Tagged with Peoples Assembly

Can Jeremy Corbyn Win?

JeremyCorbyn1From the moment he got on the ballot paper, Jeremy Corbyn was swiftly pigeonholed as ‘the Left candidate’ incapable of attracting the broad support necessary to win the Party leadership. In an act of remarkable short-sightedness all the other major contenders from Kendall to Burnham have acted as if we still inhabit a pre-Collins party, and their approach has been similar to their diagnosis of Labour’s defeat in May: triangulate enough to win over the nebulous and non-existent ‘Middle England’ and victory is assured.

On the face of this, Corbyn’s victory would seem implausible. Those of us supporting Jeremy are asking a Labour Party where David Miliband, the continuity Blairite candidate in 2010, won the membership vote and Diane Abbott of the Socialist Campaign Group came a very firm last, to now vote in one of its most leftwing MPs to become leader after a General Election many (wrongly) perceive the party as losing because we shifted too far to the left. 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 →

Outside the Westminster bubble, people are mobilising against austerity

Austerity demoWithin 72 hours of the Tories forming a majority in Parliament it became crystal clear they were salivating at the opportunity to further impose their political austerity agenda for another five years. Attacks on freedom of speech, protest, the Human Rights Act and the right to strike came swiftly. Threshold limits on industrial action ballots are proposed, with higher thresholds for those working in health, education, fire and transport services. This will push many disputes outside the law as the shackles tighten on lawful action, enabling employers to challenge ‘small and irrelevant technicalities’ in the Courts. Alongside criminalising those engaged in picketing it adds up to a thought through attempt to debilitate working people and remove the most powerful collective weapon we have, the human right to withdraw our labour. Continue reading →

Britain Needs a Pay Rise: Demonstrate on 18 October


Labour’s conference is over. We now need a Labour government but, just as important, we need a groundswell of opinion and activity against Austerity.

On Saturday 18 October, hundreds of thousands of people will come together to demand an alternative to cuts, privatisation and falling living standards on the Britain Needs a Pay Rise national demonstration. Be there! Continue reading →

Why BBC News ignored the People’s Assembly march

russell_brand_parliament_slide_siteBy any common sense measure, a large protest ambling through London should be big news. The Graun covered it. Twitter was all over it. And yet, the many thousands who turned out on the People’s Assembly March Against Austerity got nary a mention on BBC News bulletins. All it merited was a postage stamp of an article on the website. And to think, more or less simultaneously, the rolling news channel was gurning over the annual summer solstice hippy fest at Stonehenge. We say cutback, they say, erm, “Look at the sun rising behind the Heelstone!” So yes, some people are pretty peed off. When the BBC eagerly cover Nigel Farage opening a toilet door and ignore the largest demonstration to have taken place in London this year, a lot of the marchers and their supporters are crying foul. Quite rightly too. Continue reading →