Momentum ballot opens to decide policy platform for Labour 2021 conference

Momentum members will begin voting in a ballot on Wednesday to choose which motions the organisation will back in the Labour Party conference later this year to “decide on a bold and ambitious vision for a socialist recovery from the pandemic”.

With voting set to continue until midnight on March 31st, members will rank the 32 motions submitted by local Momentum groups, affiliated trade unions and other organisations with the top eight receiving support from the left-wing group.

Momentum described the vote as a chance to “reassert the importance of a more transformative approach” after months in which it argued support for Labour has declined and the opposition party has been “outflanked to the left by the Tories”.

“This ballot is an example of how we’re changing Momentum to put more power than ever before in members’ hands. Now the left platform for Labour conference will be decided by the grassroots of our movement,” Andrew Scattergood.

The co-chair of the group added: “We’re excited to see what transformative ideas members decide upon; from democratic reform to a wealth tax and a massive increase in the minimum wage, our movement has the answers to this crisis.”

Motion have been submitted from organisations including the Fire Brigades’ Union, the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union, Labour for a Green New Deal, think tank Autonomy and the Labour Campaign for Council Housing.

Labour for a Green New Deal founder Chris Saltmarsh wrote for LabourList earlier this week on his group’s motion, which seeks to commit the Labour Party to a green jobs revolution at its annual conference this September.

Others include commitments on a £15 minimum wage, building social housing, ensuring a Covid recovery based on a green new deal, reforming drug policy, repealing anti-trade union laws, nationalisation and instituting industrial democracy.

Organisations across the labour movement are encouraging party members to nominate their preferred candidates for the CAC elections, amid other contests, at local party constituency meetings with the deadline approaching on June 11th.

The CAC is Labour’s conference arrangements committee, which determines the shape of the agenda for the party’s annual conference. Those elected have an important role in deciding the timetable and topics debated.

Momentum, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and other groups on the left of the party have released their slate of candidates for the upcoming internal election, as have Progress and Labour First under the Labour to Win umbrella group.

The Labour Party is set to hold its conference in Brighton this year, from September 25th to 29th. The last annual gathering was cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and was instead replaced with its online ‘Connected‘ event.

Below is the full list of motions submitted in the primary.

£15 minimum wage
Abolish the Monarchy
Build back fairer: attack poverty and inequality
Build council housing and end homelessness
Changing politics for the many, not the few
China, Hong Kong and the Uyghurs: solidarity, peace, democracy and liberation
Covid-19 pandemic
Directly fund early years education and care
Drug policy reform
Ending Institutional Islamophobia
End the Outsourcing Scandal
A four day week for a society in which we work to live, not live to work
For a Democratic Socialist economy
Global climate justice
Green Jobs Revolution
Increase carers’ allowance
Justice for Belly Mujinga: protect frontline BAME workers – we need a public inquiry
into the UK pandemic response
Land Value Tax
Media reform
Migrants welcome: end deportations and the racist Hostile Environment
National Food Service
Palestine
Refounding the welfare state and establishing Universal Basic Services
Reject integrated care systems, renationalise England’s NHS and social care
Save our NHS with socialist policies
Stop arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
Time for proportional representation
A Universal Basic Income
Unshackling workers from draconian anti-trade union laws
A wealth tax to fix a broken economy
Young people and mental health