What's wrong with Len McCluskey's “opportunities”

In mid-July Labour Party leader Ed Miliband proposed various ‘reforms’ to Labour Party structures and procedures. Central to these was the proposal that unions affiliated to the Labour Party switch from ‘opt-out’ to ‘opt-in’.

At present, a member of a trade union who does not ‘opt out’ of paying the political levy is automatically included as a levy-payer. If that union is affiliated to the Labour Party, anyone who does not ‘opt out’ counts automatically as an affiliated Labour Party member.

Off The Rails, Summer/Autumn 2013: Fighting casualisation

The Summer/Autumn 2013 issue of Off The Rails, featuring articles on:

  • Fighting casualisation
  • Resisting job cuts on London Overground
  • The RMT's review of its internal structures
  • Why domestic violence is a union issue
  • Marxism at work: why we oppose immigration controls
  • Local/workplace stories from South West Trains, Northern Rail, East Midlands Trains, and Tyne & Wear Metro
  • ...and much more!

    Lewisham hospital victory: don't (just) celebrate, organise!

    Two demonstrations of tens of thousands, repeated meetings of many hundreds, numerous stunts and direct actions, an invasion of Jeremy Hunt's constituency, union organising, a People's Commission... Save Lewisham Hospital has been an impressive campaign. And the mobilisation has paid off: on 31 July, the High Court overturned the government's decision to effectively close the hospital.

    "For a Labor Declaration of Political Independence"

    Dedicate May Day 1945 to - a new world of socialism!

    MANIFESTO OF THE WORKERS PARTY

    Working Men and Working Women: This May Day, 1945, arrives at a time when civilization stands on the edge of disaster. The war, rapidly approaching conclusion in Europe and with a swifter than anticipated defeat of Japan in the offing, has shown the dual tendencies in capitalism: its tremendous capacity to create the means of abundance; its equally tremendous capabilities of destruction.

    Dedicate May Day, 1945 to — A NEW WORLD OF SOCIALISM! For a Labor Declaration of Political Independence

    MANIFESTO OF THE WORKERS PARTY
    Working Men and Working Women:
    This May Day, 1945, arrives at a time
    when civilization stands on the edge of
    disaster. The war, rapidly approaching
    conclusion in Europe and with a swifter
    than anticipated defeat of Japan in the
    offing, has shown the dual tendencies in
    capitalism: its tremendous capacity to
    create the means of abundance; its equally
    tremendous capabilities of destruction.
    The world stands at the crossroads. It can
    either go forward to a progressive society

    Rivers of rubbish: on the reputation on the left of AWL's predecessor, Socialist Organiser (1991)

    Biblical scholars, I understand, have a terrible time of it working out what some of the long-vanished early Christian groups believed.

    They have to rely on such chance survivals as the "Dead Sea Scrolls". Most of the rich history of the competing Christian groups in the later Roman Empire is lost: the victorious Catholic Christians entwined with the Roman and later states from the early 4th century onwards, suppressed their opponents and left little trace of them and their beliefs except for factional slanders and lies. Mostly we don't know what they believed.

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