Media Officer

Bianca Todd

Nominated by:  Kate Hudson, Andrew Burgin, Felicity Dowling

I have been involved with Left Unity from the very beginning, I feel I have played an important role in establishing the Northampton branch and I remain active within it. As well as being involved in the crime and justice commission, I have been proactive during my time as a member of LU this includes time spent as a principle speaker of the party as well as a member of the NC and EC.  I am passionate about building a party where it doesn’t matter what kind of socialist you are, because it is an inclusive, supportive political party which has policies which support ordinary people; building of a better world for the 99%

Continually raising the profile of LU is an essential part of the work that needs to take pIace. Outside of LU I am involved in running a not for profit social enterprise and a charity. For both of these organisations I am required to develop an effective media strategy, which includes social media,  press releases, radio and television interviews and organising events which highlight the work of the organisation. These are the skills that I believe I would be able to transfer to the position of media officer and it is the reason as to why I am running for the LU media officer position. I believe that within this role I will be able to contribute positively to the development of Left Unity as an important political party of the left.

Membership and Communication

Andrew Burgin

Nominated by Terry Conway, Kate Hudson, Doug Thorpe and Sharon McCourt.

Left Unity is a young party. We are in the third year of our existence. Already the party has gone through some important experiences and has worked to develop a range of policies and joint work which is impressive.

We have attempted to intervene and relate to the key political developments – the rise and fall of Syriza, the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.

This year we have become observer members of the European Left Party.

In recent months despite our positive engagement around the new Corbyn leadership many have left LU believing that the political future lies in transforming the LP.

We take a different view. We want to support the left policies that Jeremy espouses but believe it still necessary to build a new party of the left, going beyond what’s possible through the Labour Party and posing radical alternatives to capitalism.

I am standing for Membership and Communication officer in Left Unity because I want to see us build on our solid policy and organisational foundations and develop the collective work of the party.

This will involve a much closer working relationship between the membership officer and the branches. We have lost a number of branches and part of my work will be to see if they can be re-established working alongside members in those areas.

We need to have a positive engagement with people joining the party,

The long economic crisis of 2007/8 looks set to deepen and there are major struggles against austerity – around the NHS, benefits, education and housing together with a huge refugee crisis – LU needs to be a party taking its place at the heart of those struggles. If elected I pledge to do my best to make sure we have an organisation fit for that purpose.

National Secretary

Kate Hudson

Nominated by Andrew Burgin, Terry Conway and Bianca Todd

I am standing for election as National Secretary. I have held this post for two years and would like to serve for a third year. This last year has been a political roller coaster, but I continue to hold the view that our party has a distinctive political role to play – as a party of the radical left – and is an important part of the political spectrum. A key element of our founding principles was our relationship to the radical left parties in Europe and our shared political vision and practice – socialist, feminist, environmentalist and against all forms of discrimination. I am delighted that this year we have been accepted for observer status with the European Left Party which will enormously help our collective work with parties and movements across Europe. Our work against Trident and war, against austerity and poverty, and in support of the free movement of people has been solid and valuable. We have always been a public voice speaking out where others have held back.

We have also striven to develop new standards of internal democracy, open, inclusive and transparent and I believe that we have made some positive progress in these areas.

Some have made the decision to leave Left Unity to support the Corbyn leadership within the Labour Party but I believe that our political voice continues to be essential. We are an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist party and that needs to be clearly articulated and fought for in British politics and that is not where the Labour Party is at. We are also a party that works as part of our local communities, fighting against cuts, injustice and inequality on the front line where we can. I want to help continue this work and hope you will support me.

Nominations Officer

Terry Conway

Nominated by Andrew Burgin, Kate Hudson and Ruth Steigman

I am standing for a second year as nominating officer, having previously been Membership and Communication Officer. I have played what I believe to be a useful role in the leadership of Left Unity since its foundation at both a political and administrative role and think I can continue to do so. Its been a difficult year for Left Unity with the contradictory impact of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party – something both I and Left Unity as a whole celebrated. Despite the fact that we share many of the same political opinions, I strongly believe that there is a role for a party such as Left Unity which on an issue such as getting rid of Trident has been free to campaign as a collective entity against this weapon of mass destruction from the beginning.

Part of the role of Nominating Officer is to oversee internal elections – a job I have been involved in since the party’s foundation. The other particular role is to liaise wih the electoral commission and local nominating officers with regard to any candidates the party should decide to stand in external elections. Whatever my own views I will be bound by the political decisions of the National Council. In addition I think I have played and can continue to play an important role as part of a leadership team in building our party as an effective feminist, environmentalist, internationalist and socialist organisation that fights for and involves the most dispossessed and downtrodden in our society

Treasurer

Alice Kilroy

Nominated by Andrew Burgin, Kate Hudson and Terry Conway.

I am standing for the position of Left Unity Treasurer. I have a long history of work in the anti-war movement having been one of the founding members of Stop the War in 2001.
I was for many years the accounts manager for STW and more recently have undertaken the same task for Left Unity and other organisations such as the new Left Book Club.
I have been a member of Left Unity since just after the party was founded.
It is very important to me that accurate accounts are kept and that efficiency in that department is a foundation for successful political work. I would work closely with the finance committee
I am also a banner maker and have made many of the Left Unity banners.

Trade Union Officer

Oliver New

Nominated by: Chris Hurley, Laura Stringhetti, Eve Turner, Stephen Hall, Andrew Burgin, Kate Hudson

The Tories have called the doctor’s dispute their miners’ strike.  They are calling for unity and solidarity of the bosses, the media and the whole establishment.  They are calling for that unity in order to break up the welfare state and break any resistance.

We need the same solidarity from the working class and the left and Left Unity must play our part in that.

Labour hasn’t officially supported the doctors strike.  We need to encourage that to happen and to support all workers in struggle in Britain and internationally.

Left Unity can attract trade union militants and other activists by openly standing for working class solidarity .

We have regular meetings of LU trade union activists and we are encouraging branches to discuss trade union activity, especially through local Trades councils, Unite Community branches, supporting low paid workers and defending public sector jobs and services.

I am standing for Trade Union Officer to continue this project.

I am an RMT delegate to Ealing Trades Council, of which I’m President and am chair of an active local NHS campaign.

I have been a rep in engineering, the civil service as well as a leading activist on London Underground.

Thanks for your support.

Principal Speakers Female

Felicity Dowling

Nominated by  Kate Hudson, Lesley Mahmood, Stephen Hall

I am standing for this election because 2016 presents challenges and opportunities for Left Unity and our communities. We need a party, with full democracy, to recruit people new to struggle.

As principal speaker, I have worked on the Housing campaign, stood in the general election, written and spoken on women’s rights and children’s rights, including the opposition to Child Sexual Exploitation, developed links with European Left, including on migrant safety. I spoke at different branches. I will campaign for safe spaces and safeguarding, I am a teacher and an active campaigner in Merseyside and Cheshire

The Conservatives operate with impunity, although, daily, more people challenge them. Resistance is growing to;

• Funding cuts, marketisation and privatisation of the NHS.
• The housing crisis.
• Benefit caps that will make more people homeless.
• Low pay, hunger, and sanctions, making fear a reality.
• Vicious cuts, many focused on children
• The Government attacks on people with disabilities, (though they fight back the hardest!).
• Vicious Local Authority cuts.
• Libraries facing closure.
• Cuts and marketisation of education.
• The deepening oppression of women by cuts, poverty and gender based violence
• Trade union rights being taken.
• War in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Libya, Yemen, Ukraine, in whole areas of Africa.
• The economy in crisis.
• Renewal of Trident

We organise against this government and the right wing leadership of much of Europe. The Euro referendum highlights solidarity with struggles across Crisis Europe. We need solidarity with struggles that challenge the rule of the very rich across the world. We are truly internationalist. We support refugees and migrant and oppose racism.

Corbyn’s struggle in Labour gives socialism a wider audience, which we welcome Our ideas, though, are more radical than Labour, being both anti-capitalist and for the ending of capitalism, opposing patriarchy and violence against women.

A better world is possible..

Sharon McCourt

Nominated by Kate Hudson and Andrew Burgin

I am the chair of the Birmingham branch for LU and one of its founding members. For the last two years I have been a directly elected member of the NC and part of the EC last year and helped on the temporary disputes committee before we launched as a party. I have never wavered from my determination to build Left Unity as party to represent the working class with a genuine socialist plan rather than tinkering with Capitalism. Other than the Labour party in my younger years I have never been a member of any other party. I live on a council estate in Birmingham with my partner and 3 of my 5 kids still at home. I am a member of Unite Community and I believe we build our support by working with our communities to defend against the onslaught of “austerity” and fight the rhetoric of mainstream media by offering an alternative to blame and hate.

I have learnt a lot since joining LU and I have grown in confidence of speaking in public. I have spoken at rallies on radio and television and countless public meetings. I believe that we are living in important but dangerous times and decisions taken now will affect our future generations and we can’t give up the fight. Of course developments here with Jeremy Corbyn have to alter how we work and we should be ready to adapt but not compromise on what we stand for.

I am more confident in my politics and in my own ability and really want to step up further to do all I can. I believe in our Party- we still need a party for the working class and I would love to represent my branch and LU further. I will continue to put my efforts into LU in whatever position. Let us build comrades..

Principal Speakers Male

Stephen Hall

Nominated by  Wigan Branch, Felicity Dowling, Phil Pope, Alison Treacher, Matthew Caygill, Martin Ralph, Eve Turner, John Pearson, Bianca Todd, John Catterall, Kate Hudson, Oliver New, Andrew Burgin, Garth Frankland

I want LU to grow as an independent party, and be able to have a much greater influence on the development of unfolding events.

Key for me, is not so much our orientation towards ‘Momentum’, or the Labour Party, but how we generally operate and work in the entire working class movement, and our local communities.

We need to build ourselves via consistent work in the unions and our localities as champions of the people, and as facilitators of better working class self-organisation at all levels. Also, as supporters of pluralism and inclusivity, as the greatest advocates of a class against class united front approach to beat back the Tories’ and bosses attacks, and of building up a movement capable of bringing forward the date of the next General election.

What should we be focusing on, like in Wigan?

• building more generalised support for, and mass movement behind the Junior Doctors, and defence of NHS.
• Labour Councils to join with unions and communities, to develop a strategy to fight cuts rather than meekly implement them, also to resist fake, undemocratic devolution.
• building the opposition to fracking, to commit Labour to the creation of one million climate jobs, and a million more in construction, building social and other housing, to tackle both the climate and housing crises.
• building People’s Assemblies or similar on a local level, as expressions of a united front of the working class, and mass of the people opposed to the Tory Government.
• making sure in the EU referendum debate that we remain highly critical of the EU as a neo-liberal anti-working class institution, and focus ourselves on the context in which the vote is taking place, which at this moment is driven more by immigrant bashing than by any progressive brexit argument.

Joseph Healy

Nominated by Andrew Burgin Richard Farnos and Kate Hudson 

I am a founding member of the party and have served as Co-Convenor of Disputes Committee 2014-15 during a very difficult period dealing with internal disputes and resolved them successfully in most cases. Since 2015 I have been a member of the National Council representing London and have attended all meetings except one, which was announced at short notice. I have also been Co-Convenor and Convenor of Southwark branch in London for most of 2015 and subsequently played a role in establishing the new South London branch. I have a background in dealing with European issues and was the International Spokesperson for the Green Party and served on their international committee attending European Green Party conferences for several years. I am both an Irish citizen and a passionate European. I have also been active in the LGBT Caucus and am currently the Secretary of the London Irish LGBT Network, the first overseas LGBT organisation to receive funding from the Irish government. I am also an equalities rep at my workplace for UNITE and was until 2015 Vice Chair of UNITE LGBT committee for London & Eastern region.

My vision is for a radical outward looking internationalist party with links to the wider social and political movements in both the UK and internationally. We should also be carving out an individual and unique perspective with the media and being prepared to comment and have a view on issues which the Labour Party or other political parties are unable or unwilling to address. 2016 will prove a watershed moment for both Europe and the UK, raising all sorts of crises connected with migration, relations with both Europe and Scotland and the increasing likelihood of another economic meltdown. I will be a voice for LU on all of these issues.

Disputes

Janet Gifford

Nominated by Wigan branch

Over the last year, I’ve served on the Disputes Committee, and handled a range of cases that have given me a good insight into some of the issues within the party, plus a decent grasp of the constitution.
I have also been a strong workplace advocate of disabled rights, serving on a national committee for visually impaired civil servants.
I am a “feet on the street” campaigner, in such matters as anti-fracking, support the doctors, end disability discrimination, and various anti-fascist demonstrations.
Through the People’s Assembly, I also have helped to promote green initiatives, awareness of homeless issues, and food poverty.
As I will be taking early retirement in a few weeks, I hope to be able to spend more time on political commitments. However, in the interests of transparency, I want to point out that I was in two minds about standing again for Disputes Committee, since I may be having surgery later in the year. Having said that, I know from experience how hard it is to fill these posts, and how difficult it is to run a committee short-handed so, for that reason, I am prepared to stand for a second term, and hopefully get to use some of the experience that I gained from serving last year.

Graham Gifford

Nominated by Wigan branch

Over the last year, I’ve served on the Disputes Committee, and handled a range of cases that have given me a good insight into some of the issues within the party, plus a decent grasp of the constitution.
I stood as an LU candidate in the 2015 local elections, and have been active in street campaigns, such as anti-fracking, support the doctors, end disability discrimination, and various anti-fascist activities.
Through the People’s Assembly, I also have helped to promote green initiatives, awareness of homeless issues, and food poverty.
I’d like to serve on the NC because I’m keen to promote Left Unity as an effective campaigning party that it is. Although many comrades are now working with Momentum, I think it’s important that we also continue to function as a strong, separate and unique party in our own right, and continue to campaign on the issues that are central to our values.

 
Steve Ogden 
Nominated by  Stockport Branch

I am a welfare rights officer working for the past 16 years in a mental health focus team for Tameside MBC.

I had been employed as an electrician however, since a road traffic accident in 1980 worked in telephone counseling; specialising in incest and child abuse issues. I worked with Manchester Lifeshare working with homeless people as well as being involved with the first Manchester Crisis at Christmas.  I was also involved with setting up a family centre for relatives of prisoners involved in the Manchester Strangeways Prison demonstration.

I became involved in welfare rights as a volunteer at an independent welfare rights service based in Hyde in the 1980’s eventually becoming the manager which involved supporting and supervising volunteers, paid staff as well as barristers.  My caseload included representing at social security and employment appeals as well as defending people facing eviction or repossession.

On a voluntary basis I was a volunteer with South Manchester Victim Support Scheme as well as South Manchester Credit Union where I was one of the officers with responsibility for overseeing loans.

I was a member of the Labour party for many years being secretary of Didsbury ward and ethnic minorities officer for the Withington constituency.

I feel in these roles I have conducted myself in a non-judgmental manner recognising that people are unique, with individual needs and experiences.  I have had to be aware of my own bias and experiences.

I am a good listener with the ability to view circumstances and conflict from both sides and apply the relevant law or principles.  I am able to work as part of a team to resolve issues; for many years prior to managing welfare rights in Hyde we operated as a collective.

Party Constitution Commission

Terry Conway

Nominated by Kate Hudson

I am standing for the constitution commission because as a National Officer of Left Unity over the last three years I believe that we need to slim down our constitution which I believe is more appropriate for an organisation many times our size. I think our existing constitution has many strengths which I would like to see us building on but other places where it could and should be slimmed down. While many people baulk at discussions on constitution and rules I think theya re important and think I can play a role in working on this topic over the next period. I am also very keen that we finally integrate a safe spaces policy properly into our constitution

Kate Hudson

Nominated by Terry Conway

I would like to serve on the party’s new constitutional commission. I have developed a very good working knowledge of the existing constitution during my two years as national secretary. I have a strong respect for it as democratically agreed by the founding conference, enshrining the principles of inclusivity, transparency and democracy, as well as upholding the party’s founding principle of one member, one vote. I also recognise that the constitution is unwieldy in parts, designed to accommodate a much larger organisation and I would work with other members, through proper constitutional processes to put proposals for change to the members and uphold them if agreed by conference. The constitution is a crucial part of Left Unity’s internal democracy and political practice and I am committed to making this commission process work.

John Pearson

Nominated by  Stockport Branch

I was the author of the proposal to re-establish the Party Constitution Commission, which was supported by the Standing Orders Committee when I served on it, to March 2015. My branch put forward an amendment containing the proposal, to a motion to 2015 Party Conference from Bath & North-East Somerset branch. The latter branch accepted the amendment and it was passed by Conference.

Hence I had given some prior thought to how the Commission might work.

Conference decided that :

• Branches and individual members may, at any time submit to the PCC, proposals for amendments to the Constitution. The PCC must give consideration to all such proposals received by it.
• That the PCC will produce reports on proposals for Constitutional changes. The PCC will submit these reports to Conference.

The motivation behind the proposal was to save the time of Conference, thus allowing it to concentrate on policy and strategy issues. I foresee the PCC collating and reconciling the sometimes conflicting proposals generated by branches and members for constitutional amendments. The PCC would enter into dialogue with the proposers, upon its judgments as to how these might best be dealt with. It would produce its report to Conference using the same timetable as other Party Commissions. If branches and members which had proposed changes are dissatisfied with the PCC’s report, then they may move amendments to it, in the same way that applies to other Commission reports.

The process of operation of the PCC as I foresee it, is thus similar to the way in which the SOC deals with Conference agenda formation and compositing.

I believe that maintenance of a democratic and agile constitution is vital for the Party’s effective functioning and I think that I can play a valuable role if I am elected to the PCC.

Alison Treacher

Nominated by Stockport branch

Bob Whitehead

Nominated by Sharon Mc Court, Darren Mc Court

I have been a member of Left Unity since its formation, and have been the secretary of the Birmingham branch for about a year. I was previously active in both the Socialist Alliance and Respect, and then the Birmingham anti-cuts party, Communities against the Cuts. I have served as chair,  local secretary and as treasurer at various times in these three formations, and helped draft the constitution in the latter.

We are clearly in a new and unexpected situation following the election of Corbyn as Labour leader, but our task of creating an anti-capitalist party, as part of the European left, remains.

Our constitution needs to be brought up to date, possibly simplified, but still based on the principle of one person one vote.

I am disappointed that we have still not established a finalised safe spaces policy, and hope that this vital process can be incorporated into our constitutional framework.