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| Labour’s democratic review is no stitch-up. It’s a grassroots turbo-boost | Labour’s democratic review is no stitch-up. It’s a grassroots turbo-boost |
| (3 months later) | |
| It takes a particular skill to cast something called a “democratic review” as being nothing short of a manipulative power grab and a stitch-up, to boot. But detractors of the Labour party’s current efforts to open up its decision-making structures and be more bottom-up have portrayed it as a dark plot designed to allow the hard left to tighten its grip, or extend its stranglehold on the party. | It takes a particular skill to cast something called a “democratic review” as being nothing short of a manipulative power grab and a stitch-up, to boot. But detractors of the Labour party’s current efforts to open up its decision-making structures and be more bottom-up have portrayed it as a dark plot designed to allow the hard left to tighten its grip, or extend its stranglehold on the party. |
| It’s true that this democracy review by the leader’s political secretary, Katy Clark, which concluded a seven-month consultation last week, is a Jeremy Corbyn flagship. The plan is to get Labour’s membership of more than 550,000 people more involved in the party. This is a good thing because it will increase participatory democracy and it is also likely to turbo-boost the extraordinary grassroots campaigning in evidence during last year’s general election. | It’s true that this democracy review by the leader’s political secretary, Katy Clark, which concluded a seven-month consultation last week, is a Jeremy Corbyn flagship. The plan is to get Labour’s membership of more than 550,000 people more involved in the party. This is a good thing because it will increase participatory democracy and it is also likely to turbo-boost the extraordinary grassroots campaigning in evidence during last year’s general election. |
| Some 10,000 members have responded to the review, with hundreds attending nationwide events to proffer views and proposals. Areas covered include improving gender and diversity representation, strengthening member participation, as well as how the party elects local government officials, and selects MPs and the party leader, which so exercised rightwing commentators. | Some 10,000 members have responded to the review, with hundreds attending nationwide events to proffer views and proposals. Areas covered include improving gender and diversity representation, strengthening member participation, as well as how the party elects local government officials, and selects MPs and the party leader, which so exercised rightwing commentators. |
| Proposed reforms in the review, which were seen by general secretaries of the major trade unions last week, suggest that a leadership candidate needs the support of fewer MPs to secure a place in any leadership contest. MPs have traditionally been the guardians of which candidates get to appear on the final ballot that party members vote on. Another proposal is for the grassroots party members to choose the leaders of their local Labour council group, taking this power away from the group. | Proposed reforms in the review, which were seen by general secretaries of the major trade unions last week, suggest that a leadership candidate needs the support of fewer MPs to secure a place in any leadership contest. MPs have traditionally been the guardians of which candidates get to appear on the final ballot that party members vote on. Another proposal is for the grassroots party members to choose the leaders of their local Labour council group, taking this power away from the group. |
| Labour’s national executive committee meets on 17 July to discuss the recommendations from this review which will then go to the Labour party conference in September, where members can agree proposals, or chuck them out. | Labour’s national executive committee meets on 17 July to discuss the recommendations from this review which will then go to the Labour party conference in September, where members can agree proposals, or chuck them out. |
| It is worth pointing out, since the cynical seem to have forgotten, that these attempts to reconnect people to politics are coming at a time of corrosive disconnection and disenchantment with political power. Participatory politics isn’t just the antidote but also a commanding counter to the populist right demagoguery currently on the rise. Continental Europe’s social democrats battling resurgent far-right parties want to recreate Labour’s mobilising hands-on vibe. | It is worth pointing out, since the cynical seem to have forgotten, that these attempts to reconnect people to politics are coming at a time of corrosive disconnection and disenchantment with political power. Participatory politics isn’t just the antidote but also a commanding counter to the populist right demagoguery currently on the rise. Continental Europe’s social democrats battling resurgent far-right parties want to recreate Labour’s mobilising hands-on vibe. |
| And the striking election of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a New York Democratic party candidate last week, testimony to grassroots politics, was similarly inspired by Corbyn’s people-powered campaigning. So rather than bemoan the Labour membership’s leftwing leanings, perhaps that time would be better spent grappling with why centrist politics aren’t similarly inspiring such engagement. And instead of viewing the party’s membership – the largest in Europe – as separate to society and disconnected from voters, maybe it’s reasonable to suppose that half a million people are in fact a part of society; they are voters and they’re in political conversations taking place on doorsteps, at work and over dinner tables nationwide. | And the striking election of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a New York Democratic party candidate last week, testimony to grassroots politics, was similarly inspired by Corbyn’s people-powered campaigning. So rather than bemoan the Labour membership’s leftwing leanings, perhaps that time would be better spent grappling with why centrist politics aren’t similarly inspiring such engagement. And instead of viewing the party’s membership – the largest in Europe – as separate to society and disconnected from voters, maybe it’s reasonable to suppose that half a million people are in fact a part of society; they are voters and they’re in political conversations taking place on doorsteps, at work and over dinner tables nationwide. |
| Meanwhile, for the movements supportive of Corbyn’s leadership, the question now is how to be critical allies: holding the leadership accountable to its own policies, pushing back on positions that don’t connect to the grassroots and ensuring the party membership is actively involved. The democratic review could stress test this relationship: after all, being listened to goes a long way – as any leadership skills manual would tell you – but the proof is in the party actually opening up processes of decision making, even if it ends up with a membership pushing for policies the leadership doesn’t agree with. Brexit is a potential clash as three-quarters of the party membership supports a “people’s vote” on the Brexit deal and several constituency Labour parties plan to raise the issue at party conference. Alongside that, a Momentum petition, calling on its members to campaign for a final say on the Brexit deal, may garner enough signatures to trigger a vote by this grassroots group of Corbyn supporters. | Meanwhile, for the movements supportive of Corbyn’s leadership, the question now is how to be critical allies: holding the leadership accountable to its own policies, pushing back on positions that don’t connect to the grassroots and ensuring the party membership is actively involved. The democratic review could stress test this relationship: after all, being listened to goes a long way – as any leadership skills manual would tell you – but the proof is in the party actually opening up processes of decision making, even if it ends up with a membership pushing for policies the leadership doesn’t agree with. Brexit is a potential clash as three-quarters of the party membership supports a “people’s vote” on the Brexit deal and several constituency Labour parties plan to raise the issue at party conference. Alongside that, a Momentum petition, calling on its members to campaign for a final say on the Brexit deal, may garner enough signatures to trigger a vote by this grassroots group of Corbyn supporters. |
| And there are potentially other clashes ahead between MPs, the party leadership and party members. This challenge of keeping the leadership aligned to its own, membership-supported policies came into focus with parliament’s recent vote for the government’s Heathrow airport expansion plan. With climate change a key issue for the left movement and Labour leadership alike, some campaigners say the party’s free vote on the issue (rather than whipping MPs, who backed the airport’s expansion citing reasons of economic growth, to oppose a third Heathrow runway) was demoralising and potentially eroded goodwill among people who were likely to have canvassed for the party during last year’s election. | And there are potentially other clashes ahead between MPs, the party leadership and party members. This challenge of keeping the leadership aligned to its own, membership-supported policies came into focus with parliament’s recent vote for the government’s Heathrow airport expansion plan. With climate change a key issue for the left movement and Labour leadership alike, some campaigners say the party’s free vote on the issue (rather than whipping MPs, who backed the airport’s expansion citing reasons of economic growth, to oppose a third Heathrow runway) was demoralising and potentially eroded goodwill among people who were likely to have canvassed for the party during last year’s election. |
| Frustration mostly wasn’t focused on the tactical decision to avoid splitting the party over a vote it had no chance of winning. Rather, it was about this stark schism over such a defining issue within the parliamentary party. Those Labour MPs who backed the government may have created an appetite among members, who hadn’t previously wanted to rock that particular boat, for some mechanism for the reselection of MPs. And it feeds right back into that democracy review, with its drive to strengthen the relationship between party members and MPs, leadership and policies, people and the way politics is done. | Frustration mostly wasn’t focused on the tactical decision to avoid splitting the party over a vote it had no chance of winning. Rather, it was about this stark schism over such a defining issue within the parliamentary party. Those Labour MPs who backed the government may have created an appetite among members, who hadn’t previously wanted to rock that particular boat, for some mechanism for the reselection of MPs. And it feeds right back into that democracy review, with its drive to strengthen the relationship between party members and MPs, leadership and policies, people and the way politics is done. |
| We’ve long been alarmed by the damaging democratic deficit in this country, with people feeling unrepresented by our politics. So when a people-powered approach takes shape within one of our major parties, it’s a bad idea to respond by saying that this isn’t the kind of democracy we had in mind. | We’ve long been alarmed by the damaging democratic deficit in this country, with people feeling unrepresented by our politics. So when a people-powered approach takes shape within one of our major parties, it’s a bad idea to respond by saying that this isn’t the kind of democracy we had in mind. |
| • Rachel Shabi is a writer and broadcaster | • Rachel Shabi is a writer and broadcaster |
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