Hackney South Labour Left

Congratulations to the brilliant Billy Hayes and Seema Chandwani

Hackney South Labour members, London Renters Union and Waltham Forest Momentum acting in solidarity with a Waltham Forest family being rehoused in Stoke On Trent.

Thanks to everyone who turned up to the Hackney South & Shoreditch Labour Party meeting yesterday. We are proud to have stood in solidarity with three left groups of Labour activists who the National Exec voted to expel from the party and to have voted for an historic rule change to make MPs accountable to members.

We also sent love and solidarity to Dawn Butler MP.

TONIGHT at the Hackney South Labour meeting, we will decide what to submit to Conference. We are backing an historic rule change that proposes making Labour MPs accountable to the members, trade unions and socialist societies that they represent via Labour’s National Conference. It also provides a way to challenge the withdrawal of the Labour whip from Jeremy Corbyn and from any other MPs in the future.

There are two main reasons why we support this rule change.

1. The only way to ensure this rule change is on the Conference agenda, is for us to make it our submission to Conference:

We are only allowed to submit EITHER a rule change OR a motion. The deadline for rule changes has gone and we were one of very few local parties who submitted this rule change in time. If we and the others decide to switch to a policy motion before the Conference, the rule change will not be on the agenda.

2. There isn’t a good alternative:

There are only two alternatives to the rule change.

The first is the Momentum motion for Proportional Representation. It is supported by the 'moderate' wing of our local party. It’s a sensible tactical decision - given how finely balanced our meetings are now, they may well need support from left members to defeat the rule change. A right-wing motion could not get this but a Momentum motion might.

The second looks like the Momentum Green New Deal motion. Unfortunately it has been amended to remove references to unionised jobs, universal public services and public ownership of utilities, and to change the retrofitting target from 2030 to 2040.

Both the Proportional Representation and the Green New Deal motions are widely popular and will be submitted by other local parties. Whether they get on the Conference agenda will depend on the Priorities Ballot NOT on how many parties submit them.

If we do submit a motion instead of the rule change and that gets on the Conference agenda, then two of our delegates attend the compositing meeting. In theory, a compositing meeting is simply where you combine motions on the same topic together to get a single agreed version - a ‘composite’. In practice, it’s where the leadership puts pressure on delegates to remove the left-wing parts of motions. Given that half our delegates are from the right, this will not be helpful in getting a strong motion to the floor of Conference. Our Green New Deal motion will be damaging as it will offer wording that can be used to water down stronger motions passed in other local parties.

On membership, staffing and finance from Gemma Bolton's report about yesterday's National Exec meeting
"The NEC were informed of a stark drop in party membership, and were given an update on the party’s current financial situation, which I regret to report is in an extremely concerning state. We were therefore informed that a significant number of staff would have to be fired and a restructuring of the staffing operation would be carried out. My solidarity is with party staff who work so hard to deliver a Labour government and who are facing unemployment in the middle of a pandemic. I note the party is currently hiring temp staff to investigate cases. The party denies that this leaves us open to attacks of engaging in fire and rehire practices."

It's disappointing that 5 of our Hackney South & Shoreditch Labour Party delegates have argued to remove opposition to the Silvertown Tunnel from the London Conference motion on tackling the climate emergency. This goes against our local party policy. The 3 left delegates were outvoted on this.

Our MP Meg Hillier broke Labour Party rules in an attempt to block a rule change that would make her and the rest of our Party's MPs accountable to the members, trade unions and socialist societies they represent.

Labour MP Hillier voted in meeting, with no entitlement, against motion to make MPs answerable to conference – says didn’t mean to and can’t remember Hackney South and Shoreditch members voted to make MPs accountable to members’ sovereign body, but claims it was ‘inadvertent’ and she has no memory of doing it Hackney South and …

Jeremy Corbyn had the whip suspended back in November 2020. Despite the fact that he has not been found to have done anything wrong, and that the initial suspension was for three months only, all these months later he is still not allowed to sit as a Labour MP.

He is forced to sit as an Independent , even though over 64% of voters in Islington North voted for him as our Labour MP. He remains a member of the Labour Party, campaigning for local Labour candidates, fighting for justice and carrying out casework for his constituents.

The situation is not fair on him, on his constituents or on the many Labour Party members who joined because they were inspired by his leadership. It is an affront to natural justice. At the same time, the democratic running of many local Labour Parties is being undermined and people are being unjustly suspended.

Keir Starmer stood as leader of the Labour Party on a platform that he would unify the party, and with 10 pledges which were popular with the membership. Sadly, at the moment, the party is fragmented rather than united, and is not promoting clear positive policies, or providing the effective opposition to this government which is so badly needed. This is reflected in the polls and in the poor results in recent elections.

The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC ) meets on 20 July – we are calling on supporters to email them to ask them to make every effort to have the whip restored to Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour Party can then unite and focus on fighting this disastrous Tory government.

The names and emails of NEC members are below – you can also join our twitter campaign () - please ensure that you include , and so that the Leader, Deputy Leader and Chief Whip are aware of the strength of feeling.

You don’t need to write much – the key thing is to let the NEC know that there is real frustration and anger that this situation is still unresolved and that we need to restore the whip and unite around a positive programme that restores hope for a better future.

Thank you for your support!

Leader: Sir Keir Starmer MP – [email protected]
Deputy Leader: Angela Rayner MP [email protected]
Party Treasurer: Diana Holland – [email protected]
Shadow Frontbench: Anneliese Dodds - [email protected]
Shadow Frontbench: Jonathan Reynolds MP – [email protected]
Shadow Frontbench: Shabana Mahmood MP – [email protected]
Shadow Scottish Frontbench: Anas Sarwar MSP – [email protected]
Welsh Labour Representative: Carwyn Jones – [email protected]
Young Labour: Lara McNeill – [email protected]
BAME Labour: Carol Sewell – [email protected]
Disabled Members Representative: Ellen Morrison – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Mark Ferguson (Unison) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Amy Jackson (Unite) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Andi Fox (TSSA) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Pauline McCarthy (BFAWU) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Michael Wheeler (Usdaw) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Wendy Nichols (Unison) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Andy Kerr (CWU) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Tom Warnett (GMB) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Jayne Taylor (UNITE) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Kathy Abu-Bakir (GMB) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Ian Murray (FBU) – [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Mick Whelan (ASLEF) [email protected]
Div. I – Trade Unions: Joanne Cairns (USDAW) – [email protected]
Div. II – Socialist Societies: James Asser – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Luke Akehurst – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Johanna Baxter – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Ann Black – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Gemma Bolton – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Yasmine Dar – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Nadia Jama – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Gurinder Singh Josan- [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Laura Pidcock – [email protected]
Div. III – CLPs: Mish Rahman – [email protected]
Div. IV – Labour Councillors: Cllr Nick Forbes – [email protected]
Div. IV – Labour Councillors: Cllr Alice Perry – [email protected]
Div. V – PLP: Sir George Howarth MP – [email protected]
Div. V – PLP: Margaret Beckett MP – [email protected]
Div. V – PLP: Angela Eagle MP – [email protected]

On Thursday we have a Hackney South Labour meeting on London Conference. These are the members standing to be delegates, policy motions and candidates for regional executive who we are backing. Check your email for more details about the meeting and a link to register in advance.

The is back before parliament today.

It will give police more powers to shut down protest, stop and search without suspicion, and criminalise Gypsy and Traveller communities.

We must be united and determined in our opposition to it.

Bye Garry on Twitter “test https://t.co/rflz3Yz9Ys”