People are discontented, disaffected and hungry for change. The so-called consumer society robs us of our universal humanity and our environment of its natural balance. Living standards are squeezed to offset the falling rate of profit. Women’s work in particular continues to be systematically undervalued, with the poorest of the poor hit hardest of all. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Political Strategy’
Why the unions need to steer the political mainstream to the left, not abandon it
Apr 30th, 2013 by Andy Newman.Like thousands of Labour activists I have been busy in last few weeks campaigning in the county council elections. I have been out leafleting in the small towns of Chippenham, Corsham and Devizes, where the party is seeking to consolidate the good progress made in last year’s Police and Crime Commissioner elections. At the grassroots, Labour Party [...]
Ed needs to work out where disunity comes from, and let the party decide its direction
Apr 25th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.It is true that “Len McCluskey does not speak for the Labour Party” as Ed Miliband’s spokesperson put it last night. Nor (anymore) do Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Alan Milburn, David Blunkett, John Reid, or Tessa Jowell, who have between them been subjecting Ed to persistent attacks, without regard to the impending local elections. But the unnamed shadow [...]
Len McCluskey: the Left needs you
Mar 5th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.There are two ways to look at Len McCluskey and his campaign for another five years as General Secretary of Unite. One is to look at his record within Unite and the TGWU before it, and at his future plans for the direction of Britain’s biggest union. What will he do for his members? And [...]
Left Unity and presenting a clear Left alternative
Feb 27th, 2013 by Kate Hudson.Britain faces two more years of disastrous coalition policies, but no coherent left political alternative is being presented. This has led a number of people from disparate parts of the left to come together to found a new website www.leftunity.org, to discuss what is necessary and possible for a left alternative, and to learn from [...]
Owen Jones on austerity, class and the prospects for capitalism
Feb 18th, 2013 by Newsdesk.In the first of their Radical Voices interview series, Anticapitalists.org spoke to Owen Jones about austerity, class, ideology, and the socialist alternative in the 21st century. The Anticapitalist Initiative describes itself as “a network that enables anti-capitalist activists to debate current political issues. Where possible it aims to unite these activists to fight against capitalism, [...]
We need a Socialist Campaign for Labour Victory
Jan 22nd, 2013 by Andy Newman.There is no doubt that Owen Jones’s column in the Independent is an asset for the left, reaching a wide audience. His latest proposal is modest but correctly calibrated I think. After reflecting on the seemingly terminal crisis in the far left group, the SWP, Owen suggests that the era of the Leninist sects is [...]
‘Labour against Sin’ launched today (and why we should oppose it)
Dec 4th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Well, almost. Labour for Democracy actually. Misleading name – it’s the electoral reform lobby. They just won’t lie down. As if we haven’t had enough of coalitions! We haveone now that satisfies neither party that’s in it, and gives us policies that their voters voted against, never mind ours. And they want more of the same [...]
Ed Miliband on Europe
Nov 24th, 2012 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Ed Miliband’s One Nation in Europe speech this week at the CBI conference formally marks an interesting shift in Labour Party positioning on the EU. I say interesting because for too long Labour has ceded this political ground to the right. Defending the EU as is may have attraction for some, but having little to nothing [...]
The class politics of CLASS
Nov 8th, 2012 by David Osler.After decades in which the very word ‘class’ has been virtually unmentionable in polite Labour Party circles, the symbolism behind the acronym that arises from launching a body under the name of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies is entirely obvious. Even some of those sympathetic to its birth argue privately that the title [...]
