The World Transformed have announced their full programme for this year’s festival and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has produced a model motion in defence of the New Deal for Working People, now in danger of being diluted by Labour’s leadership.

The World Transformed (TWT) has announced a programme for its annual festival, which will run adjacent to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool from 7th to 10th October.

With the left looking to pick big fights with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer- particularly over the Party’s positions on migration and climate, TWT will be hosting sessions with titles such as The Coming Climate Insurrection, Lessons from the General Strikes in France and Left Strategy Under a Labour Government. The festival will also platform Jeremy Corbyn, Jamie Driscoll and Neal Lawson, all of whom are considered persona non grata by senior Labour figures.

Attendees will be trained in industrial action and climate activism – as well as the manufacturing and distribution of left wing propaganda – and listen to talks on police abolition, sex work, trans rights and recent victories of the Latin American left.

TWT is characterising its attendees as ‘the real opposition’, and its ‘No one is coming to save us’ slogan reflects much of the left’s belief that Keir Starmer offers no hope for working people.

The festival will be attended by several thousand activists. Organisers say that many of the 2000-plus attendees will be Labour Party members, but also expect a large number of unaligned attendees who feel politically homeless due to Labour’s rightward trajectory. They believe this year’s festival will bring together progressives and radicals from across the spectrum to discuss key issues and build a new, radical coalition capable of taking action in election year.

The full festival programme is here.

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Meanwhile the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has produced a model motion defending Labour’s Green Paper: A New Deal for Working People. The motion for CLPs is available below and here. It seeks to ensure the Party reaffirms the commitments it set out in the Green Paper.

It is important for CLPs to keep raising this issue as recent reports suggest the Party leadership is rowing back on the workers’ rights commitments that it previously set out.

Labour List reported this week: “Labour is no longer committed to raising sick pay rates or extending it to the self-employed, according to new documents that reveal a series of tweaks to party policy on its flagship workers’ rights reforms.”

The report was based on a final copy of the Party’s current full policy programme, made available to activists involved in Labour’s national Policy Forum.

A Momentum spokesperson responded: “The Tories have broken Britain, and voters are crying out for real change. Yet far from stepping up with ambitious policies like nationalising energy and water, mass building council homes or introducing wealth taxes, today’s news shows that the Labour leadership is actually going backwards.

“What few transformative policy commitments remain have been watered down, from fair pay agreements to a single tier status for workers, while other progressive commitments look in doubt, like an increase to sick pay. The Starmer leadership’s conservatism isn’t just failing to align with the bold vision demanded by members, unions and the public – it is creating a rod for its own back, by committing to continue with a failed model.”

CLPs can still submit motions to this year’s Annual Conference – the deadline for motions is 5pm Thursday 21 September. Alternatively, CLPs could pass the motion and send to the NEC, making the necessary small amendments to the model motion.
 

The model motion: New Deal for Working People
 

Conference notes our Leader has ensured that Angela Raynor remains as strategic lead on workers’ rights in the recent Shadow Cabinet reshuffle. Without a doubt Labour’s Green Paper A New Deal for Working People is the Party’s best offer on trade union and workers’ rights in a generation and will need someone of the standing as Deputy Leader of our Party to bring these proposals to fruition.

We will need action on all forms of zero hours contacts; there is no differentiation between exploitative and non-exploitative ZHCs.

A single status of “worker” is desperately needed to tackle the scourge of bogus self-employment endemic in industries from construction to courier delivery riders.

The collapse of union led collective bargaining in the neo-liberal period has been responsible for the remorseless decline in working class living standards; our Party’s commitment to sectoral collective bargaining through Fair Pay Agreements will be welcomed by workers and employers who will not have to deal with rogue elements who seek to undercut the good employer by ruthlessly cutting wages.

Our Green Paper promises a new framework of labour law by repealing much that has gone before. The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act is pernicious but so is the whole panoply of industrial relations law introduced by the Conservatives. Conference welcomes our commitment to repeal.

Conference notes that our friends at the recent TUC Congress carried a number of motions that support our Green Paper which we wholeheartedly welcome.

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CLPD has just published its 50^th anniversary year edition of Campaign Briefing. It contains 24 pages of articles on a wide range of policy issues, briefings on this year’s Annual Conference, updates on internal Party democracy and more details of what CLPD stands for and how you can get more involved. It’s here and also on CLPD’s website here.

The Campaign is also hosting three fringe meetings at Labour’s Women’s and Annual Conference in October 2023. Speaker details will be confirmed here but all are at Quaker Meeting House, 22 School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BT:

Women’s Conference Fringe meeting
Friday 6th October, 5pm-6pm
Fighting for a democratic, active Labour’s Women’s Organisation

CLPD rally
Saturday 7th October, 6.30pm
Defending Labour Party Democracy

Conference assessment
Tuesday 10th October, 6.30pm.

Image: Keir Starmer. Author: Matthisvalerie, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

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