Five suggestions for text for motions.
See also:
Suggested text for motions on the Sunak-Hunt cuts
https://momentuminternationalists.org/2022/10/07/model-motion-from-india-labour-solidarity/ (if you’re running out of motion-putting capacity for the time being, you may also consider asking your CLP or branch to invite a speaker from India Labour Solidarity
The monarchy
We welcome the vote by Labour Party conference for abolition of the House of Lords.
Political authority should be with elected representatives, not depend on hereditary status or appointment from above.
We resolve to campaign for, and call on the Labour Party leadership to campaign for, the replacement of the monarchy by a democratic republic, with any post of president limited to ceremonial and formal functions.
Public ownership of energy
[Simplified version of motion promoted by LLI in the run-up to Labour conference 2022]
We welcome the vote by Labour Party conference for the public ownership of all essential services and utilities.
We resolve to campaign for, and call on the Labour leadership to campaign for, full public ownership of the energy industry, including the National Grid and regional distribution, on the lines of the 2021 and 2019 Conferences’ policies.
Strikes
We welcome the vote by Labour Party conference calling on all Labour MPs to support picket lines in the current wave of strikes for pay rises to keep up with inflation.
We urge our members to support upcoming picket lines, and call on our councillors [and MP if relevant] to join us.
Exclusions and bans
[Simplified version of motion passed by Islington South and Finsbury CLP 21/9/22]
We call on the National Executive to reverse the ban imposed on Workers’ Liberty by the Labour Party National Executive on 29 March 2022, and to reverse all suspensions or expulsions of members under the ban.
The Labour Party will be better able to defeat the Tories if we organise as a broad party with a range of views, with disciplinary action only after due process and for specific harmful actions.
[It may be useful in moving such a motion to refer to the recent attempts by the leadership to “ban” front-benchers from joining picket lines, and to “ban” MPs for criticising monarchism during the “period of mourning”. The leadership has had to retreat, tacitly, from both attempted “bans”. Following the expulsions of Andrea Egan and Martin Mayer, you may adapt it like this, pushing the envelope of the March 2019 policy barring motions on individual disciplinary cases]
We regret the March 2019 ruling which debars CLP motions on individual disciplinary cases, such as the recent exclusions from the Labour Party of Andrea Egan, president of Unison, and Martin Mayer, a former representative of Unite on the Labour NEC, and so make the following general points:
We:
• state that we believe that exclusions for actions that were entirely within Labour Party rules at the time they were carried out (e.g. “shares” on social media for items from groups later banned) to be contrary to natural justice
• call on the National Executive to rescind the bans imposed on Workers’ Liberty and Socialist Appeal.
The Labour Party will be better able to defeat the Tories if we organise as a broad party with a range of views, with disciplinary action only after due process and for specific harmful actions.
Labour policies for campaigning and government: implementing conference decisions
This CLP notes
1. That party conference 2022 voted for:
• Support for pay rises at least matching inflation
• “Unequivocal support to all UK workers taking strike action” and for joining picket lines, including “all Labour MPs” doing so
And:
• A £15 minimum wage
• Opposing privatisation, academisation and outsourcing; bringing services back in house; public ownership of the railways and Royal Mail specifically and of “essential services and utilities” generally
• A free, publicly funded and publicly provided social care system
• “Proper needs-based funding for local government”, i.e. reversing the cuts
• “To return all privatised portions of the NHS to public control”
• Proportional representation and abolition of the House of Lords
2. That the 2021 conference voted for public ownership of the energy industry and repealing all anti-union laws including those introduced in the 80s and 90s.
This CLP believes
1. That in line with the rule book – “The work of the Party shall be under the direction and control of Party conference” – conference should be Labour’s sovereign decision-making body.
2. That the party should campaign for these policies now and include them in the manifesto.
This CLP resolves
1. To work with others in the party and unions for the policies passed at conference to be campaigned for and carried out, with conference becoming Labour’s sovereign policy-making body.