Peter Kenyon

Decoding Iain McNicol, the Labour Party's new general secretary - correction

In two week's  Sometime this month, may be today, maybe in four weeks' time, Labour's new general secretary Iain McNicol, is expected to set out to the full national executive committee (NEC) strategic proposals to consolidate the party's position in the mainstream of British politics poised to win the next general election. (Correcting timescale - some NEC sources hint at today, some later in the month. Whenever, change can not come soon enough.)

His annual conference speech was I was told by his supporters a must read. Yesterday At the weekend in a speech to the Scottish Labour special conference, drawing on his own experience as a Labour Party and TU organiser he insisted:

You have to get organised.

You need to raise funds.

You need to knock on doors.

You need to listen.

You need great candidates rooted in their communities.

You need policies which speak to working people’s aspirations and dreams.

Let's hope every member of the PLP and every aspiring candidate for public office as a representative of the Labour Party get's a grip on that. Careerists beware.

He then went on to set out three insights inspired by Labour's Victorian founders:

The first is that the Labour Party was created as a specific reaction to the failure of the Liberal Party to deliver progressive change for working people...The second insight is the amount of effort the Labour pioneers spent on calibrating the right organisation for their new party....The third insight from our founders was their great sense of optimism.

Not surprisingly for my avid readers, I'm interested in how he developed his insight into organisation. Iain offered a glimpse:

The key insight is that Hardie and the rest created a form of organisation suited to their times. The system of branches and delegates mirrored the other organisations they were involved in: the churches, the unions, the Temperance Movement.

This begs a question are forms of civil organisation any different today? for those Labour Party members who are so engaged, the answer has to be not a lot. I attend church. It has a parish council. It has agendas and minutes. Ditto the house group in the block of flats in which I live. Ditto the arts association. Ditto the social enterprises that I am or have been involved in. Ditto my trade union branch.

Paradoxically, or may be not, Iain did not continue in that vein. Instead he said:

For most socialists back then, attending a Labour Party meeting would feel familiar and normal, because so much else was organised on similar lines.

I don’t believe we can honestly say that about today’s Labour Party structures. They don’t feel familiar to our new members, they can feel bewildering and alien.

Few would disagree with him in that regard. But why are they unfamiliar? Professionalisation and the emergence of a political class dominating mainstream political parties, trade unions and civil society in general may account for that lack of familiarity with the structures. Lines of accountability have become blurred. Scope for members to have a say have been stifled. Annual conference has become a political trade fair run for profit, not the deliberative assembly our founding forebears would have recognised. 

With a flourish in the direction of social media, Iain concluded his remarks about organisation proclaiming:

So our structures need to reflect the way people live their lives.

I regularly interact with members via Twitter. I talk with our party staff via email. We are embracing the digital revolution in politics, and it changes us.

So of course we need to reflect these changes in the way we conduct our campaigning.

Campaigning, it has to be remembered, is a facet of organisation. On that note Iain gave little away. But then he was in Scotland and the state of Labour Party organisation on the ground is what might be loosely described as thin.

Returning to his opening call, how should Labour members respond? As secretary of the Labour Democratic Network (LDN), I found myself thinking, Iain, if you really mean what you say, then the Labour Party has to organise from the electoral ward up. In that regard, I recommend reading LDN's Manchester Declaration signing up and get organising. 

 

 

 

Labour Party Conference 2011 remains shrouded - only a week to go

'Twas famously said by former Labour Party leader Harold Wilson that "a week is a long time in politics". If only.The prospects for Annual Conference 2011 in Liverpool are not auspicious. No one outside a hazy inner circle has a clue what is to be debated and how. Some members are cross. Others have an endearing trust in the leadership, and their elected representatives in Parliament, or on the Party's National Executive Committee and the Conference Arrangements Committee.

In the last 24 hours, NEC constituency party representative Johanna Baxter who twitters @JohannaBaxter told her followers in response to questions, including one from me:

@PeterKenyon @mr_onionspressed @Ed_Miliband wed re com of props.Org agreed yest 2 com agreements made @ that mtg.Mail 2go2 CLPs tom re this

That means CLP secretaries should get a briefing today (Saturday).

This followed her representations to Party leader Ed Miliband on Wednesday evening which she reported on her Twitter site the following day after the NEC's Organisation Committee (aka as Org Sub):

Plsd that #nec OrgSub agreed w/ my sugg 2 @Ed_Miliband last nite that we communicate 2 CLPs asap those @RefoundLab props we cld agree 2day

So far so good. However, Ed himself promised publication of submissions to the Refounding Labour consultation back in mid-July. He has been ignored. Of course, that is not how it is being reported by Head Office. It cites staff shortages, technical difficulties. But the truth is there are staff employed by the Party who think they are the Party, and who to date have proved performance-management proof.

Similarly, policy making is as much a mystery. The deadline for submission of Contemporary Resolutions passed yesterday. Why haven't they been published? The official line is that haven't been considered by the Conference Arrangements Committee to establish whether they are 'in order'. Nod, nod, wink, wink - the criteria are so convoluted they make Spaghetti Junction look like a Roman Road. Their purpose - to minimise the risk of embarrassment to the Leadership.

As I asked in my previous blog, "Why would anyone want to join such an organisation?" That's the challenge for Labour's party managers over the next week - to transform the Conference into an event that reverses declining party membership.

In that regard, the Labour Democratic Network (LDN)'s Manchester Declaration sets out a vision of how the Labour Party can become a mass membership party, despite the naysayers agonising over declining political party membership across the so-called established democratic world. That is hardly surprising given the almost universal contempt of politicians for any effective form of accountability, and the corrosive influence of state-funding of political parties.

The basic unit of party organisation for LDN members is the electoral ward. About which there is much to say, but not just now.

Where's that HO briefing about the decisions taken at Org Sub?

UPDATE Email received at 1338 just read - I suspect it's code for more command and control, without sight of the rule changes it poses more questions that it answers. 

To all members

Dear Peter

As you know, final recommendations arising from the Refounding Labour consultation will be going to the NEC next Tuesday, ahead of consideration by the Annual Conference in Liverpool.

Peter Hain promised to keep you up to date with developments and wanted me to provide you with a summary of the some of the recommendations agreed by the recent Organisation Committee, and which will be discussed by the NEC next Tuesday.

The Committee is acutely aware that delegates will be receiving the final recommendations for consideration quite close to Conference, and was therefore keen for these initial conclusions to be communicated now.

The Committee agreed in principle that rules changes will be proposed in the following areas:

Purpose and objects

• Clause I concerning the party's objects will be updated, giving greater emphasis to Labour's role in local communities.

Rights and responsibilities 

• Rights and responsibilities of the party leader will be defined for the first time, including control over appointments to the Shadow Cabinet.
• Rights and responsibilities of Labour candidates and elected representatives will be defined, and provisions made for the use of model contracts.
• Rights and responsibilities of elected members of the Parliamentary Labour Party will be defined, including the right to be consulted on any positions taken by the leadership in the context of a hung Parliament.
• The ALC subscription will be abolished and councillors will instead, in line with other Labour representatives, pay a 2 per cent levy on total income arising from their elected role.

Enabling structures

• Local Government Committees will be replaced by Local Campaign Forums (LCF), which will allow for local adaptation and different models of structure and membership. LCFs may apply to the NEC to pilot new and innovative procedures for selections. CLPs will be free to adopt different models of organisation to suit local circumstances, with certain common features, to allow joint working across constituency and geographical boundaries. There will be a new model of CLP finances to help redistribute resources more equally, and lift struggling CLPs out of debt.

Encouraging recruitment

• The minimum age for becoming an individual member of the party will be lowered from 15 to 14 years old. There will be a lower local join rate for new members, to encourage recruitment.

Policy making

• We will open up the process to ensure a greater voice for members in a system that is more transparent and accountable, and which reaches out to the public. We will create a process that ensures the voices of young members, women, BAME, disabled, LGBT and other under-represented members are heard in policy development. One representative from Labour International will be added to the membership of the NPF; and a textual omission regarding the Northern Ireland CLP, which already has one representative, will be corrected.

A bigger voice for councillors

• The Leader of the LGA shall have the right to attend meetings of the political Shadow Cabinet when in opposition and the political Cabinet when in government. There will be better services provided for our councillors with a new website and enhanced online facilities, more training, design support for templates, and increased support for all Labour groups, large and small.

 

Full details of the actual textual rule book changes arising from these points will be sent to you as soon as the NEC has agreed the final recommendations to be put to Conference. The above recommendations do not represent the full extent of the changes likely to be proposed from Refounding Labour, and further issues are currently under consideration.

In addition, a number of reforms that do not require rule changes, such as new and improved technology for communication across the party, will also be proposed as part of the overall Refounding Labour package, and we will endeavour to ensure that you receive details of the final recommendations as soon as possible.

I hope this information is helpful and I will be in touch with further updates in due course.

Yours sincerely

 

 

Ray Collins

General Secretary

 

 

Comrade McNicol delivers a message to Labour Party members

For the glossy version go to the Labour Party Conference guide. But a couple of days ago when I was checking out MemberCentre, I had a thought. MemberCentre is part of the internal Labour Party IT offer.  For those good democractic socialist volunteers who give their time to keep other members informed about local issues, meetings, campaigning and fundraising activity it offers genuine value - realtime access to members' details.

I blogged and tweeted about its shortcomings and how they might be improved a couple of days ago and issued an invitation to our new general secretary designate and also our Leader. In the first instance local communication capacity depends on each member taking on a responsibility. I wrote:

That is why I launched an appeal on Twitter to all Labour Party members to update their personal details on Membersnet - get your membership card ready to register. I invite the Leader and the GS-designate to retweet.

I had written about my impressions of Iain shortly after his appointment here. I started my piece with:

I welcome Iain McNicol's election as the Labour Party's next General Secretary. I would not describe him as a buddy, or close personal friend. Iain is a comrade. And I would like to share two experiences that highlight why.

So I was not exactly surprised when last night, in true comradely fashion, @Iainmcnicol retweeted my appeal.

Iain McNicol @IainMcNicol retweeted to 2,082 followers: PeterKenyon Peter Kenyon @IainMcNicol Will you RT my appeal to #Labour party members to update details on Membersnet. Helps volunteer officers keep members in loop Sep 08, 6:25 PM via web

View @IainMcNicol’s Tweets

I am now attempting to pass this message on to every CLP in the country. It hasn't required a change in the Labour Party rules for me to attempt this task. But if you can help, please let me know. In their turn I hope every CLP will pass it on to every branch, and every branch to every member - even those who currently don't declare an eMail address. As I discovered in City of London branch some 20% of members actually had one, but had never disclosed it previously to the Labour Party.

It is partly about trust. So here's a practical way in which we can start to Refound the Labour Party, in line with the Manchester Declaration and the aims of the Labour Democratic Network. of which I am secretary.

Labour at a crossroads - control freaks rally

There are two competing visions of the Labour Party. I exaggerate. But for the sake of debate, consider: the Manchester Declaration 2011, and two posts in the last 24 hours one from a former general secretary, Peter Watt yesterday, and the other from the secretary of Labour First, Luke Akehurst.

Peter wants us to believe politics is boring and irrelevant. Luke is providing a smokescreen for party staff acting in defiance of and to the detriment of Ed Miliband's leadership. We will see a lot more of this before Conference 2011.

In the meantime, the authors of the Manchester Declaration 2011 are seeking to offer a vision of the future Labour Party focussed around four core themes:

• A Healthy and Dynamic Party
• An Inclusive Party where everyone is welcome, living our values and representative of our communities
• A Campaigning Party rooted in our communities and making a difference
• A Democratic Party with open, informed policy debate — a partnership of equals

If you want to express your preference for this sort of party, please sign up now on the Labour Democratic Network website.