Labour Party

Labour did poorly - in the circumstances - on 5 May, because its political message, against cuts "too far and too fast", was weak and mumbling. Labour leader Ed Miliband's response has been to shift into even more weak and mumbling mode. He has upped his calls for Lib Dem MPs to "come and work with us. My door is always open". Obviously Miliband does not expect the Lib Dems suddenly to break their coalition with the Tories and go for a coalition government with Labour (which would, apart from anything else, not even have a majority in Parliament). The cunning scheme here is for a Lib-Dem/...

According to most opinion polls the Scottish Labour Party began the Holyrood election campaign with a lead of ten or more percentage points over the SNP. But by the time the votes had been counted after polling day on May 5th the SNP had increased its share of the popular vote by 13%, increased the number of constituency seats it held by 32, and won an absolute majority of 69 seats in the 129-seat Holyrood Parliament. By contrast, Labour’s share of the constituency vote (31.7%) was the lowest is had achieved since 1923. Even worse, its share of the list vote (26.3%) was its lowest since 1918...

According to the Observer (24 April), Labour leader Ed Miliband “is set to make two speeches informed by the ideas of Blue Labour over the summer, although insiders insist he is also listening to contributors to a soon-to-be-published Purple Book”. The Times (19 April) reports that the “Purple Book” will be diehard-Blairite — “Purple was the colour of new Labour. It’s what you get if you combine red and blue. It symbolises the need to stay on the centre ground” — and will come out about the time of Labour Party conference in September. So Miliband is “listening to”... two strands of very right...

The articles in which we first argued for the use of the slogan "workers' government", in April 1980. From Workers' Action nos.173-5, 19 April, 26 April, and 10 May 1980. Click here to download as pdf . With sharp class battles in prospect, the time has come for revolutionaries to raise the slogan of a Workers' Government. We must put forward the necessary measures to assert working-class control over society. But we cannot just spell out a blueprint-programme and call for that blueprint to be-carried through by the existing structures of the labour movement, as they are, adapted to quite...

Click here to download article as pdf .

According to the Observer (24 April), Labour leader Ed Miliband "is set to make two speeches informed by the ideas of Blue Labour over the summer, although insiders insist he is also listening to contributors to a soon-to-be-published Purple Book". The Times (19 April) reports that the "Purple Book" will be diehard-Blairite - "Purple was the colour of new Labour. It's what you get if you combine red and blue. It symbolises the need to stay on the centre ground" - and will come out about the time of Labour Party conference in September. So Miliband is "listening to"... two strands of very right...

Jim Denham reviews "The Jaguar Smile", by Salman Rushdie. Martin Thomas reviews "Rendez-nous nos usines", by Zbigniew Kowalewski. Stan Crooke reviews "Labour's Future: socialism or SDP mark II", by Eric Heffer. Bruce Robinson reviews "War and the International", by Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson. Jane Ashworth reviews "Johnny Come Lately: a short history of the condom", by Jeanette Parisot. Jack Cleary reviews "Bolsheviks in the Tsarist Duma", by A Y Badayev with an introduction by Tony Cliff. Click here to download pdf .

An interview. "The main problem for the Left is its unwillingness to come to terms with the existing political realities... The Labour left, let alone the left in general, is slow to appreciate the importance of 'constitutional issues. It also disregards the need to give high priority to 'a significant extension of public ownership' - the single most important item that would take Labour's programme beyond the capitalist status quo". Click here to download pdf .

“Family, faith and flag” is being promoted as Labour’s new big idea. Nostalgia for a time when men were men, the church had more social control, and England used to win World Cups is patently ridiculous. But nostalgia can be a strong political force — a negative one. I was pondering the negative power of nostalgia after the National Executive Council meeting of the CWU recently. The meeting formally agreed to wipe out the discipline charges made by the previous Union of Postal Workers (UPW) Executive against members of the London Divisional Committee (LDC) who took solidarity action for the...

Polls suggest the Tories and Liberal Democrats will lose 1,700 councillors on 5 May, mostly to Labour. That will bring into even sharper relief the contradiction between the unpopularity of the cuts — and the Tory/Liberal government forcing them through — and the reality of Labour-controlled councils imposing them locally. In Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire these elections look set to force a change in the borough council. Labour is unlikely to win an overall majority but they will almost certainly increase their council representation. But in Broxtowe, two of the Labour candidates are campaigning...