The Organiser – Issue #19

 Hello comrades,

In this latest issue, we bring you:

• Our first ever Members’ Convention
• What we have up been up to
• An exciting new festival 
• The workers taking on Elon Musk 

Your Movement, Your Choice

As we work to implement our Refounding Momentum reforms, Momentum will be hosting our first ever all-members’ convention, taking place online during the day on Sunday 10th March. 

It will be a great chance for members to come together and chart the next steps for our movement, with plenty of time for discussion and debate. Members can now also submit motions for the convention itself. See guidance and process for submitting motions via our webpage here. 

While the Labour Leadership may be undermining the rights of party members, from selection scandals to reneging on bold policies, we at Momentum are embracing our democratic socialist values. 

So if you’re a member but haven’t signed up to our convention yet, there’s still time to do so by clicking the button below.

Sign up 

We are a people-powered movement, placing our members at the forefront of what we do. And this convention provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.

• London Ceasefire demos: Momentum joined Labour members and Socialist Campaign Group Labour MPs to form a red bloc at pro-Palestine rallies in London recently. We continue to demand that the Labour Leadership commits to a full and immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
• Scottish Labour: We’d like to congratulate Lauren Harper on her re-election as youth representative on Scottish Labour’s Executive Committee. Facing huge obstacles, socialists are still winning elections in Labour on a platform of democracy and members’ rights! 
• Media: As always, we’ve been standing up for real Labour values in the press. From Keir Starmer reneging on green investment to British Muslims losing faith in Labour to standing in solidarity with Kate Osamor, we have made appearances in Sky News, the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent and more! And Momentum NCG members have been out on the radio too, arguing that Labour should cap banker bonuses and support a full ceasefire in Gaza. 
• Trans rights: After Rishi Sunak’s shameful transphobic remarks last week, Labour was quick to condemn then. But we want the Leadership to go further by urging our members to sign and share an open letter from Labour for Trans Rights calling for a trans-inclusive Labour Party. Sign here. 
• Internal Labour elections: A number of internal Labour Party elections are taking place this year, and we’re backing the Grassroots 4 slate for re-election on the NEC. All four candidates are already sitting members and will continue to stand up for Party democracy and socialist Labour policies, find out more.
• New podcast: Two Momentum members have launched the Labour Left Podcast, with the latest episode featuring our very own co-chair Hilary Schan. On the podcast, Hilary discusses activities at last year’s conference, Starmer’s magic growth tree, her role in Momentum, the Worthing selection, Momentum in local government and Palestine. Watch here. 
• NCG elections: Amid intense activity within Labour, planned elections to Momentum’s National Coordinating Group in the first half of the year have been postponed to a later date. 
• Port Talbot: We stand in solidarity with the thousands of steelworkers who face job uncertainty after closures in Port Talbot. We urge our members to put forward a motion to  CLPs urging the Labour Leadership to back public ownership of the steel industry to protect jobs and long-term sustainability. See motion here. 

Anti-poverty charity War on Want has an exciting event lined up tackling issues of our time, from the climate crisis to soaring inequality, and all Momentum members are invited to attend! 

The ‘And Still We Rise: The War on Want Festival of Solidarity & Resistance’ event will include speakers such as climate activists Greta Thunberg and Nnimmo Bassey, union leaders Mick Lynch and Sarah Woolley, MP’s Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell and War on Want patrons Naomi Klein and Owen Jones. They will speak on a series of panel discussions, workshops and training sessions, on topics from green colonialism and fixing the fashion industry, to building movements and defending democracy.

It will take place on Saturday 24 February 2024 (9:30am-5:00pm) at Friends Meeting House, London, NW1 2BJ. This radical one-day festival brings together social justice movements from across the world to forge global solidarity, inspire collective action, and build solutions to turn crisis into justice. 

Standard tickets are only £25, with discounts available for low-waged workers and students. Tickets can be purchased here.  

For our members, please use the bespoke discount code – WOWMOMENTUM20 – which will give you 20% off the standard ticket.

Grab yours today! 

Solidarity Across Borders

Workers in Nordic countries are at loggerheads with billionaire Tesla CEO and union-buster, Elon Musk. It began with Tesla’s refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement with mechanics at Sweden’s metalworkers’ union.

Other Swedish unions united to express solidarity with striking mechanics, including the building maintenance union, which has stopped cleaning Tesla’s shops and offices and the communications workers’ union which has blocked deliveries (including licence plates) to all Tesla facilities. 

Meanwhile workers in neighbouring countries, Denmark and Norway, threatened Tesla with the full wrath of organised labour if the disagreement wasn’t solved, with dockworkers in Denmark refusing to unload Tesla cars at their ports. 

Musk is famously unabashed in his opprobrium of unions, once describing them as creating a “lords and peasants sort of thing.” But Nordic workers are putting pressure on the billionaire to take workers’ rights seriously. And with Tesla losing legal battles in the fight, he may want to rethink his position.

Housekeeping

You can find the minutes of our National Coordinating Group Meetings here.

We hope you enjoyed our latest issue. Any feedback you have and ideas for how to make the newsletter better are much appreciated.

Don’t hesitate to send us an email at [email protected] with your thoughts.

In solidarity,

Liam, Team Momentum