| Save the Labour Party |
| NEWS RELEASE 12/04
Labour leaders challenged over conference plans London – 20 September Labour members are demanding a decision from today’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the ruling British Labour Party for a radical change to make the Leadership accountable to its members ahead of Sunday’s 2004 Annual Conference. All 600-plus Labour Parties in every parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales (the Party does not organise in Northern Ireland) are meant to have received Conference papers over a week ago. To date with less than seven days to go before the official opening, no CLP in contact with the campaigning group Save the Labour Party (STLP) has seen them. STLP is demanding a formal Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the opening day away from the glare of television cameras and the media to enable the NEC to answer some difficult questions. STLP chair Peter Kenyon said, “Members want to know what the NEC is doing to arrest a seven-year decline in membership and reduce dependence on a few rich and generous individuals to keep the Party afloat financially. This is not healthy for democracy or Labour’s future as a mass membership progressive force on the left of British politics.” To avoid any misunderstanding, STLP wrote to the Labour’s general secretary last week making a clear distinction between the Conference debating policy, and the need for an AGM to enable the NEC to account for how it has managed the Party’s affairs. This Conference is expected to be the last before the next General Election. Members are concerned that membership and finance issues are going to be obscured by a PR imperative to appear united to voters. At a STLP members’ meeting in Manchester last Saturday, the dominant theme was the apparent absence of accountability to Cabinet, party and country going to the heart of government. STLP is promoting emergency resolutions demanding a debate about the future of the Party at Conference. Details are available on the STLP website. A formal complaint has been lodged with the Conference Arrangements’ Committee about members being kept in the dark about key issues affecting Labour’s future. STLP is campaigning to win elections with more, active members and challenging the Leadership to work with it. Since it was set up a year ago, STLP has attracted support from most sections of the Labour Party, not just its left wing. It has members in nearly 100 parliamentary constituencies and close links with other campaigning organisations in the labour movement in England, Scotland and Wales. Media enquiries: Peter Kenyon Mobile 07802 216 591 eMail: peter.g.kenyon@btinternet.com Notes to Editors 1. Save the Labour Party is a voluntary association, open to all Labour Party members and affiliates and includes members from the left, right and centre of the Labour Party committed to democratic socialism. 2. Details of its activities – past present and future can be seen at: www.savethelabourparty.org |