The first phase of
the Labour Party’s Democracy Review is very much upon us. The deadline for
submissions on the organisational aspects of Young Labour, BAME Labour and
Women’s Conference is 12 January 2018. The questions which are
specifically asked in the first phase are
How should Young Labour be organised nationally,
regionally and locally?
How should Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority members and
organisations be represented in the Party?
What role should Women's Conference have?
Ann Black’s report from the NEC Committee meetings of 31
October assured us that “there is no
pre-set agenda and no documents which pre-empt the conclusions, and deadlines
are fluid, with further thoughts accepted after the stated dates.” That’s
just as well, as Labour Party bodies have had precious little time to consider
these questions.
It may well be that it will take more than the length of
time from Conference 2017 to Conference 2018 to formulate and implement proposals
to democratise our Party. Indeed there is no compelling reason why Party
democracy ought not to be under continual review and reconsideration.
That said, we need to do our best to engage with the
timetable which has been set for this review if we are to maximise the
democratic influence of ordinary Party members. Clearly these first questions
are of particular interest to young members, Black, Asian and ethnic minority
members and women members.
However, all members should be engaged in the struggles
against the oppressions experienced by these groups of members and ought
therefore also to be engaged in the discussion which the Party is seeking to
have about how these groups of Labour Party members should organise themselves
within our Party.
Indeed, since the reason why groups of members experiencing
oppression need to organise themselves is because of that oppression and the
need to fight it (rather than simply in order to express diverse identities),
the question of how to organise is as much about the end of resisting
oppression as about the means of (what we in UNISON refer to as)
self-organisation.
Since each form of oppression has its particular
characteristics, so the answers to the questions which arise from the struggle
against each oppression may be as different as may the questions themselves.
For example, whereas there are few who deny the legitimacy of a youth
organisation, we would be foolish to believe that everyone (even every Labour
Party member) understands the daily reality of racism in today’s Britain, and
hence the need for self-organisation of the members who are on the receiving end
of that racism.
Our fight for democracy within the Labour Party is not
separate from our struggle to transform society.
No comments:
Post a Comment