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Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 14 June 2016 at 7.00pm Venue: St Mary’s Centre, 82-90 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RW 1) Attendees – Allan Mc (chair), Neil A, Neville A, Eric B, Claire B, Barbara C, Steve C, Alan D, John H, Mike P, Alan P, Tom R, John T, Maureen T and Alan T. Apologies for absence – Lisa E, Tracy H, Terence H, Chris K and Denise P. 2) Minutes – The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 10 May 2016, were approved as an accurate record. 3) Matters arising from the minutes a) Housing policy review – Steve reported that he had not received a draft submission for the Labour Party housing policy review from Chris K in time for the closing date of 8 June 2016. However, John H produced a document he had written that could be submitted with further work and suggested that the deadline may have been extended into July. It was not possible to verify if there had been such a change of date during the meeting, although the facility for online submissions on the policy review website still appeared to be live. It was agreed that John H email the draft paper to Steve for circulation to those attending the meeting, plus Chris K, and that comments be fed back within the next few days. A final version, prepared by John H, could then be signed off by the officers present (Steve, Barbara and John T) and submitted on behalf of Momentum Teesside (MT). b) Trident debate – John H reported that he had received no reply from John Pilger, to whom he had written with regard to speaking at an event, but he had identified a potential speaker locally for the pro-Trident perspective. It was agreed that John H and John T should source local speakers and organise a debate to take place in July, possibly on a Saturday. The event would be in addition to MT’s regular meeting that month. c) National conference – John T reported that Momentum’s national committee had agreed to hold a national conference around February 2017. The North East & Cumbria regional committee had also agreed to organise a regional conference. d) Motion on antisemitism – The statement on the antisemitism controversy in the Labour Party approved at the previous meeting had been published on MT’s social media, circulated via the mailing list and submitted to the Shami Chakrabarti inquiry. e) Momentum Youth and Students conference – The conference took place in Manchester on 5 June, though it was not believed that any Teesside-based members had attended. 4) Proportional representation and the democratic deficit – As agreed at the previous meeting, there was a political discussion on whether the Labour Party should back the introduction of proportional representation for elections to the House of Commons, as a group of Labour MPs had advocated recently. Steve tabled a motion in support of PR that had been drafted by the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform (download the motion at http://bit.ly/prmotion). As the motion had not been circulated in advance of the meeting, it was decided by majority vote (9 for, 5 against) to defer it until the next meeting so that the motion could be published and members invited to propose amendments. 5) EU referendum campaign – It was noted that Momentum’s national committee had decided to support the ‘Remain’ option in the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union and back the #LabourInForBritain campaign. There was a discussion of the issues with views expressed from both sides of the debate. It was agreed to revisit the issue at the next meeting when the outcome of the referendum would be known. 6) Saving local libraries – Alan T withdrew his request to discuss this issue.

7) Engaging with and mobilising the Labour Party’s new members – There was a discussion of how to encourage people who had joined the Labour Party following the 2015 leadership election to get more involved in party activities. 8) Constituency Labour Party updates – Momentum was backing the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance’s slate of six candidates for Labour’s National Executive Committee. CLPs throughout the country were nominating candidates for the NEC prior to an election of all members. There had been mixed results for the left slate locally, with Middlesbrough CLP choosing five left candidates out of its six nominations, Redcar three, Stockton North one and Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland none. It would be important to ensure that party members sympathetic to Jeremy Corbyn’s political agenda took part in the NEC elections during the summer or else the leadership could find itself isolated. It was hoped to organise phone-banking to support the left slate’s campaign. 9) Momentum organisational issues a) Finance – Maureen reported that she had sought clarification of Momentum’s guidance for local groups setting up bank accounts. Jon Lansman had advised that MT open an account as a voluntary organisation with a letter from the national organisation confirming that MT is a verified local group of Momentum. It was agreed to discuss fundraising activities at the next meeting. b) Momentum membership – Supporters who had not yet become members of Momentum were reminded to join online at http://join.peoplesmomentum.com. c) Momentum Shop – Momentum-branded t-shirts and badges were now available for purchase online at https://shop.peoplesmomentum.com. 10) Any other business – John T reported that Momentum planned to organise fringe events around the Labour Party conference, which was to be held in Liverpool, 24-28 September. A large community venue had been hired for a ‘Momentum hub’ that would bring together activists, trade unionists, academics, artists, conference delegates, visitors and Momentum members for political, educational, musical and cultural activities. 11) Date, time and venue for next meeting – Tuesday 12 July at 7pm in St Mary’s Centre, 82-90 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RW. Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/816636298438143.