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Ideas Into Action: Building the Open Left

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Ideas Into Action: Building the Open Left Ideas into Action: Building the Open Left Open Labour draft position paper 2017 Ideas into Action: Building the Open Left Welcome to the founding conference of Open Labour. This document is our first ‘position paper’ and will be voted on in parts and as a whole by the conference. It provides a report on our initial activity, an idea of our political positioning and some guiding principles, some initial policy positions on the big questions of the day, and a statement of aims for the year ahead. Open Labour is a transparent and democratic organisation which will seek mandates from members for its key decisions via this document. Additions and amendments can be submitted until 12PM on March 4th. These will be arranged by number and circulated to attendees by email (as will this paper – hard copies will only be provided on advanced request). Submissions must be made to [email protected] – please make specific reference by section to where you would want you change to take effect. Further to this we will also use the conference to announce the results of our first Management Committee (MC) elections. This body will take over from our present steering committee and steer the organisation based on this paper, or on the basis of online ballots where it deems them appropriate. Present members of the steering committee will be available on the day or may be contacted by email if you need assistance – [email protected]. Open Labour steering committee 2015-17 Tom Miller and Bev Craig (Co-chairs), Rose Grayston (Secretary), Alex Sobel (Treasurer), Jade Azim (Editor), Tom Williams (Membership), Ann Black, George Lindars-Hammond, Yue Ting Cheng, Andy Howell, Kaveh Azarhoosh, JoAnne Rust, David Hamblin, Craig Dawson. For our first year the steering committee extend our special thanks to: Steve Yemm, Charlotte Nichols, Sara T’Rula, Alby Earley, Emma Burnell, Andy Flanagan, Jo Ingold, Matt Donoghue, James Stafford, Renewal Journal, NEON, Compass, Tribune group of MPs, Labour Together, Peter Hain, Kate Green MP, Lou Haigh MP, Ed Miliband MP, Lisa Nandy MP, Clive Lewis MP, Jon Trickett MP, Tom Watson MP, Jim McMahon MP, Chi Onwurah MP. Open Labour launched in November 2015 with an open letter to the Guardian. The We have since run a series of regional aim was to bring together the so called meetings on Labour’s policies and political ‘soft left’ of the Labour Party. strategy in Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. We are This part of our party represents a large planning further regional meetings in number of members and supporters but Cardiff, Bath and London for the year has been poorly organised for some years. ahead. These will feed into a wider process Its thinking draws on an older tradition on outline in our aims for the year. the Labour left, rooted in the heritage of Bevanism – a socialist tradition which is This year also saw our first Labour Party rooted in the labour movement, adaptable Conference event in Liverpool. Featuring and serious about power. Clive Lewis, Lou Haigh, Ed Miliband, Kate Green, Chi Onwurah and Jim McMahon, We seek to bring organisation and this event developed Open Labour’s discipline to this political tradition. In relationships with MPs and members. launching Open Labour we are also seeking to overcome reliance on the past, Much of this year has been about getting and to recast the soft left in a forward off the ground – putting basic systems in looking way around the ethos of openness place and bringing together the core – ‘the open left’. support of the open left with around 1500 supporters identified. Alongside this, we We have launched as a grassroots based have provided a rallying point for those movement outside Westminster to who feel alienated by the intolerance and challenge reliance on the workings of the inflexibility which has emerged in too Westminster bubble and the politics of much of our party. celebrity. The accompanying statement of aims for Open Labour will also challenge the the year ahead aims to build on this by traditional activist left of the party to turning ideas into action and building our become less orthodox and unyielding, organising power. It sets a path for us to more focussed on how the world and develop policy to take into party debate. It society is changing, and to make an outlines a plan for making our voice understanding of power and trust building clearer in party debates, finding our allies, key to its creed. We must act on the and most importantly, building on the urgent need to win over, not simply shout ground. This process needs to be over, those who disagree with us. adequately funded, and it must be member led. Our immediate priority has been to begin a debate on what the Labour left can look Our party and the democratic left across like if it becomes more flexible, pluralist, the western world is in crisis. We need and focussed on alliance building. energy and ideas to shape an optimistic future. Action is the antidote to despair. Early on we established a steering committee, a website and a mailing list. Political position 2017-18 This stagnation process has predictably become cemented as a ‘new normal’ in It is crucial that the Labour Party offers a public debate. Labour must take on the credible and popular alternative to challenge of forging a compelling and austerity cuts and neoliberalism. These credible alternative, capable of shifting trends have represented the biggest mainstream opinion. transfer of wealth and power from poor and middle-income households to the rich Economic liberalism: a broken bargain elite in living memory. Increasingly citizens feel like the bargain they have been offered by politicians for The private sector’s own dynamism is decades is being broken. Increasing failing. Productivity is falling wealth. Dignified jobs. Stability. The internationally, but especially in Britain chance to get on in life. These things are where the course Theresa May has laid out no longer delivered by Britain’s political will further concentrate wealth and consensus. opportunity in the South while neglecting every other part of our country. Changing this depends on gaining trust to govern, but unlike when the process of Wealthy and powerful interests are now globalisation was in an earlier stage, building a kind of ‘tollbooth politics’ built Labour cannot avoid challenging the terms on rents, private debt, financial complexity of debate. A new consensus is therefore and at times corrupt practices – we end up required from the left around key shared paying for nothing. values and principles. These include: The spoils of this tollbooth go to the Equality and human dignity gatekeepers of the new stagnant Solidarity and community economy, not to those creating value. Autonomy and liberation Respect for the environment Social mobility and equal chances, values with huge support across the country, are Each of these ideas can form the basis of being set back to the Victorian age. These greater consensus on the left – but they are problems which a Tory Brexit will lock can also win people over who are not yet in, especially if the economy is not supporters of the left or Labour. Our reshaped and rebalanced. policies and campaigns must be framed in a way which is trusted and persuasive. A social alliance for Labour Ruthlessly professionalise Labour’s The party must retain the trust of core parliamentary and press voters whilst regaining previously Labour operations, from the leadership support. In short, it must become trusted down. Train and develop our by workers from a range of social membership. backgrounds to be the centre of a new social alliance, spanning traditional Speak in a language that people supporters in areas of industry and ex understand using arguments which industry, upwardly mobile workers in the are well tested and have broad South East and progressive voters in large support or persuasive appeal. cities and university towns. Make sure our ideas are clear and honest in how they seek to bring Getting the basics right change. Building an alliance of support is no mean feat, but it is the only way forward and Indentify and avoid marginal Labour must get in shape to deliver it. positions in favour of what we can win and also need to win. We therefore call on the Labour Party to Concentrate on changing adopt some broad operating principles of consensus on the most important its own. We believe that without these, no areas of economic and social left leadership can be successful. debate. Work out which voters are the people we want to add to our existing support, and which areas of public opinion we need to respond to. Have a political strategy. No tactic can be successful without being part of one. Give greater voice to those ‘left behind’ in modern Britain, whether “The language of white British coastal workers, coalfield communities, those trapped in the “gig” economy or priorities is the EU immigrants paying tax here. religion of Operate as a ‘plural party’, creating a culture of respectful and tolerant socialism” debate. Organise at community level with Nye Bevan far greater involvement from trade unions and cooperatives. Policy statements For working people, against hard Brexit The Labour Party is instinctively open and internationalist, and so is Open Labour. The public narrowly voted to leave the European Union following a campaign in which many ‘out’ proponents states that strong trade and economic ties with the EU would remain in place. In both ways, this is obviously not a mandate for hard Brexit – Labour must make this a political question. If Brexit is to take place, we believe that Labour should use all means available firstly to guarantee all workers living in the UK the same rights and entitlements as those remaining in the EU.
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