Labour Party

Tax the rich! Restore the NHS!

Solidarity goes to press on Tuesday 21st, the day before Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement. Speculation swirls about what tax cut the Tories will offer, and whether and how they will clip inflation-uprating of benefits to suit. The Tories have considered cutting inheritance tax (essentially, for millionaires only), but optics may push them to cut income tax or National Insurance rates instead. Tax percentages are higher than before. The Tories have not changed income-tax thresholds, so with inflation more people pay higher income-tax rates. VAT has been at 20% since 2011 (it was 10%...

Minimum Service law can be beaten

The government has now set the minimum service levels in three of the sectors covered by the new Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act. For Border Force and some HM Passport Office staff, the minimum service stipulates that services “should be provided at a level that means they are no less effective than if a strike were not taking place”, and must “ensure all ports and airports remain open.” For ambulance staff, the minimum service level says “vital services” must continue “throughout any strike”, with all life-threatening calls, or calls “where there is no reasonable clinical alternative to...

Labour stirs on Israel-Gaza

Despite this being a period when many local Labour Parties are not taking motions because of reorganisation for new constituency boundaries, at least two local Labour Parties have passed motions for a ceasefire in Israel-Gaza. Others have motions tabled. There are moves to set up a “Labour for a ceasefire” group, and UK Friends of Standing Together looks set to gain support in local Labour Parties and trade unions. Sixteen front-benchers have supported a ceasefire. 580 Labour councillors have signed one or another of two letters calling on Keir Starmer to back a ceasefire. Less usefully, a few...

Letter: 1992-96 and 2019-23 compared

A point in my article on the Tamworth by-election (Solidarity 687) is garbled. Labour’s vote in the by-election was lower than in the South East Staffordshire by-election in 1996; but the point I really intended to make is this: the Labour vote grew from the 1992 General Election to that 1996 by-election by over 4,000 votes. 1996 is a particularly useful comparator as it was a year before a general election, as we probably are now. South East Staffordshire was the main predecessor constituency to Tamworth. David Pendletone, Isle of Wight

Building wealth on cuts?

Discussion at The World Transformed (TWT) festival that took place alongside Labour Party conference (7-10 October) reinforced how disoriented much of the left is on local government. The TWT session on “ecosocialism” — really more about local community organising — featured a speaker from “Cooperation Hull”, a group of activists who have organised meetings they call “People’s Assemblies” in the town and are now planning to stand in local elections there. Some of the organising Cooperation Hull has done sounded interesting and even impressive, but what their speaker said begged many questions...

Labour and the right to protest

Activists in Southampton Test Constituency Labour Party have been told that a local motion calling for a ceasefire in Israel-Gaza is out of order. Nine members of the constituency executive in Glasgow Kelvin have resigned their executive positions because “we have been informed by the general secretary and the Scottish general secretary that any motions relating to the situation in Israel and Gaza are out of order for all CLPs”. A number of Labour councillors have resigned from the Labour Party over Keir Starmer’s statements on Israel-Gaza. It looks like these moves reflect local right-wing...

Votes at Labour conference

At Labour conference 8-11 October, 81% of CLPs and 54% of affiliates (mostly unions) voted for restriction of motions to “contemporary” issues and 65% of CLPs and 52% of affiliates (mostly unions) supported new rules for CLPs (mostly about officer positions). The National Policy Forum report was carried with 91% of CLPs and 69% of affiliates in favour. These figures are a bit different from our first information. They show an unusually large minority of unions protest-voting where items usually go through “on the nod”. Unfortunately, doing little more than protest-voting.

Labour after the by-elections

Labour won the 19 October by-elections in Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire, with significant swings. Good! The central issue for the working-class is getting the Tories out of government and replacing them with a government that may be open to organised working class pressure. Despite the Labour leaders’ hullaballoo about “changing landscapes” and “game-changing” moments, the result shows a big antipathy to the Tories — but no positive embrace for Labour. In the Mid-Beds by-election Labour actually got fewer votes than they did in 2019 General Election. In Tamworth only 800 votes more than in...

Labour’s conference in Liverpool

Labour Left Internationalists (LLI) had a visible presence at both the Labour conference and the World Transformed (TWT) in Liverpool (7-11 October) and so did Workers’ Liberty (though officially banned by Labour). The Labour conference was, as expected, dominated by the right with the call to rally behind the leadership for unity in the coming general election, but a good few delegates and visitors were open to left-wing ideas. LLI distributed a conference bulletin to delegates, with information about many campaigns and issues. Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) can vote for six topics to get...

Rallying to face a Starmer government

Jeremy Gilbert opened the session on "Strategies for a Starmer government" at The World Transformed (fringe event at Labour conference 2023, 7-10 October) by comparing the probable next Labour government to Blair’s victory in 1997. Blair took power after the exhaustion of the Conservative Party and the Left when the Labour Movement had been thoroughly defeated by Thatcher. Blair accepted that there was no possibility of challenging the power of capital so only ameliorating reforms were possible. These reforms were successful due to the context of an economic boom, which allowed reforms to be...

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