Organise, grow and win

Jennie Formby, Labour’s new general secretary addressed the 2018 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool today, September 23, as “only the second woman in the history of our movement to hold that position and with our party at the strongest it has ever been with over half a million members.”

Unite member and former Unite political director said there were many challenges ahead – “but they are challenges I believe we can overcome.”

This included “developing more detailed political education and training materials to help us to tackle all forms of racism,” slating the Tories as “the party that so has so shamefully betrayed the Windrush generation again and again.”

Divided Tories

She continued, “That’s why unity is so important. We’re facing a Conservative party more divided than ever in its history. A Tory government that’s devastating our communities; driving four and a half million children into poverty, 12 per cent of our entire population living in ‘persistent’ poverty with food banks the norm.

“Tory policy has left hospitals struggling to cope, social care failing the most vulnerable, millions living in sub-standard accommodation, an infrastructure that’s collapsing and instead of our children having a brighter future than we did, they face a bleak world with fewer opportunities.”

So, she said, “we have an absolute responsibility to unite to beat this callous and cruel government…All of us…must stand united behind Jeremy Corbyn, our elected leader, united to fight the Tories and to return a Labour government.”

Her three priorities for the party in the coming months was, ”To organise, to grow and to win.” The ultimate aim, “winning a general election – the sooner the better.”

“Incredible things”

She emphasised key programmes in widening voter engagement like the crucial Community Organising initiative and reported in the “incredible things” these teams were achieving up and down the country. She emphasised the need for greater “engagement with all BAME communities.”

She concluded by saying “Solidarity and collectivism together with our vision for a better future. This must be the glue that binds us together.

“And with members like you I know that we can win. Win for our families, win for our communities. Win a Labour government that will transform the lives of so many people with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister, for the many, not the few.”