Model Resolutions

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Labour women's conference has moved left - but the g control structures, were desperate ision, largely engineered by for an aid to organising and the platform, opened bewere eager to share experien- tween women from the ConThose two years have local Labour women's secseen the stupendous growth tions, and the trade union of the women's organisation, delegates. There was more the 'takeover' of the wom- than a suggestion from the en's conference by radical trade union section (many of activist women, and a sense them not particularly repres of self-sufficiency among entative of rank and file women who gained experien- women trade unionists) of Subscribe! The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has suggested two model resolutions on women's rights for the forthcoming Labour Regional Conferences.

On Labour women's representation: "This conference deplores the consistent under-representation of women at all. levels of society, and in particular in Parliament, where less than 5% of Labour MPs are women, although women constitute more than 50% of the population. are fragile THE second Women's Fightback conference for women in the Labour Party, which took place on November 2829, was a much smaller affair than the one two years ago, reflecting both a certain complacency in the organising for it and how far Labour women have moved on.

The first took place in an atmosnhere where women.

TAINLY .'...-... many new to Labour Party ces and learn the ropes. re in that struggle.

Rates: £5 for three nonths, £8.75 for ix months, and £16 ior a year.

Bundle of five

each week: £12 for three months.

Bundle of 10: £21 for three months.

Name.

Address...

I enclose £ To: Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8 8PL.

Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Committee to submit to the 1983 Annual Conference an amendment to the rules of Constituency Labour Parties which would make it mandatory for every Constituency • Labour Party to include at least one woman on the shortlist for the selec. tion of its prospective Parliamentary candidate, providing a woman or women have been nominated by a branch or have applied to the Constituency Labour Party seekSy:

But it's a shame if that leads to a feeling of having outgrown the need for getting together outside the official structures. The women's conference can for the moment boast quite radical policies, but judging from muttered threats at the Newcastle National Conference of Labour Women, those gains could be quite fragile.

At that conference, ă divstituency Labour Parties and "well be back next year - ing such nomination"

On Labour women's conference: "Conference supports proposals for positive action to end the second class status of women within the Labour Party, and in particular the demands agreed by the 1982 Labour Women's Conference for:

1. the right of the Labour Women's Conference to submit five resolutions to the Annual Party Conference, so that the Party's organised women can have a voice in major Conference debates. but with the block vote"

So it was no surprise that the best-subscribed workshop was on trade unions and the block vote' • Should we be in favour of/campaign for trade unions to have a block vote at Labour women's conference?

It's a question that needs addressing urgently, involving considerations both of principle and tactics.

In principle, I think we should favour votes weighted according to how many women delegates represent -but only if they are truly representative. We don't want a situation like at annual Labour Party comereru half a dozen general secretaries can decide outcome in their trade-off meetings in posh hotels.

Tactically the question is complicated. Realistically, we won't win any of the demands to give more power to Labour women's conference without giving a block vote to trade unions. But how to ensure those votes actually represent the views of women in those unions?

We can campaign for block votes to be given only where delegates are elected by and accountable to conferences of women in the respective unions. In practice, however, we are not in a position to impose such conditions. We could only demand them as a propaganda exercise.

But the propaganda exr*cise would be of some use. if the block vote comes willy nilly, at least we would have angle to agitate round, rather than letting the right wing paint us as anti trade union or antidemocratic.

It would also offer a perspective for women in the unions to organise round -demanding women's conferences where they don't exist, demanding their democratisation where they do.

Indeed, one happy by-product of this workshop 2. the election of the Women's Division of the Party's National Executive Committee by women themselves at the Labour Women's Conference, thereby giving women the same right as every other section of the Party to elect their own National Executive Committee Division.

Conference M accordingly calls on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee to formally constitute the Annual Conference of Labour Women with the same right to elect its own executive as that enjoyed by all other Labour Party sectional conferences. Conference considers that such steps are essential to enable women to play their rightful part within the Labour Party, and calls on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee to give a lead by putting forward these proposals to the 1983 conference" Women in by Ann Pettifor