Member's Manual
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Labour Party Members’ Manual Washington and Sunderland West Constituency Labour Party How Labour Works You join the Labour Party nationally either online or by completing an application form and sending it off. You have agreed to become a member of the largest Democratic Socialist Party in the world. You have agreed to abide by our rules and work towards our policy objectives. Downhill As a member, you will have a say in developing our policies at local and national level. This High Redhill Witherwack Usworth Coach Road Town End Redhouse starts at Party Branch level. Once your membership is approved, you are a member of the Springwell Farm Marley Potts Party Branch in the local government ward where you live. In this Constituency we have 8 Castle Branches (see map): Washington Washington North Hylton Castle West Sulgrave Usworth Castle Donwell NISSAN Normally meet at Castletown Primary School. 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7.00pm Castletown Blackfell Albany Concord Redhill Normally meet at Redhouse Community Association. 1st Tuesday of each month at 7.15pm South St Anne’s Washington Barmston Hylton Village Normally meet at South Hylton Ind. Methodist Church. 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7.00pm Oxclose TOWN Glebe CENTRE Teal St. Anne’s Washington Farm Pennywell Washington Central Central Normally meet at Columbia Community Association. 2nd Saturday of each month at 10.00am Biddick Columbia Ayton Fatfield Washington East Lambton Normally meet at Biddick Academy. 1st Saturday of each month at 10.00am South Washington East Washington North Washington Harraton Normally meet at Millennium Centre. 1st Saturday of each month at 10.00am Rickleton Mount Pleasant Washington South Normally meet at Washington / Rickleton Cricket Club. 3rd Saturday of each month at 10.00am Washington West Normally meet at Albany Resource Centre. 2nd Saturday of each month at 10.00am Party Branches Party Branches meet monthly. You will be informed of meeting dates and venues by the Secretary, Affiliated Trade Unions when you join or in other regular updates. Phone & Organisations the Constituency Secretary to check. This brief manual has been produced as an introduction UNISON to our Labour Party, aimed particularly at new At Branch meetings you can discuss any business members. It explains, in simple terms, how the Labour concerning the Labour Party at national or local Co-operative Party Party works, describes some of its history and our level. You will help choose who your local Labour potential for improving the lives of ordinary people. candidates for Councillor should be. All elected GMB Councillors are expected to attend Branch UNITE the Union Constituency Labour Party Key Contact: meetings regularly to report on their work. All Party Branch officials stand for election at the Secretary: Kevin Roddy Annual General Meeting (AGM). 135 Horsley Road, Barmston We hope you will be an active member, attending Branch meetings, perhaps, leafleting or Washington NE38 8HH canvassing for us or taking on other responsibilities. However, this is certainly not obligatory Email: [email protected] – much useful Labour Party work is carried through by members who simply support us in Tel: 0191 416 8107 or 07778 558 749 the community, the workplace on social media and the like, urging support for our policies. Labour Party Members Manual 3 The Constituency Who would be a Labour Party Party Branches and affiliated organisations send Labour Councillor? delegates along to our monthly Constituency Labour Party (CLP) meetings. Any member can Our Labour Councillors carry on a proud tradition in this area. We expect them to be dedicated, attend and we urge you to do so. These meetings self-sacrificing democratic socialists. They have to be available to help constituents, often at are usually held at 6.00pm on the first Friday of inconvenient hours. It is a great honour to serve. However, sometimes, Councillors will be the month (except in August when we take a criticised unfairly, for matters beyond their control. break). Venues alternate between Washington As Party members, we should be available to act as willing helpers – helping ensure our Millennium Centre and the Red House Community Labour Councillors are elected, helping them at Party meetings by making sure they are Centre, to ensure a fair share of meetings between aware of issues and feelings within their area, defending them when unfair criticisms are Washington and Sunderland If the month of the made. For these reasons we take great care to select Councillor candidates who are a credit year is divisible by 3, then the meeting will be at to the Party. Red House. All officials of the Constituency Labour Party stand Nomination for election at an Annual General Meeting (AGM), Any member with the required length of membership can nominate themselves for in July. We elect delegates who represent the selection as a Council candidate. “Self-nominations” are called for before each round of local Constituency Party at the National Labour Party elections. In theory, you can be selected to contest any Ward within Sunderland boundaries. Annual conference and elsewhere. We try to make In practise, it is much more usual for candidates to contest the Ward where they live, or a the Constituency Meetings interesting with regular Sharon Hodgson MP neighbouring Ward. speakers being invited. CLP meetings should last @SharonHodgsonMP no longer than 2 hours. Vetting facebook.com/Sharon.Hodgson.MP Our Member of Parliament, Sharon Hodgson Nominees for the “panel” of council candidates can expect to be rigorously vetted by the MP, always attends CLP meetings and reports www.sharonhodgson.org Local Campaign Forum (this is a committee elected from the 3 Sunderland Constituency back on national events answering questions Labour Party’s) who decide whether an individual is suited to be a Labour Councillor. from members. Every month, Sharon creates a Potential Councillors can expect a fair hearing and will have a right of appeal, if the Campaign Parliamentary report which is distributed at meetings, emailed out to members and put up Forum decides against them. The Campaign Forum panel is then put forward for approval on her website. Sharon is always keen to hear from local members about their issues. by the Regional Labour Party. Email Sharon at [email protected]. You can also keep up to day with her activities by following her on Twitter at @SharonHodgsonMP, liking her Facebook page www.facebook. Shortlisting and Selection Meetings com/Sharon.Hodgson. MP or visiting her website at www.sharonhodgson.org These meetings are usually held in autumn every year, where a Local Government election for a Councillor is due the following year. Every member of the Party living in the Ward who has been a member for the time determined by the Local Campaign Forum must be notified Participation of Women of these meetings. They are able to attend and vote upon who their candidate for Councillor should be. The Labour Party is thoroughly committed to ensuring that women have a full voice in our organisation. We have rules to ensure that women are fairly represented amongst our Only candidates on the approved list can be nominated for consideration. Our rules lay officials and our candidates and we have a Constituency Women’s Officer, appointed to help down that at least a third of our candidates in a particular Ward, over a 3 year cycle, will be women exert their voice and influence in our organisation. women – this is to ensure fair gender representation on the Council. Those people nominated by Branch members for consideration will be expected to address the ward members and answer questions, before the meeting moves to the vote. Once the majority of members approve a candidate we expect every member to unite around the chosen candidate. We aim to have all agreed candidates in place by late Autumn, in order to organise an effective election campaign for elections scheduled for the following May. By Elections We know from experience that unexpected and sad events occur. Sometimes, it is necessary to select candidates for elections called beyond the normal election cycle. In such cases, Short listing and Selection meetings will be held at short notice. Candidates will be chosen from the existing approved list of potential candidates. 4 Labour Party Members Manual 5 The Political Struggle Our Place in History The Miners found early political allies on the radical wing of the Liberal Party. However, it was quickly found that, although the Liberal Party might afford a small number of Union leaders The Labour Party was created by ordinary men and women who saw a desperate need to Parliamentary seats (most notably John Wilson, General Secretary of the Durham miners) change a society biased in favour of the rich and powerful. History tells us Monarchs and in exchange for working class votes, on the great issues they invariably took the side of the Aristocrats led privileged lives, while peasants slaved to maintain them. When large scale great capitalist employers. Parliament remained a barrier to the quest for decent living and industry developed in a Britain that became known as “the Workshop of the World”, a new working conditions. Out of a ferment of ideas, different grouping emerged to demand a wealthy class of Industrialists emerged. The former peasants and their descendants had to better deal for the working class. Two early political parties were central to this. seek work in the factories, mines and other industries where wealth was created, in order to live. The Independent Labour Party (ILP), founded in 1893, fought to unite and provide a separate voice for working class people. The Social Democratic Federation (SDF), founded in 1881, The Party developed, through struggle, as workers sought to win decent employment was the first organised socialist party in Britain.