Jeremy Corbyn was quick to tweet his support for the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance candidates for Labour’s NEC elections which take place over the summer. The Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs has also backed them, saying: ‘As the left grouping within the Parliamentary Labour Party, the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs formally endorses the @CLGALabour slate for the National Executive Committee Elections.’
All six left candidates standing for election as CLP representatives in Labour’s NEC election 2020 are committee to nuclear disarmament and an ethical foreign policy.
The Labour left’s commitment to equalities and and diversity – in practice as well as theory – is clear. Take a look at the photos, 5 of the 6 candidates are women, 4 are people of colour.
The Centre Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA) slate includes two sitting candidates, Ann Henderson and Yasmin Dar. Ann chairs the NEC’s equalities committee; Yasmin chairs the disputes panel. A third candidate, Laura Pidcock was MP for North West Durham and a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs.
In alphabetical order the candidates are:
Ann Henderson @AnnDHenderson
Gemma Bolton @gembolton
Laura Pidcock @LauraPidcock
Mish Rahman @mish_rahman
Nadia Jama @MizJama
Yasmine Dar @Yasmine_Dar
Read about each of them here
Labour CND is pleased to support the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA) slate of candidates who are standing for election as CLP reps in the forthcoming NEC elections. All six candidates make clear their commitment to nuclear disarmament in a joint statement:
An ethical foreign policy – Labour should have an independent, internationalist foreign policy the core objectives of which should be peace, conflict-resolution, and nuclear disarmament. Rather than participating in illegal foreign wars, we should support people struggling against oppression across the globe.
Candidates are standing for a transformative Labour government, socialist policies and party democracy. The campaign statement, Campaigning for a Labour Victory also includes commitments to:
– defend people’s lives and jobs as the priority in the coronavirus pandemic
– a socialist Labour government as the best vehicle for transforming society in the interests of the majority
– an economy for the many, rejecting the Tories austerity agenda
– a socialist green new deal, investing in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure and building support for a rapid and just transition to a zero-carbon economy
– stand with the Black Lives Matter movement to achieve lasting structural change, and campaign against all forms of racism, discrimination and prejudice, and
– party democracy – to build an inclusive party which represents the interests of the majority in society.
This united left slate is supported by Momentum, Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Labour Assembly Against Austerity, Labour Representation Committee, Campaign for Socialism Scotland, Wales Labour Grassroots…. and many more.
In response to pressure from members and local parties, the Labour National Executive Committee has decided to extend the consultation to Monday 20 July. Still time to make a submission on international policy, and vote to support Labour CND’s five responses. Check out the details in the post below.
Respond to Labour’s International Policy Review
Labour CND has responded to the Labour Party policy consultation with 5 submissions in answer to each of the questions posed in International Policy Commission document, Championing internationalism in the post-coronavirus world. The IPC consultation covers foreign, development and defence policies, as well as broader issues such as Labour values and concepts of internationalism. LabCND urges you to access our submissions, sign in or register, and support them with a brief comment and a vote, and please consider making a submission of your own too.
You can read a summary of our submissions, posted by our secretary Ruth Brown, on the Labour Policy Forum website below. Then click on the question numbers to go straight to the website and add your own comments and vote to support them.
Q1: Labour’s internationalist values should include a war powers act
There’s great stress on Labour values without specifying what they are – a feel-good approach that fails to acknowledge differences. The most basic human right is the right to life. Labour’s 2019 manifesto promised a war powers act ‘so that no prime minister can bypass parliament’. Keir Starmer reaffirmed this promise. Putting flesh on the bones of Labour’s post-Covid internationalism, starts with reaffirming our commitment to the primacy of peace and justice, and the introduction of a war powers act.
Q2: UK defence policy: realism vs illusion
Real security is human security. The UK National Security Risk Assessment has highlighted their chief risks facing the UK, including health pandemics and ecological disasters as well as terrorism and cyber-attacks. Trident does not protect Britain from the actual threats we face. The participation of defence contractors in the Ventilator Challenge Consortium shows the practicality of a just transition from nuclear weapon production to socially useful, sustainable alternatives. Let’s have a Shadow Defence Diversification Agency now in line with TUC policy.
Q3: International development values and strategy
Labour should re-assert the international development values expressed in our 2019 manifesto. Announcing his decision to merge the Department for International Development with the Foreign an Commonwealth Office, Boris Johnson said DiFD’s goals ‘will be wholly integrated with UK foreign policy and described the merger as ‘an opportunity to get value for the huge investments we make in overseas spending’. Labour should make the case for the retention of DFID with a standalone aid budget of at least 0.7% of gross national income, and commit an incoming Labour government to re-establishing an independent aid-giving department.
Q4: International priorities and global leadership
Global leadership takes many forms. Remembering Britain’s colonial legacy, we must be cautious about assuming that British leadership is what’s needed. The UK’s positive contributions to emergency and international aid, and to diplomacy are recognised by the UN and others. Labour should support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and push for progress on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It’s time to break with bipartisanship and strive for an independent, non-aligned foreign policy based on the primacy of peace.
Q5: Weaknesses in national security
Real security is that which makes our citizens safe. As criticisms of the Tories handling of the Covid19 crisis demonstrate, state security back up by military force does not always coincide with human security.Real security is not about national status that Trident supporters believe comes from Britain possessing nuclear weapons. Labour should commit to scrapping Trident replacement at the earliest opportunity and be prepared to dismantle the existing system when in government, starting with an end to at-sea patrols.
ACCESS MATERIALS HERE
To download a copy of Labour IPC document, the LabourCND submissions, or our quick guide to the IPC site, click on the links below:
Championing internationalism in the post-coronavirus world here
Labour’s internationalist values should include a war powers act here
UK defence policy: realism vs illusion here
International development values and strategy here
International priorities and global leadership here
Weaknesses in national security here
NPF: the basics here
Covid19 has seen some companies in the arms industry turn their hand to socially useful production, which is what defence diversification is all about. In the UK, Airbus, BAE Systems, GKN Aerospace, Rolls Royce and Siemens UK are among the companies participating in Ventilator Challenge UK, the government consortium making ventilators.
In this short video made for Labour CND, Sam Mason of the PCS union explains that the response to this health crisis shows we can end the continuing waste of billions of pounds on the UK’s unnecessary nuclear weapons system. We need to lobby for a firm commitment from the new Labour leadership to set up a Shadow Defence Diversification Agency.
This half hour exchange with Prof Paul Rogers and Kate Hudson is one of the best and most challenging things out there on the UK government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It takes a look behind the headlines about hard working NHS and other essential workers… and ask why they’re still unprotected, untested and undervalued three months in to the crisis.
Congratulations to Angela Rayner on her election as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. We reproduce below her response to Labour CND’s lobby for a Minister for Peace and Disarmament:
Thank you very much for getting in touch with me about the post of Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament and the other manifesto policies. My Shadow Cabinet colleague Fabian Hamilton has done a great job as Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament and I absolutely believe that there should be a front bench spokesperson with specific responsibility for disarmament.
I can also confirm that I continue to support the commitments made in the “New Internationalism” section of the 2019 Manifesto and would want to maintain those commitments. I want a world without nuclear weapons and that’s what I want a Labour government to work towards. When the last Tory government tabled their motion to renew Trident in the House of Commons, I voted against it.
Of course, I don’t want to do to workers in shipyards and the supply chain what Thatcher did to pit towns, so any change would need to be underpinned by a plan for replacing those jobs with other skilled, well paid and unionised jobs. I would much rather we invest billions in low carbon, sustainable infrastructure, creating jobs, and building a future for our economy in exporting the means to save lives, not take them – the new, green technologies of the future. I have also made contributions during the hustings on arms sales that you might find interesting, you can watch that here.
Any candidate for Prime Minister who by contrast relishes the thought of unleashing death and destruction isn’t fit for the office. I’d rather work towards reducing the nuclear stockpile across the world because that’s the one thing that would make us all safer. We need an international commitment to disarmament and cooperation; the Tories have dismally failed to provide such leadership and the next Labour government must provide it.
Labour CND is delighted to see that the Front Bench post of Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament is to be retained under the new leadership, and will continue to be ably filled by Fabian Hamilton MP. Fabian will be working with colleagues in the Shadow Foreign and Commonwealth Office team, including Catherine West, another committed nuclear disarmamer and Vice President of London Region CND. Congratulations both.
Labour’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office team, led by Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy, comprises Wayne David (Ministter for Middle East and North Africa) Stephen Doughty (Africa, jointly with DFID) Stephen Kinnock (Asia and Pacific) Catherine West (Europe & Americas) and Fabian Hamilton (Peace and Disarmament). It is not yet known if Fabian’s post has the same brief before, which also ranges across policy areas within the defence team.
Thanks to everyone who participated in Labour CND’s online lobby in support of the Minister of Peace post.
Details of Labour’s new front bench here
