Campaign for Labour Party Democracy - Web Archive |
No.26 (Conference Edition) September 1982
The Labour Movement has always been in the forefront of the struggle for openness in public life. We campaigned to have Hansard published, and as trade unionists our consistent demand is that management open the books. This is quite natural - popular power requires popular knowledge.
But we as a Party do not set much of an example for open government. NEC minutes were first published and NEC votes first recorded only in 1980, and they are still largely inaccessible to the majority of Party members, because the NEC works on the 'committee system'. This means that it takes most of its decisions by accepting, rejecting or referring back the minutes of sub-committees or papers prepared by the National Agent's Department. But all of these NEC papers are 'private and confidential'. In this way, an important attempt to prevent Conference card votes from being recorded could appear as 'reference back of minute 97' of the Organisation Committee. This is unnecessarily obscure. There is clearly a need for further democratisation of NEC procedures.
In 1973 Tony Benn proposed that NEC papers should be made public on the day the NEC meets to consider them. This was narrowly defeated in the NEC and overwhelmingly defeated in the Shadow Cabinet. In the same year, in our founding statement of aims, CLPD called on the NEC 'to make NEC meetings open to representatives from the CLPs'. By these or other means, it should be possible to allow party members full access to the deliberations of our leadership.
In the meanwhile, however, through extensive cross-checking and gleaning, it is possible to get a sense of voting patterns on the NEC. The table below aims to make this available to the Party, by reproducing the votes on a few important issues.
This should be welcomed by members of the NEC. It will enable them to receive more feedback on the decisions they take. In a democratic socialist party, the information needed to take decisions must always be available to the grassroots. Publishing these votes will hopefully help this process.
| NEC VOTES | 1980 - 81 | 1981 - 82 | KEY TO NUMBERED ISSUES | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issue no. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 1. | No action against Militant | December 1980 |
| Frank Allaun | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | 2. | Oppose 'shortlist' of one | May 1981 |
| Norman Atkinson | F | F | 0 | F | * | * | * | * | * | * | 3. | For trade union rights for Youth Opportunity Programme Trainees | July 1981 |
| Margaret Beckett | F | F | F | F | * | * | * | * | * | * | 4. | Support NEC commitment to 'remove nuclear weapons from Britain' | July 1981 |
| Tony Benn | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | 5. | Endorse Peter Tatchell | December 1981 |
| Betty Boothroyd | * | A | A | A | A | A | A | - | - | A | 6. | No enquiry into Militant | December 1981 |
| Tom Bradley | A | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | 7. | Endorse Pat Wall | February 1982 |
| Eric Clarke | F | F | F | - | F | F | F | F | F | F | 8. | Immediate ceasefire in Falklands | May 1982 |
| Bernard Dix | * | F | - | - | * | * | * | * | * | * | 9. | Keep the commitment to 'unilateral disarmament' in Labour's Programme 1982 | May 1982 |
| Laurence Coates | * | * | * | * | F | F | F | 0 | F | F | |||
| Gwynneth Dunwoody | * | * | * | * | A | A | A | A | A | A | 10. | Reject Militant Tendency Report | June 1982 |
| Roy Evans | * | * | * | * | A | A | A | A | A | A | |||
| Michael Foot | A | A | A | 0 | A | A | A | A | F | A | KEY TO SYMBOLS | ||
| John Golding | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | F | = For | |
| Alan Hadden | A | - | A | - | A | A | A | A | F | A | A | = Against | |
| Judith Hart | - | A | - | F | F | A | F | F | F | F | 0 | = Abstention | |
| Denis Healey | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | - | = Absent | |
| Eric Heffer | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | 0 | F | F | * | = Not on NEC then | |
| Neville Hough | A | A | - | - | A | A | A | - | - | A | |||
| Doug Hoyle | - | F | - | F | F | A | F | F | F | 0 | |||
| Les Huckfield | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | - | F | |||
| Charlie Kelly | F | F | - | - | * | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| Neil Kinnock | F | A | - | F | A | A | F | A | F | A | |||
| Alex Kitson | 0 | - | - | - | F | A | F | A | - | A | |||
| Joan Lestor | F | - | F | F | F | F | F | A | F | A | |||
| Joan Maynard | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||
| Sam McCluskie | - | F | - | - | F | A | - | 0 | F | - | |||
| Jo Richardson | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||
| Gerry Russell | A | - | - | - | A | A | A | A | A | A | |||
| Tony Saunois | F | F | F | F | * | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| Renee Short | F | A | F | - | * | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| Dennis Skinner | - | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | F | |||
| Shirley Summerskill | * | * | * | * | A | A | A | A | A | A | |||
| Syd Tierney | A | A | - | - | A | A | A | A | F | - | |||
| Russell Tuck | A | - | - | - | A | A | A | A | F | A | |||
| Eric Varley | * | * | * | * | A | A | A | A | A | A | |||
| David Williams | * | * | * | * | A | A | A | A | F | A | |||
| Shirley Williams | A | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| Archive contents | CLPD home page |