Rule changes due to come to this year's Labour Party conference (25-28 September, in Liverpool) include several proposals that could revive the democracy shut down by Tony Blair in the mid-1990s.
• the right for conference to refer back selected parts of a document, rather than having to vote for or against it as a whole
• the right for Constituency Labour Parties to submit both a rule-change proposal and a contemporary motion, rather than having to chose to do one or the other
• a rule that the proviso for the unions to choose four topics for debate, and the Constituency Labour Parties to choose four, means eight in total, rather than the total number being reduced if the CLPs prioritise topics already prioritised by the unions
• reform of the "trigger mechanism" for requiring sitting MPs to go through a new selection procedure.
All these rule changes were submitted by CLPs in 2015. Under Labour Party custom, they come up for debate only a year later, in 2016.
The twist is that the Conference Arrangements Committee can rule them inadmissible only days before the actual conference, and, if it does that, the ruled-out proposals are not printed in the conference papers, and challenging the ruling-out is difficult.
CAC has ruled out many, indeed most, rule-change proposals in recent years. Activists are hoping that the members' vote for Jeremy Corbyn as leader will be taken by the CAC as a sign that it must act more democratically.
The 18 June meeting of the Executive of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy also heard that another rule-change proposal, to require that in a Labour leadership election the sitting leader is automatically on the ballot paper if she or he wishes, has been put by more CLPs than have backed any rule-change in the last 37 years.
The pressure may be enough for Labour's National Executive to skip the usual one-year delay (which is custom and practice, not a written rule) and put the proposal to conference 2016. The aim of the proposal is to defend Jeremy Corbyn against a coup by MPs who would then rule him off the ballot paper for not having the necessary 30-odd MPs' nominations.
The CLPD Executive meeting also heard reports that TULO (the consortium of Labour-affiliated unions) has made a submission to the Labour National Executive's "review of governance" which takes up many longstanding democratic demands. It remains to be seen whether TULO will go public with these, and persist with them against right-wing opposition.
CLPD discussed the new wave of expulsions of Labour Party members on grounds of association with Workers' Liberty or with Socialist Appeal. The meeting agreed that these expulsions pose a threat to the whole Corbyn surge. If the Compliance Unit can get away with the Appeal and Workers' Liberty expulsions, it creates a precedent for purging any other left-wing group in the Labour Party.
There was general agreement that CLPD should go on record against the expulsions and work for rule changes to mandate due process and clear criteria for expulsions.
The CLPD meeting also heard a report on the run-up to a likely debate on Trident at Labour's September conference.
The Thornberry review will publish a report on 28 June. It is likely to propose a menu of alternatives rather than one clear recommendation. Labour's International Policy Commission will also report soon, to the National Policy Forum on 2 July. Most of the submissions to the Commission have been anti-Trident, but the GMB union has weighed in heavily pro-Trident.
"Contemporary motions" - which must refer to events after the end of July, and can be submitted up to 15 September - may be needed to ensure that the anti-Trident case gets to the floor of conference.
