By Sacha Ismail

The Labour Campaign for Free Movement is holding an organising meeting to discuss the next steps on 10th October. Register here.

Less widely reported than Labour conference’s defeat of the Party leadership over winter fuel payments and a wealth tax – but arguably at least as significant – was a different sort of defeat it inflicted over refugee rights.

The passing of the Unite / Communication Workers Union motion on economic policy was widely expected; the upset for the leadership on refugee rights was not. It was the result of a grassroots trade unionist campaign that pulled Labour-affiliated unions into opposition – one that must now be built on.

A motion from Rushcliffe CLP in Nottinghamshire, taken from the text promoted  by the Labour Campaign for Free Movement (LCFM), was ruled out of order on the blatant pretext that it “covered more than one topic”. (This was not the only motion ruled out: this is now a chronic problem at Labour Conferences.) Later in the Conference, Rushcliffe’s delegate, Theodora Polenta, a migrant worker and Labour councillor, was ejected from the conference and has apparently been suspended from the Party, with so far essentially no explanation…

With the binning of the Rushcliffe motion, there remained under the “Border Security Command” heading only a right-wing motion endorsing proposals that could easily have been written by a Tory Home Secretary. It advocated “a new Border Security Command”, “new counter-terror powers to tackle organised immigration crime”, and “arrangements to speed up returns and increase the number of safe countries to which failed asylum seekers can be swiftly returned.”

The immediate background, of course, is Keir Starmer’s visit to Italy to “learn from” the asylum policies of its far-right government under Giorgia Meloni, the grisly significance of which Michael Chessum unpacks here.

With no visible opposition from the unions, very limited time available and reports that Unite, with its huge Conference delegation, would be voting for the motion, defeating the leadership did initially look unlikely.

LCFM had already been campaigning at the conference, holding a lively demonstration and fringe meeting on the Sunday. With the ruling out of the Rushcliffe motion, it did not wind down but stepped up its campaigning, both physically inside and outside the Conference and online – organising public support from trade unionists, Party activists and MPs, most prominently Nottingham East’s Nadia Whittome.

The stance of Labour’s largest affiliate, UNISON, was unclear at that point: but the Black caucus in Time for Real Change, the union’s main left-wing grouping, organised a statement for trade unionists to sign, demanding union support and helping spread news of what was happening around the country – backed up by some very effective social media activity. In the end it was signed by 539 activists from 24 unions.

Alongside LCFM, the Labour Left Internationalists group (LLI) actively promoted the message at the Conference itself. Once the issue had been raised by LCFM and LLI, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy also led on it in its 24th September Conference bulletin, helping get the message out to delegates.

Both burgeoning online agitation and the atmosphere at the Conference quickly made clear that this fight was having an impact.

The campaign gave activists in various Labour-affiliated trade unions the confidence and tools to exert pressure on their union hierarchies, supporting sympathetic union delegates to Labour Conference to have the argument in their delegations. Soon it was announced that UNISON would definitely be opposing, along with the Communication Workers Union and Fire Brigades Union (FBU) – and then that Unite was now voting against! 

Shortly before the right-wing motion came up, the CLP with formal ownership of it announced it had been withdrawn – on the supposed grounds that its demands are already government policy. This justification was particularly transparent given that the Labour leadership specialises in wasting Conference time with motions supporting and praising what it plans to do already. The real reason was obviously that, with UNISON, Unite and other unions pulled into opposition, there was a very good chance the motion would have been defeated – creating a minor political crisis for the leadership and boosting migrants’ rights activists and the left in the Party.

As Bridget Chapman, LCFM spokesperson and Labour councillor in Folkestone, explained: “The withdrawal of the motion is a clear sign that the Labour leadership knew it would lose. They know that Party members and trade unions do not support this agenda.

“The policy proposed in this motion has been praised by far-right parties and figures across Europe. Those who support such a policy should have the courage to put it to a democratic vote and see it defeated.

“The government cannot legitimately implement a policy which they know does not have the support of conference.

“Labour must offer an alternative to hate and border-building. We need decent jobs, homes and public services, and a politics of working-class unity.”

This was a notable victory, a reminder of what can be achieved when the left really organises and campaigns. When we started campaigning, the reaction of many leftists was: “Yes we should oppose – but we cannot stop it.” Truly, the great are only great because we are on our knees!

The fact that the Conference asserted a clearly different position from the leadership on several important issues – the winter fuel payment / austerity, a wealth tax, migrants’ rights and zero hours contracts – as well as passing other left-wing motions, for instance the FBU’s on building and fire safety post-Grenfell, at a time when that leadership is at the height of its authority and most of the left is crushed and lacks confidence, shows that much more is possible.

The unions are pivotal. Pushed by our activist and union-oriented campaign, Labour-affiliated unions decided to oppose the anti-refugee motion – but none of them, not even for instance the left-wing and often vocally pro-migrant FBU, spoke out publicly in advance of the vote, which would have significantly boosted the campaign and its impact. The day before, union leaders spoke at a packed Conference fringe meeting on fighting the far right. Publicly stating their opposition to pandering to the far right’s anti-migrant agenda should have been an obvious part of that!

On this issue and on so many, a crucial question in the period ahead is whether we can push and pull our unions into real vocal and active campaigning and struggles to impose different policies and politics on Labour.

To make that happen, we need to build up a left that is sharper politically, more rooted in the unions and CLPs, and more oriented to serious activist campaigning. Fighting for migrants’ rights needs to be a central part of that left’s agenda.

The defeat of the Labour leadership over their anti-refugee motion was a good win, but Labour Conference votes – or avoidance of them, in this case – do not by themselves decide anything. The government will continue with its reactionary agenda unless a serious campaign is built to stop it, drawing the unions into protest and campaigning. And that campaign must not just oppose the government’s agenda, but demand the kind of policies for liberalising and humanising the asylum and immigration system – and promoting working-class unity – set out by LCFM in the Rushcliffe motion.

Join LCFM’s organising meeting on 10 October!

Sacha Ismail is an activist in UNISON and the Fire Brigades Union, and part of the Time for Real Change Black members caucus that launched the statement linked above. He is a supporter of the Labour Campaign for Free Movement.

Image: c/o Labour Hub.