At a meeting of the CLPD at party conference, Labour’s left is organised—and deservedly optimistic
by Stephanie Boland / September 26, 2017 / Leave a comment
Labour party conference: Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to make the Labour Party a more democratic institution.
It’s 18:28—two minutes before the event begins—and I’m already playing the part of hapless MSM. I’ve arrived for a Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLDP) meeting at the Queen’s Hotel, Brighton, and I’ve not got my £3 entry fee. “We have to cover the room somehow,” a member tells me, before I dash off to a cash point. I return at 6:36. Luckily, the event is so popular that they haven’t started yet.
The CLPD aren’t, to the lay person, one of the most prominent Labour groups—until you start following the procedures and rule changes that have the power to tilt the party machinery to one faction or another, at which point, they’re everywhere. Relatively small, with around 80 members, their affiliation with Momentum allows them to punch well above their weight.
This year, with a series of important, Momentum-backed rule changes on the agenda, their mid-conference meeting is buzzing. Compared to the main conference hotel, where the mood is bizarrely subdued—and journalists meet in the corridors, shaking their heads at each other, unsure where the story is—the tone here is bold and optimistic.
True, there are murmured cheers when Rhea Wolfson MP kicks off her speech by mentioning the recent resignation of Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale—her interim replacement, Alex Rowley, is “a fantastic comrade”—but the tone is largely positive. When the “right-wingers” (members on both sides of the party have a habit of referring to themselves as “centre left,” and designating their opponents the left or right-wing outliers) come up it is largely with the self-assured tone of a movement which assumes that, if it doesn’t already control the party in its totally, it is sure to do so soon.
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