Model motions for union branches and local Labour parties

Please help us win round, unify and mobilise our movement, branch-by-branch and from the base up, by proposing our model motions to your local Labour Party (branches and constituencies) and to your union branch, whether or not it is affiliated to Labour.

Please let us know via info@labourfreemovement.org what branches you plan to submit the motion in, and the outcome! In your local Labour Party, you can generally submit motions by sending them directly to your branch/CLP secretary (depending on whether your constituency operates a GC [General Committee] with ward-based branches, or a constituency-wide all-members meeting). In your trade union branch, how to submit motions may vary between unions – try contacting your branch secretary, chair or other elected branch officers or ask your workplace rep/steward for advice.

These versions were last updated in October 2024. You may wish to edit them with details of local initiatives, upcoming protests, particular workplace issues etc.

Motion for Labour branches and CLPs

Immigration and asylum: stand for free movement, equality and solidarity

This branch/CLP welcomes the Labour government’s cancellation of the Tories’ brutal Rwanda scheme, but rejects its refusal to guarantee safe routes and asylum rights; its announced “blitz” of raids against migrant workers and expanding detention facilities; and  a deep hostility to free movement which even rejects moderate proposals for youth visas from the EU.

This branch/CLP recognises that attacking and restricting migration does nothing to resolve deep social problems, but it does fuel the increasingly violent far-right. Division and immigration controls make migrant workers precarious and vulnerable to exploitation, and weaken pay and conditions for all workers. Instead, the government must tax the rich & big business to fund good jobs, homes, services and social security for all; and scrap all anti-union laws to help workers unite to push up wages and conditions.

This branch/CLP supports workers refusing to implement racist immigration policies, and communities welcoming new neighbours and defending them from raids and deportations.

This branch/CLP welcomes the withdrawal of the anti-refugee “Border Security Command” at Labour conference 2024, and calls on the government to commit to a policy of free movement, equality and solidarity instead:

  1. Repeal the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024, Illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and Immigration Acts 2014 and 2016;
  2. Implement the policy for migrants’ rights and free movement approved by Labour Party conference 2019 (labourfreemovement.org/labour-conf-2019-landslide-policy);
  3. Restore asylum rights and guarantee safe passage for asylum seekers;
  4. Allow day-one equal access to work, housing, public services and social security, including scrapping the Hostile Environment, NHS charges, and “no recourse to public funds”;
  5. Stop immigration raids, detention and deportations;
  6. Introduce a simple process for all UK residents to gain permanent residency;
  7. Grant all UK residents equal voting rights;
  8. Re-enter Europe’s free movement area and expand free movement with the rest of the world.

This branch/CLP resolves to:

  1. Send this resolution to our Labour MP/PPC/selection candidates, and submit it as a motion to our CLP/Region;
  2. Mobilise for migrants’ rights, including for protests consistent with these policies, and cooperating with local community anti-raids, anti-detention and support groups;
  3. Endorse and promote the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, send it a donation of £___ (labourfreemovement.org/donate), and invite it to send us a speaker.

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Motion for trade union branches

Edit as appropriate depending on your industry and your union’s affiliation to Labour

Immigration and asylum: stand for free movement, equality and solidarity

This branch welcomes the Labour government’s cancellation of the Tories’ brutal Rwanda scheme, but rejects its refusal to guarantee safe routes and asylum rights; its announced “blitz” of raids against migrant workers and expanding detention facilities; and a deep hostility to free movement which even rejects moderate proposals for youth visas from the EU.

This branch recognises that attacking and restricting migration does nothing to resolve deep social problems, but it does fuel the increasingly violent far-right. Division and immigration controls make migrant workers precarious and vulnerable to exploitation, and weaken pay and conditions for all workers. Instead, the government must tax the rich & big business to fund good jobs, homes, services and social security for all; and scrap all anti-union laws to help workers unite to push up wages and conditions.

This branch supports workers refusing to implement racist immigration policies, and communities welcoming new neighbours and defending them from raids and deportations.

This branch welcomes the withdrawal of the anti-refugee “Border Security Command” at Labour conference 2024, and calls on the government to commit to a policy of free movement, equality and solidarity instead:

  1. Repeal the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024, Illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and Immigration Acts 2014 and 2016;
  2. Implement the policy for migrants’ rights and free movement approved by Labour Party conference 2019 (labourfreemovement.org/labour-conf-2019-landslide-policy);
  3. Restore asylum rights and guarantee safe passage for asylum seekers;
  4. Allow day-one equal access to work, housing, public services and social security, including scrapping the Hostile Environment, NHS charges, and “no recourse to public funds”;
  5. Stop immigration raids, detention and deportations;
  6. Introduce a simple process for all UK residents to gain permanent residency;
  7. Grant all UK residents equal voting rights;
  8. Re-enter Europe’s free movement area and expand free movement with the rest of the world.

This branch resolves to:

  1. Send this policy to our union’s higher bodies;
  2. Mobilise for protests consistent with these policies;
  3. Reach out to local anti-raids, anti-detention and migrants’ rights groups in our community for training, cooperation and protests;
  4. Place pressure for these policies on the government via our union’s Labour affiliation, and on local MPs and candidates of all parties;
  5. Explore possibilities for immediate solidarity work as a branch, e.g.: to protect colleagues subject to immigration controls; to resist collaboration by our employer with, or co-option of our members to, anti-immigration surveillance or enforcement; to deliver aid for people trapped in detention/refugee camps or forced to make dangerous migration journeys;
  6. Endorse and promote the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, send it a donation of £___ (labourfreemovement.org/donate), and invite it to send us a speaker.

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