Firstly, a defence of Ed Miliband. He has been savaged from both left and right for speaking at the TUC’s historic demonstration against the cuts on Saturday. Some activists booed him as he spoke, angered by any association between Labour and the anti-cuts movement. The criticisms from the right, meanwhile, have been largely predictable: in modern Britain, any politician who associates with the largest democratic organisations in the country – our 7 million-strong unions – is automatically regarded as unelectable. Continue reading
Tagged with Laurie Penny
Leaderless youth will not bring this Government down
The modern left has few more treasured iconic events than the French uprising of May 1968. 10 million workers occupied or walked out of their workplaces in the biggest general strike in European history. Thousands of radical students demanded the end of French capitalism. As barricades were erected across the nation, President Charles de Gaulle flew to Germany to consult with his military advisors. Europe’s rulers looked on with alarm. But what the French call les evenements de mai 1968 is not just an inspiration for today’s emerging anti-Coalition movement. It is a warning from history. From the perspective of the radical left, the uprising was a catastrophic failure.