Discussed and passed by Momentum Wandsworth on 21 September
This meeting notes:
• The reports from attendees at the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party on 19th September 2017.
• The Labour Party Conference will be asked to approve a package of democratic reforms, including the addition of 3 extra NEC places to be elected by the Labour Party’s membership through a One Member One Vote (OMOV) ballot.
• The Labour Party’s membership now sits at 570,000 and continues to grow. Our members have shown themselves to have excellent judgement in choosing Jeremy Corbyn to be our leader twice.
• That in previous elections to the NEC and other bodies a left slate has stood under the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA) banner, backed by Momentum, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD), the Labour Representation Committee, the Scottish Campaign for Socialism (CfS), Welsh Labour Grassroots and other organisations on the left of the party.
• That the Corbyn-supporting left of the Labour Party is a diverse group of hundreds of thousands of members, with a diverse range of views and ideas about the future of our movement.
• That the CfS in Scotland already has open, democratic processes to choose its slates for various internal elections.
This meeting believes:
• That these reforms are a welcome first step to creating the kind of democratic, member-led, bottom-up Labour Party we so badly need but in future years members will need to press hard for much wider-ranging reform to genuinely put power in the hands of our members and the wider labour movement.
• That, while the work of transforming Labour is still incomplete, it’s important that the left put forwards unified slates for important elections to ensure the voices of the majority of members are heard.
• That the left of the Labour Party must live up to its own standards: If we demand democracy within the party then we must have internal democracy within the left too.
• That replacing back-room deals made by right-wing bigwigs and bureaucrats with back-room deals made by left-wing bigwigs and bureaucrats won’t deliver the change we need in Labour.
• That the process to choose the three new candidates for the CLGA/Left slate should be as open and democratic as possible.
• That measures should be put in place to ensure that all future such slates are selected on the most open and democratic basis possible.
This meeting resolves:
• To write to the Momentum NCG and Members’ Council members, the LRC, the CLGA, the CLPD, the CfS, Welsh Labour Grassroots, Red Labour and other relevant organisations calling for a democratic process to select any slate for these three additional places on the NEC.
• To further call for all future slates to be decided democratically by the Labour Left, and for processes to be agreed and put in place in advance to ensure this.
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