Model motion
Campaign for Labour Party Democracy – Annual Conference Model Motions 2021 (First Tranche)
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Campaign for Labour Party Democracy Model Motions (2021)
Below is the first tranche of model motions the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy is encouraging party members to consider submitting to annual party conference through their CLPs. CLPD believes that these topics need to be urgently addressed by the shadow front bench.
All motions need to be 250 words or below, and submitted by 5pm, Monday 13th September 2021. The word counts indicated below do not include the motion titles.
The motions can also be downloaded here in Word and here in PDF and viewed online as a Google Doc here. The PDF and Word versions can also be downloaded at the bottom of this page.
Motion Topics:
- Labour Should be Neutral in any Referendum on Northern Ireland
- Green New Deal – Labour Will Oppose the Tories and Fight for Action on Climate Change
- Zero Covid – Labour Should Oppose the Tories and Campaign for a Covid Elimination Strategy
- First Past The Post Delivers Majority Labour Governments
- Now is Not the Time to Change the Voting System
- Labour Must Oppose Tory Austerity (Labour Assembly Against Austerity)
- Palestine (Labour and Palestine)
- Workers Rights
- Labour Needs to Robustly Oppose the Tories’ Racism
- Ban on Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia
- Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Labour CND)
Labour Should be Neutral in any Referendum on Northern Ireland
Conference notes:
- The possibility in the future of a referendum on Northern Ireland’s constitutional status, as provided for under the provisions of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA).
- Since the GFA, Labour has not advocated a view on what would be the preferable outcome of such a referendum. The party has taken a neutral position since the 1990s.
- In a July interview with the BBC, Sir Keir Starmer stated he would ‘make the case for a United Kingdom strongly’ in relation to such a future referendum.
Conference believes:
- Labour should continue to be neutral about the outcome of any referendum in Northern Ireland on its future constitutional status. Labour will neither advocate for Northern Ireland remaining in the UK nor for it to be part of a United Ireland.
(129 words)
Green New Deal – Labour Will Oppose the Tories and Fight for Action on Climate Change
Conference notes:
- Humanity has, at most, nine years to stop catastrophic climate change by keeping global temperature rises below 1.5°C, through cutting emissions by 7.6% a year.
- Already 1.2°C of warming has taken place, causing floods, droughts and rising seas – disproportionately impacting on developing countries.
- In Britain the Tory government is posturing on climate change with no serious plan to meet its climate targets. It has cut Green Home Grants and paid £40bn fossil fuels subsidies since March 2020 alone.
Conference believes:
- It is urgent that all countries, including Britain, significantly enhance plans and investment to meet the 1.5°C target.
- The Tory government’s lack of action and funding means Britain will not rapidly cut emissions and the UN COP26 conference in Glasgow in November could fail to make the necessary progress.
Conference agrees Labour will campaign for the immediate investment of £85 billion, as proposed by the TUC, for a Green New Deal, to cut the substantial majority of carbon emissions by 2030 and create 1 million green jobs by:
- Upgrading homes to the highest standard of energy efficiency, including retrofitting and insulation.
- Powering Britain with renewable energy.
- Ending fossil fuel subsidies.
- Banning fracking.
- Developing public, low-carbon transport.
- Organising a just transition with trade unions and communities so that the path to net zero emissions is fair on workers.
- Gearing education and training to climate transition.
- Financially assisting the transition in developing countries.
(238 Words)
Zero Covid – Labour Should Oppose the Tories and Campaign for a Covid Elimination Strategy
Conference Notes:
- The Tory government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world – plus many suffering with long term health problems;
- This has resulted in Britain experiencing the deepest economic recession of any major economy;
- The pandemic and its adverse economic consequences disproportionately impact on the poorest, women and ethnic minorities;
- The Tories’ current framework – reliance on vaccination whilst allowing the virus to circulate – risks further deadly waves of infections;
- The Labour leadership has, ill advisedly, overwhelmingly supported the government on its disastrous approach;
- Countries that have adopted a ‘Zero Covid’ strategy – aimed at maximum suppression of the virus – such as New Zealand, Vietnam, Australia and China, have the lowest death tolls and are suffering the least negative economic consequences;
- There is no reliable evidence it is possible to live safely with this virus, as it mutates and more dangerous variants emerge that current vaccines cannot deal with;
Conference Believes:
- Labour should campaign for the government to adopt a ‘Zero Covid’ strategy, to ensure future Covid deaths and Long Covid cases are reduced to a minimum and the economy allowed to recover;
- This means the level of new infections would be suppressed to the maximum point where the virus is in effect eliminated;
- The Labour leadership should robustly oppose the Tories’ hugely damaging Covid policies and give no further support to their reactionary framework.
(237 Words)
First Past The Post Delivers Majority Labour Governments
Conference recognises that our party was originally formed to achieve majority Labour governments. That has been Labour’s main purpose for 121 years and Conference believes that must continue to be our main purpose. History has shown that only majority Labour governments have the necessary resolve to properly address our fundamentally unfair and unequal society and economy.
Proportional Representation (PR) would make majority Labour governments well nigh impossible to ever achieve. Rather, PR would mean a succession of Coalition Governments and, as on the continent, would mean far right parties likely gaining MPs and legitimacy.
First-past-the-post (FPTP) delivers majority Labour governments. Conference reaffirms our party’s commitment to achieving majority Labour governments and thus to FPTP.
(114 Words)
Now is Not the Time to Change the Voting System
Conference recognises that the general election defeat in 2019 and the lack of electoral progress this year have, for some, called into question the voting system used in general and other elections.
These most recent elections, however, need to be seen in context. Since 2000 the party has won two general elections and lost four. In one that we lost (2017) we achieved a 9.6% increase in vote share. There is no reason to abandon the goal of electing a Labour government.
Most alternative voting systems would rule out the possibility of a future majority Labour government.
Conference should not rush into changing our party’s policy on this fundamental issue. Instead we should reflect on our policies and work out an appealing platform that aims to solve the problems that are being inflicted on the population by the Tory government.
(141 Words)
| Labour Must Oppose Tory Austerity
Conference notes:
That women, BAME and disabled people have been the hardest hit by both austerity and the pandemic. The popularity of socialist policies to address the crisis, such as expanding public ownership, a massive Green New Deal, and substantial increases in public sector pay. Conference believes: That to win again, Labour must be a clearly anti-austerity party and stand for an economic agenda defending jobs and improving living standards, based on investment not cuts. Conference resolves that Labour must:
(244 Words)
Palestine (Labour and Palestine)
Conference condemns Israel’s militarised violence attacking the Al Aqsa mosque, the forced displacements from Sheikh Jarrah and the deadly assault on Gaza.
Together with the de facto annexation of Palestinian land by accelerated settlement building and statements of Israel’s intention to proceed with annexation, it is ever clearer that Israel is intent on eliminating any prospects of Palestinian self-determination.
Conference notes the TUC 2020 Congress motion describing such settlement building and annexation as ‘another significant step’ towards the UN Crime of Apartheid; reinforced by the recent reports by B’Tselem and the Human Rights Watch, whose report – ‘A Threshold Crossed’, details how Palestinians are ‘born unequal’, shown recently by the discriminatory approach excluding Palestinians from Israel’s vaccination programme.
Conference welcomes the International Criminal Court decision to hold an inquiry into abuses committed in the occupied Palestinian Territories since 2014.
Conference resolves that action is needed now due to Israel’s continuing illegal actions and that Labour should adhere to an ethical policy on all UK trade with Israel, including stopping any arms trade used to violate Palestinian human rights.
Conference resolves to support “effective measures” including sanctions, as called for by Palestinian civil society, against actions by the Israeli government that are illegal according to international law; in particular to ensure that Israel stops the building of settlements, reverses any annexation, ends the occupation of the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza, brings down the Wall and respects the right of refugees to return to their homes under international law. |
(249 Words)
Workers Rights
The pandemic has amplified the need for workers to be in unions to guarantee health and safety and other important working conditions.
Draconian cuts and lack of investment in public services have undermined resilience and caused workers to be further exposed to the effects of the “free” market.
Job cuts, attacks on terms and conditions – “fire and rehire” – and plans to scrap sectoral collective bargaining, including in the fire and rescue service, have continued throughout this crisis.
Conference notes TUC policy that workers should be: “represented by an independent union; strike/take industrial action by a process, at a time, and for demands of their own choosing, including in solidarity with any other workers, and for broader social and political goals; and picket freely.”
Conference commits to repeal all of the Conservatives’ anti-union laws and further commits to their replacement with a progressive code of labour rights using the proposals set out in Labour’s 2017 and 2019 Manifestos as the starting point.
This commitment includes repealing anti-strike laws, such as the ban on striking in solidarity with other workers or over political issues; they prevent workers from taking action directly over issues such as climate change, equalities and, the NHS.
Conference denounces the Tories’ plan to impose new restrictions on transport workers through a “minimum service requirement” that may well be extended to other groups of workers.
Further, Conference demands the Party actively enforces trade union membership amongst all Party members to strengthen union activity and organising in workplaces.
(249 Words)
Labour Needs to Robustly Oppose the Tories’ Racism
Conference notes Tory attempts to distract the population from the 120,000 plus Covid deaths, one million plus Long Covid cases, 1.6m unemployed, widespread wage cuts, fire and rehire, etc, by whipping up racism and promoting cultural wars, on a wide range of issues including:
- the government’s stepped up campaigns against foreign nationals, with increasingly inhumane treatment of refugees, such as the unlawful and unsafe detention of migrants in Napier Barracks;
- the controversial Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) report, denying the role play by institutional racism – at a time when Black, Asian and ethnic minorities are disproportionately dying from Covid-19 and are twice as likely to be unemployed, Black women four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth, young black men in London 15 times more likely to be stopped and searched than the general population;
- ·the Education Committee report, promoting a false and racist analysis of the damage inflicted on education by Tory cuts;
- and the government’s opposition to Black Lives Matter protests.
Conference regrets to also note our own failures to take a clear stand against racism, including:
- leadership statements made in relation to Black Lives Matter;
- anti-traveller election literature;
- and an Islamophobic press briefing by senior Labour staff.
Conference believes our party should robustly oppose all attempts by the Tories to promote racism. It is both morally correct and would help rebuild Labour’s recently lost support.
(234 Words)
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Labour CND)
- Conference reaffirms our commitment to a world without nuclear weapons and welcomes the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which became international law on 22 January 2021.
- Conference is aware that:
- a) the TPNW is the first legally binding international Treaty to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons, making it illegal to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess, stockpile, transfer, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons, or assist or encourage others to engage in these activities; and
- b) this represents a breakthrough in international disarmament efforts.
- Recognising that creating a nuclear weapons-free world is a prerequisite for the security of all people in the UK and around the world, conference:
- c) regrets successive Tory governments boycott of UN talks leading to the Treaty and subsequent joint announcement with the US and France that the UK will not sign the TPNW; and
- d) calls on the Labour Party leadership to make a commitment that the next Labour government will sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
(173 Words)
EXPLAINER
Nuclear weapons: how many and who has them?
There are 13,400 nuclear weapons in the world today. A tiny proportion of them would be enough to wipe out life on earth many times over. A single nuclear detonation could wipe out a whole city, killing most of its people. Several nuclear explosions over modern cities would kill tens of millions of people.
The extreme impact of using even one nuclear weapon cannot be confined to military targets or combatants. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate weapon of mass and indiscriminate destruction. But many attempts at negotiation have failed to see significant progress toward ending the threat of nuclear weapons.
Nine countries have nuclear weapons. They are the US, UK, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel. Almost 200 countries, the vast majority, do not. In fact, 115 countries are already part of nuclear weapons-free zone agreements which cover
Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa.
There are international laws banning other weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction – landmines and chemical and biological weapons – but nuclear weapons remained legal until now.
About the TPN
- Role of the UN
The process of agreeing a global nuclear ban treaty began in 2012 when the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 76/56 which established a working group to develop proposals on taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. Three international conference convened in 2013-14 eventually culminated in the text of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by the UN in July 2017 with 122 countries voting for, 1 against, and 1 abstaining.
The TPNW opened for signature in September 2017 and became international law on 22 January 2021 when the requisite 50 states had ratified it – ie, incorporated into their own laws. At that point, a further 86 countries had signed but not yet ratified the TPNW.
- Role of grassroots campaigning
The TPNW is a milestone treaty. It is also a testimony to the importance of grassroots action and a victory for the anti-nuclear movement worldwide. The significance of the Treaty and the important role played by grassroots campaigning in helping bring it about was acknowledged when the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). CND UK is an ICAN partner.
Obstacles remaining, and Labour’s role in overcoming them
The 9 nuclear weapons states, including Britain, have not signed or ratified the TPNW. Indeed, when the Treaty was agreed by the UN General Assembly in 2017, the UK issued a joint statement with the US and France to the effect that it would never sign the Treaty.
If Britain were to sign the TPNW, it would inevitably lead to the abandonment of Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system, which the Tories are not prepared to accept.
That is why Labour Party support for the TPNW is such an important next step on the road to a global ban on nuclear weapons.
Labour policy is to support multilateral nuclear disarmament. This is the brief of Fabian Hamilton MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament. It is also Labour policy to support Trident at an estimated lifetime cost of £205 billion. The Labour leadership has remained silent on the TPNW.
Sadly, and against all the evidence, Labour leaders continue to believe that a nuclear disarmament policy will lose Labour votes in a general election. That is why support for this model motion is so important.
Public opinion
World-wide demand for nuclear disarmament is growing, as the evolution of the TPNW in the UN and its subsequent ratification indicates. There is clear and ongoing evidence that UK public opinion also favours nuclear disarmament.
Successive opinion sampling since 2007, when parliament voted to replace Trident, suggests that majority opinion in Britain does not support replacing Trident, and some polls show a majority for nuclear disarmament and scrapping Trident.
Most recently, a Survation poll of 1,033 people aged 18+ living in the UK was commissioned by CND and carried out in January 2021. It found:
- 59% of the public think the UK government should sign up to the TPNW outlawing nuclear weapons, including 50% of Conservative voters and 68% of Labour voters.
- 77% support a ‘total ban on all nuclear weapons globally’, including 71% of Conservative voters and 83% of Labour voters, and
- both the UK signing the TPNW and a total global nuclear ban have majority support across every single demographic – age, regions and nations, education level, income bracket, 2019 GE vote, and 2016 EU referendum vote).
A LabourList readers survey in August 2020 asked respondents if they continued to support 12 key policies in Labour’s 2019 manifesto. Only two of the 12 failed to large majorities in support of retaining them – with 49% in favour, free and fast broadband for all narrowly fell short of a majority with 49%. Replacing Trident, however, achieved only 12.3% of support from respondents.
A YouGov poll for The Times, published on the eve of Labour’s 2019 annual conference showed 70% of the 1,185 Labour Party members sampled wanted to scrap Trident.
REFERENCES & LINKS
Background to TPNW https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/
CND information on the TPNW https://cnduk.org/campaigns/global-abolition/
Expert briefing on what the TPNW means for Britain https://cnduk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Acronym-UK_TPNW_EIF-4pBriefing-FINAL-19Jan2021.pdf
LabourList readers opinion survey https://labourlist.org/2020/08/55-of-labourlist-readers-predict-a-tory-government-after-the-next-election///.,
ENDS
Ban on Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia
Conference Notes:
- On 18 February 2021 the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator reported that Yemen is speeding towards the worst famine the world has seen in decades. More than 16 million people are going hungry, 5 million of whom are one step away from famine.[1]
- On 1 March 2021 the Conservative government cut humanitarian aid to Yemen by 47%, from £164m to £87m.[2]
Conference believes:
- That in licensing £1.4 billion worth of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia immediately after its decision to renew arms sales to the regime in July 2020[3], the Conservative government is complicit in the bombing of Yemen and the killing of more than 130,000 people.[4]
- That in its attempt to argue that violations of International Humanitarian Law committed by the Saudi coalition are ‘isolated incidents’, and do not represent a ‘pattern of non-compliance’ with international law[5], the government undermines the rule of law and the UK’s role in ending the war.
Conference resolves:
- That the next Labour government should impose an immediate embargo on the export of military equipment to Saudi Arabia.
- To do everything possible to campaign for human rights and humanitarian relief in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
- To work with trade unions to create a Shadow Defence Diversification Agency so that practical plans are in place to use the skills of those currently working in the arms industry on socially-useful projects such as renewable energy.
(237 Words)
[1] https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1085162
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56301743
[4] https://acleddata.com/2021/02/02/ten-conflicts-to-worry-about-in-2021/#1612195863357-e72e2a76-7c35
[5] https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2020-07-07/HCWS339