West Ham Labour Party AGM 2014 - The return of Agent Gray

On Thursday evening there was the AGM of West Ham Constituency Labour Party (CLP) which took place at our headquarters in the High Street, Stratford, E15.

The meeting began a with a 2 minutes silence to mark the recent unexpected death of respected East Ham Councillor, Alec Kellaway.  I known Alec for many years and and had worked closely with him on the Council Investment and Accounts Committee.  He had always been very considerate and supportive. His death is a personal shock and a great loss to the Party. Council meetings will not be the same without his home baked cakes.

The AGM went very smoothly and congratulations to the re-elected Chair, Charlene McLean and the other elected constituency officers;  Alan Griffiths, John Saunders, Gordon Miller, Julianne Marriott and Seyi Akiwowo. 

Elected CLP Coordinators are Dianne Walls, Kim Silver, Veronica Oakeshott, Rania Ramli, Winston Vaughan, Conor McAuley, Terry Paul and David Christie.

Due to a very previous wicked life, I was elected as Campaign Coordinator and Agent with Mas Patel as Assistant.

Obviously the next year will be dominated by the forthcoming General Election and the need to re-elect our excellent local MP, Lyn Brown. While it is vital to keep up with the energetic local campaigning and canvassing that we have carried out since 2010, we all know that unless Labour wins its national target seats next year, Newham will be stuffed by a return of Tory rule.

Therefore we have a duty to make sure that in West Ham we do our bit in the target seats that we have been asked by the Party to support. As our Secretary, Alan Griffith, reminded us on the night, we have only "45 weeks until the 7th May 2014 General Election". Let us by hard work and unity turn this statement into we have only "45 weeks to get rid of this rotten Tory led Government".

(Picture of our West Ham HQ during the General Election 2010 when I was also the Agent)

West Ham Labour Party AGM 2013 results

Picture is from the end of tonight's West Ham CLP AGM and of some of the new "dream team" Executive also celebrating the 65th birthday of the NHS.

58 delegates crowded into the Party rooms at 306 High Street, Stratford, E15. Best attendance since 1980s according to one delegate.

Can't think why? :)

For contested positions we had one minute hustings then ballot. It all went pretty smoothly.

From left - Julianne Marriot, new vice Chair Campaigns & Communications; Terry Paul, re-elected Assistant Secretary; Gordon Miller, re-elected Agent and new Vice Chair membership, Charlene McLean, re-elected Chair; Alan Griffiths, re-elected Secretary and Anne Easter, new Women's officer.

Not in photo was John Saunders, re-elected Treasurer; John Whitworth, re-elected political officer;   Winston Vaughan, re-elected as Equalities Officer; Kim Silver, re-elected as Trade Union Liaison officer; Ahmed Noor, re-elected as Social officer. Apologies if I have missed anyone out?

Kim and I were also re-elected to the Executive Committee as 2 of the 4 trade union delegates.

West Ham Labour Party AGM 2012

Tonight was the Annual General Meeting of West Ham Labour Party. The Party Rooms in Stratford were packed with delegates from all our wards, trade union affiliates and socialist societies.

Picture left (and congratulations) is of our new Chair, Charlene McLean, seen here promoting the TUC March in March last year.

The Party Rooms themselves were unrecognisable since they had been freshly painted and re-carpeted. We are hiring the rooms out to a local History society who will be using it as a special museum during the Olympics (I'll post full details another time).

I did ask the outgoing Chair, Conor McAuley, at the beginning of the AGM if I could tweet during the meeting and he said there is nothing he can do to stop people texting or tweeting what was going on. I've used these tweets to make this post.

Conor is stepping down as Chair because he felt after 6 years it was time to give someone younger (and skip a generation) the chance to take positions of responsibility in the local Party. He was given a vote of thanks and applause for his long service to the Party as Chair.

During reports we learnt that membership has increased by 128 since the last AGM. Also that during the last election we had delivered the Labour vote (alas not enough to elect Ken).

I will post full details on the elections when I have checked I have got everything right. I stepped down from Agent/ Campaigner Co-ordinator since I have completely over stretched myself and the poisoned chalice (a term that all agents from all parties will recognise) has passed to Gordon Miller! I am still a trade union rep on the General and Executive Committee (for my sins).

During AOB the Keir Hardie tour next week was plugged and the coming by election in Wanstead and Leyton. Afterwards, off to the Golden Grove pub for more politics and of course lots of gossip.