The Labour Party National Executive Committee, meeting on 18 September, has endorsed Gordon Brown's plan to ban unions and local Labour Parties from putting motions to Labour Party conference.

A rule change will go to Labour Party conference, which starts on 23 September in Bournemouth.

The one "concession" by Brown is that the rule change can be reviewed in 2009. Most big union leaders had said they would oppose Brown's plan, but with that "concession" all the union representatives on the Executive voted to ban their own unions from proposing motions on current political issues.

The Executive vote was 23 to 4 for Brown's plan, with one abstention. All the four votes against were from representatives of the local Labour Parties.

As the analysis on this website [1] shows, Brown's plan is a move of epoch-defining import.

If consolidated, it would "destroy the Labour Party as a democratic political organisation based on the labour movement... Labour would be reduced to the status of a US-type political party... The labour movement would [have only]... a junior lobbying role.. The working class would be to all intents and purposes disenfranchised. We would be back to the situation we faced when the [Labour] party was first founded".

It is vital, therefore, that socialists rally maximum support for a drive in the trade unions to ensure that rule changes reversing Brown's plan are submitted for the 2008 Labour conference.