The Labour leadership may be wondering whether they made the right choice in postponing their decision on how to select Labour’s candidate for London mayor.
The January NEC was due to discuss setting up a vetting panel as recommended by the London Regional Board. This recommendation was in defiance of the overwhelming decision of June’s London Labour Party Conference that any candidate who received 10 CLP nominations should automatically be shortlisted. But in the end the discussion was put back to the next meeting on March 23.
It may be that the reason for this lies in Millbank’s failure to come up with a credible alternative. Various names have been floated ; Frank Dobson, Glenda Jackson, Tony Banks, Trevor Philips, Pauline Green. But none evokes confidence that they could beat Ken either amongst party members or Londoners as a whole.
Any sliver of doubt that the manoeuvres are aiming at excluding Ken should be banished by the failure of London’s Board even to forward to the NEC one of the recommendations of its own working party.
Millbank had claimed that one of the main problems with the Conference decision was that it acted against equal opportunities; self nomination and then the vetting panel would lead to better gender and racial balance.
Two-tier system
TGWU’s Barry Camfield successfully proposed a two tier system to the working party. Either you could be nominated by CLP’s and affiliates or nominate yourself. This is as it happens in line with new procedures for Westminster selection, so it is difficult for the leadership to claim they oppose it in principle. However the Board managed to ‘lose’ the recommendation, and all attempts to have it reinstated failed.
In the meantime the Stand Up for Ken campaign is well on the road. A packed meeting of 1500 on February 15 – in the middle of a tube strike – filled Westminster Central Hall to demand the right of democratic selection.
The audience contained sizeable delegations from striking tube and UCLH hospital workers and fire fighters organising to defend jobs and services. The turn out far exceeded Ken’s own expectations; he had booked a room that held 500, and the meeting was moved less than an hour before its advertised starting time when it became clear that the response was so large.
Excitement in the hall was highest in response to calls for Ken’s right to stand, and support for workers in struggle was also warmly received. Livingstone got a standing ovation before he spoke. His proposals for London, for example to return conductors to London buses were popular, but clearly secondary to the key issue of defence of democracy.
In making this distinction the massive audience showed more maturity that that demonstrated by some parts of the left. The Alliance for Workers Liberty, for example, has stepped up its attacks on Ken’s policies and record in recent months.
Socialist Outlook would not stand on the political platform that Ken is putting forward, but we not only support his right to stand but his candidature. We recognise that the success of this campaign would be a real blow to Blair and his reactionary policies for the Labour Party and for the country.
The February meeting would have been the ideal place for further calls for action – those attending were eager to know what the next steps in the campaign should be. A lobby of the NEC on March 23 would have gained wide support for example. Unfortunately that opportunity was lost, and it is to be hoped that further progress can be made in discussing similar proposals at the series of meetings soon to be organised in different parts of London.
In the meantime activists should step up the campaign for resolutions in support of democratic selection in Labour Parties and unions and where possible go beyond this and nominate Ken anyway.
Labour movement bodies should ask for the campaign to take affiliations and call protests outside London Board and NEC meetings where the issue is being discussed. Blair will only back down if we can show it would be more dangerous for him not to do so.