Some stirrers on the right of the Party are trying to suggest that the LRC is somehow isolated , indeed "hysterical" in its opposition to Gordon Brown's proposals to render Party Conference utterly ( as oppose to only semi) impotent. This is , of course,utter rubbish.
On Tuesday night, the LRC, CLPD and Save The Labour Party staged a joint fringe meeting on the theme of Saving Labour Party Conference. I understand about 80 people attended. The special supplement of Briefing brought out over the summer explained cogently and in measured terms why the Brown document would take away, not extend, Party democracy. I quote.
"During the Blair years, Conference managed to pass some policies which were in opposition to the government line, most notably on the "fourth option" for council housing.Brown (having been moved to act on housing by the strength of feeling at Conference) is desperate to ensure his Government will suffer no such upsets.
"If the Brown proposals were really about democratising the Party, we would be having a debate between the various rules amendments promoted by CLPD and the LabOUR Commission. These include pushing for CLPs and affiliates to have rights to amend NPF documents at Conference and for Conference resolutions to override NPF documents ."
And Kelvin Hopkins MP also gets it absolutely right in the latest CLPD newsletter:
"The centralisation of power within the Party has seen a mass haemhorraging of members and the hollowing out of the Party's internal political activity. To see oceans of empty chairs at Conference,with visitors invited down from the gallery to fill up the gaps and lsten to boring speeches prepared by Party apparatchiks ( and delivered by New Labour delegates being groomed for slotting into safe Labour seats) illustrates the utter contempt with which the New Labour leadership regards the Party and its grassroots membership." And, if Brown gets his way, it will be even worse....
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
LEFT UNITED IN OPPOSITION TO CONFERENCE CHANGES
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5 comments:
I have just checked the i-love-luke-blog, sorry the progressonline blog and have discovered, well really nothing spectacular. The site and indeed the politics expressed on it has no relevance to working class people and I am satisfied that the 'liberalism'in the blog will be politely ignored by working class people.They are cranks.
Grim, I wouldnt worry about these people. Their time came and went back in the late 90s.
The only thing left of their politics is complete cynicism and insult , as expressed by those oh- so-brave anonymous posters who have tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate your blog.
Socialism isnt dead.That is a fact.
Progressonline though, is a twitching corpse not worthy of debate.
Sorry, have had to delete more bile from Mr Anonymous.This time headed in Ian's direction.....
Is this the right's current favoured tactic? Anonymous web abuse. Very 21st century.
Anyway, I was at the CLPD fringe meeting at the TUC, and it was a really worthwhile meeting, and well attended given that it's not ostensibly the sexiest of subjects.
I do think, though, that while it's important that Brown's proposals are resisted, we on the left need to start articulating ideas on what sort of representative structure we'd like to see. Because the current arrangements are barely worth defending either. We've got to articulate what we're FOR as well as against.
I was initially an enthusiast for the PiP proposals, but it soon became apparent that they just were not working, and there was little that ordfinary members could do to inflouence policy. Even meetings became pointless as there was no outlet for the discussions we had. People started attending less, drifting away. Then Iraq happened and we all know the effect on party membership.
And as someone who is on the right of the party - a proper social democrat - I'm a bit fed up with the sparkling neo-cons telling me that people like me don't matter.
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