Tagged with Community

Another Labour Students stitch-up?

Inside Labour CorbynOn Wednesday 1st March, the Labour Students National Committee met for the first time in nearly four months, for little more than an hour. In keeping with the democratic standards we have come to expect from the Labour Students full-time officials, no agenda was circulated in advance and committee members’ attempts to have any items discussed were stonewalled with little more than a shrug.

One committee member had, for instance, moved that the Committee discuss and vote on publishing a statement condemning Community Union’s recent, disgraceful behaviour at ASOS, which amounts to little more than scabbing and represents a betrayal of the GMB’s impressive organising drive there. There are several reasons why Labour Students ought to have discussed this, the main one, of course, being that Labour Students has its own sweetheart deal with Community which involves sponsorship, advertising and, one presumes, substantial sums of money. Given this ‘special relationship’, which the Labour Students full-timers often mention, the organisation would be in a good position to offer public solidarity with the GMB.  Continue reading →

Community need to face the consequences

communityThe criterion for success for any trade union campaign is whether or not it leaves organisation weaker or stronger.

A hundred years ago, the German socialist, Rosa Luxemburg, observed that trade union organisation was a “labour of Sisyphus”, comparing it to the mythological figure who was doomed to an eternity of pushing a rock up hill, only for it to roll back to the bottom each time.

It is certainly true that the nature of capitalist competition between companies means that the commercial context that businesses operate in is always changing, and that in the final analysis there is a conflict of interest between employers who wish to get more work for less money, and employees who wish to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be paid a fair wage. In that respect no negotiated deal is ever final, and the process of industrial relations is never ending. Continue reading →

British democracy requires a Corbyn victory

440px-Jeremy_CorbynYesterday marked a turning point in the Labour leadership battle.

Neither of the trade unions with a leaning towards the Blairite wing of the party backed Liz Kendall. Community announced that they were backing Yvette Cooper, and Usdaw announced that they were backing Andy Burnham. This follows Kendall’s relatively poor performance in gaining nominations from the parliamentary Labour party, indicating that the reach of the party’s right wing is surprisingly weak.

It is of course wrong to describe Kendall as a “Tory”, and the jibes about “Blairite Taliban” were ill-advised. The party is a broad church, and the strand of liberalism which Kendall represents has a long tradition within the party. As I have written before, it is wrong to compare Blairism with Conservatism. Continue reading →

The lesson of Hetton and the basis of a new vision for the British working class

hetton_lyons_Wheel2 copyI write this as the immensely proud Member of Parliament for Blaydon. I write it in the aftermath of what has been described as a political earthquake and I write it based on four decades of activity in the Labour movement alongside 36 years of working in coal mining and as a care worker in a local authority.

I believe that the worries and hopes that I express are based on the real experiences of day to day life of ordinary men and women across this nation. I hope that, if nothing else, it reaches those who can really change the direction in which this nation is being driven by right wing ideologues. Continue reading →

Learning from Stephen Sutton

v2-Stephen-Sutton-CroppedPractically everyone plugged in to some form of social media will have heard of Stephen Sutton, the 19 year old teenage cancer fundraiser who died earlier today. It’s very sad news for his family and friends, and for everyone who followed his story. His life was short, but he set an exemplary example of altruism. It must have been very gratifying for Stephen knowing that years of fundraising finally paid off and that others will benefit from the £3.2m he and his supporters were able to raise for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

People who write about the social uses of the new media technologies all too often dwell on the darker side of the internet. It’s easy to see why. The utopian yearning of escaping the meat, and cruising the information superhighway en route to your electronic homestead collapsed the very moment people started waxing lyrical about them. Besides, dystopia’s cache of cool is way more beguiling than the positives the internet allows for. Then again, melancholy never built anything – something Stephen certainly realised. Continue reading →