Contributors
Michael Meacher has been a Labour MP for Oldham since 1970 and a Minister both in the 1970s and, from 1997 to 2003, for the Environment. Since then, he has been a leading critic of New Labour policy on the economy, outspoken on climate change and parliamentary reform and blogs daily here.
Jon Lansman, our Editor, is a veteran Bennite and party democracy campaigner. He gave up tribalism in the Blair years but believes that winning the Labour Party for socialism and sustainability is the Left’s least bad option. In spite of his wariness of parliamentary cretinism, he works in parliament for Michael Meacher MP.
Ann Pettifor is an analyst of the global financial system and co-author of the Green New Deal. She predicted an Anglo-American debt-deflationary crisis back in 2003, and is known for her work on sovereign debt and Jubilee 2000. A fellow of the new economics foundation, director of Advocacy International and and co-founder of PRIME, the economic think-tank, she blogs at Debtonation and the Huffington Post.
Mark Seddon is a former editor of Tribune, member of the Labour party’s National Executive Committee and the United Nations and New York correspondent for Al Jazeera International. He blogs regularly at Big Think.
Andy Newman is the primary contributor to Socialist Unity, probably the leading website to the Left of Labour. He recently rejoined the Labour Party, he is on the National Steering Committee of the Stop the War Coalition, and the Southern Regional Council of the GMB.
Owen Jones is a Hackney lefty originally from oop norf, former flunky for unions and Labour MPs, and author of ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class’. He blogs at jonesblog, tweets as @owenjones84 and he’s been published and interviewed in more places than anyone else who looks his age. He was named by Left Foot Forward as Most Influential Left-Wing Thinker of the Year and, more ominously, by the Daily Telegraph as one of the ’Top 100 Most Influential People on the Left’ for 2011.
David Osler is a journalist, author and blogger of an unorthodox Marxist perspective. He blogs on his own blog and at Liberal Conspiracy and his book, Labour Party plc: New Labour as a Party of Business, is still available here.
Carl Packman is a health researcher, writer and blogger. He has written for the New Statesman, the Guardian, Tribune Magazine, The Philosopher’s Magazine and the International Journal for Zizek Studies. He blogs at Liberal Conspiracy, Though Cowards Flinch and tweets as @carlraincoat.
Michael Burke is an economic consultant. He has worked in the City and was formerly Senior International Economist with Citibank in London. He co-authored Stimulating Recovery, on solutions to the Irish economic crisis and has written extensively on the British, Asian and European economies. He blogs regularly for Socialist Economic Bulletin and is a co-founder of PRIME, the economic think-tank.
Andrew Murray is Chief of Staff of Unite the Union and a member of the General Council of the TUC. Until recently, he was Chair of Stop the War coalition, and he is also a former Morning Star journalist.
James Bloodworth blogs at the Independent, Jacobin and his own blog, Obliged to Offend.
Ben Mitchell is a freelance political analyst providing commentary on current affairs with a particular (but certainly not exclusive) interest in all things British. He writes for Left Foot Forward and is also a contributor for Liberal Conspiracy and tweets as @bmitchellwrites.
Darrell Goodliffe blogs widely – most regularly at The Huffington Post, LabourList, and Socialist Unity and has also written for Liberal Conspiracy, Tribune and Labour Uncut. His own blog is Moments of Clarity and he tweets as @DarrellGoodliff.
Richard Murphy is a founder of the Tax Justice Network , advisor to the TUC (for whom he wrote The Missing Billions) and blogs on economic and taxation at Tax Research LLP of which he is Director. His clients include governments, commercial organisations, aid agencies and pressure groups here and abroad.
Peter Willsman is Secretary of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee, first elected in 1998, having previously been well known to conference delegates as a member of the Conference Arrangements Committee for thirteen years. If you’ve heard him speak, you may think he’d enjoyed a career as a stand-up comic but in fact he was a research officer for NUPE and then Unison.
Mark Drakeford is Professor of Social Policy at Cardiff and was, until recently, senior Special Advisor to the Welsh Government. The BBC describes him as “providing the intellectual underpinnings for the much vaunted ‘clear red water’ strategy of differentiating Welsh Labour from New Labour;” WalesHome as “arguably the most influential person on the left in Welsh politics over the past decade.” He is also prospective Labour candidate for Cardiff West for the Welsh Assembly.
Dave Semple blogs at Though Cowards Flinch and Liberal Conspiracy. He is a member of the Socialist Party (though formerly also of the Labour Party and Labour Representation Committee).
Duncan Hall is a college lecturer, freelance writer and semi-professional musician. He is the author of A Pleasant Change from Politics: Music and the British Labour Movement Between the Wars. A veteran of 1990s student politics and Vice Chair of Skipton and Ripon Labour Party, Duncan writes on a wide range of issues, including education policy.
Bob Clay was MP for Sunderland North from 1983 to 1992 and served first as Treasurer then as Secretary of the Campaign Group of MPs. He never had any time for parliamentary cretinism and two terms was all he could take. He now lives in South Wales.
