Don't deny us meaningful democracy by abusing emergency NEC powers

    Dear Keir, Angela and David,

    Congratulations on your election/appointment to a key leadership role in our Party at what appears to be a historic juncture of unparalleled importance to the human race – you have a huge task ahead of you all if we are to win power and deliver the Green New Deal which offers the only credible answer to global climate change.

    We recognise the scale of the challenge you face, and stand ready to assist you to win power and deliver social and climate justice for the people of this country, and the world. In order for us to have the best chance to realise this goal, we feel that we must first address the current deficit in trust and accountability between the higher echelons of the Party and the activists and members that are so crucial to the next Labour victory.

    This structural imbalance in accountability and transparency has only become more obvious during the current Covid-19 pandemic, and was thrown into stark relief with the leaked internal report "The work of the Labour Party's Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014–2019". We feel that members have been denied any voice by the actions of both the NEC and the Leader's Office in failing to allow remote meetings to enable local Parties to contribute our collective strength and wisdom, and have no route of addressing this at present.

     

    Other than seeking re-election, NEC members are solely accountable to Conference, but with Conference cancelled for 2020[1] due to Covid, there is literally no method by which members and activists can hold to account NEC members who have taken it upon themselves to agree unbalanced and far-reaching rule changes at their closed meetings. This is not within the spirit or the letter of their powers as set out in the rule book[2]. Rule changes are constitutionally a matter for conference, and so they must remain barring genuine emergencies – the choice of voting method for NEC members is not an emergency by any definition of the word.

     

    By taking such action we feel that the NEC is now directly interfering in the election process in an unfair, unaccountable, and since NEC minutes are not circulated to members, opaque way that seems a million miles away from the calls for unity that characterized Keir's leadership campaign and early weeks as leader. It also sets a dangerous precedent for an NEC to use powers granted by Conference for genuine emergencies only to force through rule changes which are not emergencies. There has been far too much internal strife, and the experience of many members shows that "stitch ups" and factional abuse of process are rife in the Party thanks to a toxic and exclusionary culture that has been dominant for decades.

     

    Members are the fundamental basis of the Labour Party without which it cannot function as an effective electoral force, in line with the first clause of our constitution, and yet recent events have seen members entirely excluded from decisions which directly affect their ability to hold the Party hierarchy to account. There have been reports of a mass exodus of BAME members, feeling hurt and threatened by the Party's failure to deal with the evidence of the leaked report, and further disgusted by the "defence" of racist comments issued by the Party. There is a very real feeling of being abandoned if not actively goaded, and this threatens the unity that we so desperately need if we are to beat this callous and corrupt Conservative government in 2024.

     

    We beseech you: do not allow this injustice to stand – take action now to arrange for digital meetings to be held over the summer, electing "digital delegates" to an online Conference to take place this winter. Allow collective democracy through our Party structures to do what it is there to do – make the decisions for ALL members by engaging our collective experience and wisdom. Ensure that members are properly involved in major decisions by circulating NEC agendas to all Party members with enough time to meaningfully engage with our NEC reps. Circulate lists of decisions made by the NEC to all members as fast as reasonably possible, rather than leaving it to reps to write often contradictory or incomplete accounts. We understand some items will have to be redacted for data protection, safeguarding or governance reasons, but we believe that if local government can do this then it is high time the Labour Party did so too, using the Local Government Act 1972 as a guide.

     

    We look forward to your response.

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