!
I too voted for Ms Black and was sorely disappointed by her performance.
Have just requested that our CLP consider putting the motion calling for the removal of said 2 NEC delegates for Wales and Scotland .We need to support JC as much as possible right now as the long knives are out AGAIN for him .
When ohh When are some of our more active CLPS going to start deselecting the red Tories , it’s time to make a stand and for that matter to overrule the NEC if it is as corrupted as it is now . Perhaps by demonstrating in the conference hall in Sept this yr, peaceful but active disruption to the NEC proceedings, simply a form of mass action , could even be a STRIKE !!
My own constituency doesn’t have a Labour MP so we can’t do any deselecting, no matter how active we are – but I do strongly endorse your suggestion, Rob.
As for disruptive action at conference: I would prefer to see Labour members co-operating with each other, on every level. If people feel the conference is being run poorly, then I would have thought a ‘no confidence’ vote in the chairperson would be the place to start.
I am on the GC of Havant CLP and I have requested advice and information from south east region on several occasions, I also understand that several CLPs in the south have made similar requests (this second hand info). I do know for a fact our branch secretary has had similar problems with region. In fact we have had two members of the GC and EC dismissed for what reason we do not know, The Chair and secretary did not even inform the GC delegates at the last meeting. These same people are delaying my motion past by branch and conforming completely with the rules. My motion is to request the NEC to root out and dismiss any member who is part of a proscribed organisation, I thought we had problems, seems we are not the only ones. An old saying “if it’s rotten it’s rotten at the top”