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Suggested Contemporary Motions for Labour Party Conference

1st September 2014

Suggested Contemporary Motions for Labour Party Conference

This year, Labour’s national policy forum did not agree to a single minority report. Nor did any policy papers include even a single option for decision by conference. This means that meaningful policy debates at this year’s conference, the last before the general election, can only happen on the basis of contemporary and emergency motions. The deadline for receipt of contemporary motions is Thursday 11 September at 12 noon. The title has a maximum of 10 words and the motion a maximum of 250 words.

Unfortunately, there are a number of hurdles to jump in order to get a motion accepted, including meeting the ridiculously complicated “Criteria for determining if a motion is contemporary”, and not dealing with issues already dealt with by the national policy forum — though how are constituency parties supposed to know what these issues are when no report has yet been published? As a service to our readers, we therefore reproduce a number of model motions circulated by the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy below. Please feel free to cut and paste these to take to your local party meetings. Remember that if you add words, you must make sure that the total remains below 250.

Emergency motions must:
• be about an issue which could not reasonably have been the subject of a contemporary motion, or
• have arisen after the closing date for contemporary motions -¬ Friday 11 September at 12 noon, or
• is an issue of urgent and immediate importance to the discussion by the whole Labour Party at Annual Conference
• be received by Friday 19 September at 12 noon.
• emergency motions must be emailed (no form required) to CAC@labour.org.uk and a hard copy, signed by the CLP secretary or Chair, sent to the Conference Arrangements Committee, The Labour Party, One Brewer’s Green, Buckingham Gate, London SW1H 0RH or faxed to 020 7783 1506.

The model motions are as follows:

Crisis in Gaza
Conference remembers that on 3 August 2014 an Israeli missile struck next to a UN school being used for civilian shelter, resulting in 9 deaths and 27 injuries.
Conference expresses alarm at the UN (OCHA) assessment that between 7 July and 13 August 1,965 Palestinian, mainly civilian, and 67 Israelis, three of whom were civilians, have been killed, and 9,986 Palestinians injured.
Conference notes that under the laws of war ‘parties to a conflict are prohibited to target civilians and required to take all feasible precautions to avoid attacks that result in civilian casualties’ and ‘unnecessary attacks on their means of livelihood such as farms, housing, transport and health facilities, are forbidden.’ Conference notes that the loss of life and destruction of civilian infrastructure indicates Israeli Forces used disproportionate and reckless force.
Conference highlights the 12 August UN OCHA assessment that:
15 hospitals, 18 clinics, 14 UNRWA installations, 48 WASH facilities, 18 ambulances, 230 schools, and 41 mosques have been damaged or destroyed and that that over 100,000 people have no home to return to.
Conference therefore calls for:
• An end to the arms trade, and all military-industrial collaboration, with Israel.
• The Israeli State to pay for humanitarian assistance and rebuilding Gaza.
• An immediate lifting of the blockade of Gaza, allowing free movement of people, goods and aid.
• Suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement due to Israel’s breaches of the human rights’ conditions.
• Support for violations of international law being referred to the International Criminal Court.
246 words

Israeli-Palestinian relations
Conference welcomes the Egyptian brokered ceasefire of 26th August 2014 that brought to an end to fighting in Gaza.

Conference is alarmed by Israeli TV reports on 1st September 2014 Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu told his cabinet that Israel would not be sending a delegation to Cairo to participate in further negotiations over the reconstruction of Gaza’s air and sea ports and the demilitarization of the area as stipulated in the ceasefire conditions.

Conference also notes that on Sunday 31st August Israel announced the expropriation of almost 1000 acres of Palestinian privately-owned land, their declaration as state land and the intention to build the largest Israeli settlement on the land, being contrary not only to international but also Israeli law.
Conference suggests that this is an indication that the present government of Israel is not genuinely interested in a two state solution, despite surveys of the Israeli and Palestinian publics consistently showing majorities in favour of such an outcome.

Conference further notes that while past announcements of a similar nature have been condemned, deplored, described as unconstructive and harmful to a two state solution by the UN, the EU, the White House and UK government, the expansion of illegal settlement activity has continued leaving the goal of a peaceful two state solution hanging by an ever thinner thread.

Conference therefore believes that these illegal settlements should be subject to not merely political censure but also economic sanction and that all commercial activity with them should be as illegal as the settlements themselves and therefore banned by a future Labour government.

(263 words)

End the division in Tower Hamlets
Conference notes:
1. In August Tower Hamlets Council backed the ‘Save our Surgeries’ campaign and launched its ‘Summer Night Lights’ project to tackle crime.
2. These and other such Labour policies are the initiatives of Lutfur Rahman, the former Labour Leader of the Council, who was elected for a second term as the Borough’s Mayor in May this year.
3. In 2010 Lutfur Rahman overwhelmingly won the selection contest in Tower Hamlets to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor. But subsequently, following an Islamophobic Tory campaign, the NEC removed Lutfur Rahman as Labour candidate, without investigating the situation.
4. In the 2010 and 2014 Tower Hamlets Mayoral elections Labour’s previous support divided – Lutfur Rahman winning as an independent candidate and Labour’s reputation damaged.
Conference believes:
1. The NEC has a responsibility to help bring this division to an end.
2. The Party’s priority, including in Tower Hamlets, should be focussed on removing the Tory-led government and drawing together the broadest possible coalition of supporters. The division within Tower Hamlets, with Labour publicly fighting Britain’s first ever ethnic minority directly-elected Mayor, does not assist Labour’s national standing amongst Muslim and minority voters.
Conference calls on the NEC to initiate a process to bring Lutfur Rahman back into the Labour Party at the earliest opportunity, to heal the division and send out the clear signal that Labour stands for uniting with Britain’s diverse communities to build a better and inclusive society for all.
242 words
NHS: resisting the Tory threat can’t wait until the election
Conference welcomes the countrywide demonstrations in support of our NHS, including the August-September march from Jarrow through over 20 other towns and cities.
Conference agrees with Andy Burnham’s 29 July declaration that the Tories’ privatisation of our NHS is proceeding so fast that our response can’t wait until the coming election.
Conference accordingly applauds our Party leadership’s support for the Private Member’s Bill being introduced by Clive Efford MP on 21 November to stop the Tories’ unaccountable privatisations before it is too late.
Conference notes that the Department of Health’s recently-published accounts for 2013/14 reveal that £10.02 billion of NHS spending went on the purchase of healthcare from non-NHS bodies such as Virgin Care and Care UK.
Over the same year 279,200 ambulances were delayed in queues outside A&E departments for more than 30 minutes, with a further 30,600 kept waiting for more than twice as long.
Conference reaffirms Labour’s responsibility to campaign with healthworkers and all NHS supporters to :
• Repeal the Health & Social Care Act;
• Rebuild an NHS that is publicly owned, publicly (and adequately) funded and publicly accountable;
• Ensure that our NHS is excluded from international ‘free trade’ agreements;
• Reduce patients’ waiting-times;
• Improve nurse-patient ratios;
• End extortionate PFI charges;
• Ensure appropriate terms and conditions for staff.
It was Labour that fought to create the NHS. It is now up to Labour to fight to defend it.
230 words

NHS
(This is a similar resolution, supported by 3 CLPs so far)
Conference notes NHS England’s 18 August announcement that all new GP contracts will be short-term APMS contracts. GP leaders have warned this marks the “death knell” of traditional life-long general practice, promoting corporate takeover of services.
Conference notes that last year £10bn from NHS spending went to “private providers” like Virgin and Care UK.
Conference notes that while PFI expenditure building hospitals was £12.2bn, the NHS is repaying £70.5bn.
Conference agrees with Andy Burnham that responding to NHS privatisation cannot wait until the election. We welcome Clive Efford’s private member’s bill if it reverses the worst privatisation.
Conference welcomes countrywide demonstrations in defence of the NHS, including the August-September Jarrow-London 999 march.
Conference supports the Living Wage campaign of Care UK workers in Doncaster, who since 29 July have taken five weeks strike action against wage cuts imposed by the private-equity firm which owns their employer. This situation shows the need for a public care system.
Conference commits to:
Repeal the Health and Social Care Act and “competition regulations” promoting marketisation/privatisation
Restore ministerial duty to provide comprehensive services
Reverse privatisation and outsourcing
Exclude healthcare from international “free trade” agreements
Rebuild a publicly-owned, publicly-accountable, publicly- (and adequately) funded NHS
End PFI and liberate the NHS from crushing PFI debts
Ensure any integration of health and social care is a public system
Ensure decent terms and conditions, including a Living Wage, for health and care staff
Reduce waiting times and implement health unions’ demand for a maximum patient-nurse ratio of 4:1.
(250 words)

Disarm Trident
Conference notes the Message to Congress by President Obama of 24 July on the extension of the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement.
Conference further notes that the Prime Minister failed to consult or inform Parliament before signing the extension of this Treaty and regrets this disregard for democracy by the Government.
Conference recognises the extension of the Treaty is to permit ‘the transfer of classified information concerning atomic weapons’ in order ‘to assist the United Kingdom in maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent’.
Conference further regrets that the extension to the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement runs counter to our Non-Proliferation Treaty commitment to disarm our nuclear weapons.
Conference notes that Labour’s National Policy Forum of 18-20 July discussed almost 50 submissions on Trident.
Conference welcomes the NPF decision to recognise the success of past international bans on weapons of mass destruction such as landmines, cluster munitions, and chemical and biological weapons and supports a definitive commitment to disarmament.
Conference resolves that Labour will support an international process to ban nuclear weapons, as a complementary and necessary mechanism to our commitment to disarm UK nuclear weapons under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Conference resolves that Labour will disarm Trident and re-allocate spending to where it best serves our society, including developing an industrial plan to make use of the skills of those workers in the sector.
221 words
End austerity and the cost of living crisis
Conference notes:
1.    The ONS announcement on 13 August that nominal wages fell by 0.2% in the second quarter of 2014 with the fall in inflation-adjusted pay since 2009 representing the most sustained decline in real wages since the 1870s.
2.    The Trust for London analysis published on 14 August that the number of low paid jobs in London has increased for the fourth year running, indicating growth of a low-pay culture.
3.    Pay restraint in the historically low-paid public sector has resulted in local government wages falling by 18% since 2010, with over 400,000 workers earning less than £15,000 per year, and has resulted in unprecedented joint action by Unite, Unison and GMB.
4.    For the first time on record the majority of people living in poverty in the UK are from working families.
Conference believes a cost of living crisis, from falling incomes, through real terms wage cuts, the growth of precarious employment and reductions in social security payments, stems from Tory austerity policies.
Conference therefore supports the fair pay in local government campaign led by Unite, Unison and GMB, and the Britain Needs a Pay Rise campaign led by the TUC.
Conference resolves that Labour would end the cost-of-living crisis through:
• ending public sector pay restraint, including increasing local government pay by £1 per hour;
• ending restrictions of social security payments including abolishing the national social security cap and household cap;
• legislating for a National Living Wage of £10 an hour.
244 words
Housing
Conference notes Shelter’s research, published on 29 July 2014, showing that many 20 to 34 year old working adults have no choice but to remain living with their parents because of the lack of affordable housing. Shelter’s Robb Campbell says that those that do not have the option of living with their parents ‘face a lifetime of unstable, expensive private renting.’
Conference also notes that mental health and young people’s welfare organisations have expressed concern about the housing difficulties faced by young people with mental health problems and those leaving care.
Conference notes that on 7 August 2014 Shelter reported that a major shortage of affordable homes in the capital means that London councils are struggling to find suitable housing for homeless families in need of support, resulting in 1 in 3 homeless families being stuck in temporary accommodation for over two years.
Conference notes that, as a result of low pay and high housing costs, the number of working people relying on housing benefit to boost their income, has doubled in five years to a figure of 962,000 in 2014.
These examples of the growing crisis of affordability in housing demonstrate social and economic problems that urgently need to be addressed. Conference calls upon the Labour Party to expose Tory failure and address Shelter’s call for bold action by committing to the introduction of rent controls in the private sector, an emergency massive programme of Council housing at social rents and the scrapping of the right to buy.
250 words

Energy
Conference notes the Ofgem report in July 2014 predicting an enormous increase in the profits of the energy companies.
Dual fuel bills per household will yield a clear profit of £106 per household in the coming year, a profit margin of 8%, double that of the previous year and 1,100% more than in 2009. This is monopoly profiteering.
This demonstrates that privatisation of gas and electricity has been an abject failure, as was pointed out in the Labour Party green paper ‘Powering Britain’.

The privately owned energy industry has plunged millions into fuel poverty. 4.5 million people in this country regularly have to choose between heating and eating.
Conference therefore concludes that the Big Six energy companies responsible for 98% of energy generation have profiteered from us for long enough and that privatisation needs to be reversed.
Conference calls upon the next Labour government to renationalise the Big Six. They should be amalgamated into one state-owned energy generation company, with gas and electricity divisions.

There must be a strict ceiling on salaries and perks in the publicly owned energy industry. The industry must be under popular control.

The industry should be democratically controlled. Boards should be set up at plant, regional and national levels in the publicly owned energy industry. At all levels there will be representatives of workers in the industry, members elected by consumers and government appointees on the boards. Managers must be accountable to the boards.
241 words