Labour Party

Economic policy and creating space

Over recent months Jeremy Corbyn, now Labour Party leader, and John McDonnell, now Shadow Chancellor, have made four major statements on economic policy. Corbyn issued a document, The Economy in 2020, on 22 July, as part of his Labour leader campaign. McDonnell spoke at Labour Party conference on 29 September, and wrote articles for the Guardian website on 12 August and 12 May. They are a step forward from what we had from Ed Miliband, let alone what we had from Gordon Brown or Tony Blair. McDonnell and Corbyn commit clearly to restoring union rights and to renationalising rail. They advocate...

Why we support union reaffiliation to Labour

The reaffiliation of unions like the railworkers’ RMT and the firefighters’ FBU to Labour, and new affiliations from never-affiliated unions, could help Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, and the left in our effort to politically and organisationally transform Labour. Reaffiliation could counter the immense rightwards pressure still weighing on Labour from the MPs, from the party machine, and from the media and the whole society around us. Argument: “There’s no need to rush into reaffiliation.” There has already been a kind of “rush” into the Labour Party. Tens of thousands of people, most of them...

FBU to debate Labour reaffiliation

The Corbyn surge could receive an important boost in the next month with the announcement that the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will consider reaffiliation to the Labour Party. The union’s executive has called a recall conference on 27 November to debate affiliation. The FBU disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 2004 after a bitter pay dispute, where the Blair government intervened aggressively on the side of the employers. A combination of disgust with the disgraceful behaviour of Labour ministers, anti-political sentiment, nationalism in the devolved administrations and plans by some activists...

Scottish Labour Conference: Scrap Trident!

The Scottish Labour Party conference on 31 October-1 November voted overwhelmingly (70/30) against Trident renewal. Support for Trident renewal was spearheaded by the Community and GMB leaderships. Both argued that nuclear weapons were good for the nation’s defence, and good for jobs. According to Community strategy and policy director John Park: “We are supportive of the nuclear deterrent and of the conventional defence industry.” Trident renewal was presented by Community as the answer to the crisis in the steel industry! But Community’s stance bordered on pacifism in comparison to...

Momentum campaigning

Democracy SOS is Momentum’s first major campaigning initiative. Supported by TSSA, it focuses on registering voters for the May 2016 local elections. The deadline for registration for those elections is 1 December. The results of the May elections are likely to be seen as a referendum on Corbyn’s leadership, and if the results aren’t strong enough they are likely to be swooped on by the right-wing. There has been a particular crisis about voter registration since the Tories have introduced a new system of individual registration. An estimated 1.9 million people have lost their right to vote...

Defend our unions against Tories and the SNP!

Unsurprisingly the recent Scottish Labour Party conference voted unanimously to oppose the Tories’ Trade Union Bill. But the motion, from Unison and three Glasgow Constituency Labour Parties, had its weaknesses, saying, for instance that trade unions are “good for business”. But if unions are good for business, why do so many employers derecognise them? The motion called for ongoing campaigning against the Bill, including organising rallies and further weeks of action. Unfortunately more specific proposals for campaigning disappeared in the course of compositing. Even so, the motion provides a...

Red Labour issues a statement opposing expulsions in the Labour Party

The following statement has been published by Red Labour in protest at the expulsion from the Labour Party of supporters of Solidarity and of Corbyn. We urge activists to republish the statement, to add supportive comments on the Facebook page , and to get their union branches and CLPs to endorse it. "In the course of a rather grotesquely titled 'operation ice-pick' (ice pick being the murder weapon used on Trotsky by an agent of Stalin), a number of long-standing party members have been expelled despite being energetic Labour supporters for all recent elections. The charge against them is...

No bans, no proscriptions

“We oppose the infiltration of the Labour Party by the SWP”, or so “a spokesperson for Momentum” has been quoted by the Huffington Post (16 October) as saying. Momentum is a new network launched by members of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership campaign team. Actually, the “spokesperson for Momentum” had been asked about the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)’s declared intention to join Momentum, not the Labour Party, and so her or his answer was a non-answer. Worse, a wrong non-answer. The left should unite. Disagreements with SWP members — and regular readers will know that Solidarity is second to...

Seumas Milne: ready-made is not best

I first met Seumas Milne when he was 21 and we studied economics together in evening classes at Birkbeck College, London, in 1979-81. He was affable and sparky: Balliol, Winchester, and an upbringing as son of the BBC Director-General do something for you. And unlike most from similar backgrounds, he identified with the left. Like me, he chose Birkbeck because that was the most left-wing economics department in the country. But he was a Stalinist. A Stalinist of a diehard sort by then rare. He had thrown in his lot with a “left” defined by the USSR and other powers opposed to the USA, not with...

Giving new members confidence

Merseyside Labour Left came out of the Corbyn campaign and has kept organising. At our next general meeting, I think we’ll constitute ourselves as a Momentum group, although there’s some discussion about how that’ll work. We have working groups which form left caucuses in each local Party. We have quite large caucuses in some constituencies, others where we have only a small group. We’ve set up working groups for various things. One project is a local labour movement conference, to be held on 28 November. Another working group is organising social events. The local labour movement conference...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.