This week, former General Secretary of the CWU Alan Johnson has issued an unabashed attack on trade union influence within the Labour Party in an interview with Progress, part of an increasingly confrontational and destructive approach to dictating Labour Party policy from the Blairite wing. Jacqui Smith’s now regular articles, including hers on Osborne’s welfare trap before the […]
Posts Tagged ‘Len McCluskey’
Why the left is supporting Len McCluskey for General Secretary
Jan 25th, 2013 by Martin Mayer.United Left, which holds a strong majority on UNITE’s executive council, is backing a general secretary election to give Len McCluskey a new five year mandate. This will give us time to complete the merger (of Amicus and the TGWU) and make UNITE “fit for purpose“. It also delays the next general secretary election some two years after the general election […]
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Working class politics, the labour movement and protest
Jan 16th, 2013 by Len McCluskey.This is the full text of Len’s Ralph Miliband lecture at the LSE. For me personally, the three strands of this lecture: working class politics; the labour movement; and protest; are subjects that have been clear defining features of my life – from my upbringing in Liverpool and throughout my adult social and working life. Indeed […]
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McCluskey on course for another 5 years
Jan 11th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.In the week in which Unite branches have received nomination papers for the Unite General Secretary election, it is clear that Len McCluskey is on course to win another five year term and has broad backing right across the union. The much weakened right of the union, who would have mounted a challenge to Len or his […]
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The gold I want to go for
Mar 8th, 2012 by Len McCluskey.My call for civil disobedience around the time of the Olympic Games caused a media storm last week. Nick Clegg was “gobsmacked”. David Cameron called me “unpatriotic”. I couldn’t care less about their criticism. Clegg is busy dismantling the legacy of those great Liberals Keynes and Beveridge, the architects of the welfare state and full […]
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If trade unions don’t fight the workers’ corner – others will
Mar 3rd, 2012 by Owen Jones.Our Prime Minister certainly has few doubts about who’s orchestrating the backlash against workfare. “Trotskyites!” Cameron boomed during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions; if he’d thrown in “wreckers”, it wouldn’t have been a bad impression of Andrej Vyshinsky, Stalin’s semi-hysterical prosecutor during the 1930s Show Trials.
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Len McCluskey on the union ‘block vote’
Mar 1st, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Len McCluskey’s interview in yesterday’s Guardian makes interesting reading. Most focus has been on what he said about the Olympics about which David Osler has already commented. There is also some very good stuff about the class composition of the parliamentary Labour Party. However, there may also be some concern about what he said about […]
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Leftwing disruption of sporting events: a proud tradition
Feb 29th, 2012 by David Osler.Emily Wilding Davison famously threw herself under the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby, in order to publicise the suffragette cause. She died in hospital a few days later. I truly hope her bravery will be suitably commemorated on its centenary next year.
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A call to arms
Jan 19th, 2012 by Owen Jones.For those who stand outside the austerity consensus, reading Len McCluskey’s column on Tuesday was like coming up for air. It is a cause of deep frustration that, as the Tories’ economic policies are shown to fail (in terms of jobs, growth, consumer confidence, economic inactivity and borrowing levels), the Labour leadership has moved to legitimise […]
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Don’t count on McCluskey to make the break
Jan 18th, 2012 by David Osler.Leeds United defender Norman Hunter, renowned for his perhaps overly robust approach to defence, famous advised young footballers to ‘get your retaliation in first’. The wisecrack metamorphosed into something of a New Labour catchphrase in the mid 1990s, with the line slightly altered to ‘get your betrayal in first’. Recent statements from both Ed Balls and […]
