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UN nuclear ban treaty comes into force in January

Yorkshire CND with Olivia Blake, Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam and one of the the first English parliamentarians to back the Nuclear Ban Communities initiative

Now that 50 countries have ratified the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), it will come into force on 22 January 2021. Another 84 have signed, but not yet ratified the Treaty. Only those countries which ratify the TPNW are bound by the Treaty.

The UK government is responsible for signing and ratifying treaties. To the dishonour of us all, neither the May nor Johnson governments have signed the TPNW. The Tories say they never will, and Labour is silent on the Treaty.

CND has launched a campaign to put pressure on Westminster to change its mind. The Nuclear Ban Communities initiative is modelled on ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons which CND is part of. We are asking MPs, local authorities, and faith leaders to pledge their support for the UN nuclear ban treaty.

You’ll be hearing more from us in 2021…..

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Labour CND statement on the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn

Labour CND stands in solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong anti-racist, peace and anti-war campaigner, as his record of fighting oppression and discrimination attests.

We reaffirm our commitment to opppose anti-semitism and all forms of racism. We believe the action taken against Jeremy undermines the unity of the Labour Party.

Labour CND opposes the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn and pledges to campaign for his reinstatement.

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Cast your vote now in NEC elections

Voting in Labour’s National Executive Committee elections has begun. Use yours by noon on 12 November or lose the chance to have you say.

Grassroots Voice candidates had the most local party nominations. It’s time to turn that support into votes and elect Constituency Labour Party reps who are committed to nuclear disarmament, will defend party democracy and support progressive anti-austerity policies.

Your ballot should have arrived in your inbox by now. The email comes from labourelections@cesvotes.com and has ‘Your ballot – Labour Party elections’ in the subject line. If you haven’t had an email, check your spam folder. You can apply to have your ballot reissued. Monday 26 October is the ballot reissue day.

Labour is using STV, single transferable vote, for the first time in these elections. STV is more complicated than first-past-the-post voting system it replaces. STV means it’s really important how you order your votes – who you put first, second, third, etc.

All the organisations in the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance have agreed a region by region priority order that will maximise the chances of getting the #GV6 elected. The order of preference for each region is reproduced below. If you’re unsure about which Labour Party region you’re in, use Momentum’s helpful postcode finder.

Want to know more about how STV works, check out Single Transferable Vote Explained.
And you can read the statement of each #GV6 candidate here

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Ann Henderson on Trident

Labour CND and Arise, A Festival of Labour’s Left Ideas jointly organised a Foreign Policy Q&A webinar with Grassroots Voice candidates for Labour’s National Executive Committee. Ann Henderson reviewed Scottish Labour’s position on Trident.

Visit Labour CND’s YouTube channel to hear what all #GV6 candidates had to say on Froeign Policy – Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar, Nadia Jama, Laura Pidcock, and Mish Rahman

Register here for #GrassrootsVoice #GV6 Rally with Jeremy Corbyn and others on 15 October

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CND annual conference

CND’s annual conference takes place in two parts this year. Real security, lessons from the pandemic, on Sunday 18 October 14.00 to 16.30, with Jeremy Corbyn MP, is open to everyone.

Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz, Mayor of Newham, and Tom Unterrainer of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, join international security specialist Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University Peace Studies Department and others for a discussion on real security in the post-pandemic world.

There are workshops on Visions of a green world, Security for the many, and Creative campaigning, plus Crane making and an online exhibition Time, Memory and Nuclear Weapons, curated by Hannah Kemp-Welch.

The conference is open to everyone, but please register in advance

Our members-only 2020 annual general meeting and policy conference, Campaigning in the post-virus world, is held a week earlier on Saturday October 10, details here.

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Labour NEC elections

Nominations for the Constituency Labour Party places on Labour’s National Executive Committee have closed. All six Grassroots Voice candidates are on the ballot, and the battle for votes is on. Labour CND Co-Chair CAROL TURNER reports.

A total of 454 local Labour Parties made nominations, which LabourList claims is the highest number in any NEC election, Of the 66 candidates who sought nomination for the 9 CLP places, 42 have won the 5 nominations needed to make it onto the ballot paper.
Labour CND urges support for ‘the #GV six candidates. We did so because they are the  one group of candidates standing on an internationalist manifesto, explicitly committed to peace and nuclear disarmament.

Momentum, Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, and Labour Representation Committee are among the 13 Centre Left Grassroots Alliance organisations backing #GV candidates. A CLPD spokesperson welcomed the good results for the six, saying that nominations showed ‘there is mainstream support amongst Labour members for defending a socialist policy agenda and democratic rights for members’.

The campaign to win support is far from over. The first time use of an STV voting system, as opposed to first past the post, makes it much harder for candidates to cross the finish line. A divided vote for the NEC by-elections in February saw progressive candidates lose places that could otherwise have been won. Watch this space for information about STV, and tips on how to rank your favourite candidates.

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Party members decisively reject Trident replacement

The results of a recent LabourList survey confirm that the overwhelming majority of party members want to scrap Trident. In a poll of 7,197 readers, 80.9% of whom were party members, only 12.3% supported Trident renewal.

Paticipants in LabourList’s survey were asked which of a list of policies in Labour’s 2019 general election manifesto the party should continue to support. The results are below. Only two policies failed to achieve majority backing. With 49.6% fast and free broadband fell just short of a majority, but renewing Trident was decisively rejected .

Policies with majority support were:
* Cut the substantial majority of carbon emissions by 2030 (82%)
* Create one million green jobs (74%)
* Close tax loopholes enjoyed by private schools (73%)
* Increase income tax for those earning over £80,000 (71%)
* Nationalise mail, rail, energy and water (67%)
* Repeal anti-trade union legislation (64%)
* Scrap tuition fees (61%)
* Extend full voting rights to all UK residents (61%)
* Set up a publicly owned generic drug company (60.5%)
* Compensate the WASPI women (57%)
* Maximum pay ratios of 20:1 in the public sector (56%)
* Aim for 32-hour working week within a decade (51%)

The LabourList result confirms a YouGov poll for The Times on the eve of Labour’s 2019 annual conference, which showed 70% of the 1,185 Labour Party members sampled wanted to scrap Britain’s nuclear weapons system.

Read LabourList‘s survey results here

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EVENT: Labour, Peace & Internationalism

THURSDAY 17 SEPTEMBER at 19:00
Join Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar, Ann Henderson, Nadia Jama, Laura Pidcock, and Mish Rahman, for a discussion about Labour’s foreign policy.

Centre Left Grassroots Alliance candidates for Labour’s National Executive Committee have all signed up to an ethical foreign policy agenda. They want a Labour Party that’s independent and internationalist, with peace, conflict-resolution, and nuclear disarmament at the heart of international policy.

The six #GrassrootsVoice candidates will pitch for Labour to support people struggling against oppression across the globe, rather than participate in illegal foreign wars. This is your chance to question them further and get involved with their campaign.

Register to attend here

Retweet here and help spread the word

Share and invite on Facebook here

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Corbyn backs NEC candidates

Jeremy Corbyn was quick to tweet his support for the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance candidates for Labour’s NEC elections which take place over the summer. The Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs has also backed them, saying: ‘As the left grouping within the Parliamentary Labour Party, the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs formally endorses the @CLGALabour slate for the National Executive Committee Elections.’