LTB 892/08 - Branch Political Fund Rebates

[TrueBlueTerrier]

No. 892/08


Ref: BH/AS/1.0


Date: 18 November 2008



To: All CWU Branches



Dear Colleague,



Branch Political Fund Rebates



The following motion was carried at the CWU 2008 General Conference.



Conference agrees that the recent events that saw the freezing of branch political funds, by means of withdrawal of branch rebates, to be hasty. Conference therefore instructs the General Secretary and the PFMC to re-establish necessary affiliation criteria as defined by the CWU Rule Book. This will then ensure that politically active branches will have the necessary funds to support vital work at Local, European and General Elections, both regionally and locally.



In the event of a branch not fulfilling the affiliation criteria, the PFMC shall record that fact and then have the option to suspend the branch rebate for a defined period. This shall be communicated to the branch in question as early as possible, with all PFMC decisions being placed on record via the PFMC minutes. The PFMC shall invite any branch that falls within this criteria to submit a letter of claim for the PFMC to deliberate upon, if the branch in question has other issues that are relevant.



In enacting the motion, the NEC has agreed the follow policy and course of action:-



a) That all branch rebates be re-commenced with effect from 31st October 2008.

b) That we ensure the criterion relating to CLP affiliation, as contained in the rule book, is fully met i.e. that Branches should affiliate to all CLPs within the Branch boundary.

c) That at a suitable point we conduct a full audit of branch affiliations to ensure that the criteria is being fully met. If this is not the case, then the PFMC shall be authorised to take the appropriate action.

d) That we draw up some guidance notes which will illustrate what activities are appropriate to be funded by the political fund. Also, we use these guidance notes to encourage branches to introduce a PF budgetary process.



The NEC will issue guidance to branches as described and this will be forwarded in due course.



With regards the detailed audit of CLP affiliations I would be grateful if you could arrange for your Branch Political Officers to forward a list of CLPs to whom the Branch had made affiliations to, together with the amounts of money paid to each. This information should be sent to Diane Clarke dclarke@cwu.org in the General Secretary�s Department by no later than Friday 5th December 2008.



I appreciate that over the last few months some branches have already supplied this information, however, for completeness I would ask that all branches take part in this important exercise.



Yours sincerely,





Billy Hayes

General Secretary

[dvbuk55]

Whoa - do I sniff an election in the offing? Does anyone NOT know what CLPs stand for?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Whoa - do I sniff an election in the offing? Does anyone NOT know what CLPs stand for?

Constituency Labour Party - the local level of the LP.

[Big Daz]

That is the level the trade unions can take virtual control of as we are entitled to send delegates and if all 15 affilated unions sent there maxium quota of delegates then TU's would set the policy of Labour at Local level and would have a massive impact on Labour in Government. At local level you could be forgiven from thinking that the local labour bods are not ffrom the same party as GB and co!!!!!!!!!!!!

The EDM on pensions has now be signed by 110 Labour MP'S (Government MP'S are not allowed to vote which is parlimentary rules and applies to all governments red blue yellow or any other colour!)