By Ray Goodspeed (Leyton and Wanstead CLP)
This summer, Labour Party members will have the chance to vote in elections to several leading bodies – including the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party itself. It is absolutely essential to get the maximum turnout to vote for the candidates supported by the widest range of left and socialist organisations in the party, mainly those on the “Grassroots” slate.
In particular, it is important to vote for the main “Grassroots Five” NEC candidates for CLP Reps – incumbents Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar and Mish Rahman – together with new candidates, Jess Barnard, the Chair of Young Labour, and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, from JVL (see instructions below for ordering your preference votes!).
Although there does not appear to be any detailed joint policy statement, they are all committed to supporting trade union resistance and they say they are for peace, justice and equality, and against austerity, racism and war. They want to defend public services and address the climate emergency. They are all in favour of maintaining democracy in the party and “a strong voice for members” in selections and policy making and for the restoration of the whip to Jeremy Corbyn
So far, so good, as a bare minimum of agreement, but it raises more questions than answers and falls well short of the socialist ideas and policies put forward by supporters of Left Horizons, of course. However, it is still vital that they receive as high a vote as possible to resist encroachments by the poisonous right-wing mis-named “Labour to Win” faction.
Ballot papers should have already gone out, but there appears to be some delay, caused, they say, by the problems with the membership database. It now looks like the ballots will start to be issued from 1st August [edit – now 3rd August). Ballots were set to close on 19th August – but that too may be delayed. But who knows – watch this space!
Shocking attacks
These internal elections come at a time of the most astonishing contrasts. Out in the real world, working people are facing a level of attacks of their living standards that have not been seen for several decades. Energy bills are have risen by genuinely shocking amounts, and are set to rise even more dramatically again in October. Inflation of 11% is destroying the value of working-class salaries, while the threat of “hire and fire” to worsen wages and working conditions hangs over workers’ heads.
Rents are soaring, job cuts are being imposed, and benefits are nowhere near keeping up with the rising cost of living – which is far in excess of the headline rate of inflation. And all this is on top of over a decade of stagnating or falling wages, benefit freezes and public spending cuts, including to schools and the health service. People are facing not just poverty, but real destitution, even when they have a job!
And while all this is going on the richest in society have seen their wealth and income rise to the stratosphere. Having finally dumped Johnson, the Tory Party is now trying to see which candidate to replace him offers the deepest tax cuts (ie cuts to public spending and even more hand-outs to the super rich). Tory party members are salivating at the prospect of banning strikes or further restricting unions, legalising scab labour, penalising refugees, or whipping up ludicrous culture wars.
And let’s not forget that while the ruling class are fiddling (in all senses of the word) – the world is actually burning. They offer next to nothing to resolve this existential crisis for the planet.
Organised workers’ response
The response to this from the organised working-class movement has been truly uplifting. A wave of strikes not seen for more than 4 or even 5 decades is sweeping through the country, as workers learn again how powerful they can be when they act together. Really valuable concessions have been wrung out of employers. Trade union leaders have become popular cult heroes on social media, while the Tories and bosses feverishly, and so far, unsuccessfully, try to sow division between rail workers from others. Other union leaders find themselves forced into militancy, sometimes rather reluctantly.
And yet, in the fantasy world of the Labour right, the response from Starmer and his leadership clique has been utterly woeful. Only the ability of the Tories to regularly shoot themselves in both feet has saved his embarrassment, and granted him a modest lead in the opinion polls. Instead of policies to inspire voters and give them some hope of a better life we get vacuous gobbledegook stolen from some management theory book of pointless cliches.
Instead of supporting the workers fighting back to protect their standards of life, we get a junior shadow transport minister sacked for attending a rail workers’ picket line and daring to support the idea of pay rises that keep up with inflation! And the bureaucratic attacks, rule-breaking, proscriptions, and expulsions continue in an attempt to crush the last sparks of resistance to a leader who, having dumped his cynically dishonest “ten pledges”, now clearly sees his main enemy as the left of his own party.
Incandescent with rage
Moreover, now that the Forde report has been published (and no doubt already binned by Starmer) many party members will have read it, incandescent with rage, disgusted with its revelations, and determined to not let the guilty people off the hook.
That is why it is essential that those who are revolted by Starmer’s pitiful performance and his ruthless attacks on his own members vote for the left candidates for the NEC. It is true that Starmer currently has a majority, and the left are unlikely to make substantial gains in the CLP section but he will come under pressure from trade union reps on the NEC, even moderate ones, to respond to the surge in working class resistance and the more left NEC members there are, the greater the pressure.
All nine CLP places on the NEC are up for grabs, but because of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, it is important to focus on the first five preference votes on just five main left candidates, and then vote for any other good candidates using the preferences six, seven etc. This gives the best mathematical chance of successfully getting all five elected.
Getting the voting tactics right could also make a big difference to the result. Because of that, the CLPD have produced a useful tool which tells you the best tactical way to order your preferences, depending on your postcode. Just click on https://www.clpd.org.uk/resource/how-should-i-vote/ enter your postcode, and vote in the order set out.
Be disciplined, comrades! And don’t forget to vote for the left slate for all the other positions (see below).
Wide support from the left
The main “Grassroots Five” candidates are supported by the largest and/or most influential socialist groups in the party, including the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) and the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), plus the leading left organisations in Scotland (Campaign for Socialism), and Wales (Welsh Labour Grassroots). They are also supported by Labour Assembly Against Austerity, Northern England Labour Left, and many other left groups.
Horse trading and bad faith
Unfortunately, this election has been beset with the usual secretive horse-trading and factional strife and bad faith between groups. However, this time it has been even more convoluted.
The process of negotiations started back in February. Momentum eventually decided they could not support Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, for unspecified reasons, though this is consistent with previous reluctance to support JVL members being on the slate in other years. Then a week or so ago, Momentum’s National Co-ordinating Group (NCG), announced that they had decided to support all five candidates after all and there was a brief moment of unity.
A few days later, five months into the process, after nominations had closed, and days before voting began, a document was produced focussing on a selection of “equalities” issues including trans rights and “self ID”. This was issued to Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, and she was told she was obliged to sign it before Momentum could endorse her. She refused to do so, as the issues in the document had not been fully discussed by organisations that supported her and had not been part of any previous negotiations or discussions. Momentum then withdrew their support for her, again!
Full solidarity
For the avoidance of any doubt, Left Horizons stands in full solidarity with trans and non-binary workers, including in reforming the process of obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate to include self-ID (ie a formal and binding legal declaration to permanently live as the opposite sex) see here and here.
Of course, this obscure legal document is rarely, if ever, demanded, and has nothing to do with public toilets, changing rooms or women’s refuges, but it has become a dog-whistle for anti-trans campaigners both on the right, and sadly, in sections of the labour movement.
Let’s also be crystal clear that there is not one shred of evidence or any reasonable suspicion that Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi is opposed to either to trans rights generally or to so-called self-ID in particular. Momentum do not allege any different.
Therefore, Momentum’s actions in raising this issue for the first time at the eleventh hour, after months of negotiations and campaigning, after having already decided earlier in the process not to support Naomi, suggests that people are being less than candid about their real motives. Also, these sorts of gestures and ultimatums out of the blue, are no way to behave for any labour movement organisation that wants to be taken seriously.
At the same time, it is obviously the case that even on the left, there is a layer of party members for whom the trans issue is new and unfamiliar and who have concerns that can be weaponised by the pockets of determined and organised transphobes. These ideas need to be confronted, clarified and if necessary, defeated. Sections of the left who seek to constantly dodge the question, agree to differ, or somehow stay neutral in the face of oppression will find this to be untenable as transphobic ideas are increasingly seen in the movement to be unacceptable.
However, the immediate pressing task in the next few weeks is for socialists to win these internal elections and strengthen the resistance to Starmer and his clueless right-wing clique.
Vote for the Grassroots Five and all the other left candidates
Vote for all Left Candidates
Also vote for these candidates for NEC positions
Disabled Members’ Rep – Ellen Morrison
Young Members’ Rep – Lara MacNeill
BAME Rep – Ankunda Matsiko
Welsh Rep – Lynne Jones
In addition to the NEC elections, votes will take place for: –
National Constitutional Committee – which rules on Labour Party disciplinary cases – crucial elections in these obsessively witch-hunting times. Three CLP reps will be elected – please vote for Daniel Blaney, Khaled Moyeed, Cecile Wright.
A list of the left candidates for the many different posts being elected this year is given here
National Policy Forum, elected in regional/national blocks. Full details of all the left National Policy Forum candidates in each nation or region can be found here.
The Young Labour National Committee, by members under 27. The youth wing of the party has been treated shamefully, bullied and harassed, losing control of their social media and starved of resources. The new National Labour Students Committee will also be elected by student members, in a chance to establish a healthy democratic student wing, in contrast to what has so often happened in the past. Here is a full list of left candidates (the Socialist Future slate) in Young Labour and Labour Students
