CSM and the labour party

by Jonathan Cox, CSM Executive member

The nature of the Christian Socialist Movement’s relationship with the Labour Party has provoked controversy in the past and is something that we will always struggle with.

There are members who have advocated continuing a close relationship with Labour “‘til death us do part”, while other members have cited Iraq and the Gambling Bill as grounds for divorce. Our Executive Committee has developed a new strategic plan for CSM, and has sought to redefine that relationship in a new way, that avoids the unhelpful analogy of the faithful (though sometimes grumpy!) spouse and the bitter ex-wife.

The need to redefine our relationship is important. Our Movement holds within it many Labour Party members, elected representatives and people who were led to CSM because they were politically active and wanted to reconcile their politics with their faith. But the Movement is also home to Christians on the political left who joined because of CSM’s values and are uneasy when our relationship with the Labour Party appears too cosy.

As the Labour Party is the best vehicle (albeit an imperfect one) for translating Christian Socialist values into policy and practice, CSM has to move beyond the marriage/divorce dichotomy to finding a relationship that allows it to support and influence the Party while assuring other members that we are not being co-opted.

So what is the exact nature of the relationship? Well, the Christian Socialist Movement is a paid-up affiliate of the Labour Party. If affiliation means “an association with, or to be intimately united in action or interest”, then the technical description of our relationship with the Labour Party seems insufficient. We are not just Christians in Labour, and the relationship is not merely a business transaction where we pay money in return for affiliate status, a link on the Labour Party website and privileges at party conference. Another common description is that CSM should be a critical friend of the Labour Party. And yet we know from our own lives that people who describe themselves as ‘critical friends’ are often not particularly helpful – our true friends will temper their criticism with support and encouragement. We want to be a friend that is unafraid to speak truth to power, but the Labour Party needs another ‘critical friend’ like it needs a hole in the head. Other interpretations of our relationship with the Labour Party also seem inadequate. We are not merely a bridge between Labour and the Church, neither are we a ‘coming together’ of priests and politicians.

Over the past eighteen months the new Executive Committee has been pursuing a process of ‘Renewal and Change’ of CSM – leading to the adoption of an ethical fundraising policy for the first time, regional meetings of the Executive Committee, greater transparency of the Officers’ Group and greater financial security. Part of that process has involved looking again at the relationship with the Labour Party. A ‘Renewal and Change’ strategic plan was developed and adopted by the Executive Committee and this set out a clear definition of CSM’s relationship with the Labour Party. CSM was not to be the spouse, the business partner, or the ex-wife, but “the prophetic conscience of the Labour Party and a prophetic voice to the churches.”

Strategic plans, like our values, are nothing if they are not lived – and we fail daily in matching this objective. However we have begun to live out the challenge of being a prophetic conscience in some small but important ways. We are now much better at bringing together our parliamentarians and our theologians - developing the Labour Party’s conscience and helping the church understand better the challenges of government.

CSM brokered a successful roundtable meeting between Labour MPs and the Archbishop of Canterbury about the relationship between faith and the state in June this year. This provided a rare and welcome for parliamentarians to reflect in the hectic atmosphere of the House of Commons. Earlier in the year we held the first Tawney Dialogue – bringing Labour Party Vice Chair for Faith, Stephen Timms MP, and Canon Nicholas Sagovsky of Westminster Abbey to reflect together on faith and politics. At the Labour Party Conference in September CSM provided a space for the debate of Christian Socialist values in the Labour Party but also brought together our politicians (foremost among them the Prime Minister) with the thoughts of a world-class theologian, Timothy Radcliffe OP. And CSM submitted responses to all of the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum consultations this year - a great opportunity to provide a prophetic conscience in the development of party policy.

These are just some examples of what goes on at a national level. Yet the real relationship between CSM and the Labour Party, and where it can have greatest impact, is defined at the local level, with CSM members acting as the prophetic conscience of their local Labour Party branch and representatives. In many ways that is a bigger challenge – and we hope to equip you for it. If there is anything that could be provided to you that would help you to fulfil that role, please let us know.

An independent movement like CSM will always struggle to reconcile its own distinct values with the compromise and expediency that result when the Labour Party is in government. But we hope that by seeing the relationship neither in terms of marriage or divorce, critical friend, or bridge, we can develop a healthier relationship that furthers CSM’s values and objects, and allows our members to act as the prophetic conscience of the Labour Party in policy forums and parliament, branches and beyond.

Jonathan Cox worked for Rt Hon Alun Michael MP and then as Parliamentary Officer at the Refugee Council before co-ordinating the Independent Asylum Commission. He is now the Lead Organiser and Director of CITIZENS for Sanctuary, a new campaign to secure justice for people fleeing persecution and rebuild public support for sanctuary. He is a member of the CSM Executive.

Jonathan Cox, 10/02/2009