Grassroots Momentum conference 11.3.17
Report to Northamptonshire momentum
Delegates:
Claire Harris
Pat Markey
Sharon Prendergast
Adrian Scandrett
Northamptonshire Delegates were aware that members had not had sight of conference papers in advance and therefore had not had chance to debate them. However, given this situation, delegates attempted to vote on in the spirit of discussions that have previously been generated at Momentum meetings. There was broad agreement between Northamptonshire delegates.
It transpired that the conference had been largely funded by Matt Wrack personally.
The conference was open to both delegates and individual members but only members were due to vote. We saw no evidence that individuals were bona fide momentum members prior to coming into conference – names and numbers were simply handwritten onto a list as people arrived.
However, a proposal was raised from the floor (by an observer) that since many individual members (observers) were there because their branches had either not met or were split on the issue of the coup and therefore had not elected delegates. Conference delegates decided that all attendees should have the right to vote and this was carried forward for the remainder of the conference.
The Statement of Aims produced by the conference committee is attached to this report and the following amendments were suggested from the floor and agreed by conference
-Social care will be added to the Campaign on the NHS
-Momentum will also campaign on Education cuts
-There will be an aim to fight for all workers rights – and we will campaign for the rights of migrant workers
-We will campaign against the anti-Semitism witch hunt
-Grassroots Momentum will focus on democratising the labour party
-Grassroots momentum will campaign with ‘Another Europe is Possible’
-Grassroots momentum will aim to return a socialist labour government to power.
Presentations:
Derby Teaching Assistants
-Explained the nature of their struggle against their employers – a Labour run council
-Received a standing ovation in support
-Gathered signatures on their petition and a collection was taken
Picture House Workers
-Campaigning for a living Wage
-Now covering 6 cinemas
-30 days on strike
-5x increase in Union Membership
-Support has been received from both Labour and from Momentum
Recently Elected member of Momentum NCG (Sahaya James)
-Undertakes to keep grassroots momentum informed of developments within the Momentum Group
-Support for local branches
-Campaigning for free education, freedom of movements and workers rights as priorities.
Matt Wrack – General Secretary of FBU
-Need to fight austerity
-Campaigning to protect workers’ rights and concern over the outcome of trade deals post-Brexit. Labour must have a working class perspective on Brexit
-It is imperative to convey Corbyn’s positive vision for the future to the wider electorate
-On the Momentum Coup – rejecting the ‘imposed’ constitution which does not deliver the OMOV it purports to
-Matt does not believe the right wing PLP will ever give up undermining the leadership
-More Socialist MP’s are necessary
-Work to enshrine the sovereignty of the the Labour Conference. This will require the left to organise
-Resisting the witch hunt
-Emphasis on the importance of local groups organising to reform CLP’s
-Currently it is unclear whether momentum will retain the support of the FBU following the coup.
Caucuses:
BAME:
-Need a strong voice within momentum
-Momentum and labour need to listen better to the perspective of Black comrades
-Discussion on reparations for racism
-Need to infiltrate/influence the NEC
-Open letter expressing support for Jacquie Walker and Marc ...... warmly supported by conference
LGBT:
-Concern was expressed that LGBT Labour consisted of a very few right wing members
-LGBT members need to challenge the status quo
-Quotes ‘ Bring the Radical Back’ into LGBT politics
-‘Small but Sexy’
Disability:
-Agrred to produce an accessible newsletter to help inform and connect momentum Disability members
-Issues where left wing disabled activists have been prevented from attending by deliberately having meetings in inaccessible rooms
-Raising awareness of the impact of mental health cuts
-Access to meetings remains a priority
-Accessible transport is also necessary – even if accessible rooms are neede
-Campaign to support the RMT re conductors on trains for the safety of all passengers including disabled passengers. Needs also for accessible buses.
-Offer of speakers for local events
In the main, up until this point of the conference, whilst there was lively debate, the atmosphere was comradely and speakers were well received. However at this point there was some disruption to proceedings, with people from the floor requesting repeated points of order (in order to disrupt proceedings) and there was very little time or opportunity given to discuss the document or ask questions or clarification. Attendees seemed generally frustrated.
It was proposed to take the item ‘What next for the Grassroots’ next as the meeting was running late, and this was carried. The discussion document is attached.
Option 1 - no-one spoke to propose this option
Option 2 – Alex spoke to propose this and this was supported in the main by the current committee
Option 3 - was proposed by Jill Mountford.
It was also proposed that conference reject all options - this was not carried. Option 1 was also not carried.
A lot of time was taken with repeated voting on option 2 as it appeared quite split and on one vote, the Chair reported the total of fors and againsts exceeded the number of people registered as attending, once again suggesting an attempt by some attendees to frustrate the process. (However, following the conference, reported attendance figures did not support this. Both the official grassroots Momentum and Clarion Articles stated attendance was ‘about’ 200 and delegates constituted 80-90 of these.)
Narrowly, Option 2 was not carried
Option 3 was carried by a fair majority
It became clear that the committee had not envisaged this outcome, and this required the election of some twenty people to the committee. Expressions of interest were sought from the conference and about 40 people expressed interest at this point, including Claire, with the full support of the Northamptonshire delegates. The conference voted to elect the new committee via FPTP as opposed to STV.
To my surprise the committee decided to elect the new committee immediately. Therefore, despite option three focussing on the support of local branches and regional structures, the committee (at a ‘grassroots’ conference), were about to hold what was in my view a meaningless election of people whose only qualification was a spur of the moment expression of interest.
I raised the point that I was unhappy that I was going to be asked to elect 20 people from a list I couldn’t even read, when potentially I would know only one person on the list. I was assured they were arranging hustings. They proposed electing at least 10 women, but there was no provision for fair representation of other liberation groups. A question about this was asked from the floor and the response was Jacquie Walker who shrugged, further evidencing that decisionmaking had occurred ‘on the hoof’.
I was concerned to hear that what they actually proposed was that, immediately, each candidate was going to be asked to give a 30 second presentation, from a stage which was not accessible to physically impaired candidates. It was also wholly inadequate as a democratic action.
Claire raised her hand - as a candidate - and despite the fact that the Chair was unwilling to let her speak, she made the point that the proposal was able-ist, identifying that it was not just people with physical impairments that were being denied access to the process, but non-neurotypical people or those with mental health problems, who would need time to prepare or other reasonable adjustments to properly and meaningfully access the process.
She was told by Michael Chessum that she could have a mic from the floor, which missed the point. She was then told, effectively, that it was ‘tough’ as no other process would be considered. This level of dismissal of a disabled comrade’s reasonable concern induced a high level of stress and distress. Neither Claire nor I felt able to take part in such a flawed process and left conference.
Sharon Prendergast
Adrian and Pat were able to stay and provide the following report of the remainder of the day:
The voting was the least successful part of an otherwise encouraging day. 40 names were presented of which 20 had to be selected by ballot which will be counted after the meeting. This meant that hustings proceeded allowing each candidate 30 seconds to speak. For those perhaps less experienced in public speaking this meant just enough time to say something about their background without any time to say why they wanted to be on the committee or what they hoped to achieve.
Whilst there are positive aspects to holding the elections on the day, all delegates felt the process for doing so could have been improved and there are significant issues with the validity and inclusivity of those elections.
The short time left for "Democratising the LP" meant an unremarkable discussion of this area.
Apart from this it was a good conference.
I was particularly moved by the plight of the TAs and readily confess to a little watering of the eyes.
Adrian Scandrett and Pat Markey
Following the event:
The following people were elected to form the committee:
Matt Wrack – Waltham Forest (member of pre-coup Steering Committee)
Sahaya James – Lambeth (member of new National Coordinating Group)
Tracy McGuire – Darlington (pre-coup National Committee)
Jacqueline Walker – Thanet (pre-coup Steering)
Nick Wrack – Southwark (pre-coup NC)
Simon Hannah – Wandsworth
Delia Mattis – Enfield (pre-coup NC)
Kevin McKenna – Tower Hamlets
Jill Mountford – Lewisham (pre-coup Steering)
Graham Bash – Thanet
Rosie Woods – Harrow
Rida Vaquas – Oxford (member of NCG) (pre-coup NC)
Lee Griffiths – Tower Hamlets
Alec Price – Medway (pre-coup NC)
Pete Radcliff – Broxtowe
Ed Whitby – Newcastle (pre-coup NC)
Tina Werkmann – Sheffield
Jan Pollock – London, not sure of group
Richard Gerrard – Southwark
Joan Twelves – Lambeth
As is evident, it is not clear if any of these successful candidates represent any liberation groups. I do not recognise any names from the Disability Caucus, for example. One candidate appears to have been elected without the conference knowing which Branch she belongs to (source : Clarion) Inclusivity is clearly lacking.
There are strong concerns about the validity of the elections. Individual attendees far exceeded the number of delegates – many of these individuals registered on the day and there were no checks that they were in fact members before coming into conference. In fact the organisers are far from clear exactly how many people actually did attend, which is worrying. The decision to allow individual members to vote at conference was proposed by one such attendee, and agreed by delegates who possibly did not know this.
From the email discussions with Disability Caucus members following the event, at least one other disabled person felt entirely disenfranchised from the election process and all were critical of it and supportive of Claire following the way she was treated.
Additionally, as the caucuses were held simultaneously, those who identified in more than one liberation group had to choose. Those with disabilities were only able to choose this caucus because the others were held upstairs. Presumably this was a factor of the fact that only one room (with a balcony) had been hired , which might have been a result of budget , time or room availability constraints. If only a disabled candidate had been elected they may have been able to suggest solutions to these issues for the future.
For the sake of completeness, please see the Clarion’s version of the events of the day: