Scottish Executive Committee Report - November 2017

Report Nov 2017  - Joint National Executive and Scottish Executive Meeting & Scottish Executive Meeting   

This was an unusual meeting. Partly because it was on a Sunday – mostly because the morning consisted of a Joint Session with the National Executive Committee (NEC).  

After brief introductions from the Chairperson of the NEC, the CWU’s Andy Kerr, and Cathy Peattie Vice Chair of the SEC the meeting began (as I think is standard at NEC meetings) with obituaries of recently deceased comrades. Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to former Cornish MP and an old colleague of his from Islington Council, Candy Atherton, Former Aberdeen MP Frank Doran – whose work on offshore safety, and helping push through the minimum wage legislation was mentioned. Jeremy, being a former NUPE official, gave a particularly warm remembrance of Rodney Bickerstaffe formerly General Secretary of NUPE and then UNISON, speaking of visiting him in hospital during his final illness and how Bick would interrogate every one of the NHS staff who came near him about whether or not they were union members - recruiting to the very end. Jeremy also talked of the sad death of Carl Sargant extending sympathy and support to his family and that he would be representing the party at the funeral.  

UK Leader report

Jeremy Corbyn (JC) congratulated Anas Sarwar and Richard Leonard on their campaigns and Richard on his victory. Reminded those present that he had been a frequent visitor to Scotland as leader – and had instructed the Shadow Cabinet that they should be making themselves available to come here and campaign with Richard.  

JC reported on the Democracy Review which is just beginning. We have a party of over half a million members. Now is therefore a very good time to look at our culture and how we work. We need to make sure that CLP’s operate in a welcoming and inclusive manner. We will win not simply by virtue of what we do in a four week campaign when an election is called, but by the messages we spread through the community on economic justice, on fairness and decency so we need a party doing that.   

JC congratulated Paddy Lillis on becoming General Secretary of USDAW and looked forward to working with him. He went on to say that the LP should be encouraging members who aren’t in TU’s to join. We have a large number of new young members many of whom will be working in unorganised areas of the economy – absolutely no reason we can’t be encouraging them to join a union.  

Budget.  JC congratulated John McDonnell and his team for the budget response as we got out a strong alternative message. For the first time ever absolutely no advance copy of any budget related material was provided. Normally at the very least a copy of the Chancellor’s budget speech (with figures redacted) is provided an hour in advance. The budget contained many failings – specific mention was given to the paucity of the proposals to tackle the housing crisis. Labour set out the need for an investment led economy – and we will need to keep making this case. Our analysis of the budget was quickly confirmed by both the OBR and IFS. 

Other issues touched upon in JC’s report included the Paradise papers, the slight progress made in relation to Universal Credit (dropping of premium rate phone calls, from 6 to 5 weeks for payment) all in all Universal Credit was described as “a wholly avoidable crisis”.  

Party had been supporting the case of Nazarin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

International Issues -  Party had been raising the issue of the treatment of the Rohingya people in Myanmar – condemning the activities of the Burmese military and urging more action on the part of Aung San Suu Kyi. Rosena Allin-Khan, the MP for Tooting had been across working as a Doctor in the afflicted area and had been very active on the issue in parliament.  

In Yemen there is an unfolding humanitarian crisis because of the ongoing war. The UK gives aid to the area (which is good) but also sells weapons (which is not good). What is required is a political solution and Saudi withdrawal from Yemen  

JC will be attending the meeting of the Party of European Socialists next week where he will be raising the issue of the rise of the far right in EU countries – specifically mentioning Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia  

Jeremy will be speaking in Geneva on UN International Human Rights Day  (and didn't he just )   – there are various initiatives planned around that.  

JC has been travelling round the country – party Regional conferences have been big, enthusiastic. Re participation – young people voting went up from 47%- 59% - this is obvious an impressive leap but still below national average.   

JC asked (by SEC member) about why the party had voted against Ian Murray’s amendment to the EU withdrawal bill. JC reported that Ian had been advised by the party’s European team (and others) that the amendment wasn’t particularly competent – in that it wouldn’t do as he expected it to. Following this Ian agreed that the amendment would go forward as a ‘probing amendment’ ie aimed at raising discussion on the topic – but he would withdraw it before it came to a vote – he failed to do this . There were in fact very few Labour MP’s in the house at this point (the amendment was only a one line whip so there would be no censure for those not voting).

JC finished his report by saying that we have changed the political conversation – issues of economic and social justice are now being discussed in a way that they haven’t been for years. That said there is a sadness as we approach the end of the year – as we didn’t quite get there in the election. We had seen the biggest swing to Labour since 1945, we added votes, we added seats but we didn’t win. We need to work so that we will get there next time.  

Scottish Leader Report  

Given he was standing next to a bust of the man, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Richard Leonard began his report by referencing James Keir Hardie (about whose life and work it became clear he knows a great deal) – remarking that being Scottish Labour Leader was something that he found both surprising and humbling. He congratulated Anas on his campaign – pointed out the number of common ideas and how there was much consensus during the election “A consensus shaped on the anvil of our ‘for the many-not the few’ manifesto.’ – extending public ownership, challenging austerity and tackling inequality.  He also spoke of the need to have a political strategy that isn’t just about Parliament but goes beyond that.  

Everyone in Scottish Labour is fully supportive of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership whatever has happened in the past is now done. We’ve had a growth in membership around leadership elections. The challenge now is to convert members into activists.  

Kezia has of course abandoned parliamentary duties for a TV programme. RL remarked on this that  the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party (SPLP) Standing orders –  contain a reference to the necessity for Labour MSPs to show a “a diligence in carrying out their duties’. Also that this absence from parliament was not authorised.  

Richard recounted the first thing he did on being elected was to go to the BiFab work–in. Because the workforce acted and refused to accept closure – the SNP Govt were forced to step in. It was a victory for working people that came about because they had confidence in themselves.  

As regards the Scottish Labour Party – it’s not about calls for unity – it’s about demonstrating a unity of purpose. People have sought to make distinctions between the UK and Scottish Parties in recent years – we cannot afford this. In order to deliver fully in Scotland we need to have a Labour Government in Westminster – in order to get a Labour govt in Westminster we need to rebuild the Scottish Party. We are part of a UK wide movement – JKH had a message of socialism, he failed to get elected in Scotland – he got to parliament via the people of London and of Merthyr.  

RL mentioned meeting the Labour group of CoSLA, saying that this will be a regular occurrence, and reiterated his point that we need a political strategy that will combat austerity .  

RL spoke to a paper he presented to the joint meeting - “Winning In Scotland”  

This outlined the position we face in Scotland . We are in third place in Holyrood – in June the vote increased by 9.6% but in Scotland a mere 2.8%. There are some signs of optimism we won back 6 seats and have 23 marginals. RL’s election is an opportunity to reach out  - with Scot Lab’s new policies and leadership. Offering radical economic answers to hard pressed communities where our vote had collapsed.  

We must engage with communities and trade unions – this needs to be invested in and given a high priority we need to strengthen links with TU’s and facilitate grassroots campaigning. 

We need a better policy development process. This should include an arm working exclusively on longer term policy planning, working with affiliates and other external organisations.  

Getting out of parliament is critical in building and solidifying support – taking our message to communities and workplaces. Inside the Scottish parliament the work should be proactive as well as reactive. Whilst it is necessary to hold the SNP Govt to account we should also never forget to bring up Tory record and plans.  

Needs to be a recognition of how and why we have lost support to in Scotland. We need to argue Labour has changed – and that under our new leadership we are offering a programme with the potential for transformation, social justice and redistribution of wealth and power in a way that the SNP can never achieve and indeed would not want to.  

Richard’s report and paper were enthusiastically received by NEC colleagues.  

In the discussion that various people with a local government connection commented around the need to promote the good work Labour does in Local Government, and the view that we are one movement. How – despite lip service being paid to the idea – there has never been parity of esteem for councillors. The need to improve LCF’s functioning was also mentioned.  

In his response to the discussion RL reminded people that Ch2 of JKH’s From Serfdom to Socialism is entitled ‘Municipal Socialism’ and talking of how we need to reinvigorate the whole idea of labour local government – pointing out that previously we would hold not a conference of Labour Cllrs – but a Labour Local Government Conference.  

JC wound up the session – Budget was everything dislikeable about the Tories process driven inaccurate and helping no one  

While our Manifesto was very good – it does need work. Details need to be added and that will take engagement and discussion. We will also need to allow for local specificity within that particular measures in for example a ‘manifesto for Cornwall’ etc.  

NEC comrades were clearly impressed with the enthusiasm and thoughtfulness that Richard Leonard brings to his new role. There is a clear understanding on their part that winning in Scotland is not an optional extra but an essential. The commitment from the leadership at highest levels to make winning here a priority was most heartening.   

Scottish Executive Meeting

Cathie Peattie in the Chair welcomed people – said she was pleased we had a new leader and thanked the party staff in general and General Secretary Brian Roy in particular, for tireless work during the election.  

Democracy Review  

Katy Clark who is heading up the democracy review then gave a short presentation. She said the spur for the review was a massively expanded membership that we needed to engage with and make more effective.

Made various points-  

Across the UK regional structures lacked consistency  

This is a UK wide initiative – some elements of it may not apply to us (although we may wish to pick them up) but some of the UK wide elements will definitely have implications  

At the moment the review is looking for input – later on there will be consultations on specific proposals.  

In the discussion that followed there was mention of how do we manage policy making and policy discussions between conferences eg if a CLP takes a policy position where does it go?  

The role of CLP officers also got a mention  

It was pointed out that the motions on party democracy that went to annual conference were (mostly) remitted to the democracy review – was suggested that publicising these would give people an idea of where the discussion on party democracy had reached.  

The obvious (but someone had to say it) point was made that changing structures is easier than changing underlying cultures.  

Was suggested that the SEC is copied into all of the Scottish submissions. Brian Roy agreed to circulate terms of ref for the review and a flow chart of the decision making process in the party.   

Katy C outlined some of the mechanics – there will be surveys and some pilot projects, some work has already been done on Women’s, disabled and BAME representation.  

There will be three stages to the review with deadlines in end of Jan, end of March and end of June (this last to allow full participation of TU’s.)  

She finished by stressing the purpose is to make ourselves a more effective agent of change.  

Women’s Working Group Update  

Siobhan McCready reported on this – lots of work done, Women’s conference arranged for Feb 17th – Dawn Butler MP booked as a guest speaker, others to be confirmed .  

At present this is being organised by a Steering group, the aim being that a proper committee be voted in at the conference.  

 The Scottish Labour Women’s Voice initiative had arisen – in part at least – out of an awareness that with an all male leadership contest likely, prominently raising some key women’s issues could both put them on the agenda and perhaps a deflect a bit of criticism from the party.  

Political Reports 

Leader of the Scottish Labour Party  

Richard Leonard (RL) noted that he was back following a nineteen month absence following nineteen years on the exec (he may have described it as a sentence...). He repeated the remarks made earlier about Anas Sarwar and their campaigns having a fair degree of policy consensus that were made to the NEC  

There is across the Labour Party a settled position of tackling poverty and inequality, tackling the housing crisis, extending public ownership and making taxation more progressive. Being robust on issues of public procurement and the need for a more active and interventionist industrial policy.  Following (as he seems to intent on saying repeatedly) a decade of mediocrity and indifference from the SNP.  

We are 20 years on from the Devo ref – now is a good time to discuss whether Holyrood has lived up to what we wanted from it and what the Labour agenda for the Scottish parliament is.  

Sexual harassment – Mentioned that there is a need for some independent involvement here and that he wasn’t happy with a situation where essentially it was a matter of the party investigating itself.  

He had met Council leaders a few days before – and intended making that a regular occurrence. Councils are the front line of austerity. Austerity is happening and it needs to be combated not simply managed .  

He is meeting each of the SPLP individually asking each of them where they see their role. Will be a different shadow cabinet in due course, but not overnight.  

On the leadership election – turnout was 72% amongst members which was pretty high and showed that it had resonated with people.  

On the vexed topic of Kezia’s trip to the jungle. KD had approached Richard asking permission to be absent from Parliament before he was Leader – indeed before votes had begun to be cast. RL told her that he wasn’t yet and might never be labour leader, so it wasn’t a decision for him and she should seek permission of the Business Manager,  James Kelly. RL didn’t know at the time that she had done so already – twice – and been refused both times. Richard said that KD had also phoned Anas on the same basis she had phoned him - the implication was that that call had gone along similar lines to his own. 

Local Govt Report  

Local Govt rep David Ross indicated that the gap left by Alex Rowley was considerable as he was the link person with local govt and the next few weeks with budgets are very important. Particularly some protest on the 14th Dec when the Scottish Govt would be publishing its budget. Dave Watson indicated STUC  had plans and we be fully participating in that. 

A written report had been presented which made mention of attempts at  “more regular face-to-face meetings with union colleagues and would welcome more meetings in future” the financial pressure local government is under”.

Spending Review - just to stand still on current services, local government would need a revenue increase of £545million, 5.7% , arising from inflation and demand. Overall between 2010/11 and 2017/18 funding of local government has gone down by 8%. There is an urgent need for an active campaign from across the Labour Movement in relation to the Spending Review.  Labour groups want to see improved pay and conditions for local government workers, but every 1% on the local government pay bill costs £70million Local Governance Review - need to emphasise the key areas of local governance, subsidiarity and local democratic accountability within this Review 

The lack of any mention of the care crisis in the Local govt report was brought up 

Brian Roy acknowledged that party resources for local govt will need to be worked on.  

EPLP  

C Stihler MEP -  work goes on. EPLP has elected Richard Corbett as chair.  She has been tasked with working on cyber security.  

Gen Sec Report – Brian Roy (BR) 

(Cathie P again thanked him for much work during the leadership election.) 

BR began by reporting on various staffing issues relating to appointments and reorganisations 

Leadership Election

A written report detailing the stats of the leadership election was presented and BR thanked both the procedures Cttee and the verification panel for their work. Re the leadership election BR thanked the procedures committee & the verification panel. There were apparently only 36 applications for votes rejected by the verification panel (figures for auto exclusion were requested)    

A breakdown of numbers voting by post and electronically was requested (nb this is now available Leadership election 2,766 (12.6%) voted by post and 19,228 (87.4%) online. )  

SEC Youth section election  

Cate Vallis and Meg Whitelaw were congratulated on winning re-election to the youth positions. The turnout for this election was 39.4% 243 - (9.9%) voted by post and 2,202 (90.1%) online. 

Sexual harassment procedure

BR presented a report on sexual harassment procedure and complaints process. This was for the purposes of providing an outline of current practice and to provide a starting point for review and discussion to see what improvements could be made. BR’s recommendations included making submissions to the procedural review into complaints procedure being carried out by Karen Monaghan QC – with the aim of supporting an independent external reporting process for serious and sensitive complaints.  

A draft code of conduct on Equality & Diversity for CLP/Branch officers was also presented 

Existing procedure was both critiqued and criticised.  The lack of any mention of TU involvement was flagged up. The collective bargaining role of TU’s should allow for a role in this – and there is much to be learned from the TUC “not just banter - tackling sexual harassment” document. Also code of behaviour for MP’s etc should mention that TU’s as part of their responsibilities as employers.  Also no mention of third party harassment. It was suggested to no demonstrable level of dissent) that we  should feed back strongly that the NEC proposals are not good enough and we should make strong representations to the Monaghan review. 

A working group was set up to bring forward proposals for improving the procedures 

Alex Rowley  

BR outlined that party had three possible options once Alex came forward. Exclusion, suspension or formal notice of investigation. It is the formal notice that is now live.   Stressed that Alex referred himself and is not the subject of a formal complaint. Also mentioned that the central allegation made by The Sun that Alex had been interviewed by the Police was untrue.  When asked given that there had been no formal complaint – how long could this go on for. BR said it was difficult to investigate quickly. The individual has been reached out to – it is up to her to make a formal complaint. 

Aberdeen Council

Formally the task of the SEC was to decide a position to be reported to the NEC disputes panel in Jan 2018.  

The background to this issue is the decision of Aberdeen City Labour Group to enter into a coalition with the Conservatives following May’s elections (nb during the general election campaign) . Any such deals have to be approved in advance by the SEC – not to do so is in breach of LP rules (Ch13, Clause X LP rule book , SLP rulebook Appendix 6) The criteria used by the SEC to approve/disapprove are the policies  passed at 2017 conference on opposing austerity and defending services.  In staying in coalition with Conservatives following a clear instruction from the General Secretary to withdraw, the Cllrs were suspended.  There are however two issues here: 1st is what are they doing as Cllrs, and 2nd, is how they are behaving as LP members.  

The question of the coalition deal is one which the SEC is obliged to keep under review and consider things in the light of material changes in circumstances (approval for pre existing deals can be and has been withdrawn in the past) – It’s the constitutional committee that does this   The 2nd issue is that one that is the one that would be considered by the NEC disputes panel. In this regard – absolutely no doubt that Cllrs remain in breach of rule and so disputes panel would be duty bound to refer to full National Constitutional Committee hearing.  

What support was expressed for the Cllrs was made in terms of a speedy resolution to the issue being necessary to improve party functioning in the city. It was noticeable that some of those who had previously been vocal in support remained silent.  The limited nature of this support may have been driven by the transcripts of interviews with the councillors presented to the SEC. In these they maintained variously that the SEC did not understand the situation in Aberdeen (not taken particularly well by some of the longer serving members) and that Cllrs didn’t wish to be seen to be ‘caving in to central belt influence’.  There is not the slightest indication that any of the Cllrs gave a single thought to the impact that signing a deal with the Tories might have on the rest of the party – even though we were at that point in the middle of a general election campaign.   

The decision was taken to uphold the suspension of the councillors for the time being pending further developments.  

Motions from Glasgow Shettleston.  

Two motions from Glasgow Shettleston were briefly considered to the extent that the gen secs recommendations on them were agreed.  The 1st motion concerned the effective operation (or lack of) of Local Campaign Forums. It was agreed that reviewing Local campaign forums form will form part of the Democracy Review.  

The second motion is that SEC minutes be circulated, reps expected make regular reports, and how individuals vote be recorded;  was deferred for consideration at the all day meeting of the SEC in January.  

As part of the very brief discussion on this the lack of SEC details on the website was raised.  

AOCB  

Was reported that the consultation on All Women Shortlists had been conducted and various representations have been received these will be reported to a future meeting. 

'A Bold and Radical Shift': Richard Leonard and Scottish Labour

This article, by CfS Executive member Lauren Gilmour originally appear on newsocialist.org.uk

It has been a turbulent decade for the Scottish Labour Party. Since 2007, the party has gone from being the dominant force in Scottish politics to being the third party, behind the Conservatives. This article comes at a time when Scottish Labour is at a crossroads and it is once again tasked with choosing the direction it goes in.

In choosing Richard Leonard in the upcoming leadership election, Scottish Labour would break away from the idea that workers are constituents to be protected from the worst excesses of predatory capitalism and move towards the idea that they can be active agents of change. This is the major shift that the Scottish Labour Party needs and not simply the bland protectionism that is being offered by Leonard's opponents. A Richard Leonard-led Scottish Labour Party would be a victory for the left; not just in Scotland, but across Britain too.

Who is Richard Leonard?

A representative of the Central Scotland region, Leonard has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for just over a year. Before he announced his candidacy for the leadership of Scottish Labour, he did not even possess a Twitter account. Outwith the Labour and trade union movement, he has a relatively low profile. This may traditionally be seen as a detriment, but with a reputation as tarnished as that of Scottish Labour, having a low profile may be seen as a benefit.

For over twenty years, Leonard has been a trade union organiser: his most recent position before becoming an MSP was political officer for GMB Scotland . He has been involved in a variety of causes of the left over the years and is considered to be an intellectual and ideological heavyweight within the Scottish left. A protégé of communist academic John Foster, Richard Leonard has played an important role within the left in Scotland, often at crucial times in its recent history.

Leonard is a strong performer when it comes to policy, industrial strategy and economic change. His politics centre on economic, social and political transformation. Throughout the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014, he was fiercely anti-nationalist and was not involved with the jingoistic and deeply conservative Better Together campaign, preferring instead to talk about returning power to the people:

“Let me start with a gentle reminder. Our goal in this movement is not and has never been about shifting power from one parliament and one set of politicians to another. Our goal is about shifting power from those who own the wealth in this country back to those, who through their hard work and endeavour create the wealth in this country.”[1]

Leonard’s views (shared by others) were, at the time, sadly overlooked in favour of the overtly British nationalist messages that the Better Together campaign was spinning. Had the Scottish Labour Party run its own distinct campaign in the independence referendum, then perhaps it would not be in a situation today where it has only 7 MPs in Westminster.

Throughout his tenure as an MSP, however, Leonard has been far more cautious. He has been a quiet supporter of Jeremy Corbyn throughout his term so far, signing an open letter in support of him, along with Neil Findlay, Elaine Smith and Alex Rowley, but has rarely made a show of it. He has been reluctant to associate himself with the left-wing Campaign for Socialism (CfS) group, despite their growing influence and support within the party.

Leonard is, however, firmly committed to the ideas, policies and ideology of the left, and to running as the left’s candidate. He would bring a sense of optimism and change to a party that has been doing the same things for too long and yet expecting different results.

How can Leonard win?

The Labour Left in Scotland has been revitalised and rejuvenated. This process began in late 2014, where the left-wing group Campaign For Socialism (CfS) played a high profile role in organising MSP Neil Findlay's Scottish Labour Leadership election against Jim Murphy. Whilst Findlay did not win, his campaign brought together a group of young activists who were inspired to start a movement campaigning for change within the youth wings of Scottish Labour (and beyond), now known as Scottish Labour Young Socialists. His campaign also built the foundations of a revitalised left that, in 2015, began winning internal political positions such as the National Policy Forum slate. For the first time in many years, a left-wing majority made up the Scottish Young Labour executive committee. The Corbyn campaign in 2015 (and 2016) also brought back many people on the left who had previously felt abandoned by the Labour Party.

Richard Leonard’s campaign is taking on the Scottish Labour establishment and machine. However, there is still a very good chance that he could win; according to the bookies; he is the current favourite. His leadership will be just that: leadership. It will focus on radical and bold ideas, including public ownership, industrial strategy, investing in public services and ending austerity. These, he stated in a Sunday Mail article earlier this month, are not ideas he has adopted for current convenience, but beliefs he has held throughout his time in the labour movement:

“These are not new ideas to me. They brought me into the Scottish Labour Party over 30 years ago and guided my work as a trade union organiser across Scotland for 20 years.”

Leonard’s campaign, much like Corbyn’s in 2015, has started with little more than a website and a Twitter account. For many, this is the moment they have been waiting for. The 2013 Collins Review infamously implemented a system of electing a Labour leader that was intended to stop a left-wing candidate from even getting on the ballot, let alone winning the entire contest. But the opposite outcome was ultimately delivered due to the creation of the affiliated and registered supporters categories, enabling people to sign up for £3 to get a vote in the leadership election. While Corbyn would have won the contest without this quirk, it was registered and affiliated supporters that turned his leadership victory into a landslide, , handing him close to 60% of first preference votes.

The same thing could theoretically be replicated in Scotland, if the same drive and ambition to secure a leader who will deliver a change in direction exists. Like Richard Leonard, we must be audacious in our drive to win this leadership contest. From stalls to sign up people in the street, to social media campaigns targeting the young people who voted Labour for the first time in this year’s general election, we must ensure that we have a comfortable majority of people who want a new kind of politics reflected in the Scottish Labour Party.

A Leonard-led Party

For too long, the Scottish Labour leadership has focused on endless 'gotchas' directed at the SNP. Their political arguments have lacked substance. To start reigniting the interest and the trust of Scotland, Scottish Labour must position itself as a genuine alternative to the SNP. Richard Leonard's political outlook will deliver this much-needed departure from the bland, centrist, social democracy that has characterised both the SNP and the Scottish Labour Party since devolution. Instead he will transform the Scottish Labour Party into a party that talks about economic and social injustice, and how that can be changed. Richard Leonard will implement a far more ambitious industrial strategy than the current leadership or the Scottish government. This would bring much-needed jobs and investment to Scotland.

The crucial difference between a Sarwar-led Scottish Labour Party and a Leonard-led party is their position in relation to workers’ relationship to capital. This is the fundamental shift that needs to take place within the Scottish Labour Party. Leonard offers a bold and radical shift away from social democratic protectionism, towards a parliament that puts power back in the hands of the people. If the members of Scottish Labour choose to put their faith in Richard Leonard as leader, it will be the another step towards an essential left-wing shift within the party.

Glasgow CfS-Momentum AGM, Motions and Standing Orders

The Glasgow group will be holding the AGM on Thursday 31st of August. Kicking off at 6:30pm at John Smith House on West Regent Street.

The AGM will be electing a new committee, & debating motions.

If you are interested in standing for the committee you can nominate yourself in advance by emailing martyn_cook@live.co.uk or you can also self nominate from the floor on the day.

Each member can also submit a motion, the deadline for submitting motions for debate is  by 5pm on Tuesday 29th August to martyn_cook@live.co.uk

The proposed Agenda for the night will be as follows: 

1. Attendance

2. Outgoing Committee Report

3. Adoption of standing orders.

4. Nominations for Committee.

5. Guest Speaker: Rhea Wolfson, Labour NEC.

6. Elections for Committee.

7. Motions.

8. Committee results.

9. Guest Speaker, Paul Sweeny MP

 

Motions: 

Motion A - 

Two priority areas of work for Glasgow CfS-Momentum over the next 12 months are:

- Monthly all-members meetings which have as their prime purpose political discussion and education.

- Building CLP youth sections.

The incoming committee is responsible for implementation of the motion.

Motion B - 

Glasgow Momentum/CfS notes that both Unite (2016 Policy Conference) and the Scottish Left Review now support the mandatory reselection of sitting Labour MPs. Mandatory reselection is essential to ensure that Labour MPs and candidates represent the views of the membership, the overwhelming majority of whom support Corbyn. To that end, the incoming executive is instructed to draft a model resolution in support of mandatory reselection and to coordinate and organise support for the submission of said motion to Glasgow CLPs.

Motion C - 

Glasgow Momentum recognises that the fight to defend workers' rights in France against President Macron's attempt to amend the Labour Code is important to workers throughout Europe. We declare ourselves in solidarity with the workers and youth fighting to preserve existing rights under the current Labour Code and we hope raising further issues in the course of the struggle. Glasgow Momentum will take part in organising meetings, demonstrations and other events in solidarity with the struggle for workers' rights in France.

Motion D - 

Glasgow Momentum will aim to stand a left slate in every CLP AGM in Glasgow and a left candidate for casual vacancies on CLP ECs and local bodies like the LCF where they occur. The incoming Executive to keep a view of the number of Momentum supporters in each CLP EC.

Executive Proposal -

The name of the Glasgow group will be either:

1. Campaign for Socialism

2. Campaign for Socialism-Momentum

3. Momentum 

Proposed Standing Orders which will be voted on:

Standing Orders for

Glasgow Momentum/Campaign for Socialism Executive Committee

1) Membership:

Membership of the Executive Committee consists of: Chair; Secretary; Data Officer; Social Media and Media Officer; Campaigns Officer; two members from each Glasgow CLP (at least one of whom must be female).

Members are elected at the AGM of Glasgow Momentum/CfS members. Where there are functioning CLP Momentum/CfS groups, they will elect the two members from their CLP.

2) Role of Executive Committee:

The role of the Executive Committee is to: ensure implementation of decisions taken by Glasgow Momentum/CfS members’ meetings; organize regular and emergency meetings of Glasgow Momentum/CfS members; promote and organize campaigning by Glasgow Momentum/CfS members; respond on behalf of Glasgow Momentum/CfS to issues which cannot be left until the next Glasgow Momentum/CfS members meeting;

3) Frequency of Meetings:

The Executive Committee normally meets monthly, but the frequency may vary according to political events.

4) Notification of Meetings:

The Secretary is to provide members of the Executive with at least a week’s notice of ordinary meetings. Shorter notice can be given of emergency meetings in response to political events.

5) Quorum for Meetings:

The quorum is at least 50% of filled posts.

6) Agenda for Meetings:

The agenda of ordinary monthly Executive Committee meetings will include: implementation of decisions of last Glasgow Momentum/CfS members meeting; current campaigning activities; organization of next Glasgow Momentum/CfS meeting.

7) Minutes of Meetings:

Minutes will record decisions taken. Minutes are to be taken by the secretary and electronically circulated to other members of the Executive for approval/amendment prior to being made available to the subsequent Glasgow Momentum/CfS members meeting.

8) Miscellaneous:

Executive Committee members are expected to help fellow members in organising Glasgow Momentum/CfS events, campaigns and other activities.

Executive Committee members are to send apologies if unable to attend a meeting. The Secretary is to contact any who member does not attend two successive meetings without sending apologies and report to the next Executive Committee meeting.

Executive Committee meetings are open to members of Glasgow Momentum /CfS, without voting rights but with speaking rights at the discretion of the chair.

Standing Orders for Glasgow Momentum/CfS

1) Membership: 

Glasgow Momentum/CfS consists of all Momentum/CfS members in Glasgow. Its meetings are open to all Momentum/CfS members in Glasgow. Depending on the kind of meeting, non-members of Momentum/CfS may also attend.

2) Meetings:

Glasgow Momentum meetings are normally monthly. Special meetings needed to respond to political events can be convened by the Executive Committee, or in response to a request signed by 25% of Glasgow Momentum/CfS members.

3) Notification of Meetings:

Members are to be given at least a week’s notice of ordinary meetings by the Secretary. Notice of special meetings is whatever is reasonable under the circumstances.

4) Quorum for Meetings:

At least 15 members must be present for a meeting to be quorate.

5) Motions for Meetings:

Apart from emergency motions (relating to an event after the deadline for motions) and motions of ‘no confidence’ (see below), motions for meetings, and other items for discussion, should be sent to the Secretary at least a week before the meeting.

6) Motions of ‘No Confidence’ in an Executive Committee Member:

At least a fortnight’s notice of a motion of ‘no confidence’ in an Executive Committee member is to be given. Notice of the motion must be sent to all Glasgow Momentum/CfS members.

7) Minutes of Meetings:

The Secretary is to take minutes of meetings and circulate them with the notice of the subsequent meeting. The Secretary’s minutes are draft minutes until approved by the subsequent meeting.

8) Annual General Meeting:

The Annual General Meeting will take place in August or September. It will elect an Executive Committee as defined in the Standing Orders for Glasgow Momentum/CfS Executive Committee. Elections shall be conducted by secret ballot under the Single Transferable Vote system.

9) Communications:

Communications with members using official data and membership lists is to be done through the Data Officer for official emails, and the Social Media Officer for the use of online social media. 

10) Procedure for Debating Motions:

1. A proposing speech for the motion

2. Debates on any amendments to the main motion, which follow the same order of debate 

3. An equally timed opposing speech against the motion

4. Further debate at the chair’s discretion until the debate is balanced

5. Parts procedure

6. A vote. If the chair deems that there is a clear majority, they may declare the motion passed or fallen. If the chair cannot call the vote, the vote must be counted by tellers.

11) Procedure for Moving Voting in Parts:

1. Any member may call for voting on parts

2. The parts may be to REMOVE or PASS any part of any motion or amendment

3. The chair shall call one timed speech in favour of the parts (property of their proposer) and one equally timed speech against. The chair may call more if the debate is contentious and there is time.

12) Procedural Motions:

1. A challenge to the chair’s ruling on a vote: if this passes a revote on the motion or amendment will be held without further debate.
2. A call for a revote on any given amendment or motion: if this passes a revote on the motion or amendment will be held without further debate.
3. A call for a recount on any given amendment or motion: if this passes a count will take place again.
4. A call for more speeches on any given amendment or motion: if this passes, another round of speeches will be held. (The chair may also accept this motion without a vote).
5. A call for a suspension of procedural motions: if this passes, no procedural motions may be proposed other than motion 7.
6. A call for a change in the agenda: if this passes, the agenda will be amended accordingly.
7. A reinstatement of procedural motions: if this passes, the outcome of motion 5 is reversed.
8. Procedural motions take precedence over the debating procedure. They can be proposed by any member.  In the case of motion 1, the Chair will vacate, and the debate will be chaired by a different member of the Executive Committee. 

July 2017 CfS Executive Meeting - Report

Campaign for Socialism Executive Meeting – 17th July 2017

In attendance – P = on the phone/video call

Grant Aitken, Lesley Brennan (P), Seán Duffy, Lauren Gilmour, Tommy Kane (P), Stephen Low, Siobhan McCready (P)

Apologies Nathaniel Butler Blondel, Linda Clarke, Martyn Cook, Mike Cowley, Neil Findlay, Lisa Hughes, Laura McDonald, Hazel Nolan, Maureen Sharkey

1. Festival of Socialism

26th provisional date

Executive representatives to meet with interested parties and elected representatives to discuss the format of the event on Friday 21st

Preferably an afternoon/evening event to accommodate schedule of guest speakers. Potential musical acts to be sought who will be paid Musicians Union rates.

Executive members to ascertain viability of venues with a view to a capacity of 400 – 600

Price to be between £10 - £15 per person, with reduced rates for various groups.

2. Special conference to amend constitution

Moved to next executive

3. Online ballot for Momentum NCG representative

An independent returning officer to be selected who will set up a Survey Monkey poll. Initial expressions of interest from potential candidates to be sought.

4. General election and SEC report

General election report finished and to be released on the website and pushed on social media immediately afterwards.

Press release to go out accompanying report.

The SEC have held off crucial decisions regarding candidate selection until September, thus an SEC report will follow that meeting

5. Local group volunteers for Nation Builder training

Moved to next executive

6. Members pack

Ongoing. To be reassessed at next meeting due to absences.

7. Union affiliation

A letter is to be written to all desired unions seeking affiliation and stating that branches may affiliate also if they wish to do so. Rate for affiliation to be decided.

8. Funding for local groups

Treasurer to assess funding capacity for contributing to local groups needs, particularly for online advertising.

9. Motions for consideration

The following motion was passed in the name of Stan Crooke:

The CfS Executive will:

a) Produce a general leaflet, with a shelf life of about a year, about the CfS, its policies, its achievements, its plans, etc., etc., and encouraging people to join the CfS.

b) Give consideration to production of a hard-copy, two-sides-of-A4 newsletter/bulletin (which can also be circulated electronically) every two months, for distribution by CfS members at CLP meetings in particular (and other events as appropriate), covering recent events/political debates and pending events/political debates.

10. AOB

None

July 2017 Momentum National Coordinating Group - Report

The Momentum NCG met at the start of July. The CfS delegate, Martyn Cook, phoned in to the meeting, though was unable to stay for the entire duration. 

The following points are the key issues that related to Scotland CfS.

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Recognition within Momentum’s NCG that there is a need for a focus on Scotland because there are around 20 marginal seats across the country, and they will be crucial in electing a UK Labour Government. 

At UK party conference there will be a greater support for delegates attending. This will include a visible presence from Momentum at the venue as well as the fringe events. 

It was advised that NCG members can contact The World Transformed, who organised the fringe events last year, to discuss the agenda. It was raised that CfS will need to actively follow this up as there were issues last year.

There was a discussion around activist training from Momentum to ensure that our new members are election ready. We submitted a request for a Glasgow activists training session, as there are so many key seats here. 

Under the new Momentum constitution a Members’ Council (MC) was set up to have rotating membership selected via ballot to oversee the work of Momentum. 

The NCG agreed:

• The MC was due to take place in June but unfortunately had to be postponed due to the GE. It is proposed to have it on the weekend of the 9th and 10th of September (after the school holidays) in Manchester.

• The National Office will randomly select 50 Momentum members who will make up the first MC by mid-July and invite them to the MC weekend.  

• The MC will be organised by staff, any NCG members who wish to be involved and external facilitators who specialise in participatory decision-making and facilitation.

• The purpose of the MC weekend is to ensure that there is a continuous flow of ideas from the grassroots to develop Momentum’s activities, resources and campaigns.

CfS members may therefore be contacted about this shortly. 

The next Momentum NCG will be held on Saturday 9th of September in Manchester, coinciding with the first Members Council. CfS will soon be holding a ballot to elect a new rep to the NCG and details will be circulated the CfS Executive shortly. 

July 2017 Scottish Executive Committee Report

SEC report – Saturday 1st July 17, Glasgow.

Quite a packed agenda and a very well attended meeting with lots of lively discussion.  General optimism in room that we had now halted and potentially turned the ‘Yellow Tide’ and heartening to hear that in Council elections, SNP vote share had dropped from around 50% to 33% whilst Labour vote had stabilised and was indeed recovering in some areas, demonstrating that people were still prepared to vote Labour in significant numbers where there was a track record of delivery.

Presentation from James Kelly on UK GE which was pretty in-depth but would best be summed up as ‘lots of movement’. 2015 SNP voters back voting Labour again with others not voting at all, Lib Dem vote moving to Labour but a worrying number of 2015 Labour voters going to the Tories despite their record in power.  

• Positive aspect of Labour manifesto but clear polarisation of unionism v nationalism, Tories being seen to be stronger on the union.  Need to build on positive campaign, building membership and momentum and stay unified.
• Memes and social media messaging were highly effective.
• Disadvantaged and disenfranchised communities need to be a focus for campaigning.
• Building campaign teams, an activist base.
• Why did people vote Tory – we need an analysis as we can’t out union the unionists.
• Jeremy visits in planning (Autumn)

Report tabled re early selections for another potential snap GE.

As has been widely reported, the 10 most marginal seats are being targeted for early selections and there was a report tabled outlining how this would happen and procedural guidance was issued.  There were positives within this and measures to include local CLPs and affiliates.  Also renewing links to wider Labour movement. 

Much discussion around this as people would expect and some concern that we are being rushed into decisions. For example, what happened if there is no early General Election?  How do people keep in permanent campaign mode when they have jobs too? Life moves on for people and a candidate selected now may not be in a position to stand in a few years if nothing happens in interim.  Overall it was felt that there was potentially too much pressure to maintain permanent campaign mode.  A decision was taken to revisit this at the September ‘away day’ where things might be a little clearer on whether another GE was likely.

Report re Power Sharing agreements in local councils – some concern expressed about a few decisions that had been taken, perception versus reality and how this had been reported.  Update on situation with Aberdeen Council and work of the Constitution Working Group which was overseeing all power sharing agreements.

Women’s Committee - Working Group has been formed, Creation of a Women’s Forum and an event is being planned for later in the year or early next year.  Group has representation from MSPs, Trade Unions, CLPs and staff from HQ.  

Motions submitted re power sharing agreements in some areas and re early selections

DONM – Saturday 9th September – away day 

Helicopter view of the 2017 GE results: A Tale of Two Parties

Analysis of the 2017 General Election by our Vice-chair Lesley Brennan.

Ninety-nine per cent of constituencies in England and Wales experienced higher turnouts. Orkney and Shetland was the only constituency in Scotland to see a rise in its turnout, which is unsurprising, as there was a significant number of SNP voters, who were dissatisfied with their Party’s performance and consequently didn’t vote. So, in 98% of Scottish constituencies voter turnout was lower than 2015; however, the 2015 general election was exceptional, including the higher than normal turnout figures.  

The Labour Party across GB increased its number of votes in 607 out of 632 (96%) constituencies; however, the Tories also increased their voters in 92% the constituencies. The losers were the smaller parties, including the SNP.   

Table 2 allows comparison of the voting shifts and illuminates that Labour did significantly better in the rest of GB than in Scotland.  To reiterate these increases in votes were not restricted to Labour strongholds with only 24 constituencies not seeing an increase in Labour voters, and 21 of these seats were in Scotland; however, two of these constituencies returned a new Scottish Labour MP:  

Rutherglen and Hamilton West, and, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. So, whilst Scottish Labour lost votes in comparison to 2015 in some areas, the SNP haemorrhaged votes across Scotland. In Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, the SNP had a 10,000 majority over Labour in 2015, but in 2017 lost 10,871 votes and Scottish Labour dropped 638, which allowed Labour to gain this seat. In Rutherglen and Hamilton West, whilst Scottish Labour lost 1,203 votes, the SNP eroded from their majority 11,443, and Scottish Labour won.  

Table 3 shows further analysis at constituency level, which illuminates the scale of the shifts. So, across GB, Labour generally increased its number of votes by 5,883 per constituency; however, in Scotland, it was only 550.   

Labour Votes and the missed opportunities

Scottish Labour’s framing of the election around the SNP and the constitution, avoided robustly challenging the Tories on their record in government at Westminster. Feedback from the doorstep was indicating people were fed up with the SNP; however, Labour’s disunity – especially with senior figures in Scottish Labour’s leadership team being openly hostile towards Jeremy Corbyn – turned people off. Moreover, the Scottish Tories managed to decouple themselves from David Cameron’s and Teresa May’s governments, and present themselves as being an effective opposition to the SNP. By not challenging effectively the Tories’ record in government since 2010 and focussing on the SNP, Scottish Labour’s strategists – still in the Better Together mind-set – tacitly oversaw the Scottish Tories increase their votes by approximately 5,500 in the average constituency (the Tories increased their votes across GB by 21%).  

The SNP suffered significant losses in terms of seats and majorities, with the average constituency seeing a collapse of approximately 8,500; however, the majority of this went to the Tories. Scottish Labour’s strategists need to shift away from chasing Tory voters and fully harness Jeremy Corbyn’s transformational programme of government to win votes from people, who are experiencing (and/or concerned about) hardships due to austerity and the unfair economy.  

The ‘Jeremy Corbyn’ effect saw the Labour vote increase by over one-third across GB (38%); however, in Scotland, where the Scottish Party led an anti-SNP campaign with the ‘send Nicola a message’ narrative that almost silenced Jeremy’s message of ‘for the many’, only saw a very small increase of 1% as Table 4 shows. Yet, this is better than many pollsters predicted at the start of the campaign. The more positive landing place is generally accepted due to Jeremy Corbyn’s national campaign.  

After 15 months of a hostile PLP and media, the turning point of the campaign was the leaked draft manifesto and Jeremy Corbyn talking directly to voters, Jeremy’s campaign cut through the Scottish Labour message.  This saw a surge of people opting to vote  Labour for a better future. Unfortunately, by the time the momentum gathered the majority of the postal votes were cast. Yet, this ‘Corbyn bounce’ in a last few weeks of the campaign coupled with the collapse of SNP majorities saw an additional six Scottish Labour MPs returned to Westminster and many new marginals. 

Moving forward

The priority must be keeping the momentum of Jeremy’s campaign going and planning ways to sustain this for the forthcoming 18 months; especially, given the SNP’s concern that after another snap general election they could be down to three MPs. Thus, Scottish Labour activists need to work together to engage communities and voters to deliver for the many and getting rid of this Tory government for the few. 

The Citizen: General Election Special

Click the square 'Fullscreen' button in the bottom right of the window to enlarge.

Scottish Executive Committee Report: 22nd April & 6th May

There have been two meetings of the Scottish Executive recently: a special meeting on the 22nd April called because of the announcement of the General Election, and the Scheduled meeting on6th May. 

Special Meeting - 22nd April

The meeting was chaired by Jackie Martin. She welcomed new members and explained that the first meeting after Scottish conference would normally be when the party office bearers were elected. However, this was to be held off until the scheduled meeting in May. 

Leader’s Report

Kezia thanked staff, candidates and activists for their efforts in the ongoing Council elections, commenting that Labour had a good record in delivering in local government and had a good story to tell.

Reporting on the recent NEC meeting she said she was pleased to get an early and unequivocal rejection from Jeremy Corbyn of any idea of a ‘Progressive Alliance’ and was hopeful of several visits to Scotland by Jeremy in the course of the campaign. 

UK selections and the manifesto had been discussed at the NEC. Although the NEC had decided on a process of automatic re-selection for sitting MPs, each candidate still had to be endorsed by the NEC at a meeting scheduled for 3rd May.  

On selections the issues around the potentialendorsement of John Woodcock and Simon Danczuk were raised. John Woodcock had on the day the election was called published a video online where he said that, “I will not countenance ever voting to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister”, and Simon Danczuk has transgressions and unpleasantness too extensive to list. 

On the development of the Scottish general election manifesto – this would be coordinated with the UK manifesto – the starting point for specifically Scottish material would be the 2016 manifesto. The draft would need to be signed off by the Scottish Executive.

General Secretary’s Report

Brian Roy spoke to his written report seeking agreement for a proposal for all general election candidates to be chosen by a panel of the Scottish Executive. The justification for this was the combination of shortness of time and that we were in the middle of the council election campaign. 

Some dissent was expressed at this and the idea floated of special meetings, or perhaps even a local panel. This was countered with logistical arguments about the amount of staff and activist time this would take out of the Council election effort.  

The panel idea was agreed, although the original proposal of a panel of 5 was expanded to seven to allow for the principle that TU’s and CLPs get treated equally. So the panel consisted of 2 TU reps (chosen by the TU’s) , 1 Co-op , 1 Labour Student& 2 CLP reps (chosen by the CLP reps at a short separate meeting, these were Linda Stewart and Stephen Low).

The panel was to aim at establishing a 50/ 50 gender balance in candidates. It was also agreed that decisions of the panel were to deemed final and constitute endorsement by the Scottish Executive.

There was a brief update on the local government elections, which included the reminder that following the elections the Scottish Executive would have to approve only power sharing deals proposed by Labour groups.

Scottish Executive - 6th May

This was the first regular meeting of the Scottish Executive following Scottish Conference.  This is the point in the year where the office bearers are elected. Linda Stewart is the Chair of the party for the next year, with Kevin Lindsay of ASLEF as Vice Chair. Cathie Peattie continues in her role as Treasurer. 

Leader’s Report

Kezia ranged across the Scottish parliament, the NEC and Local Government. 

Parliament still light on legislation with the SNP preferring overtly political debates to progressing issues. Labour has one debate slot coming up that would be on health. 

The possibility that Ann McTaggart might take the party to court over Slough not being an all woman shortlist was mentioned.  The diversity stats on the candidate list is good – 40% of the candidates are women (a record), 9% from a BME background (although few black men), 4.6% are registered disabled, 6.7% LGBT. 

The Clause V meeting to decide on the manifesto was due on the 11th May. This would then be launched a few days later . Scottish manifesto would be after this. 

Local Government – Kez thanked everyone involved. There were some very sad losses but some successes. 48% of our candidates were standing for the first time so we had a lot of good new candidates. 

Although the result was disappointing - 131 seats lost – projection had been 191 losses. Looking ahead to the general election we need to talk about our alternative, need a real focus on the economy and enthused about John McDonnell’s 20 point plan.  

In the discussion which followed various viewpoints were expressed about the local govt campaign and how it feeds into the general election campaign. Perhaps the most relevant contribution being that we need to have a firm line on the constitution, but this is different from talking about it all the time. 

Scottish Parliament Report

Mary Fee MSP supplemented a written report which focussed mainly on work on the parliament’s committees.  The main (only?) legislative activity upcoming was the British Transport Police Bill. SNP argument for this is that this is a Smith Commission recommendation. However Smith only recommended that the function be devolved – not a structural breakup. 

European Report

Catherine Stihler reported that 2 current MEP’s had been selected as candidates for the general election. 

On Brexit – The EU have agreed their mandate. 

There are four criteria People (i.e. citizens), Money (i.e. divorce bill), Ireland (N.I. & Border), Future Relationships (Trade, etc).  The EU 27 are very united over this. The European parliament involvement will be a yes no vote on the final deal. 

 Public procurement is back on the EU Agenda. 

In the discussion that followed it was stressed that we need to make Brexit a “a jobs issue”. 

General Secretary’s Report

Brian Roy gave a presentation on the Local Government results. Whilst these were not good, they were not as bad as had been projected. No national vote share had yet been compiled but we looked to have gained more votes than polling would have suggested.

It was commented that our number of seats appeared to be higher than our vote share – indicating a degree of success for the first & second preference strategy.  

A draft of the form to be sent to Labour Groups seeking SEC Agreement on Power-Sharing arrangements was presented.  The form reflected previous practice in that it was focussed round delivering policy objectives rather than who holds which positions in the council. This version was drafted to take into account the resolutions passed at Scottish Conference about anti-austerity measures and ruling out compulsory redundancy agreements. While it doesn’t rule out doing deals with anyone provided they are willing to sign up to labour principle, in practice this is likely to prove too high a bar for the Tories who designed austerity - and the SNP who decided to pass it on to local government. It was remarked that as we are the third party in most councils – the responsibility to form an administration was usually not ours. 

General Election Candidates

The results of the panel were presented to the SEC. These had been chosen by a panel of seven members of the Scottish Executive, chaired by Kezia. The panel met on Monday 24th April and then via conference call several times with all candidates selected. As Brian Roy put it in his report: “After deliberations, all decisions by the Panel were unanimous and the candidate endorsed with the full support of members present.” All members were present for all of the meetings.   

At the previous meeting it had ben agreed that at least 50% of candidates should be women – in terms of new candidates (i.e. everyone except Ian Murray) this was achieved.

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The Campaign for Socialism endorsed representatives on the SEC are:

Lesley Brennan

Angela Feeney

Ann Henderson

Cara Hilton

Stephen Low

The Spectre of the 1970s

By Ewan Gibbs

If you watched Question Time last night you’d be forgiven for thinking that four decades ago Britain lived through a post-apocalyptic age where the population ate rats to survive in the crumbling vestiges of a once great civilization. Since the release of Labour’s manifesto promising the nationalisation of rail, energy, and post, as well as reforms that would grant greater legal protection to trade unions, the main response from the Tories and allies in the press has been “the 1970s”! In the same way that “the 1930s” means mass unemployment and the rise of fascism, “the 1970s” is constructed in terms of social and political conflict, economic crisis and British ‘decline’. This myth of mass misery, which implicitly and often explicitly credits Thatcherism with restoring national pride and social order in the 1980s, is a key shibboleth in the modern British political imaginary. It cements both a national narrative, and an evident Tory version of events, but also secured the New Labour story of redemption and adaption.

Yet, upon some critical inspection, the age of shame narrative starts to fall apart. It’s become something of a twitter cliche to point out that 1976 was the peak year for national happiness; Britain’s balance of payments, its trade deficit with the rest of the world, which was a key part of the ‘decline’ narrative, is far higher now than it was then; Britain is also a discernibly more economically unequal society than it was in the social democratic era. But these more or less ‘objective’ measurements miss the point. The key reason the 1970s is derided relate to Ben Wallace, Conservative MP’s caricature of trade union leaders as “barons” on Question Time last night. Audience members also made negative inferences about union power. This included the claim that trade unions “brought down a government”. The latter is patnetly untrue. Ted Heath, the Conservative Prime Minister, responded to a miners’ strike for higher wages during 1974 by calling an election asking who ran the country, the Tories or the miners, and got given short shrift by the people. This course of events reveals the true cause of fear of the 1970s, and why it must be derided as a dark age: the power of organised workers to shape the economy and attain a political voice.

The irony, in terms of references to ‘union barons’, is that the 1970s was a period of unparalleled rank and file workers’ power, which often came into conflict with trade union leadership. Some of the major disputes of the era were unofficial, such as the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders ‘work-in’ of 1971–2. The work-in was expressly not a strike; rather than withdrawing their labour workers continued working in defiance of the Heath government’s pledge to close ‘lame duck’ enterprises. Over 1971–2 Heath was forced not just to back down at UCS, but also to reverse the operation of the Industrial Relations Act during the latter year’s ‘glorious summer’ of trade union activism. This came after the initially unofficial coalition of shop steward activists who organised days of action against the Act succeeded in attaining TUC backing for general stirke action following the imprisonment of 5 dockers at Pentonville for their involvement in picketing the Act’s Industrial Relations Court had ruled illegal.

Yet, often it’s the events that took place during the Wilson-Callaghan Labour governments of 1974–9 which are most lamented. In particular the infamous ‘winter of discontent’ of 1979. Such narratives stereotype trade unions as ‘sectional’ organisations representing the interests of white male manual workers. This narrative tends to omit events such as the Grunwick strike of 1976–8 when labour movement solidarity from across the UK was extended to a strikefor union recognition led by Asian women at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in North West London . It was also during these years that the Anti-Nazi League and other left-wing and labour movement anti-fascists engaged in a street struggle with the National Front, including ‘the battle of Lewisham’ in 1977, and held the culturally and politically significant ‘Rock Against Racism’ carnival in 1978. The Winter of Discontent itself revealed the brittleness of social democracy in the face of intensifying economic pressures, and the growing strength of mobile internationalising capital. However, as Jack Saunders (Twitter @jack_saundrs) contends, opposition to wage restraint policy was broad based, from car workers to local government employees. We need to consider the significance of the 1970s as a period when the social movement politics of ‘1968’ saw workers’ raised expectations coming up against the structures of a political economy morphing from social democratic to neoliberal forms.

The 1970s deserve a historical appraisal worthy of the significance of a decade that set in train a lot of the key phenomena that shaped our present juncture. In particular it was the period when the social democratic structures that had determined British development from the 1940s ultimately atrophied, and the politics of the ‘New Right’ electorally triumphed in 1979. But most vociferously, it was a time when ordinary people, especially organised manual workers, exercised a political voice and economic power on a scale that seems far form imaginable at present. They did not do so in a docile manner of following leaders, but through complex structures which included the exercise of democratic will and agency.

Originally posted on https://medium.com/@ewangibbs/the-spectre-of-the-1970s-477028371476