Liverpool Riverside CLP – whose MP Louise Ellman is considered on the hard right of the party – has long been the most right-dominated CLP (constituency Labour party) in Liverpool, in spite of a majority-left membership.
The CLP was suspended over what turned out to be entirely unsupported allegations against members – and on its reinstatement was forcibly converted from an ‘all-member meeting’ to a branch/delegate-based structure. A rush of delegations from other groups then cemented the right in charge, in spite of the best efforts of left-wing members to organise.
Last night that changed.
At Riverside’s AGM on Friday evening, the left won every one of the six ‘exec’ positions and most of the other CLP officers.
All of the CLP’s crucial delegate positions to the city’s ‘LCF’ (local campaign forum) – the body that controls campaigns and local election candidate selections – also went left.
Riverside’s Chair, Tim Hayden, told the SKWAWKBOX that the left had competed on a platform of total support for Liverpool Women’s Hospital, which faces closure, for the RMT union’s battle to keep guards on Merseyside trains and the FBU (Fire Brigades Union) fight against cuts by a fire authority that has a £25m reserve but pays ‘resilience payments’ to some firefighters to break strikes aimed at preventing a £1.9m cut in Liverpool’s fire services.
The fact that these battles are necessary in a Labour city is a good indicator of the scale of the task – and shows that last night’s victory is a huge landmark in the alignment of Liverpool Labour to the wishes and politics of the vast majority of the UK’s Labour members.
Congratulations to Riverside members.
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Very proud of you Liverpool Riverside ✊🏼🌹
Except it was at 10am this morning!! 😉
This is fantastic news. Congratulations Riverside!
Congratulations to all Candidates and everyone who worked so hard to achieve a Liverpool Riverside CLP which, at long last, is committed to supporting the Labour Party Leader, promoting Labour Party Policy, representing the views of the majority of the membership and proactively working towards greater membership involvement.
The anti democratic Branch Delegate structure needs to be abolished.
As I posted on fb: It’s such a distortion of the meaning of an AGM. Wikipedia says “An annual general meeting (commonly abbreviated as AGM, also known as the annual meeting) is a meeting of the general membership of an organization.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_general_meeting The idea of a ‘delegate’ AGM is really a contradiction in terms [for a supposedly democratic socialist organisation].
Can the CLP meetings now be opened up to LP members who want to attend, even if they can’t vote?
Still struggling to find any reason for Centrism. There are no actual policies beyond Tory-lite warmongering and keeping power through abusing democracy through ropey methods. That’s Neoliberalism for you!
‘Centrism’ is often bandied about as meaning ‘moderate’ and-or looking to wholeheartedly satisfy a mishmash or an amalgam of Right and Left, as if that was in any way really feasible. Centrist types muddle within a political, wishy-washy middling sphere where no one is satisfied on the Left or the Right. Centrists are ghostly apparitional malcontents forever flailing about trying to find and establish mediocre answers in their political purgatory.
“Centrism” isn’t really centrism – as in practical solutions rather than ideology, but simply the liberal wing of corporatism / corporatocracy. A practical centrist would accept that some things should be run privately in a genuinely competitive market and some by the state as public services for the national good rather than the trend towards privatisation / outsourcing / offshoring and favouring of multinational corporations as the default position.
The fact that keeping much needed hospitals open, staffing trains properly and supporting the fire service are now considered “hard left” shows just how stupid things have got. If there are “moderate” Labour figures who aren’t willing to support the NHS, the rail staff or the fire brigade, then it’s time they are honest about who they are for. My guess would be Saudi Arabia, G4S, multinational banks and their own pockets…
““Centrism” isn’t really centrism – as in practical solutions rather than ideology, but simply the liberal wing of corporatism / corporatocracy.”
I agree.
I would put the word ‘extreme’ before “liberal wing of corporatism / corporatocracy”. Political and media discourse has shifted so far to the side of hegemonic financialised Capitalism and imperial neo-colonialism even mild social democratic and anti imperialist policies are now labelled extreme and either ignored, misrepresented or treated with unhinged hysteria.
Berger’s seat next. Then (ill)eagle(‘s) ,mcgovern’s & field’s…
Absolutely – a shopping list for a true Labour Government which will cannot be blackmailed by the ‘wreckers’.
*will not and cannot
Wavertree and Wallasey already went strongly left
These little victories are crucial. Eventually the whole will become greater than the sum of its parts!
The Labour party is slowly but surely starting to reflect it’s membership on all levels of the party. Last year the left did very well but the party has so many right leaning councillors that it will be a lengthy process to make the party truly representative of it’s members.
Labour should stand up for “labour”. Anyone opposing NHS workers, train guards or the fire brigade has no place in the party. Even a lot of tory voters would agree with that. Common sense after all would say we need hospitals, properly staffed railways and a proper fire service.
INTERREGNUM
The old order (Neo-Liberalsm) is dying.
But the new cannot be born.
Perhaps we are all being tested.
And only the stars will ride the storm.
The wonderful city of Liverpool along with recent others have added a few more stars!
Hope is on the horizon! Solidarity!
The centre ground is now the sink-hole of U.K. politics. Always good to see proplr disappearing down it.