Posted in Ideology

Labour 6:1 in favour of a public railway, stronger unions and an end to austerity

BE BOLD LABOUREarlier this week we reported that, following Syriza‘s remarkable victory in Greece on a platform of ending austerity and greater state intervention in the economy, 15 Labour MPs including Michael Meacher had called for a similar change in direction here. They issued a statement calling for an alternative to austerity, for public ownership of the railways and for a return to collective bargaining and employment rights in the workplace.

Now LabourList have carried out a survey showing that 83% of their readers agree with that statement, with only 13% disagreeing. That is a remarkable result. LabourList themselves say: Continue reading →

Syriza’s shows Labour how to prevent vote haemorrhage to Greens, SNP & UKIP

10381881_sIt would be idle to pretend that Britain’s economic problems resemble those of Greece when the latter has suffered a 25% reduction in its national income and where three out of every five young adults are now out of work. But there is one parallel between them which is shared by both countries, as well as several others in the EU, and that is increasing resistance to endless austerity.

Osbornomics has not produced a genuine or sustainable recovery, but rather an elongated austerity which offers not the faintest hope of escape within the foreseeable future. Promises of clearing the structural budget deficit by 2019-20 are pure moonshine when the deficit is still hovering around a monstrous £100bn and actually starting to rise again this year. If Osborne got his way with the £25bn further cuts, including £12bn in social benefits, which he has promised for the next Parliament, the one certainty is that the deficit problem won’t remotely be solved, but the anger will finally blow the roof off the whole of Osborne’s ‘back to the 1930s’ project. Continue reading →

There are better things to be doing than playing the patriot game

Jim Murphy by by Steve Punter at http://flickr.com/photos/11051496@N00/3465695310“To these ends we work for the patriotic interest of the people of Scotland” runs part of a suggested new aims and values statement (Clause 4 – renumbered from Clause 2 for marketing purposes) that we are being asked to endorse at Scottish Conference in March.

As a party and a movement we can do better than this, if we are allowed the chance. And there are a number of reasons both political and practical why we should make a point of doing so. Not least, because the idea is built on a foundation of myths – and nationalist myths at that.

More fundamentally our party should be forming our aims and values through participation and involvement from the grassroots up. Not a take it or leave it edict handed down from the top. Continue reading →

Election should be about vision of new economic order – Is Labour ready?

new-economic-order with edIt is ironic that the Tories, the enemies of ideology and avowed exponents of pragmatism, are starting this election with a much stronger ideological pitch than Labour, normally the proud presenter of an alternative vision. Osborne has gone on the offensive immediately by advocating the balanced budgeting and small state goals of the 1920-30s aimed at shrinking the State and consolidating the power of capital over labour, but which would cripple growth exactly as it did a century ago and restore the Downton Abbey society of that period. It is a hideous scenario and should be hammered to bits, but it does at least offer a scenario of the trajectory of Tory policy, were they to win. For Labour , against that background, the incentive to offer the vision of the new economic order should be compulsive. Continue reading →

On Charlie Hebdo and defending liberty – a dose of multiculturalism would help

charlie-hebdoToday we express solidarity and sympathy with the remaining staff of Charlie Hebdo and the families and friends of their 12 colleagues brutally murdered yesterday. It was an appalling attack on the freedom of speech, including the right to criticise, to satirise and to lampoon which we believe are essential features of democracy.

Furthermore, in defending the right to criticise, to satirise and to lampoon, we recognise that the exercise of this right will sometimes offend. Some of those who are condemning yesterday’s murders as an act of terrorism, including the White House, previously criticised Charlie Hebdo in doing just that by publishing images some of which were indeed obscene (such as this which we recommend you do not look at if you are likely to be offended) after it had been firebombed for similar actions the previous year. In a democracy, the right of free speech is accompanied by a requirement of tolerance. You don’t have to read or listen to views you disagree with or find offensive. That applies to views both promoting and criticising aspects of religious or political belief. Continue reading →