Posted in Outside Left

Left Book Club re-launch planned for autumn with first book on Syriza

OvendenFormer London mayor Ken Livingstone is among a string of authors set to be published by a new Left Book Club, which launches this autumn.

A collective of writers, activists and academics have been working on the project with the radical publisher Pluto Press. The project aims to emulate the original 1936-1948 club in provoking thought and debate on the left. Subscribers will pay £40 a year for four (mainly original) books in addition to access to exclusive events, a newsletter and an online discussion forum. The first book, planned for the Autumn, will be Kevin Ovenden’s Syriza: Escaping the Labyrinth, an up-to-date guide to the party’s rise and its struggles in office. Its foreword will be penned by Channel 4 News economics editor Paul Mason. Continue reading →

The worst thing about Osborne’s budget isn’t the cuts – it’s their popularity

Cameron and OsborneOnce George Osborne delivered the first Tory budget since 1996 the British Left predictably took to the internet – and in some cases to the streets – to protest against what was a vicious attack on living standards, the unemployed and disabled people by a government less than a quarter of people voted for and made up of Eton-educated millionaires. But while this perspective might dominate the Facebook timelines and the Twitter feeds of left-wingers like myself, the more sober view (I daren’t call it ‘analysis’) from Labour’s Blairites and the crowing Tories is for once worth heeding to – like it or not, this budget was popular.

YouGov’s initial polling indicated majority support for almost every significant policy Osborne announced. That horrible two-child limit to tax credits that one Labour MP referred to as from the days of Mao and King Herod? 67% supported it. Only 20% didn’t. The draconian and totally arbitrary reduction in the benefits cap that will drive thousands of people into poverty and homelessness? The same results – 67% in favour, 20% against. What of the cruel robbery of housing benefits from the under-21s? Exactly half of people supported you losing your right to living independently.  Continue reading →

After the shameful deal imposed on Greece, where are the left Eurosceptics?

Europe: Many Tongues, One VoiceThe deal imposed by the Eurozone grouping on Greece is nothing short of shameful. It continues to pile up the debt, reducing Greece to the status of a debt colony of the rich, Northern European countries. It, like all austerity programmes, expects working people, pensioners, the young to pick up the tab for payments that never touched the Greek economy.

It puts the kibosh on Syriza’s radical manifesto and any hopes the Greek people had on ending the entirely preventable depression the country sits in. And naturally, as every crisis is an opportunity to make money, parts of the Greek state are to undergo forcible privatisation. This is yet to make its way through the Greek Parliament, but nevertheless I think Tsipras and his comrades have done the best with the awful hand they were dealt. Continue reading →

1/4 million in Saturday’s rally against austerity: 1 million next time!

18396446204_967159a9b8_qGovernments don’t listen to Parliament so long as they have a majority, but they do listen to social movements amassing their forces against them. Saturday’s rally against austerity assembling 250,000 activists is a very good start, and it needs to be followed through with ever bigger demos over the next few months. You can always tell when the Establishment is worried: at first they ignore it (only the Times reported the rally, not the other right-wing papers), then they report it but only if scuffles or violence takes place (there wasn’t any), and then if the pressure continues and grows bigger still, government takes notice and behind the scenes begins to backtrack. Continue reading →

Why David Aaronovitch is wrong about the anti-austerity demonstration

aaronovich and demosWhat do you do when you give up trying to change the world? There are two options. The first is to fade into private life and spend more time gardening, building a model railway, or indulging whatever other ever-so worthwhile pursuits. The other is to try and make a career as a professional naysayer. It’s but a short hop from “why are you bothering, nothing ever changes” to full on apologising for the establishment you once railed against.

And so yesterday’s anti-austerity demo that saw many thousands take to the streets and command the headlines on an otherwise sleepy Saturday also attracted a fair few armchair dismissals from the safety of Twitter.

Chief among these was David Aaronovitch, who tweeted “What, in the name of all that is holy, is the point of an anti-austerity demo four weeks AFTER the election that decided the issue?” Many moons have passed since David claimed the Communist Party as his political home, but with the long-lapsed membership has gone some elementary understandings of how politics work. So on the off-chance David’s reading this, allow me to provide some needed instruction.  Continue reading →