One for Labour Party Members

[Silkwood]

Hi, I'm interested to know: if you're a labour party member, how democratic and / or active is your CLP?

Ours has some regular fund raising events which I go to. However, there seem to be hardly any meetings. It is totally unclear how people get themselves positions on the executive - it seems to be a tiny clique of people who make absolutely no effort to involve other potentially interested members.

As far as I can tell the 'all members' meetings only seem to take place every few months. There are no emails sent out about when the meetings are.

The CLP does ask members to go canvassing every weekend. I do this. I have been for a year on a regular basis. Yet in all that time many aspects of the CLP have remained completely mysterious. Also the councillors that take part in canvassing are not exactly welcoming.


I'm interested in standing as a councillor. I've asked the CLP chair & local organiser about this. They've reacted warmly in the surface. Yet no information has been forthcoming about how the process for the selection of candidates will take place.

Today I met someone from a neighbouring CLP who told me that they'd experienced very similar brick Walls to involvement. This person told me that they believe it is entirely deliberate so that local 'big fish' can maintain their little empires within the council or CLP. I am hoping this is not the case but I am beginning to wonder. Has anyone else experienced this sort of scenario? As a passionate supporter of the Labour Party it worries me that CLPs / councillors do not want to seem to engage with or recruit supporters. It would appear that some of them would prefer to risk losing in 2015 or in local elections in order to prevent competition from other supporters. I'm not sure how to proceed - there must be mechanisms to make the CLP more transparent?

[everett]

Agree - am in much the same boat: keen to be more active, become a councillor but the local CLP isn't welcoming at all. Councillors in my experience are better.

Have you made any progress since your original post?

[lrichmondgabber]

interesting

[ivanhoe]

If your a passionate supporter of the Labour party, you had better make sure you know what the Labour party stands for.

We havent had a Labour Government since the 70's. New Labour from 1997- 2010 were right wing, they embraced Thatcher's deregulated free market for 13 years.