The completely spurious nature of the grounds given were outlined in last month's LLB. In fact the suspension had clearly been deliberately prepared by Blair's machine as a fall-back in case the coup failed. Why is Blair so determined to smash Leeds North East? Because the CLP has a record of being active, democratic, honest and left-wing.

After the defeat of 1992, Leeds North East CLP bounced straight back into campaigning. It realises that winning a seat requires work week in, week out across several years, not just a burst in the weeks before an election. Activists in Leeds North East want to win for Labour, but Blair wants to smash the CLP even if it costs Labour the seat.

The CLP operates as a genuinely democratic party and respects the results of democratic decision making. Blair, on the contrary, overruled members' democratic choice of Liz Davies as PPC and now seeks to overrule the results of the AGM. In both cases these were, from the leadership's point of view, the "wrong" results. Naughty democrats!

In 1992 there was an attempt in a couple of Leeds constituencies to rig the trigger ballot for the Euro-selection. Leeds North East played a leading role in the fight to expose this and a re-run was conceded. The Party machine was so grateful for this assistance in preventing corruption within the Labour Party that the next year they tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the Boundary Commission to break up the Constituency.

And of course, Leeds North East has tended to support such unacceptably extreme ideas as progressive taxation, full employment, decent pensions and trade union rights. This brackets Leeds North East with such far-left revolutionaries as Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Carey.

The point for the left is not that Leeds North East is a wonderful, exceptional CLP but that it isn't exceptional at all. If your constituency party is active, honest, democratic or left-wing then you are under threat. There is a growing catalogue across the country of arbitrary and unjustified suppression of local parties and interference in selections. Indeed if the Labour into Power proposals being pushed by the NEC for this year's Conference are passed then all CLPs will be, to all intents and purposes, permanently suspended as democratic policy-making bodies.

Reluctantly, Leeds North East is taking legal action to defend the right of a CLP to operate by the rules. Members don't want to go to court (and can't afford to), but what other way remains to defend the rights of both Party members and CLPs in Leeds and elsewhere? The fight back must be now. It needs to use all avenues, political and legal, and needs to involve all of us.

If you, your branch, CLP, Local Government Committee or district party is or has been suspended, or the leadership has imposed a candidate or otherwise interfered in you selection process, please let us know. If you would like a speaker at a meeting, please let us know.

If you are able, please send a donation. Cheques, etc. should be payable to "Celia Foote (Leeds NE)". Make sure the letter we sent in February to your CLP Secretary about our suspension is discussed at your GC. Use your CLP's one Conference motion to oppose the Labour into Power proposals. You won't get a second chance. Make sure you have an able Conference delegate mandated to speak and vote against the Labour into Power proposals.

For more information contact Celia Foote, 24 Martins Drive, Leeds LS7 3LR, tel. 0113-262 4667.

Previous articles on Leeds North East CLP includes Sawyer suspends whistle-blowers and A tale of two selections