How not to build the Labour Party Irish Society
Alana Heaney reports
I first heard about the Labour Party Irish Society (LPIS) leading up to it AGM in 2017, having only joined the Labour Party since 2015.
Initially, I thought, cool, an Irish Society affiliated to the LP, exactly what I need; a chance to contribute to the cause of Irish unity and other historical injustices served down to the people of Ireland by the British governments.
What I discovered days later about the LPIS was hugely disappointing/ I heard from several sources and read about the 2017 AGM in Squawkbox. I heard that someone on the right came out of Portcullis House and told members in the queue for the AGM that the room was full and to go home. There were other shenanigans on the same night. It inspired me to join and see for myself what it was all about and try to make a positive difference.
My first experience of an LPIS AGM was in 2018. I received an invite by email as I had only recently joined via their website, and I reserved my place. On arrival my name was not on the list to gain entry. Luckily I had a smart phone with me so I was able to prove that I was a member and had that all important invite.
The room inside Portcullis House was quite impressive. I didn’t know anyone except a couple of comrades from my CLP. I was nervous and excited at the same time. As people trickled in through the main door, I noticed a group of people coming in through another door and was told that they were MPs (not recognising them myself) and SPADs (special advisers).
I wondered why no one I knew was standing for any of the roles on the Executive Committee, only to be informed that there wasn’t any point as the right wing always rigged the contest. This really pissed me no end and I thought to myself I have to do something about it. A big task; as I was reasonably new to the Labour Party and didn’t know that many Irish people in the party.
During the evening, just as the election ended, a very well dressed guy walked in. He was confident and appeared quite friendly. He stood against the table, perched with folded arms. I noticed another suited and booted guy walking around and then he sat close to the latecomer. The business of the motions came up on the agenda. My attention was diverted to these two guys perched on the table. The suited and booted guy was trying to physically force the latecomer’s arm down, preventing him from voting in a show of hands on motions, not election of officers. It was quite a scary experience; I have never seen anything like that before in any meetings. After the meeting ended I got talking to the latecomer. We exchanged contact details. I told him I witnessed the physical exchange. He was quite shaken.
I met other comrades at the AGM, collected their contact details and kept in touch. We were all so disappointed the way the organisation was managed – an Irish society that regularly disenfranchised members. We decided to work together to make much wanted changes.
The following year, I had to miss the AGM as my membership had lapsed, I had forgotten and therefore I didn’t receive the invite to register for AGM. I had heard this was one of their tactics, not sending out reminders to people when they don’t know which way they lean politically. I didn’t let this deter me from organising for the following AGM, which I continued to prepare for, contacting comrades from everywhere, through word of mouth.
Our core organising group got in contact with various grassroots left organisations, put the word out that LPIS was a top-down society and had been known to rig elections by ushering in Labour MPs, SPADS, Progress, Labour First, and Labour to Win. We contacted various solid socialist grassroots groups across the UK, gathered around 90 members from Liverpool, Durham, Lisburn and across London, all members who were eligible to vote. We had gathered more members but they had registered after the freeze date was announced for 14th December 2020.
What we need to do now is reach out to other Irish members in the LP across the UK through word of mouth and social media. We are a grassroots group led by Irish born, those of Irish descent and supporters of Irish causes such as (fully) implementing the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), first and foremost.
Shenanigans
The 2019 AGM had been held on 11th February 2020 (3 months late), so the next AGM was due to be held in between twelve and fourteen months. Announcement by email arrived on 14th December 2020, the LPIS AGM date had been set for 3 weeks later (21 days), Tuesday 5th January 2021.
An email explained eligibility… In order to be able to participate in the AGM, you must have been a fully paid-up and eligible member of the Labour Party Irish Society on or before Sunday 6th December 2020. In order to attend and vote, you must register using the link by Monday 22nd December 2020. Only eligible members of the Labour Party Irish Society who have registered will be able to participate in the AGM.
The issues with 2020 AGM that we raised between us on the left are set out below.
1. The 5th January is during a Christian and Roman Catholic religious holiday Twelfthtide. (Deeply offensive to members who maybe either.)
2. The 22nd of December 2020 was in fact Tuesday not Monday. (We all make mistakes but was this error intentional?)
3. 354 members attended the AGM on the night. The total number who voted was actually 496 according to the Opavote, the electronic system used to send out ballots, count the ballots and results. We all received a copy of the results around 10pm on the 5th January 2021. In the LPIS constitution it clearly says that the Executive Committee election is to be voted at the AGM by members in attendance. So why were there 496 votes according to Opavote when there was in fact 354 (max) members in attendance at the AGM on the 5th January 2021? The results of the election should reflect the numbers who attended - but this was not the case. Several emails were sent from several members on the left asking for the proposed voting methodology - to no avail.
4. Many members did not receive an email sent by the LPIS on the 14th December 2020 and had to chase up to get an invite to register to attend the AGM and vote. This was further exacerbated as some members did not get a response to their request. We asked members to write another email but this time carbon copy in someone they knew in the LPIS, or myself or Austin Harney, Austin was known by the EC, being a long term member. They responded after that point.
5. Most of us registered to attend AGM on the 14th December. A handful of people received an email to confirm their registration was successful but many of us didn’t. We had to chase up our confirmation of registration to attend the AGM.
6. Leading up the AGM, members where still chasing invites. Then, once they received that, they had to chase up to get the email with the Zoom link with a unique code.
7. The AGM Zoom link email arrived on 4th January, with the explanation that you must have your LP membership card ready to be verified in the waiting room. Nobody was checked going through the waiting room to the online AGM.
8. The email to vote arrived 29th December. It came directly from Opavote, so we could now vote for the candidates standing for the Executive Committee.
9. One member received the link to the AGM when it ended and had emailed several times to get the unique link to the meeting.
10. Some members dropped off the call by accident/signal problems but some did get into the AGM. One person could not be bothered waiting to get back in and gave up trying to.
11. Lastly, they got some candidates names completely wrong, eg, on the ballot it said Patricia Fitzpatrick and it should have been Pamela Fitzpatrick.
In addition there are other important issues. You must be a paid up member of the LPIS at least 30 days before the AGM, 21 days notice of the AGM was a rule change in 2018. Its unfortunately true that Socialist societies are free to make their own rules – and the Democracy Review was not allowed to get as far as even considering these.
But when LPIS EC member Tom McGarry said “The LPIS is run by volunteers in line with the LP rule book” members expect this means the same way as CLP’s. It’s not the case – but making people think that is in the interests of those happy with the status quo
Policy
The business on the agenda was conducted using the top-down method in relation to voting direction. There were eleven motions in total.
The first ‘brilliant' motion failed. It was on LPIS structures and regional local branch meetings, as the short preamble explained. “This AGM believes the LPIS's fulfilment of its role is severely limited by the London-centric, exclusive nature of its Executive organization, with its primary focus on liaison with the Parliamentary Labour Party. Its failure to build strong links with local Irish groups in large towns and cities outside of the capital. Its overall lack of commitment to developing more working class representation in the society.
The Chair pointed out “that motion 2, 3 and 4 are on a very similar subject and they all call for a border poll one way or another.” As chair she was “ruling that if motion 2 is passed we continue, then we do motion 3 and 4. However, if motion 2 falls, then motion 3 and 4 fall too. This is called consequences, yes consequences, meaning we don’t go through the same stuff over and over more than once.” If motion 2 passes then we will go through motions 3 and 4 as there might be additional things and nuances.
Motion 2 was about working with republican socialist parties, a border poll and to continue not to stand LP candidates in NI. It fell.
Motion 3 also fell, the motion called for LPIS to campaign for the following points:
• To encourage space for debate to present experiences and perspectives, big ideas and a public discourse on the constitutional future which threatens no one.
• To campaign for the secretary of state for Northern Ireland to call a border poll in line with the Good Friday Agreement.
• Oppose any return to direct rule in Northern Ireland.
• Campaign to reach out to all political parties with elected representatives in NI, trade unions which organise in NI and civil rights groups operating there, in order to draw up a plan in co- operation with the Irish government for the full implementation of the GFA, to campaign that this motion be included in any future Labour Party manifesto.
This is not the first motion asking the LPIS to campaign to implement the GFA in FULL, nor will it be the last attempt.
Motion 4 also fell – we ask the Labour Party Irish Society to campaign for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to implement a poll for Irish reunification for all people, both sides of the border in Ireland, and for all Irish citizens abroad to vote in this forthcoming referendum.
Some of us think that all people born in Ireland should have the right to vote for a United Ireland and in the Irish presidential election. Other countries allow their citizens abroad to vote in national elections. We all want a United Ireland and we will be campaigning to make it happen, with or without support of LPIS.
More on being a top-down Irish society - the LPIS Executive committee member spoke strongly on every motion they opposed, on behalf of the EC, directing members on how they should vote with the EC decision, whether it was for or against a motion.
In my constitution, the EC meet in advance of all the members meeting to debate, decide and vote what motions are in order and will be on the agenda. At the General meeting for all members, they don’t direct members which way they should vote on all motions and amendments, yes we do have speakers for and against but these are not usually a member of the EC. Which is in line with LP rule book. Why can’t LPIS practise what they preach?
Grassroots
We built a reasonable presence of grassroots members as, based on previous AGMs before Covid-19, the average attendance was around 35 members before 2017. We are up against factional groups such as Progress, Labour First, Labour Future, Labour to win and JLM. Some of them emailed their hundred and thousands of members asking them to join the Labour Party Irish Society to vote for the incumbent committee at the AGM.
I suppose you could say that the internal fight is a kind of microcosm of what is going on throughout the party, namely a left/right battle for the soul of the party, for its policies, democracy, ways of working, funding, whether it is to be a mass membership or donor-funded/top-down party, and all those sorts of things. The socialist societies seem to be a key battleground.
We were reminded at the recent AGM by LPIS EC Officer Tom McGarry that the LPIS “was not a social society it was a socialist society”, a society that usually spends over 8K on one annual drinks event (pre-Covid) and then gives a measly £200 to a local Irish Centre for the Covid-19 situation.
Disenfranchising members: Now anyone who has been an officer in a local branch or at CLP level will have a good understanding of Nationbuilder. An efficient electronic membership system with ability built in to prompt members by email to remind them to pay annual subscriptions.
The LPIS annual report states. “We continue to use the Nationbuilder platform to manage our membership data and communications and this seems to be the most efficient package but we will keep reviewing this and compare with what other Socialist Societies are using.”
I can confirm that no members received reminders to rejoin the LPIS and many do miss the AGM due to having to join using Paypal and not the standing orders method to avoid being disenfranchised each year.
In my eyes, a true socialist society would want local branches managed by local members. The current LPIS EC is opposed to local LPIS groups in Newcastle, Liverpool, Durham. However, in the treasurer’s annual report it states that CLPs’ affiliation charges total £1,212.00, but there was little detail of which CLPs are affiliated to the society and how this relates to LPIS delegates attending conference.
A socialist Irish society would also not oppose an education officer to work exclusively on history of Ireland. The LPIS EC opposed this constitutional rule change on several occasions.
It would be interesting to get a comment on the above from Labour MPs who attended the AGM include Siobhan McDonagh, Meg Hillier, Wes Streeting, Pat McFadden, Stella Creasey and Peter Kyle.
The purpose of LPIS is set out in its website http://www.labourirish.org.uk:
The Labour Party Irish Society exists to provide a voice for Irish communities in Britain within the Labour Party, and to advocate for the Labour Party within Irish communities. We are a socialist society, affiliated to the Labour Party.
Tom McGarry quote at the AGM: “Location is not an impediment to getting involved and neither is the Exec an exclusive club.” In the same quote he goes on to say… “We should not affiliate to other socialist groups, who often stand for other parties who actively campaign against Labour candidates in our sister parties. The Irish Society is the voice of Irish communities in the LP”
We got together a left slate quite late, just before the AGM. We lost this battle - we knew we would, but it has given us strength, confidence and the solidarity from members near and far and this is absolutely wonderful. We intend to build on the positivity and solidarity. I would like to thank all who stood on this occasion - it was true dedication, a fight for the soul of party.
We look forward to meeting other Irish LP and LPIS members. LPIS rules say you don’t even have to be Irish to join LPIS - you only need to be interested in Irish politics and a member of the LP. Get in touch: irishsocialists@gmail.com
