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updated...28 February 2010

"Socialist policies are common sense" - Kelvin Hopkins MP tells CLPD AGM

CLPD held its Annual General Meeting on Saturday 20 February at Conway Hall in central London. It was as lively an event as ever, with a number of decisions taken in preparation for this year’s and next year’s Labour Party annual conferences. Pete Willsman, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and CLPD secretary, gave a report on the activities of CLPD over the last 12 months and an overview of last year’s Labour Party conference.

Christine Shawcroft (NEC member) gave the NEC and National Policy Forum (NPF) reports. Christine told the meeting that late parliamentary selections had been a prominent feature on the NEC over the last 12 months. The NEC parliamentary panel did not always take into account the views of the local party when shortlisting candidates and the supposed fast track selection process actually took longer that the usual one! The NPF was not meeting before the general election, with Party members being asked to email manifesto contributions to Ed Milliband. With Constituency Labour Parties (CLP’s) describing this lack of democracy as “outrageous”, Christine suggested joining CLPD to fight this.

Kelvin Hopkins MP gave the Parliamentary Labour Party report. Kelvin told the AGM that at the many and varied meetings he speaks at socialist policies, based on a humane and rational society, were popular, relevant and seen as common sense. Kelvin said that we must re-establish democracy in the Party, and the affiliated trade unions have the power to achieve this. He pointed out had PFI had cost the country £300 billion, paying privateers huge sums to build projects and retain them in their ownership. Kelvin highlighted the “Forming a Coalition for Labour Victory” meeting, to be held at Conway Hall on 6 March 2010, 10.30am to 4.30pm. Speakers are Michael Meacher MP, Richard Fletcher and Kelvin.

Former Labour Party General Secretary Jim Mortimer spoke on union issues. Jim said the current anti-union legislation was more restrictive than that in 1906, with employers calling their lawyers when strike ballots are called. Whilst there are more left wing general secretaries in unions today, the unions appear to have less influence in the Party. Legislation was required to encourage collective bargaining and protect trade unionism, and trade unionists must press their unions for more effective representation in the Labour Party.

After regional CLPD reports, resolutions to the AGM were debated. These included very lively debates on the parliamentary selection procedure, recent councillor candidate selection procedures adopted in the London region, the Alternative Vote system, a directly elected Party Chair and even the understanding of economics for parliamentary candidates!

Campaign Briefing: The way to win

The Conference newsletter is now available, with a lead article by Tony Benn, who says: "If the movement were to campaign for these policies now and the government were to see their public appeal, Labour would have a very good chance of winning again.".

Contents:

• ANNUAL CONFERENCE ALERT
• Keith Ewing: Arguments for a Charter of Members’ Rights
• Gaye Johnson: The Case for a Code of Ethics
• Jim Mortimer: Key Lessons from Lindsey
• Peter Willsman: PV and AV are the Problems not the Solutions (model resolution in support of FPTP) plus NEC latest
• David Gardner: New Local Government Leadership Models: A Recipe for Autocracy
• Mohammed Azam: Kashmir - a Burning but Forgotten issue?
• Ray Davison: LRC Losing Its Way in PR Fictions?
• Restore Conference Voting
• Tel’s Tales - plus Bitebacks - Snappy Shots from a Political Sniper

Click here to download it (pdf format - 196kb).

Contemporary Issues for Annual Conference

CLPD has produced 8 suggested "Contemporary Issues". We urge you to adopt one of these for submission by your CLP or affiliated organisation.

The submission must be 10 words or less, and must be received by the the Labour Party before the deadline of 12 noon on Friday 18 September.

Contemporary issues:

• NHS
• Banks
• BNP
• High Pay Commission
• Council housing
• Afghanistan
• Trident
• First Past the Post

You can also download the complete set in word-processing format by clicking here.

Pete Willsman's report from the NEC

Pete's latest report is available in pdf format. Please click here (44kb).

Pete Willsman's Guide to Conference 2009 Edition

The new and updated version is now available for downloading on pdf format. Click here.

Proportional Representation and Alternative Voting: problems not solutions

The public's disgust at the goings-on at Westminster is being exploited by the supporters of proportional representation (PR). They are trying to suggest that the electoral system is somehow to blame and they put forward PR as a panacea to solve the problems.

A critique of these proposals has been published by CLPD. It is available in Acrobat PDF form (18kb): click here.

Nominate Gaye Johnstone and Gary Heather for Conference Arrangements Committee