The representation we deserve

Unite AGS Howard Beckett joined the debate today (September 23) supporting all eight democracy rule packages.

He said, “In 2015 Labour stood as a party in favour of austerity. The members had no voice and the party was run by a parliamentary elite who collectively did not speak the voice of our members or offer a radical socialist alternative.

“Our party shamefully whipped for us to abstain on a vote on welfare cuts brought in by the Tories. We stood by and watched as the most vulnerable in society saw the benefits slashed and their lives destroyed.

“Now comrades in 2018 our party is very different. We are firmly anti-austerity; we have a membership of over 500,000; we engage with youth; we send a message of hope, we send a message of socialism.”

Beckett said the need for unity was paramount – a point which was unanimously received by delegates. “At this time, when we stand on the steps of Number 10, it is time for our members and the affiliates to speak as one.”

He added that “This package has huge advances in equality structures for BAME, women’s and disabled. New structures and seats on the NEC.

“For the first time our CLPs and affiliates have an influence on who gets on the ballot for leader- sending a clear message to all who seek to lead our party that they do so on behalf of us the members.

“And those of us who have been most vocal about the need for mandatory or open selection, for power to lie truly in the hands of members, should not mistakenly describe what the NEC now proposes as anything other than the continued movement of power and influence away from the parliamentary elite and into the hands of the membership.”

 

‘Selective mandatory selection’

Beckett said that “a third of branches or a third of affiliates insisting on an open election is not trigger as we have known it, it is.

“As Jeremy and John McDonnell present their radical vision for a socialist Britain let all of us who support them in this endeavour unite as one voice.

“Let that one voice say that both the trade unions and the membership are united in saying there is no place for those parliamentary representatives who deny labour values, deny socialism, attack our leader and side with Tories.

“Whether it is selective reselection or whether it is open reselection we, the affiliates and the CLPs, are united in saying to those representatives who seek to deny the wider labour movement, we will get the representation we deserve.”