Labour, it has been said, only occasionally feels the need to take its ideologists seriously. Yes, there have been occasions in which the party has set out a theoretical stall and then tried to justify its political practice with reference to it. But historically speaking, such periods have been comparatively rare.
Posts Tagged ‘Socialism’
Tasks of the Left
Apr 8th, 2012 by Andy Newman.It is one of the more ridiculous claims of the Blairites that they represent a continuity with a long tradition within the Labour Party. Indeed Patrick Diamond wrote a silly book called New Labour’s Old Roots that sought to co-opt figures as diverse as Tawney, Durbin and Crosland as pre-cursors of Tony Blair. In fact, the Labour […]
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Learning from Europe: the future of the British Left
Apr 2nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The most important outcome of the Bradford West by-election is undoubtedly the rejection of the 3 main political parties who secured the support of only 40% of the electors. This increasing disaffection with conventional politics, with the Labour-Tory share of the votes down from 97% in the 1951 election to just 65% in 2010, was […]
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Leanne Wood’s win is a victory for the Left
Mar 18th, 2012 by Darren Williams.Leanne Wood, the left candidate, founder member of the cross-party Celyn editorial team and occasional Labour Briefing contributor, has won Plaid Cymru’s leadership election. The South Wales Central Assembly Member secured 55% of the vote over her main rival, Elin Jones, on the second ballot, after former leader, Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas had been eliminated. Her […]
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François Hollande and the strange resurrection of French social democracy
Mar 11th, 2012 by David Osler.Globalisation killed social democracy, and the experience of the Mitterand government in France between 1981-86 was the earliest intimation of the carnage that was to come. Well, that is the accepted wisdom, anyway. My first ever visit to France came shortly after le vichysto-résistant made it to the Palais de l’Élysée. Even though I was […]
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The perils of party reform, Progress-style
Mar 5th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.The key to reforming the party structure and putting the party back into power, according to Progress, is “putting the community at the centre of the party” with an emphasis on recruiting registered supporters, community organising and selecting Labour candidates through primaries. As David Miliband put it: “We need to expand our reach by building […]
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What David Miliband’s intervention really means
Feb 3rd, 2012 by Owen Jones.Those of us who have suggested David Miliband’s latest political intervention may have – let’s say – ulterior motives have received a bit of flak. Must he stay silent just because any public pronouncement may be misconstrued by the media? Why can’t he contribute to the debate about the party’s future like anyone else?
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Greenspan versus Marx
Jan 26th, 2012 by David Osler.A lot of people on the free market right have a simplistic two-word explanation for why the world economy is currently close to the edge of a frighteningly steep cliff: Alan Greenspan. Throw those Marxist and Keynesian textbooks out the window, people. We are where we are because the former chairman of the Federal Reserve responded […]
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Popular capitalism, unpopular socialism
Jan 20th, 2012 by David Osler.Never mind popular capitalism for a minute; let’s talk a bit about unpopular socialism first. Some readers might be surprised to read that proposition as the opening line of a blog post by a lifelong lefty. But in Britain at least, the truth is support for socialism of any stripe is so low it barely […]
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PASOK, PSOE: the suicide of social democracy
Nov 7th, 2011 by David Osler.After three decades during which the centre left first adapted to neoliberalism, and then adopted it wholesale, it is sometimes difficult to establish what exactly social democracy stands for these days. All of the major European parties that occupy this political space initially came into being to articulate working class demands, and were nominally committed […]
