“The scale and intensity of the challenges facing working class people here and across the world need to be treated with the seriousness and urgency they deserve.”
Laura Pidcock
Laura Pidcock writes on why you should support the #GrassrootsVoice candidates for Labour’s NEC:
The scale and intensity of the challenges facing working class people here and across the world need to be treated with the seriousness and urgency they deserve. We are facing a prolonged jobs and workers’ rights crisis, a global environmental emergency, a global health pandemic and a huge political crisis.
The scale of these crises means it is up to us to change the course of history.
The economic crisis we now face is set to be the worst any of us have experienced, and we urgently need to build the fightback and movements necessary to argue for transforming our economy and society to ensure that people’s jobs, livelihoods and health come before private profit.
Alongside this, we can’t wait to tackle the existential threat of climate breakdown. This can only be done with an ambitious Green New Deal that prioritises jobs and improving people’s living standards. Research shows £85bn investment in green infrastructure could help create 1.24 million jobs in 2 years.
And the Tories are still failing us when it comes to dealing with the Coronavirus crisis. Their priority of protecting profits has already led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and has not contained the virus. Labour should oppose the Government’s wrong priorities and fight to defend people’s lives and jobs.
The current economic system offers no hope or security to working class people.
I am from a political tradition that wants bring about a different system, one which eradicates in-work poverty, supports a sustainable and thriving planet and an end to war and oppression. There are no individual solutions to our problems, only collective ones.
This pandemic has also shone a spotlight on the deep structural inequalities in our society, and the dismantling of systematic inequality and liberation for all must be at the heart of our agenda.
The Black Lives Matter movement has rightly pushed the structural racism to the top of the political agenda. Real government action, not just words, is now needed.
Women have seen a rolling back of equality gains under the Tories and these risk being further undermined, while LGBT+ people face a reactionary government which is not afraid to use the tactics of divide and rule. Disabled people – including those on benefits – have been scapegoated again and again.
As the platform of the CLGA puts it, “We must challenge discrimination and prejudice wherever it occurs, including tackling sexism, sexual harassment, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and ableism” and “build inclusive self- organised equality structures in the party.”
The need for mass resistance against the Tories and for socialist solutions to the crises we face is why I’m standing to be your representative on the NEC and to ask for your support for the six #GrassrootsVoice candidates supported by the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance and a range of groups.
Our platform calls for Labour to commit to “expanding democratic public ownership and universal provision of universal public services and to guaranteeing the building blocks of a high-quality life including education, housing, healthcare, social security and social care.”
We are standing to uphold these socialist principles and policies, to fight the Tories now and to insist that people and heath come before profit. We need to defend and push beyond the 2019 manifesto in order to achieve a transformative Labour government that can tackle the crises we face. And we must always remember that the membership is the Labour Party, which is why we must strongly defend democracy in our party.
To help us achieve a Labour Party that will fight the Tories and for a socialist Labour Government that will deliver the radical change we need, please support myself, Nadia Jama, Ann Henderson, Yasmine Dar, Mish Rahman and Gemma Bolton.
HELP LAURA AND THE TEAM WIN – CAMPAIGN CHECKLIST
When is your CLP deciding its nominations?
CLPs will be making nominations for the Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) between now and midnight on Sunday 27 September (when nominations close).
CLP Section NEC election – Nominate the CLGA 6
We are supporting the six candidates backed by the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance for the CLP Section of the NEC. They are standing as #GrassrootsVoice and campaigning for a transformative Labour Government, socialist policies and party democracy. The candidates are: Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar, Ann Henderson, Nadia Jama, Laura Pidcock and Mish Rahman. You can read more here
Whilst there are nine CLP Section NEC seats up for election, the CLGA is only supporting six candidates. If it supported more it could result in it winning fewer seats. This is because the Party is introducing an STV system into this election. Therefore the principal goal at each Nominations Meeting should be to get these six candidates nominated.
Youth and Disabled Members Reps
We also urge you to support Lara McNeill for NEC Youth Representative and Ellen Morrison for NEC Disabled Members Representative.
Show Your Support on Social Media
Retweet the Grassroots Alliance message backing the candidates here and share on Facebook here.
