LEFT FUTURES

National Executive Committee Away Day 26 November 2017. This NEC was the annual ‘Away Day’, where ‘blue sky thinking’ is encouraged. This year we held our meeting in Glasgow where we were warmly welcomed by the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard and the very enthusiastic Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), and part of the meeting was held jointly with the SEC. TEN SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT THE GRENFELL TOWER FIRE Ten shocking facts about the Grenfell Tower fire. Britain was shocked yesterday at the sight of Grenfell Tower, a block of flats that housed as many as 600 people in West London, engulfed by flames in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Since the fire, a number of shocking facts have become apparent, and Theresa May has called for a public ON JIMMY SAVILE, TONY BLAIR, AND TURNING A BLIND EYE TO The terrible thing about Jimmy Savile’s serious crimes involving young girls is how many people in senior and influential positions knew about his behaviour and chose to do nothing about it, to turn a blind eye.People who knew him at Radio Luxembourg and Mecca as early as the 1960s, Detective Inspector John Lindsay’s superiors at Thames Valley police during the late 1970s, BBC bosses as REMEMBERING DENIS HEALEY Remembering Denis Healey – the good, the bad and the utterly hilarious. Denis Healey was a great figure for twenty-five years of Labour history, a politician with “a hinterland”, very well-read and deeply interested in art and music, and, though Jeremy Corbyn may not have approved, was a master of the brilliant put-down. LABOUR AND THE FALKLANDS: WHAT FOOT GOT WRONG Labour and the Falklands: what Foot got wrong. Margaret Thatcher had no particular animus against the average Latin American military dictatorship. So long as the lideres maximales confined themselves to the workaday torture and execution of leftists and strict implementation of Chicago School economics, they could always count on

her

INTERSECTIONALITY AND POSTMODERN FEMINISM Intersectionality and Postmodern Feminism. We left the last post having worked through the basic conceptualisation of intersectionality. If you can’t be bothered to trudge through its thousand or so words, simply put it is the appreciation of how different oppressions rooted in ostensibly discrete sets of violent (symbolically and physically ON THIS DAY: LABOUR'S GREAT REBELLION AGAINST CHURCHILL On this day: Labour’s great rebellion against Churchill and its own leaders. Seventy years ago today, Labour MPs mounted the biggest rebellion of the second world war against the wartime coalition government’s reluctance to implement the Beveridge report. The overwhelming majority of the parliamentary Labour Party voted against

its own

LABOUR POLITICIANS ON THE RICH LIST Labour politicians on the Rich List. Posted by Jon Lansman. Most of the rich politicians in Britain, says the Times, are Tories as you would expect. Lord Ashcroft (worth £1,200m) leads the field, pharmaceutical magnate Lord Balleymond next (worth £860m), followed by the Marquess of Salisbury (275m) at no 4, and Lord Heseltine

(£264m) no 5.

BEN BRADSHAW'S LINKS TO THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY MAKE HIM Ben Bradshaw’s links to the Henry Jackson Society make him unfit to be Deputy Leader. Last month Labour Deputy Leader-hopeful Caroline Flint was outed as having received donations for her campaign from corporate lobbyists Sovereign Strategy. Vice ’s article points out Sovereign’s links to Maximus, the company contracted by the

government

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT HILARY BENN'S "ELECTRIFYING Taking a closer look at Hilary Benn’s “electrifying” speech. Hilary Benn’s Commons speech in the Syria debate on 2 December has received high praise from right wing politicians and the media. It has been variously described as “ one of the great speeches of the House of Commons ” ( Phillip Hammond ), a “ tour de force ” ( Tony

LEFT FUTURES

National Executive Committee Away Day 26 November 2017. This NEC was the annual ‘Away Day’, where ‘blue sky thinking’ is encouraged. This year we held our meeting in Glasgow where we were warmly welcomed by the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard and the very enthusiastic Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), and part of the meeting was held jointly with the SEC. ON JIMMY SAVILE, TONY BLAIR, AND TURNING A BLIND EYE TO The terrible thing about Jimmy Savile’s serious crimes involving young girls is how many people in senior and influential positions knew about his behaviour and chose to do nothing about it, to turn a blind eye.People who knew him at Radio Luxembourg and Mecca as early as the 1960s, Detective Inspector John Lindsay’s superiors at Thames Valley police during the late 1970s, BBC bosses as TEN SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT THE GRENFELL TOWER FIRE Ten shocking facts about the Grenfell Tower fire. Britain was shocked yesterday at the sight of Grenfell Tower, a block of flats that housed as many as 600 people in West London, engulfed by flames in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Since the fire, a number of shocking facts have become apparent, and Theresa May has called for a public LABOUR AND THE FALKLANDS: WHAT FOOT GOT WRONG Labour and the Falklands: what Foot got wrong. Margaret Thatcher had no particular animus against the average Latin American military dictatorship. So long as the lideres maximales confined themselves to the workaday torture and execution of leftists and strict implementation of Chicago School economics, they could always count on

her

BEN BRADSHAW'S LINKS TO THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY MAKE HIM Ben Bradshaw’s links to the Henry Jackson Society make him unfit to be Deputy Leader. Last month Labour Deputy Leader-hopeful Caroline Flint was outed as having received donations for her campaign from corporate lobbyists Sovereign Strategy. Vice ’s article points out Sovereign’s links to Maximus, the company contracted by the

government

INTERSECTIONALITY AND POSTMODERN FEMINISM Intersectionality and Postmodern Feminism. We left the last post having worked through the basic conceptualisation of intersectionality. If you can’t be bothered to trudge through its thousand or so words, simply put it is the appreciation of how different oppressions rooted in ostensibly discrete sets of violent (symbolically and physically REMEMBERING DENIS HEALEY Remembering Denis Healey – the good, the bad and the utterly hilarious. Denis Healey was a great figure for twenty-five years of Labour history, a politician with “a hinterland”, very well-read and deeply interested in art and music, and, though Jeremy Corbyn may not have approved, was a master of the brilliant put-down. JEWS AND THE MARXIST LEFT IN WORLD WAR TWO SOAS professor Colin Shindler can’t quite bring himself openly to state that British Marxists would have collaborated with the Wehrmacht had Germany invaded Britain in 1940. So he implies it instead, resorting to the transparently shoddy device of putting a question mark after each de facto accusation contained in his essay for the Jewish Chronicle last week. ON THIS DAY: LABOUR'S GREAT REBELLION AGAINST CHURCHILL On this day: Labour’s great rebellion against Churchill and its own leaders. Seventy years ago today, Labour MPs mounted the biggest rebellion of the second world war against the wartime coalition government’s reluctance to implement the Beveridge report. The overwhelming majority of the parliamentary Labour Party voted against

its own

LABOUR POLITICIANS ON THE RICH LIST Labour politicians on the Rich List. Posted by Jon Lansman. Most of the rich politicians in Britain, says the Times, are Tories as you would expect. Lord Ashcroft (worth £1,200m) leads the field, pharmaceutical magnate Lord Balleymond next (worth £860m), followed by the Marquess of Salisbury (275m) at no 4, and Lord Heseltine

(£264m) no 5.

LEFT FUTURES

National Executive Committee Away Day 26 November 2017. This NEC was the annual ‘Away Day’, where ‘blue sky thinking’ is encouraged. This year we held our meeting in Glasgow where we were warmly welcomed by the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard and the very enthusiastic Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), and part of the meeting was held jointly with the SEC.

LEFT FUTURES

Sep 8th, 2017. by David Pavett. After the politically stultifying years of Blair/Brown and its aftermath under Miliband, Labour members voted for a left-wing leader in 2015. This was a palace revolution without a changing of the guard. All the old structures THE ANTI-IMPERIALISM OF FOOLS The anti-Imperialism of fools. Ever since IS became the next big bogey to fill the USSR-sized gap in the perceived threats-to-our-existence market, I knew it would be a matter of time before an empty-headed comparison was made between Islamists scuttling into Syria and the volunteers who flocked to Spain to fight fascism in the 1930s. 10 REALLY GOOD THINGS ABOUT GORDON BROWN The class Gordon Brown is seeking to defend as the front man for the “No” campaign is the political class of the Con-Dems and Labour. Labour have been found out in Scotland for what they are. Brown is as new Labour as Miliband. The Blairites and Brownites destroyed the BEN BRADSHAW'S LINKS TO THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY MAKE HIM Ben Bradshaw’s links to the Henry Jackson Society make him unfit to be Deputy Leader. Last month Labour Deputy Leader-hopeful Caroline Flint was outed as having received donations for her campaign from corporate lobbyists Sovereign Strategy. Vice ’s article points out Sovereign’s links to Maximus, the company contracted by the

government

THERESA MAY AND THATCHERISM Theresa May and Thatcherism. There is a touch of confusion about Theresa May’s political posturing. The apparent lurch ‘to the left’ signified by her abandonment of Osbornomics (and, of course, Osborne himself) for soft Keynesianism sits uneasily with a commitment to hard Brexit. The homage paid to official anti-racism is at odds

with her

SHOULD LABOUR ENTER INTO ELECTORAL PACTS? Should Labour enter into electoral pacts? Zac Goldsmith’s decision to resign as a Tory MP and contest his Richmond Park seat in a by-election as an independent, in protest at the government’s decision to build a third Heathrow runway, has raised the thorny issue of electoral pacts. With the Conservatives and UKIP choosing not to

contest the

THE FIGHT AGAINST RACISM IN VENEZUELA The fight against racism in Venezuela. The re-election of Hugo Chavez earlier this month underlined once again how it is Latin America that is the beacon of hope in the world for all those looking for alternatives to austerity. His landslide re-election was IS IT TIME TO REVIEW THE BRIDLINGTON AGREEMENT? The principle behind the Bridlington Agreement is therefore clear that it is designed to prevent a situation where unions enter into a zero-sum game of competing for each others members, thus weakening and destabilising organisation. However, we do need to understand a number of changes in the trade union landscape since 1939, which means that WHAT IF DAVID MILIBAND HAD WON … What if David Miliband had won . The polls were with Labour. The feedback on the doorstep was very encouraging. It looked like all the naysayers and the problems of the previous five years had been put to bed. Until that exit poll flashed up on the nation’s TV screens. It gave the Tories a clear lead, and one several seats away from a

LEFT FUTURES

National Executive Committee Away Day 26 November 2017. This NEC was the annual ‘Away Day’, where ‘blue sky thinking’ is encouraged. This year we held our meeting in Glasgow where we were warmly welcomed by the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard and the very enthusiastic Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), and part of the meeting was held jointly with the SEC. TEN SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT THE GRENFELL TOWER FIRE Ten shocking facts about the Grenfell Tower fire. Britain was shocked yesterday at the sight of Grenfell Tower, a block of flats that housed as many as 600 people in West London, engulfed by flames in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Since the fire, a number of shocking facts have become apparent, and Theresa May has called for a public ON JIMMY SAVILE, TONY BLAIR, AND TURNING A BLIND EYE TO The terrible thing about Jimmy Savile’s serious crimes involving young girls is how many people in senior and influential positions knew about his behaviour and chose to do nothing about it, to turn a blind eye.People who knew him at Radio Luxembourg and Mecca as early as the 1960s, Detective Inspector John Lindsay’s superiors at Thames Valley police during the late 1970s, BBC bosses as REMEMBERING DENIS HEALEY Remembering Denis Healey – the good, the bad and the utterly hilarious. Denis Healey was a great figure for twenty-five years of Labour history, a politician with “a hinterland”, very well-read and deeply interested in art and music, and, though Jeremy Corbyn may not have approved, was a master of the brilliant put-down. LABOUR AND THE FALKLANDS: WHAT FOOT GOT WRONG Labour and the Falklands: what Foot got wrong. Margaret Thatcher had no particular animus against the average Latin American military dictatorship. So long as the lideres maximales confined themselves to the workaday torture and execution of leftists and strict implementation of Chicago School economics, they could always count on

her

INTERSECTIONALITY AND POSTMODERN FEMINISM Intersectionality and Postmodern Feminism. We left the last post having worked through the basic conceptualisation of intersectionality. If you can’t be bothered to trudge through its thousand or so words, simply put it is the appreciation of how different oppressions rooted in ostensibly discrete sets of violent (symbolically and physically ON THIS DAY: LABOUR'S GREAT REBELLION AGAINST CHURCHILL On this day: Labour’s great rebellion against Churchill and its own leaders. Seventy years ago today, Labour MPs mounted the biggest rebellion of the second world war against the wartime coalition government’s reluctance to implement the Beveridge report. The overwhelming majority of the parliamentary Labour Party voted against

its own

LABOUR POLITICIANS ON THE RICH LIST Labour politicians on the Rich List. Posted by Jon Lansman. Most of the rich politicians in Britain, says the Times, are Tories as you would expect. Lord Ashcroft (worth £1,200m) leads the field, pharmaceutical magnate Lord Balleymond next (worth £860m), followed by the Marquess of Salisbury (275m) at no 4, and Lord Heseltine

(£264m) no 5.

BEN BRADSHAW'S LINKS TO THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY MAKE HIM Ben Bradshaw’s links to the Henry Jackson Society make him unfit to be Deputy Leader. Last month Labour Deputy Leader-hopeful Caroline Flint was outed as having received donations for her campaign from corporate lobbyists Sovereign Strategy. Vice ’s article points out Sovereign’s links to Maximus, the company contracted by the

government

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT HILARY BENN'S "ELECTRIFYING Taking a closer look at Hilary Benn’s “electrifying” speech. Hilary Benn’s Commons speech in the Syria debate on 2 December has received high praise from right wing politicians and the media. It has been variously described as “ one of the great speeches of the House of Commons ” ( Phillip Hammond ), a “ tour de force ” ( Tony

LEFT FUTURES

National Executive Committee Away Day 26 November 2017. This NEC was the annual ‘Away Day’, where ‘blue sky thinking’ is encouraged. This year we held our meeting in Glasgow where we were warmly welcomed by the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard and the very enthusiastic Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), and part of the meeting was held jointly with the SEC. TEN SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT THE GRENFELL TOWER FIRE Ten shocking facts about the Grenfell Tower fire. Britain was shocked yesterday at the sight of Grenfell Tower, a block of flats that housed as many as 600 people in West London, engulfed by flames in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Since the fire, a number of shocking facts have become apparent, and Theresa May has called for a public ON JIMMY SAVILE, TONY BLAIR, AND TURNING A BLIND EYE TO The terrible thing about Jimmy Savile’s serious crimes involving young girls is how many people in senior and influential positions knew about his behaviour and chose to do nothing about it, to turn a blind eye.People who knew him at Radio Luxembourg and Mecca as early as the 1960s, Detective Inspector John Lindsay’s superiors at Thames Valley police during the late 1970s, BBC bosses as REMEMBERING DENIS HEALEY Remembering Denis Healey – the good, the bad and the utterly hilarious. Denis Healey was a great figure for twenty-five years of Labour history, a politician with “a hinterland”, very well-read and deeply interested in art and music, and, though Jeremy Corbyn may not have approved, was a master of the brilliant put-down. LABOUR AND THE FALKLANDS: WHAT FOOT GOT WRONG Labour and the Falklands: what Foot got wrong. Margaret Thatcher had no particular animus against the average Latin American military dictatorship. So long as the lideres maximales confined themselves to the workaday torture and execution of leftists and strict implementation of Chicago School economics, they could always count on

her

INTERSECTIONALITY AND POSTMODERN FEMINISM Intersectionality and Postmodern Feminism. We left the last post having worked through the basic conceptualisation of intersectionality. If you can’t be bothered to trudge through its thousand or so words, simply put it is the appreciation of how different oppressions rooted in ostensibly discrete sets of violent (symbolically and physically ON THIS DAY: LABOUR'S GREAT REBELLION AGAINST CHURCHILL On this day: Labour’s great rebellion against Churchill and its own leaders. Seventy years ago today, Labour MPs mounted the biggest rebellion of the second world war against the wartime coalition government’s reluctance to implement the Beveridge report. The overwhelming majority of the parliamentary Labour Party voted against

its own

LABOUR POLITICIANS ON THE RICH LIST Labour politicians on the Rich List. Posted by Jon Lansman. Most of the rich politicians in Britain, says the Times, are Tories as you would expect. Lord Ashcroft (worth £1,200m) leads the field, pharmaceutical magnate Lord Balleymond next (worth £860m), followed by the Marquess of Salisbury (275m) at no 4, and Lord Heseltine

(£264m) no 5.

BEN BRADSHAW'S LINKS TO THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY MAKE HIM Ben Bradshaw’s links to the Henry Jackson Society make him unfit to be Deputy Leader. Last month Labour Deputy Leader-hopeful Caroline Flint was outed as having received donations for her campaign from corporate lobbyists Sovereign Strategy. Vice ’s article points out Sovereign’s links to Maximus, the company contracted by the

government

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT HILARY BENN'S "ELECTRIFYING Taking a closer look at Hilary Benn’s “electrifying” speech. Hilary Benn’s Commons speech in the Syria debate on 2 December has received high praise from right wing politicians and the media. It has been variously described as “ one of the great speeches of the House of Commons ” ( Phillip Hammond ), a “ tour de force ” ( Tony

LEFT FUTURES

National Executive Committee Away Day 26 November 2017. This NEC was the annual ‘Away Day’, where ‘blue sky thinking’ is encouraged. This year we held our meeting in Glasgow where we were warmly welcomed by the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard and the very enthusiastic Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), and part of the meeting was held jointly with the SEC.

LEFT FUTURES

Sep 8th, 2017. by David Pavett. After the politically stultifying years of Blair/Brown and its aftermath under Miliband, Labour members voted for a left-wing leader in 2015. This was a palace revolution without a changing of the guard. All the old structures THE ANTI-IMPERIALISM OF FOOLS The anti-Imperialism of fools. Ever since IS became the next big bogey to fill the USSR-sized gap in the perceived threats-to-our-existence market, I knew it would be a matter of time before an empty-headed comparison was made between Islamists scuttling into Syria and the volunteers who flocked to Spain to fight fascism in the 1930s. 10 REALLY GOOD THINGS ABOUT GORDON BROWN The class Gordon Brown is seeking to defend as the front man for the “No” campaign is the political class of the Con-Dems and Labour. Labour have been found out in Scotland for what they are. Brown is as new Labour as Miliband. The Blairites and Brownites destroyed the BEN BRADSHAW'S LINKS TO THE HENRY JACKSON SOCIETY MAKE HIM Ben Bradshaw’s links to the Henry Jackson Society make him unfit to be Deputy Leader. Last month Labour Deputy Leader-hopeful Caroline Flint was outed as having received donations for her campaign from corporate lobbyists Sovereign Strategy. Vice ’s article points out Sovereign’s links to Maximus, the company contracted by the

government

THERESA MAY AND THATCHERISM Theresa May and Thatcherism. There is a touch of confusion about Theresa May’s political posturing. The apparent lurch ‘to the left’ signified by her abandonment of Osbornomics (and, of course, Osborne himself) for soft Keynesianism sits uneasily with a commitment to hard Brexit. The homage paid to official anti-racism is at odds

with her

SHOULD LABOUR ENTER INTO ELECTORAL PACTS? Should Labour enter into electoral pacts? Zac Goldsmith’s decision to resign as a Tory MP and contest his Richmond Park seat in a by-election as an independent, in protest at the government’s decision to build a third Heathrow runway, has raised the thorny issue of electoral pacts. With the Conservatives and UKIP choosing not to

contest the

THE FIGHT AGAINST RACISM IN VENEZUELA The fight against racism in Venezuela. The re-election of Hugo Chavez earlier this month underlined once again how it is Latin America that is the beacon of hope in the world for all those looking for alternatives to austerity. His landslide re-election was IS IT TIME TO REVIEW THE BRIDLINGTON AGREEMENT? The principle behind the Bridlington Agreement is therefore clear that it is designed to prevent a situation where unions enter into a zero-sum game of competing for each others members, thus weakening and destabilising organisation. However, we do need to understand a number of changes in the trade union landscape since 1939, which means that WHAT IF DAVID MILIBAND HAD WON … What if David Miliband had won . The polls were with Labour. The feedback on the doorstep was very encouraging. It looked like all the naysayers and the problems of the previous five years had been put to bed. Until that exit poll flashed up on the nation’s TV screens. It gave the Tories a clear lead, and one several seats away from a

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THE GROTESQUE CHAOS OF CLAIRE KOBER’S HARINGEY Feb 5th, 2018by David Osland

The

resignation of a council leader would normally be no biggie. I mean, I’m guessing entirely here, but presumably that happens in towns or cities across Britain several times a year, for one reason or another. These things usually merit a run of front pages in the local press, and perhaps a short mention or two nationally. They are then swiftly forgotten, as just another ego-driven municipal hissy fit over a bypass or an over-budget leisure centre. All of that makes the events surrounding Claire Kober’s departure in Haringey simply extraordinarily. Continue reading →

18 comments

Posted in: Uncategorized TIME TO MOVE ON FROM THE 1980S, LORD HATTERSLEY Dec 6th, 2017by David Osland

If

I were official keeper of the Croslandite flame, easily the most renowned contemporary advocate of that standpoint, I’d be humble enough to ponder why my preferred brand of politics carried such little traction in Britain in 2017. As a serious partisan of social democracy, I would ask why ideas of the stripe that until recently dominated Labour now fail to enthuse its membership. Might that indicate shortcomings in the ideas themselves? Or perhaps certain failings on the part of those who now propagate them? Why are adherents so frequently parodied as out-of-touch Centrist Dads or personally venal baby boomer neoliberals? The very last thing I would do is to dust off memories of the Bennite years, and try to shoehorn developments of the last two years into a prism completely inapplicable nearly four decades later. That, unfortunately, is what former deputy leader Roy Hattersley unconvincingly attempts in his widely publicised article in the_

Observer_

this weekend, which will deeply disappoint those of us whose memories of his past role are better than that. Continue reading →

18 comments

Posted in: Activism

,

Ideology ,

Labour ,

Politics

Tagged: Militant ·

Momentum

ELECTIONS TO LABOUR’S NATIONAL EXECUTIVE: DO YOU WANT A MEMBER-LED PARTY OR DON’T YOU? Dec 4th, 2017by Phil Burton-Cartledge

When

I’ve finished writing this blog post, I’ll be heading over to my inbox to send my National Executive Committee votes off for Yasmine Dar, Rachel Garnham and Jon Lansman. For obvious reasons this internal contest has been portrayed as pro-Jez or anti-Jez; you’re either for him or against him. Yet it’s worth remembering this isn’t a case of Corbyn supporters motivated by the Labour leader’s celebrity or unassuming style. It’s about politics, and the Labour right, who don’t really have any politics beyond hating the Labour left, would do well to remember the appeal of Corbynism is explicitly political. If you happen to be reading this and haven’t made your mind up, these words might be of some use. Continue reading →

6 comments

Posted in: Activism

,

Labour ,

Politics

Tagged: CLGA · CLPD

� NEC

� Party democracy

PETE WILLSMAN REPORTS FROM LABOUR’S NOVEMBER EXECUTIVE Dec 1st, 2017by Peter Willsman

NATIONAL

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AWAY DAY 26 NOVEMBER 2017 This NEC was the annual ‘Away Day’, where ‘blue sky thinking’ is encouraged. This year we held our meeting in Glasgow where we were warmly welcomed by the new leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard and the very enthusiastic Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), and part of the meeting was held jointly with the SEC. _Procedure for the election of the NEC representative from the

party’s youth_

This election is timetabled for early in the new year. It was pointed out that for some years the trade unions have been pressing for a procedure which is more representative of the two wings of our party, the industrial and the political. In particular, an electoral college consisting of 50% young party members voting by OMOV, and 50%, affiliates – using their own mechanisms to reflect the views of their young members. After lengthy discussion, this procedure was agreed for the 2018 scheduled election. It was noted that this matter is covered by the Democracy Review and thus, in due course, the new arrangements could be amended. Continue reading →

15 comments

Posted in: Labour

, Politics

Tagged: NEC

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN CATALONIA? Nov 16th, 2017by Mike Phipps Things have happened quickly since the unauthorised referendum called by Catalunya’s regional government on October 1st. The result – a  90% yes vote on a 42% turnout, with many opposed to independence staying away – led Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to proclaim independence. The Spanish government responded by completely suspending Catalan autonomy and unleashing fierce repression – which in fact began before the poll.  Continue reading →

22 comments

Posted in: International THOSE WHO HELPED BREAK THE ECONOMY CANNOT FIX IT Nov 13th, 2017by Ann Pettifor Make no mistake, yesterday’s increase in interest rates was a big deal. Painful as it might be for a good share of the population, the real point is that the Bank is signalling the end of a particular phase of monetary policy. Since 2010 the counterpart to self-defeating austerity policies has been expansionary monetary policies. These have inflated assets – enriching the already-rich, while failing to stimulate wider economic recovery. Yesterday the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee signalled an end of this dangerous game.  Continue reading →

18 comments

Posted in: Economy

SOCIALISM AND IMMIGRATION – A REPLY TO DON FLYNN Nov 8th, 2017by David Pavett

Don

Flynn claims

that I argued “that support for the right of migrants to freedom of movement is the same as support for the free movement of capital”. Readers of my article can see that I said no such thing. It is possible to support one and not the other. Armed with this confusion he says that my argument is that in “curbing the right of people to move freely we would also be restraining the domination of capital”. Well yes, a constraint on capital to force the movement of population would be a constraint on capital. But that was not really my point. The main point, which Don avoids, is that uncontrolled large-scale population movements across national boundaries are incompatible with the social planning to which most socialists aspire. Continue reading

→

36 comments

Posted in: International

, Labour

,

Migration/Immigration

,

Politics

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AND THE RIGHTS OF LABOUR: A REPLY TO DAVID

PAVETT

Nov 2nd, 2017by Don Flynn David Pavett’s attack on the newly-formed Labour Campaign for Free

Movement

wrongly argues that support for the right of migrants to freedom of movement is the same as support for the free movement of capital. The implication he draws from this association is that in curbing the right of people to move freely we would also be restraining the domination of capital. Supporters of the new LCFM take pretty well the opposite view on this point: in the world of actually-existing capitalism the gains that have been won for the rights of people to move across the world as migrants have to be counted as advances – limited and partial though they might be – for the working class. It is because capital has the right to move so freely that the right of wage earners to move within labour markets to position themselves for the available job opportunities has always been fundamental to the socialist cause. Continue reading →

29 comments

Posted in: Europe

,

International ,

Uncategorized

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADE FOR JOBS Oct 31st, 2017by Tom O Leary The Brexit negotiations are entering a decisive phase, with leading UK business organisations saying they will not invest and must consider whether they relocate if there is no agreement on a transition phase and there is clear progress on trade talks. For its part the Tory Cabinet is deferring any discussion on its key aims for EU trade talks

,

despite the pretence it is clamouring for them to begin. Any decision on the desired new relationship with the EU would probably lead to Cabinet splits, so discussion is being avoided. The potential damage to the economy and living standards can be gauged in terms of jobs. Chart 1 below shows the number of UK jobs that are directly dependent on exports. In OECD jargon, these are the totals of ‘domestic employment in the UK embodied on overseas final demand’. Continue reading →

12 comments

Posted in: Uncategorized JEREMY CORBYN AND THE NEW MAINSTREAM Oct 1st, 2017by Phil Burton-Cartledge

Tweeting

earlier in response to Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech, Ed

Miliband observed

that the

centre ground had moved and was being shaped by Labour. Correct. The boasts about Labour being the mainstream have a solid foundation because, to be more exact, our party is one of two

mainstreams

.

There’s the one we’ve seen Labour pander to for the 20 years pre-JC. The _“common sense”_ centre ground expressed by newspaper editorialising, which has seen a rough consensus around market economics and the role of state, groupthink about cutting social security and immigration, and a unity of purpose in scapegoating powerless minorities. Blair’s genius, if that’s the right phrase, was to constantly adapt to this consensus rather than challenge it. Even redistributive politics that assisted low wage earners were crafted in such a way as not to frighten the horses in the leafy marginals. One problem was once the Tories got their act together under Dave, all it took was Brown to bottle an election for them to cruise to pole position among your YouGovs and Survations. The progressive consensus the later Blair talked about as the timer ticked down lacked substance. For the policy achievements, and there were

some

,

there was no legacy in terms of value and political change. Dog-eat-dog economics reigned and right wing populism and fascism started getting traction during his time. Dave certainly had his problems after ascending to the top job, but overcoming popular affection for New Labour wasn’t one of them. Continue reading →

33 comments

Posted in: Labour

, Politics

Tagged: Jeremy Corbyn

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