Open letter: stand up for Labour Party democracy

“We are proud that the Labour Party is a democratic socialist party and so we are deeply concerned by the Labour leadership undermining party democracy and its clampdown on legitimate party discussions in recent weeks.

The decision to deny Jeremy Corbyn the Labour Party whip despite the NEC readmitting him back into the party; the attempts to silence the elected representatives of Young Labour for releasing a statement reflecting the views of their own executive members; instructions to CLPs about what they can and can’t discuss, and the suspension of CLP officers for reflecting the wishes of their local party members is part of a worrying pattern of behaviour.

Members are the lifeblood of our party. It is the volunteering of tens of thousands of members – their local campaigning, their door-knocking and their relationships with local voters – that roots us in every community.

Members must be treated with respect, including by upholding the basic democratic right that local party members can decide what they discuss and the positions our local parties take, as well as by ensuring that meetings are always open, inclusive and free from discrimination.

Attempts to prevent party members from discussing legitimate topics in a respectful way will demoralise and undermine the involvement of many ahead of what is a key period of elections in 2021 when grassroots members of our party will be needed to give up their spare time to help us win.

We call on the Labour leadership to reinstate the whip to Jeremy Corbyn, end the attacks on party democracy, legitimate discussion and recent wave of suspensions, and instead to focus on taking the fight to the Tories.”

Signatories:

Diane Abbott MP

Tahir Ali MP

Apsana Begum MP

Richard Burgon MP

Ian Byrne MP

Dan Carden MP

Mary Foy MP

Ian Lavery MP

Rebecca Long-Bailey MP

John McDonnell MP

Ian Mearns MP

Grahame Morris MP

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP

Kate Osborne MP

Zarah Sultana MP

Jon Trickett MP

Claudia Webbe MP

Mick Whitley MP

Nadia Whittome MP

Beth Winter MP

Christine Blower, Member of the House of Lords

Pauline Bryan, Member of the House of Lords

Katy Clark, Member of the House of Lords

Bryn Davies, Member of the House of Lords

John Hendy QC, Member of the House of Lords

Prem Sikka, Member of the House of Lords

Tony Woodley, Member of the House of Lords

Manuel Cortes, General Secretary of TSSA

Chris Kitchen, General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)

Len McCluskey, General Secretary of Unite the Union

Dave Ward, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU)

Mick Whelan, General Secretary of ASLEF

Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU)

Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU)

Gemma Bolton NEC (CLP Section)

Yasmine Dar NEC (CLP Section)

Nadia Jama NEC (CLP Section)

Laura Pidcock NEC (CLP Section)

Mish Rahman NEC (CLP Section)

Lara McNeill, NEC Youth Representative

Jess Barnard, Chair of Young Labour

Momentum

Labour Assembly Against Austerity

Campaign For Labour Party Democracy

Campaign For Socialism (Scotland)

Welsh Labour Grassroots

Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors

Red Labour

LRC

JVL

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Open letter: stand up for Labour Party democracy

‘We call on Labour’s leadership to reinstate the whip to Jeremy, end the attacks on party democracy, legitimate discussion and the recent wave of suspensions and instead to focus on taking the fight to the Tories’ — MPs, unions, NEC members and left groups speak out

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