By Alec Price, Strood Labour Party, personal capacity
I’ve campaigned for open selections for a while now. It simply means that local Labour members get to choose who their candidate for MP is before each election. When Corbyn was first elected in Sept 2015, it was obvious the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party were hostile to him, the policies he represented and most importantly the movement below him that could make those policies a reality – first for the Labour Party and then the country.
If Labour members had their say on who the Labour candidate should be, then there was no doubt the PLP would reflect the views of the members.
But members didn’t have a say – previous regimes under the Labour Party had taken organisational measures to effectively keep Labour MPs in a job for life. The usual selection process had been replaced by members and affiliates first having to go through a divisive ‘trigger ballot’ process – which meant a two thirds vote was required against the sitting MP before a selection could even take place!
Firmly and democratically selecting the PLP had to be a key change made if the Corbyn movement was to succeed. Mandatory re-selection had to be brought back. But those around Corbyn decided they knew better. Momentum spokespeople came out and said it would not campaign on the issue. But it was a different matter for the members.
Originally, I proposed a policy and campaign around mandatory re-selection at a meeting of Medway Momentum, where it was amended to include a right of recall at any time – then I saw it through Kent Momentum and South East Momentum, which meant it was then passed onto the Momentum National Committee (NC). But the Momentum NC meetings had started to become routinely delayed.
Momentum membership favoured open selection
Elsewhere, a conference of the Northern region of Momentum also backed mandatory re-selection and a poll of Corbyn supports stated it was backed by a large majority. (for those that like polls)
At the 2016 policy conference of UNITE, taking place at the time of the PLP ‘coup’ against Corbyn, they backed mandatory re-selection.
Having cancelled one NC meeting – forcing an unofficial meeting to go ahead anyway from those willing (who made up a majority), and an intervention from John McDonnell, the Momentum National Committee met in Dec 2016, where the mandatory re-selection motion was not heard because of time. There was no time because members, frustrated at Jon Lansman and other leaders of Momentum, attempted to re-elect the leadership of Momentum and were blocked from doing so, thanks to votes from organisations affiliated to Momentum, like Compass (which has backed Liberal Democrats) and Jon Lansman’s blog, Left Futures – which for some reason had a delegate. (it might even have been two).
National founding conference of Momentum cancelled
To avoid having a grassroots organisation that campaigned to make the Labour Party a Liberal-Democrat free zone, Jon Lansman’s Momentum then torched its own grassroots and structures in the “Momentum coup” – including the cancellation of the national founding conference which I was organising and which was sure to pass open selections, being the motion most frequently submitted to the planned conference.
The AWL and others managed to successfully neuter the grassroots conference to carry the fight on in Feb 2017.
Momentum then put forward a model motion to “reform the trigger ballot” for rule changes proposed by CLPs to Labour Party conference in the summer 2017 – following the snap general election. They re-iterated that they would not campaign on mandatory re-selection.
I modified the motion and put it to my CLP. The right wing argued against it, but it was still passed. It also passed in Portsmouth North. At the same time the International CLP put forward a similar motion – and the re-branded “open selection” was born.
Under New Labour, rule changes submitted by CLPs have to wait a year before they are heard at conference, meaning it would be heard until the 2018 Labour conference in Liverpool and not the conference in a few months time in Brighton in 2017. That rule has subsequently been scrapped.
Chris Williamson and the ‘democracy roadshow’
The open selection campaign then began with a dynamic social media campaign led by Labour international. In the summer run-up to the Sept 2018 Labour conference, Labour MP Chris Williamson started a “democracy roadshow” across the country, and meetings held votes backing open selection. Labour MPs who participated in the coup against Corbyn hated it.
UNITE’s Len McCluskey also hated it when a video and subsequent press coverage emerged of Chris Williamson saying that Open Selection will pass at conference because there was so much support from the CLPs and it was UNITE’s official policy to support it.
The Fire Brigades Union also passed mandatory re-selection at their centenary conference. This pressure forced Jon Lansman’s Momentum to be late arrivals to the open selection party. They collected a petition of 50,000 Labour members in support.
But I was very worried about the union vote. An attempt to raise the issue at TUC conference via the pre-conference rally of the national shop stewards network was blocked by the “Socialist Party” who chaired the rally.
A fringe meeting on the eve of Labour conference rallied the members and distributed ‘open selection’ badges. Reps from the Firefighters union, Momentum, Labour international and many others spoke, including myself.
However, at the same time Labour’s NEC and conference arrangements committee met and, in a complicated manoeuvre, set a train in motion that would mean the rule changes on open selection would not be heard. Instead the NEC would propose a “reform the trigger ballot” and use the union leaderships block vote to force it through.
Open selection only lost by 4%
Supporters of open selection caught on and made points of order to warn conference what was happening, but the only way to stop the rule changes being torpedoed, was for the conference to vote down the entire conference agenda!
And we nearly succeeded! We lost by around 4%. With over 90% of CLPs voting with us – but only around 2% of affiliates. The UNITE leadership voted against hearing their own union’s policy – in favour of something opposed to it!
If around 188,000 affiliate delegates (a tiny amount) had sided with us it would have seen the NEC’s manoeuvres defeated and the door to mandatory selection would have been open.
There was a lot of anger at the trade union leaders for their actions – which the union leaders mendaciously attempted to turn into a division between Labour members and trade unionists – despite many of them being one and the same! In truth it was anger against the trade union leaders and other professional committee-goers.
The reformed trigger ballot that was voted through made no change to the PLP. Labour lost the 2019 General Election and Corbyn set out a date to resign and for Labour to elect a new leader
It may seem that the battle for open Selection was finished, potentially along with the Corbyn movement itself. But the energy that it produced has left an imprint – with Richard Burgon running for deputy, and now it seems to be joined by Rebecca Long Bailey (RLB) running for Labour leader, in support of the measures. If this is correct it shows RLB’s campaign has taken note of the need for her to mobilise the members to defeat Keir Starmer – the Liberal’s choice for Labour leader.
Expressing themselves in socialist language
It will be interesting to see how the right wing candidates, including Starmer, who have had to express themselves in socialist language in an attempt to appear credible to the members, respond to this.
If they do not come out to support it, then RLB can use it to show she is for the members and they are against them – and the power of the open selection campaign will worry the Liberals’ choice as they start to fear defeat by not supporting open selection. Open Selection may well find its time has come – despite the vested interests who placed obstacles to stop it succeeding over the last few years.
If so, we will need a movement for socialism to ensure the rule change enables political change. That’s why everyone thinking about leaving Labour should stay and all those who have left should re-join – and having learnt the lessons of Momentum and the trade union leaders failings, we should build a grassroots movement of our own – co-ordinating nationally to secure the changes we need to see.
The fight for socialism through the Labour Party is not over yet. You don’t have to go to every meeting and argue points of order – mud-wrestling with the right wing. Most of the activity needed is about campaigning with communities and trade unions – but the political field of the Labour Party is a place to bring it all together to secure an electoral victory, which will unleash the impetus for the a mass movement for socialism, even if the elected Labour government end up backing down in the face of revolt from the ruling class.
January 22, 2020
