Ann Black’s report from the 23 July 2024 meeting of Labour’s National Executive tells us:

“Some members argued that the guidance on contemporary motions was unduly restrictive, limiting them to events after July 4th, but Parliamentary Labour Party representatives said that CLP delegates do not want big arguments or new policies”.

However, the NEC withdrew its previous statement that the motions must be on issues that cannot have been considered by the National Policy Forum. That restriction is now lifted.

But already:

In one CLP, the chair barred all motions submitted for conference from discussion in the CLP on the grounds that they were “out of order”. Even at the worst of the previous period of the rule that motions must be “contemporary”, CLP chairs left such “ruling out” to the Conference Arrangements Committee, and attempted no such “pre-censorship”.

In another CLP, a motion for decriminalisation of abortion, citing events since 5 July, was passed, but with many members seeming resigned to it being ruled out of order.

The “contemporary motions” rule is slippery. At times it has been used to rule hundreds of motions out of order; at other times, motions get to conference floor with little more trouble than adding a token reference to recent events.

Ann Black’s report indicates that this year the Labour Party apparatus is set on using the rule to exclude anything that might generate “big argument”.

Two conclusions follow.

CLPs should be bold about submitting motions which comply with any sensible interpretation of the rule but do raise “big arguments”. Even the current Labour regime will feel embarrassed and under pressure if it ends up ruling out almost all the motions submitted.

Affiliated unions should pay attention. In recent years, unions have pressed the Labour leadership on worker and union rights (the “New Deal”), but, as a tacit or explicit quid-pro-quo, have been quiet about other issues, even those of most urgent interest to union and working-class households such as the two-child benefit cap and the NHS.

The unions have seen leadership moves to silence the CLPs before: in 1997, with the Partnership in Power rule changes, and in 2007, with Gordon Brown’s move to abolish motions to conference altogether. Each time the unions eventually came round to restoring CLP rights, at least partially – with the 2003 rule change which restored a CLP say in conference debates after 1997, with the 2009 rule change which restored motions after 2007, and with the rule change in the Ed Miliband years which enabled conference to “refer back” sections of a National Policy Forum report.

The unions need to watch out for the new drive to suppress CLP voices.

Ann Black’s report also comments on Labour’s use of centralised control of IT to stop Labour members doing election work in some constituencies (reckoned safe), with the aim of forcing them to work instead in more marginal “target” seats.

No amount of such manipulation of members, Ann Black comments, will “move them en masse 50 miles [or more] down the road. Instead, some did nothing, and will do less when we need them in future. Local parties particularly resented losing access to [centrally-controlled IT for campaigning] without warning, even when they were fully meeting their twinning obligations.

“One CLP officer, prevented from organising any polling day activity, reported 25 members who were over 80 and would sit outside polling stations, but not make three-hour round trips…

“Some CLPs kept local activity below the radar, and even won through their own enterprise without party IT tools…”

New deadlines:

for CLP delegates (to women’s and general conf) and NEC etc. nominations noon, 31 July
for women’s conference motions, 21 August
for general conference motions, Wednesday 12 Sep.

Women’s conference is 21 Sep, general conference 22-25 Sep, in Liverpool.

See below for suggested texts from LLI which you can adapt and a text from the Labour Campaign for Free Movement.

This year the rules once again require that motions be “contemporary” (meaning about things after 5 July).

Originally CLPs were also told that motions could not cover things already “considered” in NPF (or NEC) reports.

That restriction has been lifted. But even the remaining “contemporary” requirement is slippery. In the Ed Miliband era it was used to rule out hundreds of motions; in the early Corbyn years, less so. We have to try at least to give our texts a chance of getting through the net.

As usual, rules also require that motions be no more than 250 words “only on one subject” (that’s a slippery requirement, too), and not on “organisational matters”.

Those constraints, and an estimate that they are likely to be imposed more sharply this year than in the past, shape the wordings suggested below. Both texts are less than 250 words, to give you some leeway. We will update the texts as and when more “contemporary” events allow.

---

Abortion rights

Conference notes:

1. The report on 17 July in Marie-Claire magazine that “Katie”, a woman who took abortion pills not knowing how far advanced her pregnancy was, faces trial this year.
2. The joint letter to the Home Secretary on 19 July from RCOG, BPAS, FRSH, and MSI Reproductive Choices, calling for urgent introduction in England of safe access zones round abortion clinics in line with March 2023 legislation
3. Our National Policy Forum stated that “Labour believes that abortion is an essential part of health care which is highly regulated and should not be subjected to custodial sanctions. Labour will provide parliamentary time for free votes on modernising abortion law to ensure women do not go to jail for getting an abortion at a vulnerable time”, but left for further consideration how that modernisation would be done.
4. Current law, from 1861, still allows for women to be jailed for getting late abortions
5. Diana Johnson MP’s amendment to remove such criminal sanctions fell with the calling of the General Election on 22 May and the consequent abandonment of the Criminal Justice Bill
6. France’s vote in March 2024 to write the right to abortion into its constitution
7. The Scottish Parliament’s vote, with Labour support, in June 2024 to introduce safe access zones around abortion clinics.

Conference therefore calls for speedy action to decriminalise abortion; to ensure that abortion provision is readily available to those who need it as other health care is; and to implement safe zones around abortion clinics.

246 words

Raising taxes to fund the NHS

Conference notes:

• On 17 July, NHS Greater Manchester formally accepted “enforcement undertakings” from NHS England.

• On 11 July the Doctors’ Association UK wrote to the Darzi review demanding “a commitment from NHSE and the government to significantly uplift core funding and continue to do so in line with inflation”.

• On 22 July a Labour official told the FT that the condition of public finances inherited from the Tories is “much, much worse that we thought it was going to be”.

• On 9 July HMRC reported “continued evidence of a recovery in numbers of non-domiciled taxpayers since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

• On 7 June Tax Justice UK identified ten tax reforms, outside raising the main income tax, VAT, etc. rates, which would raise £60 billion a year for public services.

• Our National Policy Forum report stated that Labour will “tax fairly”, but left for further consideration the detail of how to do that, in an era of rising inequality

• Increased public investment is an essential lever for growth such as will bring tax revenues, but it requires funds upfront.

• Taxes on wealth and capital gains would affect few ordinary-income households, and make the tax system fairer.

Conference therefore calls for such tax rises focused on the wealthy to fund restoring the NHS and other public services.

(215 words)

Labour Campaign for Free Movement template motion

For a fair and humane immigration policy 

Conference notes the government’s commitment, outlined in the King’s Speech on 17^th July, to introduce a Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill; a Migration Advisory Committee report on 16^th July which highlighted exploitation of Seasonal Workers; and reports on 15^th July of protests by refugees living on the Bibby Stockholm.

The Tories gave the UK an inhumane, regressive border regime, seeking to scapegoat migrants for the misery caused by austerity and deregulation. Restricting migrant rights makes people more precarious, undermining all workers’ power to push back against exploitation.

The 2023 NPF report commits Labour to conduct “a full review of the “hostile environment”. In reviewing the Hostile Environment, Labour must begin by reversing the legacy of Tory cruelty. This means going further than the King’s Speech.

Before conference 2025, Labour will:

• repeal the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024, Illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and Immigration Acts 2014 and 2016
• guarantee safe and legal routes for asylum seekers
• give asylum seekers day-one rights to work, education, social security and family reunion
• abolish “no recourse to public funds” and NHS charges

Before the next general election, Labour will:

• level up domestic workers’ rights
• grant all UK residents equal voting rights
• end immigration raids, detention and deportations
• introduce a simple process for all residents to gain permanent residency
• end “double sentencing”
• pursue agreements with other countries giving rights to travel, live, work and study without a visa

Click here: https://labourleftint.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/0f486-llige24.pdf

For motions and texts including an updated “template” following the Labour leadership’s tardy and muffled shift to backing a ceasefire, click here.

Based on a motion passed by Sheffield Heeley CLP in June 2023, but abbreviated to keep short (Islington North CLP, for example, has a 200-word limit on motions) and to allow room for updating in light of the votes on amendments to the Criminal Justice Bill.

---

We believe:

Dealing with abortion within criminal law restricts and stigmatises both those who request an abortion and the healthcare professionals who provide that care.

• In addition, policy barriers to safe abortion include underfunded services, the requirement in legislation that approval must be given by other people or institutions, limits on when during pregnancy an abortion can take place.

• Social reasons for women delaying seeking services include lack of recognition of pregnancy, family or relationship breakdown, domestic violence, sexual assault or rape, or denial of pregnancy due to social fears. Later abortion disproportionately involves teenage or vulnerable women.

• Such barriers can lead to critical delays in accessing treatment and increase risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatisation, and health complications.

We further believe:

• Nobody should face prison for a decision about their own body and health care.

• Abortion should be considered as a healthcare procedure.

• Abortion should be available on demand as early as possible and as late as necessary.

We call on Labour to commit to:

Decriminalisation of abortion provision, as pledged in our 2019 manifesto.

This branch notes the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza and the increase in settler violence in the West Bank. This branch opposes the war and occupation and supports a political settlement based on equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, including an equal right to self-determination.

This branch further notes:

• The work of Standing Together (Naqef-Ma’an/Omdim be’Yachad), Israel’s grassroots Arab-Jewish social movement, which fights against war, occupation, and racism, and for social justice and equality.
• The establishment of the UK Friends of Standing Together network, aiming to promote and build support for Standing Together’s work in the UK.

This branch believes that social change within Israel itself is vital for winning lasting equality and justice in Israel/Palestine, and that we should directly support the work of those fighting for this.

This branch therefore resolves:

• To support the UK Friends of Standing Together network and invite a speaker from the network, and from Standing Together itself, to a future meeting
• To make a donation of [£] to Standing Together
• To circulate the UK Friends of Standing Together e-newsletter to members

The Tories are talking about tax cuts to be covered by projected huge social spending cuts in the coming years.

Here is a text being put in Islington South CLP which you might adaptg.

We note the talk of Jeremy Hunt announcing tax cuts in the forthcoming Budget, to try to regain votes for the Tories, and to be “paid for” by further sharp spending cuts projected for when the Tories are no longer in office.

We note further the comment from the Institute for Government that “current spending plans are a fantasy. The deterioration in performance that they imply – particularly in the criminal justice system and local government – would likely lead any government to rapidly abandon them”.

We call on the Labour Party leadership not to get caught in this trap, and honestly to advocate increased taxes on the rich and big business to enable the repair and improvement of public services”

Some of us have made submissions along the lines below at Momentum’s motions portal for its online convention on 10 March 2024 (click here to register for the convention).

Two “strategic priority” submissions are listed. The convention is not limited to deciding just two or three strategic priorities, and we trust others will make submissions for worker-led green conversion of economic life, and revival of Labour Party democracy, as priorities. We have submitted “reverse Brexit”, and housing, as priorities, because we want to be double-sure they get on the agenda. Brexit is a big issue for us, since we trace our roots to the Labour For a Socialist Europe movement; and housing was one of the foremost issues at 2022 and 2023 Labour conference winning many motions from CLPs and yet excluded from the conference floor because the priorities ballots were swung towards prioritising issues where composites would be blander and less controversial.

Campaigns

Title

Tax the rich to rebuild the NHS!

Summary

This would be a campaign to mobilise people in CLPs and affiliated unions for pressure on an incoming Labour government (and the Labour leadership in the run-up to the general election). The aim: get Labour to commit to, and carry through, higher taxes on the rich and big business to fund rebuilding the NHS.

It would involve joint work with groups like Keep Our NHS Public; motions to CLPs and to union conferences and to Labour conference 2024 (if held); lobbying MPs; Momentum efforts to mobilise for and organise contingents (with banners, placards, etc.) on pro-NHS demonstrations and NHS workers’ picket lines; social media output from Momentum to spread the message.

How contribute?

The first of Momentum’s stated aims is “to work for the election of a socialist Labour government”. Adequate health is a precondition for everything, and so the most minimal of minimal definitions of socialism must include social provision of healthcare for everyone. With escalated waiting lists, the NHS is falling short of that. With this campaign, Momentum can both politically educate, and by showing itself willing and able to mobilise resources for urgent political need, “grow our membership and the Party, by reaching out to convince people of our purpose”.

Strategic priorities

Title

Reversing Brexit

Summary

Brexit is by no means “done”. Full border controls on imports from the EU to the UK have been postponed to 31 October 2024, even if the Tories are still in office then and do not postpone further. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement of 2020 must be reviewed five years after its entry into force. The provisions for Northern Ireland are unstable. The Tories pose a standing threat of a bonfire of regulations derived from the EU.

Most Labour supporters want Brexit reversed. This would be a campaign to help them find a voice, both for specific measures (e.g. restore free movement between EU and UK, rejoin Single Market) and for the general aim of reversing Brexit. It would involve motions in CLPs and at conferences, Momentum mobilisation for and participation (with banners and placards) on “Rejoin EU” demonstrations, joint work with groups like Another Europe is Possible.

How contribute?

Momentum’s second stated principle is “internationalism and a movement that works cooperatively with its allies across the world for socialism and peace”. Our commitments include “support social struggles and movements and act as a bridge, channelling their demands into the Labour Party”. This campaign would contribute to restoring full rights to workers who migrate across Europe and to unifying struggles to “level up” workers’ rights and conditions across Europe.

Title

Good, affordable low-emissions housing for all

Summary

As the Labour Campaign for Council Housing states: a “large scale council housing programme… is critical for resolving the homelessness crisis”. This requires “end Right to Buy, as in Scotland and Wales, to stop the loss of stock”, an increase in funds “available for building or acquiring council housing”, and “funding Housing Revenue Accounts adequately to improve the quality of homes”. It would allow “an emergency programme for decarbonisation of all council homes”. Many CLPs submitted motions along such lines at Labour conferences 2022 and 2023, but saw housing pushed of the agenda. This campaign would involve working with LCCH and others to push housing up Labour agendas both nationally and locally, by educational work and by submitting motions, campaigning in priorities ballots, and lobbying MPs and councillors for support.

How contribute?

Momentum’s principles commit to “a democratic economy in which… key… services are owned and controlled by the public and local communities” and to recognising that “climate change is the biggest challenge of our times”. This campaign will help to “support social struggles and movements and act as a bridge, channelling their demands into the Labour Party” and to develop Momentum local groups active on housing issues locally.

Constitutional amendment

Delete existing 16.1-16.3.

Add a new 16.1, and renumber accordingly:

16.1. Momentum shall organise a biennial in-person Convention. Delegates to the Convention shall comprise:

(i) Any eligible Momentum member that registers to attend a minimum of one week before the Convention

(ii) Delegates from affiliated trade unions.

The Convention shall have the power to debate and decide on policy and campaign and strategic priorities for the organisation; and to debate and vote on constitutional amendments which, subject to the conditions of Rules 16.5 and 16.6, will then go to a ballot of all Momentum members for approval or rejection as laid out in Rule 11.5 (ii).

Explication

What is Momentum’s policy? Who decides it? Every single organisation in the labour movement – every union, most factions and the party itself – has a regular conference, usually annual, and there is a reason for this.