Please look through for motions to use or adapt for your Labour Party, union branch or other organisation. Send requests or ideas for motions on particular subjects to theclarionmag@gmail.com
***
Crisis in social care: fight for workers’ rights and public ownership (April 2020)
Notes:
1. The crisis in social care, with the spread of Covid-19 facilitated by privatisation and fragmentation and the suppression of workers’ terms and conditions.
2. That possibly a majority of care workers get only Statutory Sick Pay, if that, and union organisation is relatively weak, in the face of predatory employers. Workers are under pressure to continue working even in unsafe conditions or if they or someone in their household has symptoms. Some have had to turn to foodbanks to survive.
3. That the Tories have evaded dealing with problems about lack of Personal Protective Equipment and testing, and refused to even address the issue of self-isolation/sick pay.
Welcomes:
1. Campaigning by unions on these immediate demands. More campaigning is needed.
2. The new Safe & Equal campaign for the right of all workers to self-isolate on full pay.
3. The initiation of a Care Worker Coronavirus Action Group.
Calls for:
1. Unions and the Labour Party to respond to the crisis by aggressively campaigning for all care workers to get adequate PPE, testing and the right to self-isolate on full pay; by fighting to drive up pay, terms and conditions; and by vocally campaigning for comprehensive public ownership of the sector, both care homes and home care organisations, as a free public service with radically improved funding, standards, pay and conditions and workers’ rights.
2. Councils to follow Salford by ensuring all care workers in their area the right to self-isolate on full pay; and to ensure adequate PPE, testing and medical provision for all care workers.
Resolves:
1. To build links with care workers in our area.
2. To hold an online public meeting and invite speakers from Safe & Equal, the Care Worker Coronavirus Action Group and Reclaim Social Care, which argues for for public ownership.
3. To lobby our council/local councils for the demands set out above.
4. To raise these issues in local Labour Parties.
***
Supporting struggles in the Middle East (February 2020)
***
Motions for June 2019
• Left anti-Brexit motion for Labour conference 2019
• For a Socialist Green New Deal – motion for Labour conference 2019
• For a clear stand against Brexit – motion from Labour for a Socialist Europe
***
Motions for February 2019: see here
***
November 2018: Free our unions – repeal the anti-union laws
This Labour Party notes
1. The increasing number of trade union struggles scuppered by the anti-trade union laws, including recent national ballots over pay by PCS and UCU.
2. That the anti-union laws – not just the 2016 Trade Union Act, but multiple laws going back to 1980 – continuously undermine workers’ ability to organise and campaign. They mean the labour movement is fighting challenges of low pay, insecurity and lack of rights with our hands tied behind our backs.
This Labour Party further notes
1. That the conference 2017 conference voted unanimously to “repeal the Trade Union Act, but also anti-union laws introduced in the 1980s and 90s”. Conference 2015 voted unanimously for the introduction of strong workers’ rights including “strong rights to… strike, picket and take solidarity action”. Conference 2018 voted for the next Labour government to “abolish anti-union laws”.
2. That these policies have not yet fed through into the party’s campaigning.
3. The statement and campaign initiated by Lambeth Unison and supported by a growing number of union branches and organisations, endorsing and elaborating our conference policy and calling for it be put into action. (See below.)
This Labour Party resolves
1. To call for party policy on repealing all the anti-union laws and introducing a strong right to strike to be reflected in the party’s campaigning, and write to the NEC, Leader’s Office and Shadow Chancellor’s Office.
2. To add our endorsement to the statement initiated by Lambeth Unison.
3. To invite a speaker from the campaign.
***
November 2018: Building a united front against racism and fascism
This branch/CLP notes
1. This year has seen the largest mobilisation of far-right forces on the streets of London in decades, with thousands marching under the banner of defending Tommy Robinson, free speech, and scapegoating migrants.
2. Recently released government data shows a 17% surge in hate crime offences in the last year, with “spikes in hate crime following certain events such as the EU referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017”.
3. These developments are part of a global upsurge in the popularity of far-right groups and ideologies, evidenced in the near-certain election of neo-fascist Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, alt-right American leader Steve Bannon building influence in Europe through international networks, far-right pogroms in Chemnitz, and the virulent sexist, chauvinist, and anti-semitic policies of Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Italy’s Mateo Salvini.
4. While Labour has always been a proudly antirascist party in name, its record on mobilising members to oppose the far right on the streets and actively supporting anti-racist organisations has been mixed.
5. John McDonnell has called for a new national anti-racist campaign based in the Labour movement to resist racism and the growth of the far right.
This branch/CLP believes
1. Labour Party members have a responsibility to actively oppose racism in all its forms.
2. Far-right ideas are a menace to the livelihood of migrants, BAME people, women, LGBTQ+ people and other oppressed groups, and constitute a growing threat to socialist projects globally.
3. Fascist street movements are most effectively confronted by direct opposition from self- organised groups based in the working class.
This branch/CLP resolves
1. To mobilise a maximum number of local members for the National Unity Demonstration Against Racism and Fascism on 17th November, and all other upcoming antifascist demonstrations.
2. To prioritise antifascist demonstrations and actions with a stated aim of actively preventing the far right from marching and spreading their oppressive ideas, including supporting the creation of a national stewards organisation to defend our demonstrations and communities from far right violence.
3. To support other CLPs in mobilising members for the same demonstrations, including coordinating joint meeting points where appropriate.
4. To support and engage with Labour Against Racism and Fascism, a Labour Party initiative which is currently developing its aims and activities, and call for urgent action by the Labour Party leadership in building a national campaign.
5. To support local and national initiatives which contribute to a culture of antiracism and antifascism within the Labour movement.
***
November 2018: Motion on the Pittsburgh Synagogue attack
(An amended version of this was passed at Stockton North CLP; this version has been submitted by Faraday Ward to Camberwell and Peckham CLP)
We condemn the terrorist attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, which killed 11 people and injured several others on 27 October 2018.
We note that the alleged perpetrator of this heinous act is reported to have had a long history of antisemitic views and held a deep hatred for Jewish people.
We believe that these murders tragically demonstrate the dangers posed by the growth in antisemitic sentiments and hate speech internationally, which has arisen in a political climate where governments and opportunist politicians have encouraged the scapegoating of minorities. This trend has been reflected in the growth in antisemitic conspiracy theories and a rise in antisemitic incidents and racist hate crime more generally in the UK, as shown in recent reports from the Community Security Trust (CST), Tell Mama UK (‘Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks’) and the Home Office.
We resolve:
• To stand in solidarity with the Jewish community around the world and send our condolences to all those affected by the tragic events in Pittsburgh.
• To recognise that antisemitism exists in society and affirm our belief that such prejudice must be confronted and eradicated wherever it arises.
• To call on the Labour Party to lead the way in opposing antisemitism and fighting racism in all its forms.
• To support political education about antisemitism so that its history, causes, manifestations and effects are better understood in the party and members are confident to challenge it.
• To publish this motion as a statement via our social media outlets.
***
November 2018: Universal Credit crisis and transforming the benefits system
This Labour Party notes:
• The steady stream of increasingly appalling revelations and scandals surrounding cuts to benefits, including those associated with the introduction of ‘Universal Credit’.
• John McDonnell’s pledge to scrap Universal Credit and the party’s announcement of a review of the whole benefits system.
The situation is shameful. Labour must completely reverse the decades-long drive, brutally accelerating since 2010, to make welfare less and less about supporting those in need and more and more stingy, punitive and coercive. Neither Universal Credit nor the existing framework (JSA, ESA, etc) are good. We must redesign benefits in close consultation with recipients, workers and their organisations. This must be part of a wider anti-poverty program, with a goal that by the end of our first term foodbanks disappear.
Labour should clearly commit to and campaign for:
1. Ending the benefit freeze; uprating with inflation or earnings, whichever is higher.
2. Reversing all cuts/reductions; increasing benefits to afford a comfortable, not minimum, income.
3. Entitlement conditions that are straightforward, inclusive and available to all, including migrants (scrap ‘No recourse to public funds’).
4. Paying benefits for all children and dependents.
5. Abolishing all sanctions.
6. Scrapping Work Capability and similar assessments.
7. Relevant health issues being addressed using medical professionals with appropriate knowledge of individuals’ conditions and disabilities.
8. Delivery by paid public servants via networks accessible to everyone, including provision of face-to face support for all who need it. Reversing DWP cuts and privatisation.
We agree to formally submit this policy to the party’s review and call on other CLPs and affiliates to submit similar.
***
November 2018: Decriminalise sex work
(Background briefing here)
This Labour Party branch/CLP notes
1. Sex work takes place via phone, webcam, stripping, pole-dancing, modelling and porn and from escort agencies, flats, streets, parks, saunas, massage parlours, peep shows, BDSM venues, private parties and home.
2. Selling sex itself is not illegal, but many laws criminalise associated activities that leave sex workers vulnerable and deprived of basic rights.
3. When sex workers receive criminal records for offences relating to their work, it makes it even harder for them to find other employment, keeping them in the industry.
4. Sex workers are increasingly organising alongside other workers within the trade union movement.
5. A number of international human rights organisations support the full decriminalisation of sex work including Amnesty International, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women; Human Rights Watch; UNAIDS; the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health; Transgender Europe; ILGA-Europe and the World Health Organisation.
This Labour Party branch/CLP believes
1. Sex work is work. While it is gendered, stigmatised and often precarious work, it is work that pays the rent, bills, and puts food on the table for thousands of families across the UK.
2. Criminalisation makes sex work dangerous. Current laws means that sex workers are unable to legally work together to increase safety, and are discouraged from reporting crimes committed against them for fear of being arrested themselves.
3. People have the right to work in the sex industry without threat of criminal sanctions or police harassment.
4. Instead of attempting to eradicate the sex industry through further empowering the police and immigration enforcement, we need other workers to support sex workers in their demands for safety, labour rights and dignity at work.
5. Decriminalisation means sex workers can report suspected cases of trafficking to police without self incrimination. Anti-trafficking and anti-slavery law must not obliterate the right of adult individuals to gain livelihoods selling sex.
This Labour Party branch/CLP resolves
1. To support and campaign for the full decriminalisation of sex work.
2. To support the unionisation of sex workers and to respect their demands for labour rights and to improve their working conditions, including occupational safety and health.
3. To campaign against any attempt to introduce the criminalisation of clients, often referred to as the Nordic Model, or any law criminalising the advertisement of sexual services (similar to FOSTA/SESTA) in the UK.
4. To forward this motion on to the National Labour Policy Forum.
***
Model motions for October 2018: 1. Supporting workers’ struggles; 2. Climate change
McStrike! Supporting workers in struggle
On 4 October workers in the fast food industry – at McDonald’s, Wetherspoons, TGI Fridays, Deliveroo and Uber Eats – struck for better wages, union recognition and secure employment. This is potentially extremely significant. Against the grim background of austerity, insecurity and stagnant union membership it is part of a counter-trend which also includes, eg, cinema workers and cleaning and facilities workers at a range of institutions.
These workers, many of them young and many migrants, should be congratulated for their bravery and determination in standing up to hugely rich and powerful employers.
Conference 2017 called for an active Labour campaign supporting workers’ struggles. While we welcome leadership’s backing for the 4 October strike, such a campaign has not yet emerged. We will write to the NEC and leader’s office asking about progress. We ask the EC to discuss how our CLP can more actively support workers’ struggles, and report back for discussion. Meanwhile we will organise a street stalling using Bakers’ Union ‘Hungry for Justice’ materials.
We strongly endorse conference 2018’s view that “stagnant wages, crumbling services and the housing crisis” are caused by “the government and employers making the rich richer at working people’s expense, and not immigration”. Struggles uniting workers regardless of origin are needed; migrant workers are often in the forefront of such struggles.
Labour has a responsibility to change the anti-union legal framework which blocks and undermines workers’ struggles. We strongly welcome policies passed at the 2015, 2017 and 2018 conferences to repeal Thatcher, Major and Cameron’s anti-union laws and replace them with strong legal rights for workers and unions, including a strong right to strike. We will ask the NEC and leader’s office to ensure this is campaigned for and included in the manifesto.
(293 words including title)
Urgent and radical action on climate change
We note with grave concern
• the new UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report arguing we have little over a decade to reduce emissions to a level which can prevent runaway global warming.
• the rise of a Brazilian far right committed to accelerating the destruction of the rain forest.
• the imprisonment of three non-violent anti-fracking activists in Lancashire. (We send solidarity; call for their release and for the party nationally to do the same; and affirm our opposition to fracking.)
We endorse the policy submitted to this year’s conference:
“Capitalism’s fossil fuel reliance is subjecting the planet to disasters… Radical international action is needed: we must take a lead by implementing democratic public ownership and planning for a ‘just transition’. We can slash emissions while raising living standards: creating millions of useful, public, high paid, unionised jobs, and transforming environmentally damaging ones through reskilling and planning.
“We commit to:
• A national climate service/strategy, manufacturing, installing and training in renewable technologies, facilitating a rapid shift away from fossil fuels.
• Nationalising energy supply/generation and the Big Six to create an integrated and democratic national energy system.
• Nationalising public transport, with bus, rail and tram part of an expanded and democratic system.
• A public program of insulation and building zero-carbon council housing.
• Ending fracking, fossil fuel extraction and airport expansion.
“The party will encourage CLPs to collaborate with climate change and environmental campaigners; work with unions to build links and campaigns with workers in relevant industries; produce model materials to help.”
We welcome the commitment to create 400,000 “good jobs” tackling emissions and climate change. To meet the scale of the challenge, those jobs must be the start of a larger program. It is also essential that they are public sector jobs in publicly-owned and democratically-run structures, on the lines set out above.
We will mobilise for the 1 December Together for Climate Justice demonstration.
(319 words including title)
***
MOTION OF THE MONTH FOR JUNE 2018: FOR A FULLY COMPREHENSIVE, LOCAL AUTHORITY-RUN, WELL-FUNDED SCHOOLS SYSTEM
This Labour Party notes that the government continues to promote fragmentation and privatisation of the schools system through academies and free schools, with a culture of competition based on ever-more onerous testing and Ofsted inspections. This is bad for students, for school workers and for society. Even the CBI says that “UK education policy is turning schools into exam factories, squeezing out creativity and the joy of learning”.
Our commitment to a National Education Service is welcome, but needs further development, including in this area.
We note our manifesto pledge to “ensure that all schools are democratically accountable [so] that they serve the public interest and their local communities.” We believe this requires a fully comprehensive system in which all schools are local authority-run.
We also pledged to “abandon plans to reintroduce baseline assessments and launch a commission to look into curriculum and assessment, starting by reviewing Key Stage 1 and 2 SATs.” This is the least that is necessary given the alarming rise in children under 11 (as young as three!) referred by schools for mental health support.
We believe that “public”/private and grammar schools are also incompatible with an egalitarian and democratic education system serving the many, not the few.
We call for the next Labour government to
1. Immediately stop all academisations and the opening of any new academies or free schools.
2. Quickly put all state schools into full local authority control.
3. Quickly reverse all school cuts, and increase funding.
4. Abolish “public”/private schools by taking them into local authority control.
5. Ensure all schools are comprehensive, secular community schools, open to all.
6. Immediately abolish Ofsted, all SATs tests and league tables.
7. Restore national pay bargaining for teachers, implement the National Education Union’s maximum class size demands, and introduce a national Workload Charter.
***
MOTION OF THE MONTH FOR MARCH/APRIL 2018: LABOUR PARTY AUTISM/NEURODIVERSITY MANIFESTO
John McDonnell explains why this is important:
“I was proud to convene the first meeting of our members who have drafted the Autism/Neurodiversity Manifesto. This represents a significant breakthrough in promoting equality in our community and deserves out support.”
We welcome the drafting of a specific Labour manifesto on Autism/Neurodiversity. We note that this process has been overseen by a team of neurodivergent Labour Party members and supporters convened by John McDonnell MP, and has had input from trade unions and campaign groups.
We note that autistic, dyslexic, and dyspraxic people, and people with attention deficit disorders, Tourette’s, obsessive-compulsive disorders and other neurodivergent conditions experience a great deal of hostility, distress and disadvantage in our society, and that strong Labour policies on this issue can make a real difference to people’s lives.
We support the draft Manifesto’s core principles of the social model of disability; the neurodiversity approach; opposition to austerity; socialism, democracy and solidarity; and ‘nothing about us without us’.
We welcome the Manifesto’s policies, including commitments to stop and reverse cuts to services; provide access to diagnosis/recognition for all; fund and organise education to meet neurodiverse needs; place a legal requirement on employers to make workplaces and working conditions more equal and accessible and less hostile; and add ‘neurological status’ as a tenth protected characteristic under the Equality Act.
We urge the Labour Party to adopt this Manifesto as its policy and to campaign vigorously to promote it.
***
Motion passed in Noel Park ward to go to Hornsey and Wood Green CLP, February 2018
STOP BREXIT
This branch notes
1. Research commissioned by Queen Mary University London shows that 78% of Labour members are in favour of Brexit being stopped or a referendum on the final deal.
2. That Labour policy on Brexit remains unclear, including on the issue of free movement between the EU and the UK.
3. The Tories have refused to debate the details of Brexit and are determined to proceed with it under all circumstances.
Believes
1. Brexit will be a disaster for working class people. Only a strong Labour Party that seeks to shift power from the rich to the working class can fight to stop it.
2. Labour’s vision for Europe should be a positive one of solidarity and raising of living standards for working class people.
Resolves
1. Labour should come out in favour of stopping Brexit and challenge austerity on a cross-European basis.
2. To call for a referendum on the final deal with the policy of remaining in the EU if the deal is rejected.
***
Motion passed in Evelyn ward to go to Lewisham Deptford CLP, February 2018
SOLIDARITY WITH HARINGEY
We were extremely disappointed to see that Steve Bullock [Lewisham’s outgoing directly elected executive mayor] had signed the letter from a number of Labour local authority leaders condemning the NEC for its vote to raise concerns about the Haringey Development Vehicle “redevelopment” plan.
In general our council leaders have been pretty quiet in terms of protesting against cuts to local authority budgets and virtually silent in terms of demanding funding is restored, let alone campaigning for it. It is therefore even more odd to see many of them so vocally speaking out to condemn the NEC for seeking to deter a disastrous scheme which aroused an entire community against it and become a major embarrassment for the party.
We ask Steve to reconsider his position. We send our full solidarity to the comrades in Haringey Labour who played a central role in defeating the HDV.
We call on the whole party to vocally demand and campaign for the full restoration of the funding local authorities have lost since 2010.
***
MOTION OF THE MONTH FOR FEBRUARY 2018
DEFEND PENSIONS! SUPPORT THE UCU
Notes
1. That following an 88pc yes vote on a 58pc turnout, the University and Colleges Union has announced 14 days of strike action at 61 universities in defence of their Universities Superannuation Scheme pensions.
2. That under the changes proposed by Universities UK a typical lecturer will lose about 30-50pc of their pension income, which could amount to about £150,000.
Believes
1. That education should be a public good: we must defend it against cuts and austerity as part of fighting for a fully public, democratic, free education system.
2. That all workers should be entitled to a decent pension. We need levelling up, not levelling down: we must defend all existing pensions against cuts.
3. That the UCU’s fight is a crucial one that the whole labour movement, Labour Party and student movement must rally round.
Resolves
1. To support and publicise UCU’s struggle, including by
– Strengthening our links with local UCU and student activists.
– Encouraging and organising our members to attend picket lines and protests.
– Calling on our MP and councillors to use their platform to support the strike, as well attending picket lines and protests.
– Writing to the local press.
– Sending protests to Universities UK and [local university management/s]
2. To call for a clear public commitment from the leadership that if this attack goes through the next Labour government will bring every means to bear to force Universities UK and USS to reverse it.
For more information on the strike including university by university ballot results, see
https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/9242/UCU-announces-14-strike-dates-at-61-universities-in-pensions-row
***
MOTION OF THE MONTH FOR JANUARY 2018
SUPPORT WORKERS AND THE LEFT IN IRAN
This CLP notes the popular protests which have erupted in Iran since 28 December.
These protests seem politically varied, but two strands are clear: demands for democratic rights and freedoms and demands for better living standards.
We stand in solidarity with those in Iran fighting for the right of workers and others to organise, for higher living standards, for a democratic republic and free elections. We oppose the repression currently raging and call for the release of political prisoners. We oppose Western military threats and economic sanctions.
We ask our EC to discuss how we can make links with Iranian working-class and left activists fighting for these goals; and the NEC to do likewise. We call on the party and its leadership to make vocal and unambiguous solidarity with such forces.
(147 words inc title)
Supporting note (if you/your CLP don’t mind longer motions you can include this or parts of it in the text)
The Islamic Republic of Iran, which emerged from the religious fundamentalist hijacking of the revolution which overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1978-9, is a brutal regime in which workers’ organisations and the left are very extensively suppressed. Workers risk their lives by engaging in the most basic forms of organising. The regime also represses women, LGBT people, national minorities, etc. Under cover of anti-imperialist rhetoric, it engages in blood-soaked imperialist interventions, eg in Syria.
An important cause of the protests is the drive to privatise, cut subsidies, push down living standards, etc, which the regime has been engaged in for years, enriching capitalists and state officials at the expense of the mass of Iran’s people.
In recent days the regime has arrested thousands, many of them left-wing activists. At least three have already died in prison.
***
MOTION OF THE MONTH FOR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017
SUPPORT THE ROYAL MAIL WORKERS
Notes
1. That Royal Mail workers have voted 89.1 percent, on a 73.7 percent turnout of the 110,000 Communication Workers’ Union members in the company, to hold national strikes to push back the company’s drive for an increasingly casualised and hard-driven workforce. Their first strike, for 48 hours, will take place from 19 October.
2. That the CWU is seeking to defend its members’ pensions, prevent a later working day, win a 35 hour week with no loss of pay to spread the benefits of automation, defend union agreements and win a decent pay rise.
Believes
1. That this is an important dispute, in which the Royal Mail workers will need support from the whole labour movement.
2. Labour and other unions should mobilise at every level to support them, linking this to a vocal and active public campaign for renationalisation of Royal Mail.
3. That a renationalised Royal Mail should be democratically reorganised to benefit its customers and workforce, along the sort of lines advocated by Jeremy Corbyn in his first leadership election and in his speech to this year’s Labour conference.
Resolves
1. To circulate this resolution to all members and send it to the NEC.
2. To ask our MP and councillors to make clear statements in support of the Royal Mail workers.
3. To invite a CWU activist to speak at our next meeting.
4. To approach other labour movement organisations to organise a local solidarity meeting with a view to organising ongoing campaigning in support of the Royal Mail workers.
5. To organise visits to local picket lines.
6. To take a solidarity photo at this meeting.
***
Building on the general election
This Labour Party notes
1. That on 8 June we won nearly 13m votes, almost as many as 1997 and otherwise the highest since 1966. We gained almost as much as in 1945, with the biggest proportional increase since 1922.
2. That we are rapidly gaining support and members.
… believes
1. That this was possible because of our expanded membership and a manifesto which inspired millions, particularly young people.
2. That the Tories are weakened, but they will not fall automatically. To oust them we need active campaigning to oppose their plans and fight for our policies to strengthen workers’ rights, tax the rich, restore social provision, cut inequality, and expand public ownership and democratic control.
3. That we need to
• draw more members and supporters into activity and campaigning; build local Young Labour groups.
• use this enthusiasm to renew trade unionism, particularly among young workers, building on inspiring struggles like the Picturehouse Living Wage strike.
• ensure a democratic party in which members are treated with respect, including by ending the arbitrary and unjust exclusion of left-wing activists and suspension of local parties.
• oppose plans for a hard Brexit, defend free movement.
… resolves
1. To congratulate Jeremy Corbyn and the leadership, and call for our PLP to get behind them.
2. To campaign on the above basis, supporting and mobilising for demonstrations, protests and picket lines.
3. To launch local campaigning for a £10/h minimum wage, banning zero hours contracts and strong workers’ rights.
4. To help young members set up a constituency YL group.
***
Support the Derby school support workers!
Passed by Broxtowe CLP’s GC on 23 February
This motion backing the the Derby school support workers was passed at Broxtowe (Nottinghamshire) Constituency Labour Party’s GC meeting on 23 February. Please pass a similar motion in your ward, CLP, union branch or other organisation; make a donation; and call on Labour’s NEC to take action.
This Constituency Party gives its full support to the Derby Teaching Assistants after 57 days of strike action in their dispute with the Labour City Council to stop wages being reduced by up to 25% and their contracts being rewritten.
This Constituency Party is outraged and condemns the actions of Derby City Council.
We recognise that Derby City has faced massive cuts due to the Tory Government; however it should be taking the fight to them, not attacking workers’ pay. It should also be working with Unison about the matter.
We call on other Labour Constituencies and local MPs to do the same as we are and ask that the Party’s NEC condemn the Council’s actions which are bringing the Party into disrepute and damaging the Party’s electoral credibility amongst the low paid in this region.
• The CLP also donated £500 to the dispute fund.
***
Stop cuts and growing divisions in education
This motion was passed at Tooting CLP in March 2017
This CLP notes:
That schools in England and Wales face cuts of up to £3bn by 2019-2020.
Wandsworth will see cuts of £18m and with the rest of London being targeted, as London schools received extra funding during the last Labour government, to improve, what was at the time, a problem of underfunding.
Approximately 5% of local authority schools are in budget deficit now and schools locally are already making cuts.
The cuts are taking place at the same time that a new generation of grammar schools are being funded.
As 43,000 teachers left the profession (or 1 in 10 teachers) in one year, the highest level in more than a decade, this underfunding will very probably lead to many more being forced out and leave an extra burden on an already overburdened profession.
The extremely successful leafleting campaign of Wandsworth schools initiated by the Labour Group of Councillors and the petition launched by our MP.ore teachers
This CLP believes:
That many of the improvements seen in (some) schools over the last couple of decades are under threat if cuts are made.
That the Labour Party should work with the education trade unions, where applicable and possible to protect public services from cuts and privatisation.
That a fully funded, publicly provided, democratically owned, comprehensive education service is a goal for any Labour government.
This CLP resolves:
To campaign against all cuts to school budgets and seek to build links with the trade unions and campaigns, friendly to the Labour Party locally, in achieving this aim.
To work closely with the Labour Group on Wandsworth Council, Rosena’s Office and Battersea and Putney CLPs in developing and implementing the campaign.
To call on the Wandsworth Council to lobby their government to drop these cuts to Wandsworth and London schools and instead learn from the “turn around” in many London schools due to the extra funding initiated by the last Labour Government and spend equivalent money in the rest of the country (where a shortfall exists) to bring these schools up to the levels achieved in London.
To call on Wandsworth Council to facilitate, in collaboration with schools leaders and the teaching unions, the creation of a Fair Workload Charter for teachers in schools and encourage local schools to sign up to it.
To encourage local Young Labour activists to participate in the campaign and engage with school students.
To oppose new grammar schools, free schools and academies and campaign for well resourced, adequately funded, non-academically selected, locally managed schools.
***
Defend migrants’ rights and freedom of movement
… notes
1. Growing agitation against migrants, from racist street violence to increasingly “acceptable” discourse from politicians.
… believes
1. That Labour should be the party of all workers in the UK, wherever they were born.
2. That giving ground to anti-immigration views will only strengthen the nationalist right further.
3. That immigration is not the cause of stagnating wages, services stretched to breaking point or the housing crisis. Deliberate policies on behalf of the government and employers are.
3. That migrant workers have been at the forefront of many inspiring struggles to improve the situation of precarious and low-paid workers in Britain.
3. That we must combine tactfully but firmly challenging the idea that immigration is a problem with bold pro-working class policies that can win support for an agenda of solidarity and hope against the dominant agenda of scapegoating and fear.
… resolves
1. To celebrate the role of migrant workers in the labour movement. Labour should make a big effort to get migrant workers, students, etc, to join.
2. To call for the party to
• stand strong and fight to defend and extend freedom of movement and migrants’ rights.
• fight hard to protect migrants’ rights, workers’ rights, social provision and environmental protections from the attacks on them that the Tories’ Brexit plans will involve.
• campaign boldly to unite communities to win increased resources in order to guarantee decent homes, services, jobs and workers’ rights for all.