CWU general secretary Dave Ward has written to all leadership and deputy leadership candidates before CWU decides which it will support
The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has today written to all Labour leadership candidates with a set of questions it wants them to answer before it decides which candidates it will recommend to its branches.
The letter poses questions to the hopefuls on three key areas of policy and vision – crucially including how they intend to increase the number of working-class parliamentary candidates ‘rooted in their communities’. And while some of the questions are specific to the workers the CWU represents, many are not:
As a declared candidate for the position of [Leader/Deputy Leader], I wanted to write to you to set out the Communication Workers Union’s nomination process. We will be holding an extensive democratic engagement with our branches over the coming weeks and it will be this process that ultimately decides who will be nominated for this position by the CWU.
As part of this process, we are writing to all candidates with a series of questions that we would invite you to reply to. The answers to these questions will be used at our National Executive meeting on the 28th January where the Union’s leadership will agree which candidate will be recommended to our branches at a special decision- making forum on the 30th January.
If successfully elected to the position you have applied for, we would like to know:
1. Policy
– Are you committed to the direction on Labour’s 2017 and 2019 manifestos – are there any specific manifesto policies which you would want to change or amend?
– Do you support the renationalisation of Royal Mail?
– Do you support the introduction of a publicly owned national post bank?
– What are you views on a Labour Party strategy to support our members in the telecoms and financial services industries, including the policy of universal broadband and renationalisation of relevant parts of BT?
– Are you committed to repealing the existing Trade Union Act and how would you support Trade Union organisation and values being reasserted across the world of work?
– Given the passing of the withdrawal agreement, how will you respond to the ongoing Brexit negotiations?
– What would your top 3 priorities be if you were elected as [Leader/Deputy]?2. Media and Engagement
It is critical in our view that Labour develops a more robust communications and media strategy.
– How would you improve the overall communications of the Labour Party?
– How would you use the media to convince the electorate Labour is ready to govern at the next election?
– How would you increase our influence with the mainstream media?
– Would you work to grow a new media in the UK?
– Would you implement a dynamic and engaging social media strategy and what steps would you take to achieve this?3. The Party
What sort of internal strategy would you pursue regarding the democratisation of the Labour Party? Including;
– How would you make local CLP meetings more dynamic?
– How would you involve members and trade unions more?
– What would your approach to annual conference be?
– How would you encourage more working class candidates rooted in their communities to stand for parliament?
The CWU has asked all candidates to respond no later than 24 January, so that it can present their answers to it’s National Executive Committee on 28 Jan and to a special forum of branch delegates on 30 Jan.
Labour members could do far worse than to emulate CWU and put these and similar questions to the candidates who will be asking for their vote.
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