Momentum Teesside Email: [email protected] Twitter: @MomentumTees Facebook: Facebook.com/MomentumTeesside

Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 19 January 2017 at 7.00pm Venue: St Mary’s Centre, 82-90 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RW 1) Welcome, introductions and apologies for absence a) Welcome – John Haw, chairing, welcomed all comrades to the meeting. b) Attendees – Members: John Haw (chair); Barbara Campbell, Steve Cooke, Alan Dixon, Mick Hills, Bob Kerr, Allan McLeod, Peter Neal, Geoff Pacey, Mike Paling, Alan Pearson, Seff Qaid, Laurie Read, John Taylor, Maureen Taylor and Alan Theasby. Non-voting supporter: Chris Kemp. c) Apologies for absence – Jo Berry, Emily Hesse, Geraldine Nuttall, Miki Rogers, Kath Sainsbury and Pete Widlinski. 2) Peter Smith RIP – Tributes were paid to Peter Smith, a Momentum Teesside member and peace/labour movement activist, who died on 5 January 2017. A number of members planned to attend a 'Celebration of Life Gathering' in Peter’s honour being held on Friday 20 January at 2.00pm in Judges Country House Hotel, Thirsk Road, Kirklevington, Yarm TS15 9LW. 3) Minutes – The summary of the previous meeting, held on 13 December 2016, was approved, although it was noted that the Tees Valley Unite Community-organised protest against benefit sanctions planned for 20 January 2017 was to be a local event rather than part of a national day of action. 4) Matters arising from the minutes

a) Brexit: Take Back Control – Branch chair John Haw reported that he had not been able to make contact with Charlie Clarke from The World Transformed to respond to an invitation to be involved in organising a Teesside event around the triggering of Article 50 (further details at https://goo.gl/TFvQj1). However, he would seek to progress the matter by the next meeting. b) Momentum Northern regional network – Alan Theasby reported that the regional network meeting held on 8 January 2017 had focused on local organising and potential joint campaigns with other groups such as Red Labour. Barbara Campbell reported that an emergency open meeting of Momentum activists called by the regional network on 15 January (also attended by Steve Cooke and Allan McLeod from Teesside) discussed recent developments in relation to the organisation’s constitution and planned national conference, as well as the Copeland by-election. The meeting overwhelmingly backed motions critical of the new constitution announced by Momentum HQ and opposing plans to exclude left activists who had been expelled by the Labour Party for political reasons. However, it had urged people to stay as members of Momentum and called for a national meeting of Momentum groups to discuss the way forward. 5) Momentum constitution

a) Background – On 10 January 2017, Momentum’s national office emailed members to announce that a new constitution was being introduced with immediate effect. It stated that all existing national and regional bodies were dissolved and the remit of the conference arrangements committee had been terminated. Momentum members were invited to remain as subscribers if they accepted the new constitution or resign if they did not accept it. Elections were to be conducted for some of the

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seats on a new National Coordinating Group and an inaugural conference was to be held in London on 18 February, although it would not debate any motions. Further details on the constitution and its rationale were available at www.peoplesmomentum.com/constitution_summary. b) Motions – Steve Cooke and John Taylor had submitted motions regarding the new constitution by the advertised deadline of 13 January and Alan Pearson submitted a further text as an amendment on 16 January. An amendment by Steve to his own motion was also tabled in the meeting. It was argued by the chair John Haw that, as the constitution announced by HQ was now legally Momentum’s constitution, and those who did not accept it could leave the organisation, no further discussion of the issue or the motions/amendments ought to be allowed and the meeting should move onto other business. However, the meeting voted by eight votes to seven (with one abstention) to allow discussion and consideration of the motions/amendments.

c) Discussion – After discussion of the issues, John Taylor withdrew his motion in favour of the text submitted by Alan Pearson. It was agreed that the two remaining motions, as amended, were counter posed (ie, proposing opposite positions) because, to summarise, Alan’s proposed that the branch to support the introduction of the new constitution and Steve’s proposed that the branch deplore the manner in which that constitution had been introduced. Members could therefore vote either for Alan’s motion or for Steve’s, or they could abstain. A vote was called with nine members voting to accept Alan Pearson’s motion and hence the constitution and six members voting in support of Steve Cooke’s motion. There was one abstention. d) Decision – The motion (proposed by Alan Pearson and seconded by John Taylor) approved by a 9to-6 majority was as follows: (1) We, Momentum Teesside, deplore the power struggle that has taken place in Momentum over the last few months. (2) This continuing obsession with Momentum’s own internal politics risks losing a once in a lifetime opportunity to effect major change through a mainstream political party. (3) We are, however, prepared to support the introduction of the new constitution in order to move forward and focus on the following objectives: (a) To build widespread public support and win the next general election for a transformational Labour government. (b) To rebuild democracy within the Labour Party so that members can fully engage and participate in policy-making and decisions such that elected representatives, staff, and appointees of the Labour Party, are accountable to, and representative of, the membership (c) To do that, Momentum needs to be light on its feet, able to respond fast to events and to adapt quickly to build campaigns, raise public awareness, mobilise support for elections and Labour policies — at the local and national level. It should not be developing an alternative party structure to the Labour Party – that route will only undermine the ability to democratise the Labour Party and to achieve the objectives above. (4) We do in the longer term want to see the following concerns addressed either by the new national coordinating group or by constitutional amendments as appropriate: (a) There is no explicit commitment in the new constitution to support those who have been unfairly expelled from or refused entry to the Labour Party and allow them to keep their membership of Momentum. (b) The new constitution does not go far enough in delivering one-member-one-vote direct elections to the national coordinating group. Members will only get to vote for a minority of places (12 out of 28-32) with the rest filled by unelected appointees from outside bodies, a number of which are not even constituted organisations. (c) There is no commitment in the new constitution to the transparency and openness required to truly enable grassroots democracy. (d) The new constitution offers no support for local branches with all member subscriptions and donations continuing to be retained by the national office. (e) The new constitution contains a commitment to affiliate to the Labour Party without any reasoned statement for doing so having being put to the members of Momentum. [The text of the defeated motion is shown as endnotei of this document.]

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e) Next steps, moving forwards – It was agreed that, whilst Momentum Teesside had voted to accept the constitution, the branch had a number of concerns, as set out in the above motion, and that the branch chair should write to Momentum national office raising these issues. 6) Finance and fundraising – Treasurer Maureen Taylor reported that, following payments to cover room costs and travel to a regional network meeting, the branch currently held £197. There was a collection to cover the meeting costs. Action: Maureen to pay venue. 7) Campaigns

a) #GrassrootsNow – Momentum’s phone canvassing app had been re-launched as part of the ‘Grassroots Now’ campaign, which enabled Momentum supporters to call to inform each other about how to get active in their local Labour Party and in community campaigns to build support for Labour policies. Further information was available at www.peoplesmomentum.com/grassroots.

b) ‘Say no to sanctions’ – Unite Community’s Tees Valley branch, in partnership with Thrive Teesside, was to hold a protest against benefit sanctions on Friday 20 January, from 12.00pm to 2.00pm, in Middlesbrough town centre. Further details: www.fb.com/events/572536592940156.

c) #CarefortheNHS – The Labour Party was to hold a national campaign day, including a number of local actions, on Saturday 21 January. Further details: https://goo.gl/jD7J3K.

d) #OurNHS – Demonstrations in defence of the NHS were due to be held in Newcastle on Saturday 4 February (www.fb.com/events/619260908279509) and in London on Saturday 4 March (www.fb.com/events/1771664639725061). Unite the union had offered its members train transport to the London demo. An application form for requesting tickets was available online at https://goo.gl/forms/ATKxYHnKxRKRuOkY2 (Unite members only). Other unions were still to decide whether they would be offering transport to this action.

e) Stand Up to Racism – SUTR was organising a national demo to mark the United Nations’ AntiRacism Day on Saturday 18 March (www.fb.com/events/1092335410814754). 8) Election campaigns – There was discussion of campaign plans for the Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central parliamentary by-elections, the Tees Valley mayoral election and local by-elections for Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council in the Hutton and Newcomen wards. It was agreed that ‘Election campaigns’ should be a standing item on Momentum Teesside’s agenda. Mike Paling and Maureen Taylor agreed to provide information on Labour’s local campaign forum to share with members (to be emailed to Steve via [email protected]). 9) Unite the union general secretary election – It was noted that an election was to be held for the position of Unite the union’s general secretary after the incumbent Len McCluskey announced his intention to resign before the end of his term and seek re-election. Given Unite’s role in the Labour Party, the result could also affect the balance of power in the party. Two other candidates, Gerard Coyne and Ian Allinson, were known to be planning to stand in the election. 10) Constituency Labour Party updates – Developments in local parties were discussed and members were reminded of the importance of Corbyn supporters being elected as Labour conference delegates and to positions within CLPs and branches. 11) Date, time and venue for next meeting – Tuesday 21 February 2017 at 7.00pm in St Mary’s Centre, 82-90 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RW (Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/1211283492290338).

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i The defeated motion regarding the new constitution, discussed under item 5 of the agenda, was as follows: 1) This branch deplores the undemocratic manner in which a new constitution has been imposed on Momentum and its elected national and regional committees dissolved by decree. 2) We want Momentum to move forward and focus on campaigning, building support for socialist policies and democracy in the Labour Party, and mobilising for a socialist Labour government. We want to build Momentum as a democratic movement to enable this. 3) We have always encouraged our members to join the Labour Party and have stood against the summary expulsions from the Party on political grounds. We will continue to allow those expelled on this basis to be fully active, including holding elected positions, within our local group. We call on Momentum to adopt the same position nationally. 4) We support calls for a national meeting of Momentum groups to discuss the way forward and campaign for democracy, accountability and transparency in Momentum. 5) The new constitution is not reflective of the recent survey as it fails to deliver the one-member-onevote direct democracy that is claimed for it. Members will only get to vote for a minority of places on the proposed ‘national coordinating group’ (12 out of 28-32) with the rest filled by unelected appointees from outside bodies, a number of which are not even constituted organisations. There will be no OMOV ballots on policies or constitutional changes as thousands of signatures are needed to trigger one. 6) We note that the new constitution was imposed shortly after Matt Wrack had published a draft constitution, at the request of the conference arrangements committee, that proposed OMOV elections for nearly all places on Momentum’s national committee and which would have put every conference decision to a vote of the full membership by electronic ballot (read Matt Wrack’s draft constitution at http://socialistnetwork.org.uk/2017/01/04/proposed-constitution-momentum-combining-delegates-omov). 7) Momentum’s annual conference will have no democratic decision-making powers and it will amount to nothing more than a rally with workshops. 8) There is no commitment to transparency and openness in the new constitution, enabling the current culture of national office secrecy to continue with agenda papers, minutes and decisions being withheld from the membership. 9) The new constitution offers no support for local branches with all member subscriptions and donations continuing to be retained by the national office. 10) The constitution’s provisions regarding Labour Party membership will institutionalise within Momentum the anti-left purge being conducted by elements in the party. This could also limit our ability to build a wider social movement in support of Labour policies and a socialist government. 11) It is falsely claimed that the constitution will enable Momentum to achieve affiliation to the Labour Party. However, an organisation supporting Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘ten key pledges’ would be considered a factional body and therefore not allowed to affiliate to the party.