An emergency motion has been put to today’s Annual General Meeting of CLPD (Campaign for Labour Party Democracy) in support of Unite’s Jennie Formby for the position of Labour’s General Secretary.
The motion also calls for ‘no other candidate’ to stand against her:
A vote on the motion will take place this afternoon and is expected to pass smoothly – in contrast to scenes of chaos this morning over an emergency motion to challenge long-term incumbent Peter Willsman as Secretary.
Jon Lansman, a long-term CLPD member and founder of Momentum, has already announced his candidacy and Momentum has emailed members calling for further applications. A CLPD motion calling for no left candidates to contest the appointment will increase the pressure on Lansman to step aside so that Labour can have its first female General Secretary in decades without dividing the left.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
What the feck is Lansman playing at!
Yes -let’s have this capable woman –
For the good of the Labour Party and Momentum Lansman must stand down immediately.
He is only handing ammunition to the Tories and the Blairites by standing. And all for what purpose, as he will never be selected for the role?
Whatever point he is trying to prove, the only outcome is that he is sabotaging the Labour Party.
How is demanding no other candidate stand helping democracy? This is starting to sound really really dodgy.
No one is saying that, only questioning why HE is standing against JC’s favoured candidate, AND when he only just got voted onto the NEC a few weeks ago anyway. And if he were to win, Eddie Izzard would then replace him, and a lot of people on the left have serious doubts about where he’s coming from.
The right has for too long relied on ther left to divide itself into ineffectiveness and obscurity. One sole candidate stands a chance of winning. The struggling people in our society will not thank you for your adherence to “democracy”, whatever that may be.
Jennie is far and away the best candidate, I never like to personalise things but. Lansman must be living in a parallel political universe by continuing to stand when Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonald and momentum members on the NEC support Jenny
Democracy is
something you do all the time
or you don’t have it
So Jon Lansman declares that he’s running for GS on March 1st (after letting rumours circulate for several days), and then Team Momentum sends out an email the very next day to all their members (which includes myself) headed – and asking – ‘Are you Labour’s next General Secretary?’.
One has to ask why they didn’t send out said email sooner, or why they have sent out such an email anyway. Something smells fishy to me.
These are not candidates for political office. They are job applicants. The GS is politically neutral (in terms of factional arguments within the party). It comes down to competence as administrators and managers. The wider the field of experienced people the better, surely?
Not necessarily. As we’ve seen, a GS who is not aligned with the direction of the party can be a significant handicap – and with a faction still more than prepared to cause damage for their own purpose of retaking control of the party, there’s no room for self-indulgence by anyone