| Operation Democracy Watch
RESOLUTION AGREED AT AGM – 29 November 2003 Background The background to this proposal is the anti-democratic behaviour of the Party Machine at the 2003 Annual Conference. Examples, which members of STLP observed, were non delegates being allowed to sit with delegates and to vote and considerable pressure, using dubious tactics, that was applied to many delegates, particularly to first- time delegates, in order to induce them to vote with the leadership. One of STLP’s members, Ann Black, who is on the NEC, has raised these points with the General Secretary who has refuted them out of hand. There is also concern about the Party machine’s interventions in the selections for Parliamentary Candidates that have now started. The practice of supplying one or two favoured candidates with lists of local Party members long before they are issued to, or permitted to be used by, the rest of the candidates persists. The NEC also has a track record of contriving to shortlist themselves whenever possible and excluding all who are not “New Labour” from that list. Proposal The AGM agreed that STLP shall launch a “democracy watch”. Members will be supplied with pro formas on which to record all breeches of their remaining democratic rights by the Labour Party machine. These would be sent to the STLP secretary. STLP will also approach its sister organisations viz: Labour Reform, Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Network of Socialist Campaign Groups, the Link, Reclaim the Party (London), Campaign for Socialism (Scotland) and Welsh Labour Grassroots to invite them to participate in the exercise. STLP will then forward these complaints to the General Secretary and to the Grassroots Alliance members of the NEC. STLP will also collate the information and release it periodically to the media. Secondly, STLP will seek access to Conference delegates for 2004 and to try to influence them ahead of going to Conference. We will plan regional briefings of Conference delegates a few weeks in advance of Conference as the Party machine does. We found in 2003 that CLP secretaries will usually supply contact details of the their delegate. Briefing will ideally be done at a meeting but could be supplemented through a written briefing paper. New delegates need to be helped to understand how Conference and the Party machine operate and what their rights are. We ask STLP members to campaign in their own CLPs, and elsewhere, for a GC meeting shortly before Conference to mandate their delegate about voting. |
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