Forget The #LabourParty. It Forgot You Long Ago
There’s been some shock and outrage expressed in the last few days over Ed Milliband’s decision to U-turn on opposition to the Tory cuts. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The Labour party have not been on the side of the working class for a long time before Blair or even the 1970′s and 80′s that are seen by some as a golden age of the party.
Of political parties claiming socialism to be their aim, the Labour Party has always been one of the most dogmatic – not about socialism, but about the parliamentary system.
Empirical and flexible about all else, its leaders have always made devotion to that system their fixed point of reference and the conditioning factor of their political behaviour. This is not simply to say that the Labour Party has never been a party of revolution: such parties have normally been quite willing to use the opportunities the parliamentary system offered as one means of furthering their aims. It is rather that the leaders of the Labour Party have always rejected any kind of political action (such as industrial action for political purposes) which fell, or which appeared to them to fall, outside the framework and conventions of the parliamentary system. The Labour Party has not only been a parliamentary party; it has been a party deeply imbued by parliamentarism. And in this respect, there is no distinction to be made between Labour’s political and its industrial leaders. Both have been equally determined that the Labour Party should not stray from the narrow path of parliamentary politics.
The Labour Party remains, in practice, what it has always been- a party of modest social reform in a capitalist system within whose confines it is ever more firmly and by now irrevocably rooted.
The above quote is from the introduction to Ralph Milliband’s Parliamentary Socialism: A Study of the Politics of Labour published in 1961. The reality is that the Labour party has been beyond the control of it’s rank and file members and unions since it first gained MP’s in the 1920′s. The latest move is no more of a surprise today than Neil Kinnock’s failure to support the miners in 1984 or to even attempt to effectively resist the de-industrualisation of Britian, the smashing of communities and the financialisation of the economy that was Thatcherism.
Ed Milliband and the Labour party are (re)abandoning the working class now at a time of open conflict. They’ve chosen the parliamentary system, the law of the rich and the bosses. It’s who they are, as Ed’s father said in 1961 – everything is flexible except for the goal parliamentary power.
This time though things are different, it’s not the 1980′s. In the 1980′s the Tories reinvented Britain, created the conditions by liberalising capital markets to allow capital to redeploy production to countries with cheap ununionised labour and attacked the working class organisations at home. They also sold a vision. A vision of home ownership for all, a stake in the corporations they sold off. It was pure deceit, there’s nothing empowering about a mortgage and being able to buy shares in a business you already owned as a citizen before it was sold off by the state is willingly participating in your own robbery. It worked though, 18 years of power and the completion of a project that lasted 10 more years under Labour. In 1998 John Major said of Blair’s government “they have good policies, they’re our policies”.
There’s no vision today though, it’s a straight up fight. They can’t sell council houses off cheap because they’ve already sold them. There’s no BT share issue for us to get excited over or British Gas shares to tell Sid about because they’ve already sold them. The vision of the Tories today is “The Big Society” which translates to “We’re not taking tax off the rich to pay for services so do it yourself”.
Unlike the 80′s the Labour party have got out of the way early doors. Less than 2 years in and they’re hand is nakedly declared. There’s no handwringing over whether a miners ballot was quite as it should be to excuse not providing unequivocal support for working class people fighting for their jobs. Ed Milliband isn’t even pretending to be on your side.
The unions are crying about this, as though this is some kind of revelation to them. It’s not. It might be the time they turn, when Unite along with Unison and the GMB etc. follows the RMT and disaffiliates from Labour That’s up to you though. If you’re a member, fight for it and for love of sanity make sure you opt out of your unions political fund and make it clear you’re doing so because of Labour Party affiliation.
The fight now is who pays for the disaster of the 1980′s de-industrialisation and the fiancialisation of the economy. Do we as the working class pay for it though redundancy and pay cuts? Do the disabled and vulnerable pay for it through service and benefit cuts? If you think that’s what should happen, you don’t need to do anything. Vote Labour in 2015.
It’s up to us, it’s never been more clear that all we have is each other. The Labour Party aren’t going to help us, forget them.
Now Or Never! & The Electric Heretics Have Got a File on You
PRESS RELEASE - 08/11/2011 Now Or Never! magazine, in conjunction with digital rights activists The Electric Heretics , have issued a statement (see link below) to the applicants running for the Norwich South New Labour candidacy that their party should be more careful with their personal data.
http://nowornevermagazine.weebly.com/now-or-never–the-electric-heretics-have-got-a-file-on.html
Opinion: Ian Bone-ARE ANARCHISTS THE ENEMIES OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT?
Thus asks Andy Newman on his Socialist Unity site. His excuse for running the piece is the egging of Brendan Barber at Goldsmiths last night. This has given Newman - a supporter of Ed Balls, Galloway, Livingstone, Cruddas, Searchlight, Abbott, Sheridan etc etc – an excuse to re-run his hoary old stalinist anti-anarchist lies.
The egging is compared to Class War’s assault on Neil Kinnock in Hyde Park in 1983.
Good.
In the build up to March 26th we can expect much more of the same from the Left as they see their tired old formulaic A-B marches and Vote Labour aims discredited.
A clear attempt to frighten the punters on the march from taking any action promoted by these ‘enemies’. It might have worked in the past Andy – Spain 1936 – but this time the horse has bolted with a red and black flag on it’s head and thousands of punters failing to accede to Brendan’s pleas to GO HOME at 5pm from Hyde Park.
You’ve been rumbled Andy – I’d check the flights to caracas if i were you…
http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/are-anarchists-the-enemies-of-the-labour-movement/
Why NCAG Have Pulled Out Of The Norfolk Coalition Against The Cuts.
With immediate effect Norfolk Community Action Group withdraw our affiliation with Norfolk Coalition Against The Cuts.
From the outset NCAG has had to deal with some fairly ridiculous manoeuvres by elements within the local coalition.
To start with our email sent to actually affiliate with the group that claims ownership of the struggle against the current governments cuts in Norfolk was taken before the steering group in order for us to be allowed to join. We were then summoned before said steering group to answer questions on our position on multiculturalism, in itself a laughable course of events.
While trying to educate some lefty elements within the steering group about the logic of multiculturalism and it being anything BUT progressive and inclusive, it was clear that some people just can’t get past reading socialist texts of the 1900′s. Our stated support of an open borders policy in conjunction with our opposition to multiculturalism appeared to do little more than confuse, so from the beginning we were well aware what we were up against.
However as fighting these ideological cuts we see as imperative we were willing to try and show solidarity and go ahead with affiliation once approved.
This has been a mistake on our part.
Absolutely nothing has changed on the left. The coalition is made up of the same tired old faces from struggles past who see fighting back as a march down the road and dragging out the same worn out octogenarians to speak, however well respected they are, as adequate action in fighting back against the cuts. Leaflets, marches, speeches, petitions, hidden left caucuses within the coalition…all symptomatic of a politics with very little direction not even attempting to move forward.
But let’s deal with the reality here. Most members leading the coalition are from a Labour trade union left and assorted Trot organisations who are oblivious to the fact that they are part and parcel of why the Labour Party were not returned to power at the last election. They, and the Labour Party, simply no longer have anything in common with the working class of our society. What’s more many still think they live in the 1970′s, but in reality trade union membership makes up for only around 26% of workers in Britain today.
There are those too who simply are not concerned with the likes of people living on council estates or the majority non unionised workers in society, precisely the reason they have nothing to offer a progressive fight back against these cuts.
It was not the unions who were instrumental in bringing down the Poll Tax and Thatcher, but the hard work and dedication of those willing to get their hands dirty by agitating within the general populace and building a mass movement within the working class. And let’s face it, the Labour Party and TUC are not opposed to the cuts, they just want nicer ones.
Bottom line, most are simply interested in getting the Labour Party re-elected to power.
While there are those individuals within the coalition we have much respect for, and while we still see the trade unions as being important to any successful fightback, it is the rank and file members and unheard voices in society that are the real key to winning this struggle, and not the bureaucrats, careerists and leaders who’ll win it.
We return to working within the communities of our region and leave the Norfolk Coalition Against The Cuts to do whatever it thinks it’s doing by agreeing to two minute marches with the police and spending all it’s time preaching to the already converted.
After all, it is the cuts we’re fighting isn’t it, not seeking the re-election of the Labour Party…
Opinion: Out With The Old Politics
by Laurie Penny
Ed Miliband’s pitiful offer of 1p membership won’t tempt the young back to parliamentary politics.
Democracy is going cheap. Just in time for the January sales, the party responsible for introducing tuition fees has decided that it wants to jump on the youth protest bandwagon. “Join the party for one penny, and we will be your voice,” writes Ed Miliband in a rather desperate Christmas message to under-25s.
Labour is making a fundamental error, however, in assuming that these young protesters want or need anybody to “be our voice”. Parliamentary politics has sold the young out, and whatever bargain-basement price tag mainstream parties slap on their membership, they aren’t buying it any more.
The young people of Britain do not need leaders, and the new wave of activists has no interest in the ideological bureaucracy of the old left. Their energy and creativity is disseminated via networks rather than organisations, and many young people have neither the time nor the inclination to wait for any political party to decide what direction they should take. The Liberal Democrats represented the last hope that parliamentary democracy might have something to offer the young, and that hope has been exquisitely betrayed – no wonder, then, that the new movements have responded by rejecting the old order entirely.
What we are seeing here is no less than a fundamental reimagining of the British left: an organic reworking which rejects the old deferential structures of union-led action and interminable infighting among indistinguishable splinter parties for something far more inclusive and fast-moving. These new groups are principled and theoretically well-versed, but have no truck with the narcissism of small differences that used to corrupt even the most well-meaning of leftwing movements.
At the student meetings I have attended in recent weeks, ideological bickering is routinely sidelined in favour of practical planning. Anarchists and social democrats are obliged to work together alongside school pupils who don’t care what flag you march under as long as you’re on the side that puts people before profit. When the Unite leader, Len McLuskey, wrote in these pages this week encouraging union members to lend their support to the “magnificent student movement”, he hit precisely the right note – one that respects the energy of these new networks of resistance without seeking to hijack it. The unions have begun to realise what the Labour party is still too arrogant to consider – that the nature of the fight against bigotry and greed has evolved beyond the traditional hierarchies of the left.
It is highly significant that one of the first things this hydra-headed youth movement set out to achieve was the decapitation of its own official leadership. When Aaron Porter of the National Union of Students was seen to be “dithering” over whether or not to support the protests, there were immediate calls for his resignation – and in subsequent weeks the NUS has proved itself worse than irrelevant as an organising force for demonstrations.
Of course, the old left is not about to disappear completely. It is highly likely that even after a nuclear attack, the only remaining life-forms will be cockroaches and sour-faced vendors of the Socialist Worker. Stunningly, the paper is still being peddled at every demonstration to young cyber-activists for whom the very concept of a newspaper is almost as outdated as the notion of ideological unity as a basis for action.
For these young protesters, the strategic factionalism of the old left is irrelevant. Creative, courageous and inspired by situationism and guerrilla tactics, they have a principled understanding of solidarity. For example, assembling fancy-dress flash mobs in Topshop to protest against corporate tax avoidance may seem frivolous, but this movement is daring to do what no union or political party has yet contemplated – directly challenging the banks and business owners who caused this crisis.
The young people of Britain are no longer prepared to take orders, and are unlikely to pay even a penny for a vacillating, pro-business party to be “our voice”. We have never spoken in just one voice. We speak in hundreds of thousands of voices – voices that are being raised across Europe, not in unison but in harmony. The writing on the wall of the Treasury earlier this month may yet prove prescient: this is just the beginning.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/24/student-protests-young-politics-voices
No Need For Public Spending Cuts!
Found on YouTube
Professor Greg Philo explains an imaginitive method of clearing the national debt, but the Labout and Conservative MPs present are not particularly interested.
Local Labour Party Activists Urge For Enquiry Into Police Tactics
So if you’re in the Labour Party and just happen to be passing-feel free!
Statement
As a member of Norwich Labour Party I …………………………………….. would like to add my voice to the call for a full public inquiry into the policing tactics used yesterday outside Parliament. Eyewitness accounts now emerging on the internet, through the main public news networks and now in the press, suggest that the official government position that the near breakdown in public order in London last night arose not from a small well organised ‘anarchist’ group intent on damaging life, limb and property but was a direct result of the police practice of ‘Kettling’. From last nights violence it is clear that this relatively new practice of policing, legitimate public protests, is rapidly leading to grave public order issues.
Tonight we have news that a 20 year old student called Alfie Meadows, sustained near life threatening head injuries in the battle that erupted outside Parliament. Fortunately he was found by his mother wandering the streets by Parliament taken to hospital by ambulance where he immediately had an emergency operation that undoubtedly saved his life. If he had not been discovered and had passed out it is entirely possible that today we would be discussing not simply the protest of the students that accompanied the debate on raising tuition fees in the house of commons but the cutting short of the life of a person who’s only crime was that of exercising his democratic rights.
Regardless of the issue that surrounds the question of how to fund further and higher education we can not accept the curtailment of our right to protest through fear of what the state might do, or more precisely, the limits set by the metropolitan police practice of ‘Kettling’. Therefore a public inquiry into what were the causes of last nights violence is urgently required because it is now impossible to determine the validity of the statements of either the metropolitan police or the government. More over it is of vital concern locally as there are serious implications for policing of future protests in Norfolk.
On Monday (6th) a lobby of Norfolk County Council by students from Norwich City College protesting at the cuts to their travel subsidy took place and was publicly applauded by the Tory County Council leader from the steps of County Hall. However from eyewitness accounts by County Council employees and a Labour Councillor, we now know that the ‘riot police’ with police dogs had been garrisoned in the County Hall car park out of sight of the 300 plus students assembled on the grass in front of the building. Neither the students nor the media who had dutifully turned up to record the march, lobby and reception (BBC’s Look East) were aware of this. Of course the argument is that the ‘riot police’ are there to restore order but at this stage, following the disturbances in London, it is impossible to say whether they were not in fact the cause. If the ‘riot police’ had been used on Monday it is entirely possible that it would have been Norfolk and not just London that would be in the national and international news tonight.
Signed ………………………….. Date …/…/… Organisation ……………………..
Five Minute Wonder Chloe Smith an ‘Inspiration’…Or Not…
Great to see such an ‘influential’ MP get where she is today because Ian Gibson, barred from standing in the next general election by a disciplinary panel of the Labour Party after expenses irregularities, resigned forcing a by-election.
Just don’t tell Chloe nobody would have heard of her if Gibson had decided to stand as an ‘Independent’…
Politicians. Can’t live with em, can’t get rid of em…
We Couldn't Agree More Chloe!
Accolade for ‘influential’ Norwich MP Chloe Smith
Norwich North MP Chloe Smith has been named as one of the 20 most influential young women in the country by an upmarket magazine.
The list, complied by Red magazine, features women under 30 from fields including politics, business, charity, music, fashion and literature.
Miss Smith, 27, won the previously safe Labour seat of Norwich North for the Tories in July’s by-election, called following the resignation of Ian Gibson.
She is the youngest MP in Westminster – the so-called “baby of the House” – and is referred to in the piece as “the Tories’ secret weapon”.
The magazines quotes Theresa May, shadow work and pensions secretary and shadow minister for women, who paid tribute to Miss Smith in a BBC interview, praising her “different approach” to politics and calling her a “fresh face” who could be a huge benefit to the party.
Sam Baker, editor-in-chief of Red magazine, said: “Westminster is traditionally full of middle-aged men, so we’re delighted to see smart, passionate young women making a name for themselves in politics.
“Red magazine’s recent survey of ‘middle youth’ voters (30+ professional females) revealed that 97 per cent of women are not inspired by female MPs. If Chloe Smith and others like her are involved in politics, it will give women political figures they can be inspired by.”
Other women in the list include actress Sheridan Smith, best known for her roles in Gavin and Stacey, Two Pints of Lager and Love Soup; novelist Jennie Rooney and chef Gemma Tuley.
Miss Smith said: “I’m delighted and flattered to be in this list. I’m also very happy for a politician to be appearing after what has, without doubt, been a difficult year for Parliament.
“I was proud to be elected at a young age and I do hope to contribute to my country as part of a new generation of people interested in positive politics.
“Role models are incredibly important and I think Red is doing a great job in highlighting young people’s positive achievements.
“Personally, I have a number of people that I can look to for help and inspiration, and I strongly believe that role modelling, networking, mentoring and training are the kind of things that help young women get on. I’m honoured to be able to contribute something in turn by being in this list.”
Miss Smith appears in the April edition of Red, out on Wednesday.
Do you know a young person making a big impression in their community? Contact reporter Jon Welch on 01603 772476 or email jon.welch@archant.co.uk
Forty Labour MPs Call For Radical Party Policies
From a press release today
In order to mobilise the maximum number of Labour voters in preparation for the next election, we believe that Labour should now focus its campaigning around the following key principles:
A. The recession should be tackled not with cuts in essential public spending, but by massive public investment in house-building, infrastructure and the de-carbonisation of the economy.
B. Banks should be split up with their casino investment arms hived off. Publicly-owned retail banks should be required to meet new social and community objectives and support manufacturing, with lending to businesses and homeowners restored to 2007 levels. Pay and bonuses should be tightly regulated.
C. A clean break must be made with market fundamentalism – deregulation and privatisation. Public provision should be expanded – in health care, education, housing, pensions, energy and transport. Royal Mail must remain wholly in the public sector.
D. In the face of huge and unacceptable growth of inequality, a big redistribution programme must swing resources away from the rich to provide sizeable increases in pensions, the minimum wage, the lowest benefit levels, and to fund job creation and improved public services. Union rights must be restored – it is in economic crisis that workers are most in need of that protection.
E. To achieve the 80% carbon emission reduction target by 2050, renewable sources of energy should be promoted on a far bigger scale, industry (including airlines) should be required to reduce its climate change emissions by at least 3% per year, household carbon allowances should be introduced, and the UK targets should be fully met by domestic action and not by carbon offsetting abroad.
We also believe that if Labour is to revive its membership in numbers and activity, it must fully restore its internal democratic procedures so that the voice of its individual and affiliated members is listened to and taken account of. This process has begun with the adoption of all-member voting rights for the National Policy Forum.
But we believe that several further reforms are needed, in particular to restore to the elected NEC full supervision and control over the party’s operation and finances, to introduce a charter of members’ rights and a Party Ombudsman to enforce them, and to renew for all party employees the core civil service values of impartiality, integrity, honesty and objectivity in the development of party policy and selection of party candidates.
MP Signatories
Diane Abbott
John Austin
Colin Burgon
Ronnie Campbell
Colin Challen
Michael Clapham
Katy Clark
Harry Cohen
Michael Connarty
Frank Cook
Jeremy Corbyn
Jim Cousins
Jon Cruddas
Ann Cryer
Ian Davidson
David Drew
Bill Etherington
Mark Fisher
Paul Flynn
Neil Gerrard
Fabian Hamilton
Dai Havard
David Heyes
Kelvin Hopkins
Lindsay Hoyle
Brian Iddon
Lynne Jones
Andrew Mackinlay
John McDonnell
Michael Meacher
Alan Meale
Austin Mitchell
Chris Mullin
Gordon Prentice
Ken Purchase
Linda Riordan
Alan Simpson
Marsha Singh
Graham Stringer
Paul Truswell
Joan Walley
David Winnick
Mike Wood
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/02/01/40-labour-mps-call-for-radical-campaign-policies/
While we have every sympathy with many members of the Labour Party who wish to return to ‘the good old days’, perhaps it would be better to look to the future rather than crying over spilt milk…
Instead of national parties with candidates parachuted into communities they know little about, isn’t it time that local organisations put up local candidates who have only local issues at the top of their agendas?
We certainly think it is and we know many of you do too……
