Page 36 - TheWord#16

urGent accOuntability
36 February 2017. POLITICS AND EVENTS www.thewordmedia.org.uk

100% OMOV & recall accOuntability 4 MOMentuM cOnstitutiOn

ccountability now- Pure tion breaching Labour conference
OMOV means: 1) anyone rules to deny delegates a card vote
can be on the ballot 2) in 2016. Corrective action is there-
Aunions & minority mem- fore urgent.
bers don’t get to vote twice. Recall The proposal here is that we
means: - 3) withdraw your vote at separately accept principles listed
any time to re-elect someone as rules 1 to 4 below.
THE PURE OMOV RECALL AC- With sufficient support, we can
COUNTABILITY ORGANISATION agree which of the other rules are
Fully democratic control of an necessary. Or vote on this as a start
organisation by the membership point for fully democratic consti-
can ONLY be ended through “pure tution to be amended by further
OMOV” where union and minori- OMOV ballots.
ty and other bodies do not get ex- I allege that the fundamentals
tra votes. Anything less than full below must be accepted and im-
OMOV is open to gerrymandering plemented immediately in any
as representation by unions is nev- organisation proposing to be dem-
er perfectly proportionate to other ocratic. Including momentum.
members and some unions suffer RULES
demonstrably corrupt electoral A) FUNDAMENTALS
processes. Unless officials are elect- “PURE OMOV”
ed by OMOV (e.g. JC) members lose 1) “PURE OMOV” elections re-
the ability to elect those who truly turn candidates only to commit-
represents us at senior levels, and, tees and other representative bod-
more importantly, have the bodies ies where every member on that
they sit on behave in a representa- committee was elected by a vote
tive way. only of individual members and/
Even where the membership or personally voluntarily paid up
does elect by OMOV the elector- affiliated people. See Note 1 for an
ate can become very disillusioned example.
with a person (e.g. TW). Recall with “NOMINATION”
maximum terms is therefore nec- 2) To prevent nomination
essary rather than fixed terms. processes and disciplinary proce-
OMOV and Recall makes de- dures denying entry to candidates
mocracy responsive to its elec- who retain the confidence of the
torate. These are minimum membership and therefore reduce
standards for those who are truly the quality of candidates elect- candidate is supplied alongside committee must occur with an im- have been voted into the commit-
pursuing democracy and not dic- ed, candidates do not need to be their name and surname. Mem- mediate OMOV re-election ballot tee had their withdrawn votes not
tatorship. Anything less is vulner- nominated in a PURE OMOV pro- bers are entitled to vote for any where a majority of the elector- have been cast in the original vote.
able to becoming a dictatorship. cess. Before an OMOV takes place, candidate and in the event that ate vote in support of a no confi- To do this members must submit
Neither the Momentum nation- every member is sent an invitation their candidate is not on the ballot, dence motion. A no confidence the second half of their ballot pa-
al coordination committee de- to nominate electronically at their the only thing required to make motion can be called by the lower per, which will be identifiable as
scribed in Lansmans constitution registered email address. Every their candidate a candidate is for of 10% of all members OR 5000 genuine by a serial number, with
nor Labour’s NEC would qualify person, even a non-member, who a member to write their name and members submitted to any stand- the mark by their candidate’s
as democratic under these rules. declares themselves to be a can- date of Birth legibly onto a ballot ing pure OMOV committee. A no name on it.
Labour democracy and momen- didate, or is declared to be a can- paper. confidence motion will also be “TRANSPARENCY”
tum democracy has been system- didate, is a candidate. The only re- “RECALL ACCOUNTABILITY” automatically be triggered where 4) Once manual ballots select
atically undermined including quirement to be a candidate is that 3) A fresh election for the post enough people withdraw their this committee of people, their
the losing side in the NEC elec- a date of birth or photograph of the of a committee member or entire votes that that person would not meetings and every vote they take

Recently at 2016 Labour con- oppose the bundled stack of pro- who were voted off the NEC have bers who engaged in smear cam- tion in decision making and candi-
ference the NEC was hijacked posals. Eventually, the proposed now been illegitimately added paigns like Jasmine Beckett from date selection.
by the outgoing members acting bundle passed with A majority, by two unelected, unlawful NEC the NEC and replacing them with Therefore we need new struc-
through Paddy Lillis. Paddy, in vi- meaning that the party officials members. Corbynite NEC members. The tures, fully democratic ones, to
olation of the Rules and therefore could now claim they been passed Imagine if on the final day of CLPD are the forefront of helping unite people Inside OR outside
the law by denying a card vote to by conference. Given that the pro- parliament, after losing an elec- Jeremy and John McDonnell per- the party, and highlight where
delegates demanding one, sim- cess had been unlawful, this means tion, the Tories used their major- form this vital work and it’s criti- people have not won a Legitimate
ply bundled an unpopular rule that conference had acted beyond ity to add more Tories to parlia- cal that people up and down the democratic mandate quickly, re-
change with around a dozen very its powers when it ratified these ment before the new parliament country help they do it. sponding to members changing
popular rule changes. The unpop- Constitutional changes. took office. That is pretty much However, it’s not only impor- views, encouraging compromise
ular rule change added two Blair- However, the party is still pre- what happened here. tant to try to resurrect Labour’s and discouraging the endless
ites to the supreme NEC which tending these rules are lawful be- It makes it clear that the de- democracy, It’s also important to splits the left is known for.
decides almost everything in cause none has opposed them in mocracy in the party is a sham. prepare for the possibility that it FUll OMOV with recall powers
Labour, including the critical ele- court. That is not to say that all is can’t be saved. In that event, the seems to be a sensible unifier to me.
ment of who is selected as a Parlia- This means that hundreds lost. Many members of the NEC Labour party is merely a mecha- Here’s a proposed constitution
mentary candidate. of thousands of votes cast in the are elected. If Corbynites can elect nism for hijacking people’s naive which work as well as a Labour
The Corbynite majority got NEC elections were effectively more Corbyn supporters to the enthusiasm for Corbyn while de- constitution as it would as a mo-
confused and eventually didn’t overruled. 2 corbyn opponents NEC, shifting illegitimate mem- nying them meaningful participa- mentum constitution.