The Grassroots Alliance of Left and Centre-Left candidates won four out of the six places on Labour’s National Executive Committee elected by the membership in a One Member One Vote ballot. Mark Seddon, editor of Tribune, received 56% of the votes cast and Liz Davies, from Labour Left Briefing, 46%.
PETE FIRMIN interviewed Liz Davies for Socialist Outlook at Labour Party conference.
SO: Congratulations on your election to the NEC. Can you tell us about the election campaign?
LD: Thanks, it went very well. We were initially worried about getting nominations, given the bizarre rule requiring 3 nominations from different regions. In fact we got far more, we got one-third of all nominations.
What we were saying struck a chord. We spoke at a lot of meetings and a head of steam built up. Activists everywhere did a lot of `phoning, leafleting etc. This was entirely voluntary, unlike Members First. We were outspent 50-1!
The Guardian put Members First’s spending at £100,000, but even they said this was probably an underestimate. None of the candidates escaped personal abuse and smears from senior labour movement figures and a Party General Secretary who was supposed to be neutral. Party members saw through this and voted for the policies on which we stood.
At times in the last few months the smears have been very disheartening and made it hard to carry on. Party members rallied round with each attack, with letters to the Guardian and Independent and personal support from comrades all over the Party. The Grassroots Alliance stuck together and the candidates stuck together in unity and solidarity. The Grassroots Alliance is the start of something big and exciting.
SO: What was the platform you stood on?
LD: We stood on clear principles - the redistribution of wealth and power from the rich to the poor, the need to defend and enhance the welfare state and progressive taxation.
We stood for democracy, diversity and the right of Labour Party members to dissent. We stood for defending public services, valuing public sector workers properly, opposing the privatisation of the public sector and Private Finance Initiative deals. Those principles command the support of many Labour Party members. The leadership never expected this when they changed the rules to prevent MPs standing.
SO: What happens now?
LD: Many supporters want to broaden and deepen the Alliance. We need to bring in the concerns of the grass roots members of the Labour Party.
I would like to see us developing policies around common values such as pensions, lower interest rates and prioritising low unemployment over low inflation. We need to develop policies for the centre and left around civil rights and citizenship for the 21st century. Within the Labour Party members must have the right to free and fair selection of candidates for public office - for the European parliament, the Scottish parliament, the Welsh Assembly, local government and Westminster. The key issue on the NEC will be the right of London Labour Party members to select their candidate for mayor of London.
We will argue for a code of conduct for internal Party elections - a level playing field with spending restrictions and the neutrality of Party officers.
We hope to be issuing these commitments as pledges or promises to those who voted for the Grassroots Alliance. We also promised as part of the campaign to issue regular reports of the NEC in the left press and constituency bulletins. We will speak at local meetings and take the views of grass roots Party members back to the NEC.
SO: They will attempt to marginalise the 4 of you on the NEC. What can you do about this?
LD: We are prepared to work constructively and creatively with every member of the NEC.
No doubt we will be marginalised, as happened to Ken Livingstone and the others. But we will be opening up the NEC - arguing for recorded votes so people know how trade union and CLP representatives vote. We will keep Party members informed and able to make up their own minds on whether we are being marginalised.
SO: You will be fairly weak on the NEC, how do you see the way around this?
LD: We will be 4 members out of 32. We would have been 5 if the MPs had voted for Dennis Skinner, an excellent NEC member since 1978.
We are a small minority. But many of our economic arguments are shared by the trade unions represented on the NEC and passed by the TUC 2 weeks ago. We will see what happens when we put them forward.
SO: This has been the first conference under the new Partnership in Power rules, what do you make of it?
LD: It has been a strange conference, I have not seen as much of it as I would have liked because of all the media attention. Ken Livingstone says it is the same as always without the votes, but I disagree.
It is my third time as a delegate since 1989. In 1989, CLP delegates grumbled about being taken for granted, but this is much worse. There is no ability to amend National Policy Forum reports and no minority reports. I will argue on the NEC for the ability of conference to take such reports. Conference has been predominantly Cabinet speeches. Many delegates’ speeches have been written by Millbank in advance.
There are no votes. Having said that, there are some signs that conference still has some of its old spark. Derek Hodgson of the CWU was given a standing ovation when he attacked the privatisation of the Post Office. CLP delegates feel strongly against proposals for an approved list of candidates for Westminster.
I would like to thank your readers who are Labour Party members for the hard work that they and thousands of others put into the campaign for the election. Now we need your support to make sure that the NEC members and the Party members they represent are heard.