Editorial, 16th April 2018
The State Of Labour In Northern Ireland: Latest News
©LCNI Founding Editoririal Team
Labour Commentary believes that the period of “special measures” on Labour Party NI CLP is to be lifted on 2nd June 2018 with the convening of a special AGM to facilitate the election of a new LPNI Executive Committee . Readers will know that this period of effective suspension of the NI CLP’s normal functioning occurred after the precipitous resignation from the LPNI EC in August 2017 of a number of CLP officers. During that period the remaining Executive Committee was unable to hold general member meetings or to communicate with its members in NI without going through Labour HQ. In effect the running of the NI CLP was taken over by Labour HQ in London. Subsequently we believe that a couple of alleged breaches of party discipline were examined in a Disputes Inquiry. That Inquiry now appears to have run its course and no-one in the NI CLP seems to have been expelled from the party. There is no indication that allegations of “hard-left entryism” that appeared in the local press have been substantiated.
Experience from this and other such episodes confirms the fact that the Labour Party’s disputes and disciplinary procedures need to be reformed to maximise fairness and transparency, including the way in which members being investigated are supported. At present the system falls short of what would be common good practice in industry.
There is no doubt that this prolonged period of “special measures” has impeded the progress of LPNI at a time when it should have been forging ahead on the back of the party’s excellent showing in the General Election of June 2017. Lessons need to be learned with regards to developing mediation mechanisms to avert damaging splits over issues of policy and personality. We have argued that those on the LPNI EC who felt aggrieved should have trusted the wider membership by calling an Emergency General Meeting to resolve matters in-house. Every effort must be made to ensure that such a damaging episode never reoccurs.
The task facing LPNI is challenging. We understand that a team from Labour HQ will oversee LPNI AGM arrangements. It is imperative that the AGM is conducted in a comradely manner without recriminations. Hopefully no-one present will attempt to re-run the prolonged Disputes Inquiry or the events that occasioned it. A new EC committed to unifying and building the party in NI in a re-invigorated campaigning spirit needs to be elected. That should be the central priority of the AGM. The need for a progressive Labour movement in the North is no less needed now that it was before this hiatus. In fact it is even more necessary given the increased sectarian polarisation of politics and the grave crisis facing public services in the face of brutal Tory cuts.
However even if a new united LPNI EC is formed, and we hope it will be, the millstone of the continuing electoral ban continues to hang around the NI CLP. We believe that the NEC review of this ban is almost complete and that the result may be known by June. We are not expecting a positive outcome but have heard from some leading LPNI activists that they have been informed that “NI is pushing at an open door”. We will soon see whether that optimism is well-placed. Meanwhile we believe that the legal challenge by individuals to the electoral ban is still being processed.
The longer that this undemocratic electoral ban continues, the harder it will be for LPNI to maintain credibility, particularly as local government elections approach in 2019. Besides, an imminent Assembly election is not entirely improbable. By now most of the other parties are already selecting and preparing candidates. It remains as unacceptable as ever for the Labour Party, with all its socialist and human rights credentials, to continue to refer its members in NI to the SDLP and abandon NI to a future of perennial sectarian communalism.
