https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85160880793 or http://bit.ly/ukr-lli
Eventbrite:
https://www.facebook.com/events/504336014492725
Meeting with the Ukrainian Solidarity Campaign, left-wing activists from within Ukraine, and Julie Ward (former Labour MEP), recently returned from a visit to Ukraine.
As new towns (Chesterfield, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Dewsbury and now some in the south) join the strike, we need a new drive on fundraising!
This branch
[COURIERS & LOGISTICS BRANCH
23-05-80
17001094
http://tinyurl.com/StuartStrike
More information: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fury-courier-firm-forces-covid-26006330
http://tinyurl.com/StuartStrike
Momentum is running a “policy primary” in which local Momentum groups and selected campaigns can submit motions for Momentum to consider for prioritisation for 2022 Labour Party conference. The conference is 25-28 September in Liverpool: https://labour.org.uk/conference/annual-conference-2021/. The deadline for motions is 12 September, and most local Labour Parties will consider motions much closer to that date, but submissions for Momentum’s “policy primary” close 24 March. Here are some suggested wordings which can be adapted. Some of these texts are markedly shorter than the official 250-word limit. The purpose of this is to reduce the risk of the main point being lost in compositing, or the motion being ruled out of order as covering more than one issue or allocated to an unsuitable agenda area. We understand that the Labour Campaign for Free Movement will submit text on free movement to the Momentum policy primary.
For public ownership of energy
Conference believes
1. That the energy bill crisis has highlighted the need for radical measures to defend and improve living standards. It has also shone a light on the wider question of how our energy system is organised.
2. That full public ownership, democratic control and radical reorganisation of the energy industry are necessary for social, ecological and security reasons.
Conference notes
1. That last year’s conference voted overwhelmingly for “public ownership of energy including energy companies, creating an integrated, democratic system”.
2. That conference 2019 voted overwhelmingly for “public ownership of energy, creating an integrated democratic system; public ownership of the Big Six”.
Conference further believes
1. That it is extremely poor that the party leadership has ignored these clear policies.
Conference resolves
1. That Labour will campaign for and pledge to implement full public ownership of the energy industry on the lines of the 2021 and 2019 conference policies.
2. To send a clear instruction to the leadership to get in line on this and lead.
(168 words)
Decent sick pay for all
Conference notes
1. That the UK has some of the worst sick pay in Europe. What has long been a scandal has during the pandemic become a social and public health disaster.
Conference resolves
1. To campaign, and pledge to legislate in government, for all workers, without exemption, to be entitled to their full normal salary for 26 weeks, with no delay; followed by Statutory Sick Pay at the level of the National Minimum Wage for another 26 weeks.
2. To work with trade unions, affiliated and non-affiliated, to build an active mass campaign to win decent sick pay for all on the lines set out above.
(107 words)
Police
Conference believes
1. That the Tories’ Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts legislation is an appalling attack on human rights. Labour must campaign and pledge to repeal it in its entirety.
2. That restrictions on the the right to protest from the 1986 Public Order Act and 1994 Criminal Justice Act also need abolishing.
Conference further believes
1. That heavy policing and punitive criminal justice are not solutions to society’s problems. We must attack poverty and inequality, restore and expand social provision, and narrow the spheres in which criminal justice operates. We must push back hard against the Tory agenda for society, towards a society based on provision for people’s needs, not profit-making.
2. Labour must advocate:
– Urgent moves to tackle police violence and abuse, including replacing the so-called Independent Office for Police Conduct with a more independent and democratic body;
– Full accountability of police to elected local authorities;
– Curbing police powers, including in terms of use of force, stop and search and presence in schools. General demilitarisation and disarming;
– Addressing drug-related problems through public-health policies instead of criminalisation;
– Provision of services so that mental-health crises are dealt with by trained civilian workers, not police;
– A major prisoner release programme and sharply curtailing use of prison.
Conference resolves:
1. That Labour will campaign for and pledge to implement such policies.
(245 words)
A £15 minimum wage
Conference notes
1. That conference 2021 voted to demand a £15ph minimum wage.
2. That Labour’s £10ph minimum pledge was first made in 2017, and with inflation since has become outdated/
3. That from April 2022 the National Minimum Wage is £9.50; it seems very likely the Tories will soon pledge £10ph.
Conference further notes
1. The mounting, multiple-fronts cost-of-living crisis.
Conference resolves
1. That the party will campaign for the National Minimum Wage to rise to £15ph for all, without differentials or exemptions, and then rise in line with inflation or earnings, whichever is higher; and that if we have not yet won £15ph, the next Labour government will implement it.
(105 words)
Brexit disaster
Conference believes
1. That Brexit has been a disaster.
2. That “making Brexit work” or “taking the opportunities of Brexit” is the wrong narrative and approach. We must vocally condemn the Tories’ talk of making Britain a ultra-neo-liberal “Singapore-on-Thames” and their Brexit-related manouevres which have stoked up communal conflict in Northern Ireland, and advocate closer links with Europe as part of a fight to defend and improve living standards, workers’ rights, social provision, human rights and environmental protections internationally.
Conference resolves
1. That Labour will campaign for
– the UK to rejoin the European Single Market;
– closer links with the EU, with a view to rejoining;
– working-class and labour movement unity across Europe and beyond to level up and improve conditions and rights.
(138 words)
Ireland
Conference notes
1. That the Northern Ireland political set up based on bureaucratically balancing sectarian interests is not stable.
2. That shifting demographics and politics are calling a Unionist majority there into question.
3. That Brexit, particularly in Boris Johnson’s form, has further destabilised Northern Ireland.
Conference believes
1. That Labour should favour a united Ireland.
2. To be democratically viable and sustainable, and allow for unity of workers from different communities, a united Ireland would need to recognise the distinct Protestant / British-Irish community, e.g. through devolution for the Protestant-majority region (which is distinct from the current Northern Ireland).
Conference resolves
1. To encourage a discussion of these issues and ideas in the British and Irish labour movements.
(169 words)
After the invasion of Ukraine
Conference believes
1. That while we do not know what the situation in Ukraine will be by the time of conference, it is clear:
– That Ukraine must have the full right to self-determination, free from Russian intervention or imposition.
– That we must support the left, labour movements and internationalists in both Ukraine and Russia, including Russia’s anti-war movement.
– That we should welcome Ukrainian refugees.
– That Ukraine’s debt should be cancelled, it should be provided with extensive aid, and the attempts to impose neo-liberal reforms on its economy (including by the UK government) should be stopped.
Conference further believes
1. That more widely the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and Putin’s role as “gendarme of reaction”, eg his intervention to prop up the Assad regime in Syria, has dramatised the need for the international labour movement to champion struggles for democracy.
2. That the British labour movement was right to denounce Russia’s war and support the rights of the Ukrainian people – in the same way we should support struggles against India’s oppression in Kashmir, Turkey’s oppression of the Kurds, China’s of the Uyghurs, Israel’s of the Palestinians and the Saudi war in Yemen (and many others).
3. That Russia, not NATO, was to blame for the war in Ukraine. That does not make NATO an “alliance for peace”. We want to see NATO disbanded as soon as possible.
(232 words)
By Mohan Sen
Keir Starmer has forced 11 left-wing MPs to withdraw their signatures from a Stop the War Coalition statement on the grounds that Labour MPs cannot oppose or criticise imperialist military alliance NATO. Media reports say the MPs were threatened with withdrawal of the party whip. And the party machine has seized control of the Young Labour (YL) Twitter account on the same basis – and now Starmer has apparently cancelled this year’s YL conference!
The left should not support the Stop the War Coalition, which consistently apologises for Russia and anti-Western imperial powers. And Young Labour’s weakening and bureaucratisation under “left” leadership since 2016, intertwined with Stalinist-influenced politics, is a huge problem. One result is that, because its “left” leadership has failed to build any real Labour youth movement, actually shutting down YL’s internal democracy and life further itself, it is now in no position to resist Starmer effectively.
Starmer’s moves are an absolutely outrageous attack on Labour democracy. Even Tony Blair never threatened to purge MPs or shut down party units for criticising NATO. The reported abolition of YL conference, as well as outrageous in itself, is yet another step in the leadership simply declaring changes in the party from above.
And while the idea that NATO is as much to blame as Russia for the war in Ukraine is ludicrous – this is fundamentally a war of Russian imperialist aggression – NATO remains far from a benign force. It is imperialist. For a short article making that argument in more depth, see here and for a longer one here.
In the days ahead the left and labour movement should focus on opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But we should also maintain our independence from and criticism of the NATO powers, and resist attempts by Starmer and co. to intimidate those who do so.
On 14 February, Momentum issued the list of candidates to be balloted on in its primary for Young Labour and Labour Students elections.
Chair of Young Labour
Nabeela Mowlana
Joshua Harcup
Rsaal Firoz
Vice-chair of Labour Students
Fabiha Askari
Ben Williams
Young Labour under 18 rep
Oliver Probert-Hill
Samuel Cohen
The ballot closed 24 February. LLI felt we had not enough knowledge to make recommendations. Mowlana and Cohen won for the Young Labour posts, Askari for the Labour Students post, and the rest of the Momentum slate was just announced without explanation. We can find no information about the turnouts or the votes in the three contests.
https://twitter.com/PeoplesMomentum/status/1497203623645884421/photo/1
https://twitter.com/PeoplesMomentum/status/1497230506680848391/photo/1
The 14 February email said: “The remainder of the slate for YL and LS student elections will be composed of incumbent candidates and those that were the only candidate to apply for a non-contested position. Further details will shortly be announced regarding the full slate”.
As far as we can make out, no further “details” have been announced. We know of one nominee for a Labour Students position who was called for interview, and told there were two nominees for the slot but Momentum was going for the other one. We also know of one nominee for a Young Labour post who was told his name would not go to ballot because an incumbent from a different YL post (not this one he was going for) was now going for this one.
Those facts contradict the claim that for all other positions there was only one nomination, or an incumbent. And Momentum gives no reason for saying that incumbents should be automatically supported again without even a ballot. Even Keir Starmer’s Labour regime allows for a “trigger” vote on whether to readopt incumbent MPs, and a full selection procedure for council candidates even when there are incumbents.
The Labour Party ballots for both Young Labour and Labour Students posts will run from 8 June to 5 August.
Updated on 25/2/22
We oppose the Russian state’s invasion of Ukraine. We oppose Russia’s war and demand Russian troops leave Ukraine.
Ukraine has the right to self-determination and the right to defend itself.
We oppose any attempts by Russia to force Ukraine to sign political agreements which would undermine Ukraine’s right to govern itself.
We oppose NATO. But this war is not being waged by NATO. The war is being waged by Russian imperialists. Putin’s regime is responsible for this war.
We support the anti-war left in Russia, defend those arrested in Russia for taking action against the war, and support Ukrainian internationalists.
We agree to affiliate to the Ukrainian Solidarity Campaign.
Fourth in our series of “linking up the campaigns” meetings, with Rhian Keyse from the Free Our Unions campaign.
Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89823368115
Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pushing-workers-rights-up-the-agenda-tickets-266747166957
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/418773346723528
Unite, RMT, CWU, and the TUC passed resolutions in 2021 calling for a joint union demonstration for workers’ and union rights in spring 2022. Since then NHS workers, local government workers, and teachers have all run up against the impositions of the Trade Union Act 2016 when pushing for industrial action on pay. Labour has repeatedly-reaffirmed conference policy to repeal all anti-union laws, including the Thatcher-era ones, but failed to include that even in the 2019 manifesto. In 2021 Labour published a “Green Paper”, “New Deal for Working People”, http://bit.ly/amc-nd, focused on reinstating collective bargaining with unions across the economy and including many important demands, but Keir Starmer has been quiet about that too. We’ll discuss how Labour and union activists can work together to push workers’ rights up the agenda.
With speaker from the Free Our Unions campaign.
After many months of delay, and after an announced 17 January 2022 schedule passed with event, at last a word from the Momentum office (1/2/22):
“The proposals are coming back for further discussion at February’s NCG meeting… In the coming months and before the NCG election, you will have the opportunity to vote on a final set of proposals that will determine the organisation’s future. More information about how this process will work will be published soon”.
No information on what “the proposals” are, and we’re worried that it looks like we may get only a take-it-or-leave-it vote on the eventual scheme.
Way back when all this started, we made two proposals:
• Democratic regional structures for Momentum
• A decision-making conference for Momentum
We could also do with the National Coordinating Group being majority elected by the Momentum membership, and publishing timely and informative minutes. (In façt the latest available minutes are from 5/9/21, and cryptic).
Watch this space! More background here.
Labour Left Internationalists 