– We will assess whether the members must have a geographical connection to the local team they are part of, in order to be counted on when it comes to votes for annual meetings and nomination meetings locally as well as when electing delegations to the national meetings, says committee leader Lubna Jaffery to news. The committee work follows up several debates that have been going on in the Labor Party for some time. At the national meeting last year, particular attention was paid to the so-called three-crore members, with whom AUF has operated. Lubna Jaffery, parliamentary representative and former city councilor in Bergen, leads the internal committee in Ap. Photo: Silje Rognsvåg / news More extensive But the review of the statutes is more extensive than that, says the committee’s leader, Storting representative Lubna Jaffery. – We are working on proposals that will give the Labor Party more members and increase its representativeness. We want more people from different backgrounds to get involved in the party, she says and continues: – The work is also about ensuring that new members gain influence and are heard, both individually and as a group. One main question is how to weight the influence of the party teams internally within the Labor Party. Ap consists of smaller local teams and forum teams. If there are several teams in a municipality, these will form part of larger municipal parties, which in turn are combined into county teams. In the Labor Party, there is full opportunity to sign up for membership in local teams that are based in a completely different municipality than where you live. But is it reasonable that members outside the municipality should be able to help decide who will be the local mayoral candidate, stand on the electoral lists or be a delegate to the national meetings? – Do you see the issues that the membership growth of Giske’s local team Nidaros represents? Many of the members of the local team live in completely different places than Trondheim. – Yes, we are also looking at that problem. But that happens completely independently of the membership growth of Nidaros, which happened after our committee was set up, says Jaffery. The country’s biggest Earlier this summer, Trond Giske could say that Nidaros had become the Labor Party’s biggest local team by a good margin. The tiny local team Nidaros had only nine members last autumn. Giske then took over as manager in November. – We became the largest local team in the early summer when we passed 600 members, but there have been a couple of hundred more during the summer, Giske told news in August. Former Ap deputy leader Trond Giske manages the party’s supremely largest local team. But many of the members do not live in Trondheim. Photo: Gerd Johanne Braadland / news Membership growth has continued after that time. Many of the new members belong in completely different places than Trøndelag. But according to the former party deputy leader, it is still the case that the majority are from Trondheim. – What do you think about the fact that the party statutes can now be changed in a way that affects the success of Nidaros? – We await the process in the party and do not spend any time on this. We spend our time recruiting members and developing policy, says Giske. When asked what she herself thinks about the Nidaros example, committee leader Lubna Jaffery replies as follows: – All members are welcome in the Labor Party. So I choose to only share my personal considerations relating to Nidaros with the other committee members at this time. Not a new problem. Nidaros is not the only Labor group that has members outside the municipality. Another is Oslo Arbeidersamfund, which was the largest until Giske’s team left. The Network for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders also recruits members from outside the municipality. The so-called gay network is formally a forum team in Oslo Ap, just like the Oil Industry workers’ community, is subordinate to Bergen Ap. This forum team has also traditionally had members who do not live in Bergen. Lubna Jaffery says the problem is linked to even more groups of Labor members. – What do we do, for example, with students who are members of a local team at home, but who live and study in another municipality? The question is whether the party where the member lives, or whether the team they are a member of, should get a payout, she says. The three-crore membership of AUF is also a topic for the committee. The Youth Party’s office practices have created strife within the party. Ahead of last year’s national meeting, Trøndelag AUF wanted to remove this practice of cheap introductory memberships. Specifically, the question is whether the three-crore members should count when AUF’s local representation is to be calculated? And should they be included in the municipal parties’ membership numbers when the counties send their delegations to the national meetings? Concludes next year The committee that assesses Aps’ statutes has been formally set up by the central board and must deliver its recommendations there. Lubna Jaffery emphasizes that the work is not finished. – We have not reached any conclusions yet. The various municipal parties have received a number of questions from the committee, and we will then send our recommendations to the central government during November. It will then be up to the national assembly in April 2023 to take a final position on the matter, she says. Besides Jaffery himself, the selection consists of Øyvind Slåke (Oslo), Roar Aas (Trondheim), Agnes Norgaard (LO), Tone Marie Myklevoll (Troms), Sindre Lysø (AUF), Bengt Odden (Vestfold and Telemark) and Elin Såheim Bjørkli (Inlandet ).
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New Ap statutes may affect Giske’s local association – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
