GC or not GC - that is the question

New Labour's modernisation project continues, says Christine Shawcroft

Some local GCs have provided a refuge where isolated left wingers could shelter from the questing tentacles of the Project. This is about to change. Having considered setting up panels to vet the suitability of delegates and officers of local CLPs, the Blairites balked at the time and effort required and are hoping to abolish GCs instead. All a lot simpler really. Try as they might, there are too many constituencies, too many ward parties, too many activists, even now, for them to be properly controlled.

GCs run by supporters of the Project have been boasting of the cure for boring, irrelevant meetings for some time now. Don't have them! Myself, I always thought that if meetings are boring you should make them more interesting with speakers and informal debate. If they're seen as irrelevant, surely no one is short of a local campaign to get involved in or even start off? I suppose if the local campaign is against the cuts being carried out by the local Labour Council this could present a problem for the New Labour loyalist.

All this is anathema to the leadership. Consultation and discussion are much better - no votes are taken after everyone has "had their say". The trouble with local GCs is that they will keep having votes on things, and sending contemporary motions or constitutional amendments to Annual Conference which then have to be ruled out of order which causes even more trouble. So CLPs are being advised by regional offices to have AGMs and then not meet for another year. With luck, members might be invited to a region-organised Policy Forum to have their say, then...that's it for another year.

The question is, can this be made compulsory? If local parties keep meeting, can they actually be stopped? For now, we should be linking the Policy Forum process into the ward and GC structure, not allowing it to be used as an excuse for sidelining them. Organise local Policy Forums as political education events, discuss the issues thoroughly, then use the ward and GC structure to agree the actual policy you send on to the Commissions. The same applies to trade union branches, of course.

If your GC officers are not entirely sound (why not?) treat with great suspicion any suggestions to cancel meetings, not meet over the summer, over the winter, because the election is six months away, etc. It could be the thin end of the wedge.

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