This is a great opportunity for the Labour Party to reinvent itself for a new century.  I’m still getting through the main points of the report (to reiterate, even as a staff member, I hadn’t seen any of the report until now).

The headlines & summary are here on the Labour website, and I’ll blog a bit more on it over the next six weeks up to Conference.

Eamon Gilmore TD

With the buzz mounting in the hall, and the temperature rising (literally) in the hall, delegates are cramming in for the last few seats already.  Gilmore’s speech doesn’t start for another hour, but with seats at a premium, everyone’s trying to get themselves into the hall before it fills up.  For what I think is the first time ever, we’ve had to supply a video relay room due to high demand for places.  Those who can’t get in to the hall will be able to watch on a big screen downstairs.  Already there are only a few seats left.

In the style of American conventions, signs have been handed out to delegates to hold up during the speech – mainly for TV viewing, of course.  While they sometimes seem a bit silly on the ground in the conference hall, where you don’t get a proper view of them, they look brilliant on TV, and are a great way of getting a message out to viewers at home.  TV news coverage is more or less obliged to show a crowd shot, so why not use it to convey a message.

I haven’t seen GIlmore’s speech yet, but those who have tell me it’s going to be great.  I’ll be twittering and Jaikuing the highlights on Labour’s channels live, and you can also watch the whole thing on RTÉ1 from 20:30 or on our live stream from 19:30 (see below).

Eamon Gilmore TD

I’ll be personally Twittering & Jaikuing Party Leader Eamon Gilmore‘s speech on Saturday night from 20:30.

I’m also running a Fringe Event on the Obama campaign – David Traynor, who worked on the campaign in New Mexico, will be on the panel with me (Virginia), Tom Duke (internet & new media specialist), Shauneen Armstrong (Redmum) and Neil Ward.  Should be interesting.  It’s in the Orchard Room at 1pm Saturday, if you’re around.

I’ll try to blog here a bit over the weekend too, time, and cross posts at Labour.ie, permitting.

The Irish Times report is particularly strange, given that they don’t appear to have even gone to the bother of getting the current situation right, never mind what’s proposed (trade unions already ‘opt-in’ to affiliation with Labour and can choose to leave any time they like; and there’s no block votes either on the NEC or at Conference).

In terms of what is coming up, we can only speculate.  There were two sizeable papers published in the run up to last year’s National Conference in Wexford.  One was by ATGWU (written, I believe, by super-blogger of the political-economic variety, Michael Taft, along with many others), and the other by Aidan O’Sullivan (I was a co-author of that one, along with James Doorley, Andrew Montague and a few others). The two had many points in common – the biggest being that Labour’s organisational structures need significant change if they’re to meet the challenges of the current political era – as well as a few where they differed – like links with the trade unions.

I don’t think that anyone denies that Labour is stuck in a rut of sorts.  Having returned almost exactly the same result nationally in the last three General Elections, despite running increasingly professional campaigns and being up against very different situations each time, the Party hasn’t moved an inch at national level.

Meanwhile, in the cities at least, it’s made leaps and bounds at Local Authority level.  Coming out of the first Council meetings after the 2004 Local Elections, Labour held the mayoralties in all four Dublin Councils, and either mayoral or deputy mayoral offices in virtually all other city councils around the country.

Looking at what the 21CC is likely to report, I think we can expect significant movement one way or the other on the trade union link.  I’m personally in favour of removing the formal link (and the tiny amount of direct funding that comes with it).  By rights, Labour and the Trade Unions should agree about 90% of the time anyway.  Where they don’t, the trade unions are probably wrong.

Eamon Gilmore TD

We can also expect organisational changes.   The branch structure doesn’t work in all areas, and has already been superceded to some extent by the options of holding Ward meetings (“Divisional Councils) instead (based on Local Electoral Areas).  Many members have no real links to their branches, and don’t engage on a locality basis, but rather on an issue or sector basis (e.g. women’s rights, youth issues, etc).  The NEC, which is far too large to operate effectively in its current form, will have to be slimmed down.  And the regular duplication of duties between the NEC, the policy committee and the Parliamentary Labour Party needs to be addressed.

The final report, if ratified by the National Executive Committee, will be put to a Special Conference to be held in Kilkenny at the end of November.  While it will be boring for anyone but the most extreme of political hacks outside the party, it will be riveting viewing for those on the inside.  No matter what the content of the proposals, there will be some within the party who will oppose it.  Equally, there will be some who will laud it as the greatest piece of political organisation ever.  The middle ground will likely favour it as the wish of a relatively new Party Leader.

This is Labour’s chance to set the structures that will allow it advance in Ireland.  This is Eamon Gilmore’s opportunity to truly lead the party into the next series of elections.  And if anyone mentions the word “New” with a capital ‘n’, they’ll be turfed out of the room.

For the record, the author has not yet seen a copy of the draft report at the time of writing.  If someone would please forward one, he’d be most grateful.