THE LABOUR PARTY NOTES FOR NEWER MEMBERS

The Labour Party needs members – members like you!

The Labour Party nationally and locally will try to communicate with you, mainly by email. If you are not getting emails on a fairly regular basis please get in touch because it probably means with have an error on your address. Call the Labour Party on 0345 092 2299

And you can meet lots of other people just like you at one of our meetings or social events.

But going to a meeting can be an off-putting experience if you don’t know the ropes. Please don’t worry about this. It isn’t hard to learn who, what and how and no one expects you to read and digest the entire rule book before you can take part. Most of us haven’t read it ourselves, anyway.

The thing is, you can learn it as you go along, and bit by bit you’ll become more familiar with the structures, procedures and wording. Not being entirely sure of how it works shouldn’t stop you from expressing your opinion. Ask questions if you need to, and remember that it’s your party as much as anyone else’s.

THE LOCAL PARTY

CONSTITUENCY LABOUR PARTY The Labour Party has a CLP for each constituency, and you are now a member of North West Durham CLP. North West Durham covers a large area including Willington, Crook, , all of , Castleside, , Leadgate, Ebchester, Burnopfield, Dipton, Burnhope, Castleside, Langley Park, and all the bits in between. We are represented in parliament by our MP Pat Glass who will stay our MP until the next General Election

All Member Meetings NW Durham Labour Party makes its big decisions and debates policy at All Member Meetings (AMM). These are what they are called; meetings open to all members who live within the constituency. At the moment we have an All Member Meeting every two months, normally on the third Thursday evening

New Members Booklet December 1, 2016 1 at venues around our big constituency. These meetings will often have a speaker and may receive reports from one of our elected representatives like our MP, MEPs, Police Commissioner etc. We may well debate a policy issue and other events going on in the Labour Party or the wider political world. Other times we may decide who to nominate for positions like the National Executive Committee or who we are going to send to Annual Conference.

You can raise any issues you like at an All Member Meeting. It helps to plan the meeting if you let the Secretary know a couple of weeks in advance, but that’s not always possible so you can raise a matter under Any Other Business.

If you have a more formal piece of business where you want the party to express its views to another body or to another section of the Labour Party you can move a “Resolution”

Resolutions Any member can submit a resolution to the All Member Meeting. If that’s sent to the secretary 14 days in advance it can be circulated to all members so they can study it before the meeting. In some circumstances it’s possible to debate something which has not been circulated in advance.

A resolution is read out at the meeting and must be moved and seconded before it is thrown open for discussion and a vote. If passed by a majority of those present it is forwarded to the relevant bodies.

Anyone can move an amendment to a resolution during the debate.

Executive Committee (EC or Exec) The Executive deals with issues of running the constituency (like money and fundraising, organizing campaigning, sorting out procedures for electing people, etc, and also with other issues that crop up between All Member Meetings.

It consists of a set of officers elected each year at the Annual General Meeting, plus representatives elected by our local branches, and a set of people nominated by the trade unions and other groups who have affiliated to our constituency.

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GETTING INVOLVED

There are plenty of opportunities to get involved at this local level.

The two big tasks people always link to politics (particularly at elections) are:

Leafleting...we have about 42,000 doors to get to with each leaflet so the more volunteers the better. You can agree to do a round on your own ( normally 200-300 houses) , or go out in a team say for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning...whichever suits you best.

Canvassing (talking to people on the market or knocking on doors, or calling people on the phone) helps us find out how we are doing at elections, identifies Labour voters so we can build up a relationship with them, and helps us persuade people to vote for us. You don’t need to be an expert on Labour Party policy, most of the time a happy smile and a joke do more good than knowing the manifesto. We would never ask you to go off on your own without training and without you feeling comfortable...we try to go out in a nice size team and make sure any newcomers are paired up with an old hand.

We also need people to stand for the Councils during local elections. The next elections are in 2017 so we have just about completed selecting our candidates for this round of elections. But we are always on the lookout for potential candidates. If you want to know more please just ask about what is involved at any local Labour meeting.

Much of what we take for granted, from schools and social services to leisure and arts and whether or not our bins get emptied, is down to local government.

Being a councillor is demanding, time-consuming and arduous, but it’s a great way to help local people and your community. Ask sitting or former councillors if you are unsure if this is right for you. A system of expenses and payment is in place for those who are elected.

BRANCHES AND WARDS NW Durham Labour Party includes branches in Willington/Hunwick, Crook/Tow Law, Weardale, Consett, (including Delves, Leadgate, Ebchester etc.), Lanchester, Langley Park, and Burnopfield/Dipton. Some of the time a branch will cover just one “ward” which is the name for an electoral area or

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“division” like Willington and Hunwick, other times like in Consett, it will cover a series of “wards”.

Most branches meet once a month on a weekday evening for a couple of hours to her reports from local councillors, to talk about what’s going on in your village or town and to debate politics and policy. Sometimes there is a speaker, but not always. If you are lucky the meeting will end with people going to a pub or club.

SOCIALS AND FUNDRAISING We also try to have a range of different socials over the year to suit different tastes. We also normally have a big fundraising dinner once a year. It costs us about £4000 a year to run our constituency so we do have to raise funds too.

LOCAL CAMPAIGN FORUM The CLP has two representatives (usually the Secretary and Campaign Co- ordinator) on Local Campaign Forum (LCF) which is there to organize and co-ordinate campaigns on county wide issues like the county council and police commissioner.

REGIONS NW Durham CLP is part of Northern Region. There is an office in Newcastle with a small set of staff (including The Regional Secretary/Director) who help organize elections and the running of the party in the region.

There is a Regional Board which is elected every two years at our Regional Conference. That includes two representatives elected by Durham CLPs, together with members from other parts of the regions and representatives from trade unions and our elected representatives (MPs, MEPs, commissioners, councillors, etc.

There is a one day Northern Regional conference every two years. NW Durham selects delegates for this, policy and strategy is discussed and formulated.

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ANNUAL CONFERENCE Delegates from CLPs, trade unions and other Party representatives meet annually to debate and make decisions on policy and other matters. Now, policy is delivered ready-made in documents drawn up by the Policy Commissions. More interesting are the policy seminars and fringe meetings where the discussion is much livelier, and where you have a better chance to speak yourself!

Apart from the chance to experience an exciting event and be part of the Party’s decision-making and policy-making, there are plenty of opportunities at conference to chat, discuss and meet with other Party members. Meeting other members makes you realize why you joined and makes it all worthwhile.

Even if you are not a delegate, you can still apply for a pass. Places are limited for reasons of space, and you won’t have voting rights, but you can still listen to debates and go to fringe events.

The number of members we have in NW Durham means we can send several people. A delegate is chosen by members at an All Member Meeting normally early in the year. To ensure a good balance we have to send a woman delegate at least every second year, we can also send a “youth” delegate who is under 27.

There are other conferences at various times, including Women’s Conference, Youth Conference, and regional Conference.

THE NATIONAL PARTY

National Executive Committee (NEC) The NEC has overall responsibility for running the Party and developing strategy. It has divisions elected by different sections of the Party, including MPs and MEPs, CLPs, trade unions, societies and councillors. As a member every two years you can vote for six CLP representatives from a panel of candidates nominated by CLPs around the country. Statements and ballot papers are issued to each member – they can be returned by post, or you can vote online.

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National Constitutional Committee (NCC) This is the Party’s disciplinary committee and is charged with enforcing the rules. Again, you have a vote at the same time as the NEC vote.

Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) This sounds like a real barrel of laughs, but it is important. It decides how our annual conference is run and issues daily reports during conference, which delegates vote on. It is answerable to the party membership.

National Policy Forum (NPF) In the 1990s the Labour Party decided to try to regularise policy formation by setting up The so that over each parliament we systematically review, update and develop our policies in a planned way.

All members in each region elect 5 representatives to the national policy forum by postal b/online ballot. There are also representatives from trade unions, elected representatives and the cabinet (shadow cabinet when in opposition).

Through Policy Commissions policy documents are drawn up by the forum. These are then available for every member to respond to and feed into. If you go to http://www.policyforum.labour.org.uk/ you can find out lots more and join in. You can also join in when we discuss policy forum documents at branch meetings, at All Member Meetings, and at policy forum events in the region.

After a years’ debate within the party the documents are then put to conference for a deciding vote.

It’s important that the NPF, CAC, NCC and NEC reflect our opinions- so it’s important that you take part in elections for these committees/ forums.

EQUALITY FOR WOMEN WITHIN THE PARTY To ensure a balance between men and women, quotas are in place for most elected positions at local and at national level. A constituency may be selected for an all-women shortlist for its parliamentary candidate, and most of our council wards we now expect to stand at least an equal number of women and men. Most members accept that while not ideal it is the best solution and that the party is much better off because we are moving towards equality. We

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SOME LABOUR GROUPS AND WEBSITES OF INTEREST This is only a short and by no means exhaustive list and there are many other affiliated groups. Labour Rules forbid any internal group organizing as a political party, and members of the Labour Party must not be members of any other political party except for the Co-operative Party (www.party.coop.org.uk). Labour has an historic connection with the Co- operative Party. Some MPs sit as Labour/Co-operative MPs.

BAME Labour www.bamelabour.org.uk Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) www.clpd.org.uk ( formerly Christian Socialist Movement) http://www.christiansontheleft.org.uk/ http://www.labour.org.uk/pages/disability-labour The www.fabians.org Grassroots Labour www.grassrootslabour.net GMB www.gmb.org.uk Labour CND www.labourcnd.org.uk LabourList www.labourlist.org Labour Women’s Network www.lwn.org.uk LGBT Labour www.lgbtlabour.org.uk www.progressonline.org.uk Socialist Education Association https://socialisteducationalassociation.org/ www.unison.org.uk Unite the Union www.unitetheunion.org

For a full list of groups affiliated to the Labour Party go to http://www.labour.org.uk/pages/affiliated-organisations

LOCAL CONTACTS NW Durham Facebook page www.facebook.com/NWDurhamLabour/ NW Durham webpage http://www.northwestdurhamlabour.com/ Pat Glass MP www.patglassmp.org.uk/ Pat on twitter @PatGlassMP Jude Kirton Daring and Paul Brannen our MEPs [email protected] Labour North http://www.labournorth.com/ Ron Hogg http://www.durham-pcc.gov.uk/Home.aspx

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You can contact the Constituency Party through the secretary Andy Plant at [email protected] or 0n 07800 734635

GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS

AGM – Annual General Meeting CAC – Conference Arrangements Committee CLP – Constituency Labour Party EC – Executive Committee AMM –All Member Meeting LCF – Local Campaign Forum NCC – National Constitutional Committee NEC – National Executive Committee PLP – Parliamentary Labour Party PUB – The good bit

Just a few more words Debate is vital to the Labour Party, it would be impossible to have a democratic party where everybody always agreed. Don’t be afraid to speak up or to be controversial, or to ask questions. Nobody will have a go at you for asking to have something explained or because you want to say the opposite of what everybody else has just said.

Voting Sometime it is not easy to know who to vote for at meetings if you don’t know anything about the candidates. It is all right to abstain if you are unsure, but with opportunities to listen to candidates, read their statements and learn about their track records and what they stand for, they don’t have to be names on a list. Getting to know other members means you can share views and experiences of people and in the end make up your own mind who to vote for.

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