Wing the Labour Party, 'Party into Power', are coming under increased fire.
The proposals include abolishing the right of CLPs and Trade Unions to submit resolutions direct to conference, creating a new supreme committee, the Joint Policy Committee, on which the Cabinet would have an in-built majority, and denying CLPs the right to vote for MPs for the National Executive.
It was obviously hoped to ram the proposals through on the back of post-election euphoria and a lack of time for discussion.
They are part of Blair's plan to prevent the Party, and in particular the unions, being able to revolt against unpopular government policies.
While they attack party democracy in general, proposals to give greater importance to unaccountable Policy Forums, on which the unions are seriously under-represented, show the link to be under particular threat.
Responses to the 'consultatio" on Party into Power had to be returned by July 4th, and the July NEC will be considering the submissions and drawing up final proposals to put to conference in October.
No doubt we will be told that some large percentage of those who responded to the consultation 'welcomed' Party into Power. This doesn't mean much, since many responses welcome the consultation - and then go on to reject some of the central proposals.
Link defended
The comments submitted by MSF, for instance, strike a positive note and support the idea of a rolling policy programme (designed to restrict what can be discussed at conference) and the representation of 'all stakeholders' (PLP, EPLP, Cabinet!) on the NEC - but then go on to strongly defend the Trade union/party link, including the 50% vote of the unions at conference, and the right of CLPs and unions to put motions direct to The GMB conference endorsed a statement from its executive which welcomed the document while defending the direct submission of resolutions.
Other unions, including the RMT, GPMU, ASLEF and CWU rejected the proposals outright at their conferences. This however, did not stop the CWU bureaucracy attempting (unsuccessfully) to overturn this decision in a paper submitted to the executive as their response to the consultation.
Following RMT conference, Jimmy Knapp, on the other hand, submitted a paper to the RMT executive which rejected every essential of Party into Power.
At the time of writing, TGWU conference is about to happen, but there will certainly be a lively debate around the issue and Margaret Prosser's role in promoting the proposals.
UNISON, however, has wholeheartedly welcomed the proposals, in large part because many sections of the left in UNISON have played no role in the union's Affiliated Political Fund, and the APF conference was almost immediately after the Election.
The response from CLPs has been overwhelming. 40 resolutions have been submitted to conference rejecting Party into Power outright, while a further 60 call for a year's deferral to allow for further