NATIONAL MEETING OF PROGRESSIVE, COMMUNITY AND SOCIALIST PARTIES

RUGBY SAT JULY 24th, 1 – 4pm, Rugby United Railway Club, Railway Terrace

BACKGROUND

  • The idea to invite all local community/socialist/progressive organisations which contested elections in their locality, along with national left organisations that see the need for a left alternative to Labour, came from Nick Long, one of the organisers of one such local group, Lewisham People Before Profit
  • Nick Long met with Pete McLaren, who he had known since his days in the Socialist Alliance, to help him organise this national meeting in Rugby
  • The meeting was subsequently booked to be held at Rugby’s Utd Railwaymens Club on July 24th
  • The Meeting was endorsed by the Alliance for Green Socialism, the Rugby Red Green Alliance, the Left Liaison Committee, the Wellingborough Socialists, the Socialist Alliance, the Barrow Socialist Peoples Party and Lewisham People before Profit – even before the Invite Letter was sent.

INVITATIONS TO ATTEND

  • It was decided the meeting would be by invitation only
  • It was agreed to invite all locally registered left/green-left/progressive political parties – including the Kidderminster Health Concern, Cambridge Socialists, Wigan Community Action, Walsall DLP, radical groups from Preston, Manchester and Northampton, and the Oxford based Independent Working Class Association as well as those who had already endorsed the Meeting as listed above. Some of these groups have a number of councillors
  • It was also agreed to invite Respect, CPGB, the Green Left, the SWP, the Socialist Party, Workers Power, RDG, AWL, tUSP, Convention of the Left, ISG, CPB, Peoples Voice (Wales) and the RMT.
  • The invite made it clear the organisers would be happy to include other organisations that see the need for a left alternative to the Labour party.

AIMS OF THE MEETING

The Invite Letter made it clear that the aims of the Meeting were as follows:

  • To share good practice
  • Network with each other and discuss the establishment of a national network body of regional and local parties with a representative from each affiliated organisation. A suggested working title was the National Network of Progressive and Socialist Parties (NNPSP).
  • Feed into any discussions on the formation of a new party of the left.
  • It was suggested that tasks that the national network body could seek to undertake could be to establish a web site, disseminate literature and campaign information, investigate the possibly of a quarterly journal, organise an annual conference, help organise regional conferences, direct supporters to help out in by-elections, and represent nationally affiliated members.

CONDUCT OF THE MEETING

  • It was suggested that the conduct of the meeting would be by consensus, but, should the conference decide to vote on an issue, each registered political party would have one vote each.

ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS

  • A registration fee of £10 per organisation, and a £2 observer fee, have been suggested.

AGENDA

The main items identified so far are:

  • Reports from each local group/party and national left organisation
  • Discussing the establishment of a national network body/committee of regional and local parties with a representative from each affiliated organisation

Pete McLaren 29/06/10