The LRC (Labour Representation Committee) is one of the key left-wing groups, alongside Momentum and CLPD (Campaign for Labour Party Democracy) with input into the composition of the ‘left slate‘ of candidates for key Labour Party elections, such as the recent contests for places on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee NEC).
The process of selecting slates has been obscure, seeming largely to consist of back-room discussions and horse-trading until a final approved list of candidates is announced for left-wing Labour members to back for the optimum chance of success – and for the last couple of years, success has been achieved almost without exception.
But the SKWAWKBOX can exclusively reveal that the left slate entered a crisis today with the decision of an emergency meeting of the LRC’s executive to overwhelmingly reject the recent left slate put together primarily by Momentum for this summer’s elections to Labour’s NEC.
There had been contention among left-wing groups about the slate, with some feeling that Momentum had acted unilaterally to bypass other groups, while others felt Momentum had to act because of delays in other groups’ decision-making processes.
That all came to a head today. An LRC committee member passed the following statement to the SKWAWKBOX:
The LRC’s emergency National Executive Committee today rejected by a huge majority the Momentum slate for Labour’s NEC and decided to back a statement from a meeting of representatives of LRC, Red Labour, Grassroots Black Left and Jewish Voice for Labour calling for new candidates to come forward, particularly Black, African, Caribbean, Asian and other people of colour and women.
There was a groundswell of revolt against the Lansman/Willsman Momentum-CLPD “stitch-up” slate that senior reps from Unite and the CWU denounced as the old machine politics of the right-wing not Jeremy Corbyn’s new politics
NEC – and 2018 slate – member Darren Williams told the SKWAWKBOX:
As long as you have several different organisations deciding the slate as a coalition it’s very difficult to have a purely democratic process. That’s not to say the process can’t be improved, but people should understand that it’s not the simplest process and it wouldn’t be easy to reselect a slate from scratch now, especially on an open, OMOV basis.
With only three months until nominations for the NEC elections close, the SKWAWKBOX calls on all these key Labour groups to meet as a matter of urgency to thrash out their differences and agree an efficient, transparent process for as democratic a selection process as feasible in the time available, so left-wing Labour members can unite behind a single left slate for the NEC.
If they get it right, the process for selecting this and future slates will be far stronger, more representative and much better able to express the popular left movement that has the Establishment in turmoil.
The results of the meeting have been communicated to Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum founder Jon Lansman, so the process for deciding how things progress from this point will be under discussion imminently.
Edit: a Jewish Voice for Labour spokesperson has stated that while JVL participated in the meeting referred to in the LRC statement, the group did not approve the statement and its formal position is still to back the existing slate.
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