By John Pickard
The first session on Tuesday morning dealt with Environment, Energy and Culture policy and the core of this session, which every delegate was anticipating, was the discussion on the Climate Emergency and Labour’s New Green Deal. There is a considerable strength of feeling on the whole issue of climate change. It was reported this morning that an attempt by the New Statesman magazine to hold a fringe event the previous evening, with a speaker from BP, was picketed by Labour members supporting the New Green Deal. As a result, no Labour MP would speak at the event and it had to be cancelled.
On this issue, two main composites had been devised from the more than 130 resolutions that had been put forward. There were two consecutive nights of compositing meetings, with a total of ten hours of discussion, (which must be a conference record) to arrive at these composites. The central division between two trends was over whether or not a Labour government should propose a date limit on the development of a carbon-free economy. For the GMB union this was a ‘red line’ and they opposed any date commitment – hence two main composites, both of them two pages of A4 and therefore quite extensive.
Composite 17 was the firmer one of the two, in that it included a date commitment. Labour in power, it said, will “in collaboration with the trade unions and scientific community, work towards a path to net zero carbon emissions by 2030, guaranteeing an increase in good unionised jobs in the UK, and the cost of which will be borne by the wealthiest, not the majority; and implementing this target into law if it achieves a just transition for workers…” The composite dealt extensively with economic issues related to carbon emissions, including transport, fuel poverty, climate refugees, and many others. This composite was in the name of the FBU union and Heywood and Middleton CLP.
Composite 16 included many of the same issues related to climate change, the international goals of the IPCC’s 1.5oC target and so on. Much of its content would be indistinguishable from composite 17. The key difference was the absence of a target date. This composite was in the names of Fylde CLP and New Forest West CLP.
The session was opened by a short speech by a local 14-year old school climate activist who has been on school strike, Britain’s own Greta Thunberg. She was given a rousing reception and a standing ovation, a fitting start to the discussion and a reflection of the sympathies of the vast majority of Party members. There was also a film with details of Labour’s New Green Deal and a speech by Rebecca Long-Bailey, shadow minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Clause IV gets a cheer
Rebecca gave a very well-received speech, about the dangers of the “disaster capitalism” of Boris Johnson and his cronies. She referred to the exceptional weather events of recent months: floods, hurricanes and record temperatures in European states. But she also made the very important point that the battle against climate change needed to be linked to “the fight for social justice”. She brought another standing ovation by referring to Clause IV – the restoration of which got 56% of the CLP vote two days ago. “It might not be on the party card any more,” she said, pointing to her heart, “but it’s in here.”
Rebecca made many references to ‘green’ measures and what she called an “electric vehicle revolution”, through electrification and the removal of the most polluting cars and vehicles. There were commitments to invest billions of pounds by a Labour Government. All very popular measures in the conference hall. She also referred to Labour’s policy of renationalising the national grid, water and other utilities, but there was no call for public ownership beyond that, and, unfortunately, nor was there in either of the two main composites.
Left Horizons has argued in its pamphlet on the Climate Emergency (hundreds of which were given out to delegates) that this needs also to be linked to socialist policies, including the ownership and control of the big energy and industrial giants which govern all the key decisions on research, development and investment. Without a socialist commitment to own and control the “commanding heights” of the economy, the danger is that many, if not most, of the very good measures in the Green New Deal will remain aspirational.
Supreme Court wins a reference back
Rebecca got a very good reception when she finished: standing ovation and cheers all round. It is a breath of fresh air to hear Labour politicians talking about “socialism”, “bandit capitalism” and the aspirations of the “working class” all terms and expressions banned in the Labour Blair years. Many Labour Party members have been waiting decades for these words. As it turned out, not a few delegates referred to “ending capitalism” from the rostrum, and in fact these were the kind of ‘triggers’ that always seemed to provoke an interruption of applause.
After Rebecca Long-Bailey had sat down, there was a ten-minute interruption as Jeremy Corbyn came unexpectedly to the rostrum – cue: massive cheers, clapping all around a standing ovation – to announce the Supreme Court’s decision on the prorogation of parliament. “I will immediately be demanding the recall of parliament.” After that, it was nearly impossible to hear what Jeremy was saying, so loud were the applause and cheering, followed by chants of “Johnson out!”
As it was in previous sessions, and notwithstanding the presence of resolutions, this one also centred around a report from the National Policy Forum report on the Environment. There were some very reasonable references back on the grounds that the report failed to include a sections or even references to plastic pollution, did not include policies on land ownership, or on nuclear power and on other issues.
The three stand-out trade union speeches at conference
Moving his union’s composite (number 17) on climate change, Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary was extremely well-received. “This debate and this issue,” he said, “is the most important of any issue we are discussing in this conference.” His members and fellow fire-fighters around the world were daily fighting the effects of climate change in the form of forest fires, floods and other ‘natural’ catastrophes. There needs to be “bold and radical target” on carbon emission and Labour’s New Green Deal needs to be a “socialist Green New Deal” Matt said, “…capitalism is destroying the world and we must put public ownership and workers at the heart of the discussion…this is an agenda that doesn’t destroy jobs but creates new jobs and new industries.”
Matt Wrack’s was an excellent speech from a well-known socialist trade union leader and the speech and its rousing reception were on a par with the ovations and cheering that had been given earlier to Mark Serwotka and Len McCluskey on previous days. These three gave the stand-out trade union leader speeches of the conference.
It was clear even before the voting took place where the sympathies of the conference lay – overwhelming in favour of the New Green Deal and composite 17, the more radical of the two alternatives. The chair had a difficult job to do in this session, with probably more hands raised and more delegates trying to get to the rostrum than in any other session so far. Reflecting the very genuine concerns of workers about jobs, a GMB delegate from Cumbria referred to the large number of highly-skilled jobs in his area that need to be protected. “It is essential”, he said, “that we take energy workers with us when we move towards a low-carbon economy.”
When it came to the voting there was no need for a card vote because both of the main composites on climate change were passed. On a show of hands, composite 17 was overwhelmingly carried, with a handful of trade union votes against, and composite 16 passed, although not so overwhelmingly.
International panel of speakers
The afternoon kicked off with excellent speeches from three fraternal delegates from Ghana, Western Morocco and the Chagos Islands. Each speaker in their own way, linked the struggle for their own liberation and for national and social rights, to the struggles of the working class in Britain and elsewhere. In this session there was also an emergency resolution on the Indian government’s policy in Kashmir.
Although conference was at this point pushed for time – it had now been announced that Jeremy Corbyn would speak in the afternoon because of the recall of parliament the following day – there was still opportunity for resolutions and contributions on housing and homelessness. As it had been in other debates on earlier days, the session on homelessness brought many delegates to the rostrum for the very first time to talk about their first-hand experiences of being homeless or dealing with others who had been or were. A service veteran pointed out that homelessness had increased by over 165% under this government and thousands of homeless were actually ex-service personnel. They might be asked to risk their lives ‘for their country’ but once out of uniform they were thrown onto a scrapheap.
Delegates reaffirmed – and it was reinforced by the resolutions that were passed – that housing is a basic social right that should be available to everyone. Many delegates reinforced also the idea that the ‘market’ has failed utterly to provide housing for all and that we cannot look to the market to solve the housing problems.
Jeremy Corbyn’s speech gets the expected cheers and ovation
The main business of the afternoon, of course, was the leader’s speech. Even as he came onto the stage, Jeremy Corbyn was cheered to the rafters. There isn’t the space here to cover all the points made in his speech, and in any case it will be in the national newspapers. Suffice to say that he was frequently interrupted by applause and standing ovations as he emphasised over and over again the reforming character on the next Labour government.
Delegate after delegate has been on the rostrum in the last few days, spelling out in graphic detail the insecurities and difficulties of everyday life in austerity Britain. To a man and a woman they also demanded, and expected, that a Labour government would do something about the issues they raised. These were the issues Jeremy addressed. There is a huge weight of expectation riding on the next Labour government and Jeremy Corbyn is the personal embodiment of those aspirations.
This conference has shown a radical mood and has had a solid left-wing feel to it, even surpassing the mood of the 2018 conference. Apart from a few minor points of order by the misnamed ‘Jewish Labour Movement’, the right wing of the party have been noticeable by their absence. They are cocooned away in the bubble of parliament, oxygenated by their friends in the national media and unable to offer anything in the way of policies or ideas to the CLP or trade union delegates here. Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, is seen by delegates as someone who offers hope for change and for something better. That is why so much of the conference mood revolves around loyalty to Jeremy himself.
When Jeremy Corbyn finished there was the expected long ovation and delegates stood to sing the Red Flag. It wasn’t the end of conference, but it felt like it. There is, apparently, business for the conference tomorrow, some rearranged from this afternoon. Tom Watson’s Tuesday afternoon slot was rearranged to Wednesday morning but he turned down the offer – which was probably just as well, because the expected cool reception he would have received would have contrasted sharply with Jeremy Corbyn’s. Whatever is on the agenda tomorrow morning, it will be an anti-climax after today’s conference.
September 24, 2019
