Labour Party

Fence Sitter They’re cutting help to those in need — What case to vote against? This is a tricky one indeed I’m staying on the fence Scrap targets for child poverty? My mind is wracked with doubt Perhaps, no — maybe, probably — I’m sitting this one out What’s wrong with capping benefits? Could someone please explain? There’s good things, bad things — call it quits I think I’ll just abstain Yes, voting No to welfare cuts Would lead to Labour losing! So we must show no heart or guts — My, this is so confusing! It’s been explained to me at last The logic’s mighty fine To be against, we let it...

The huge support for Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for Labour leader is a reminder that what seems like an overwhelmingly dominant right-wing “consensus” in bourgeois politics can be limited and unstable. It shows that large numbers of people, including working-class and young people, want a politics that is different to, to the left of, the consensus of neo-liberalism — that the “market” must rule, the welfare state must be cut back, and getting rich is the best thing to aspire to in life. Workers’ Liberty supporters are active in the Corbyn campaign in many areas of the country, in the trade...

The controversy sparked, or ramped up, by Jeremy Corbyn’s appearance on Channel 4 News on 13 July raises important issues for the left. (You can watch it on the Channel 4 website here .) Corbyn responded to interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy asking about his description of Lebanese Islamists Hesbollah and Palestinian Islamists Hamas as “our friends” by saying that he doesn't agree with these organisations, but that peace in the Middle East requires negotiations with all sorts of people. The first thing to say is that, however one assesses the performance and motives of Guru-Murthy and Channel 4...

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for Labour leader is getting a strong response. In addition to being the only campaign with national trade union support (Unite, BFAWU, ASLEF, TSSA, as well as RMT and FBU), Corbyn is now clear second in terms of nominations from Constituency Labour Parties, with 36 to Andy Burnham’s 47; Yvette Cooper is on 28 and Liz Kendall on only 5. CLP nominations have no direct impact, but they do indicate strength of support among Labour activists. It is now pretty standard for meetings addressed by Corbyn to be attended by hundreds. 400 turned out to hear him speak in...

George Osborne’s Budget was a cynical attempt to restyle the Tories as the party of the workers. He announced the introduction of a national Living Wage; starting at £7.20, the hourly rate would rise to £9 by 2020. There are three immediate problems here. First the £9 an hour is the same rate that the, now superseded, national minimum wage would have risen to by 2020! Also, the national Living Wage will not, as Osborne, implied compensate for the Budget’s cuts in tax credits. Tax credits may be just an excuse for employers to pay poverty wages, as David Cameron said in justification, but a cut...

Workers' Liberty has produced a leaflet on why and how socialists should support Jeremy Corbyn's campaign for Labour Party leader - including analysis of the importance of the campaign, suggestions for how we can promote it and use it to transform the labour movement, and some thoughts on the kind of socialist politics, different from Corbyn's, that we think are necessary. To download it, click here .

The Annual General Meeting of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union voted to back Jeremy Corbyn’s bid for Labour leader, fight the Tories’ attacks on trade union rights, and step up its work on equalities. As well as committing to militant industrial struggles, delegates also voted unanimously for several emergency resolutions from branches opposing the tightening of anti-union laws promised in the Queen’s Speech. These included support for a national demonstration and rank-and-file conference this year. Delegates voted unanimously for the union to defend migrant workers from increasing...

Members of all four Tube unions will strike on 8-9 July, in disputes over pay, the implementation of 24-hour running (“Night Tube”), and job cuts. Drivers’ union ASLEF returned a 98% majority for strikes, on a turnout of over 80%. Members of RMT, the largest union on the Tube, voted by over 90% for strikes in two ballots (one of all grades, over pay and Night Tube, and one of station workers over job cuts), on turnouts of around 53%. TSSA and Unite members also voted for strikes by over 70%. Action will begin on the evening of 8 July, and conclude on the evening of the 9th. Combined strike...

Questions and answers on supporting Jeremy Corbyn in the ballot for Labour Leader. The 2015 election shows that the Labour Party is dead. The Corbyn campaign is just one last twitch from the corpse. Rumours of the death of Labour have been greatly exaggerated. Labour got over 9 million votes in the last election and retains the affiliation of 14 trade unions, representing around three million workers. The Labour Party still occupies a central position in labour movement politics, which socialists simply cannot ignore. Though the link between the unions and Labour is under threat, the unions...

“It is the duty of the activists within the Labour Party and Socialist Campaign for Labour Victory to fight alongside the public sector workers”, wrote Jeremy Corbyn during the “Winter of Discontent”, the great wave of public sector workers’ strikes towards the end of the 1974-9 Labour government. Corbyn is now the left candidate for leader of the Labour Party. Back in 1979 he was a young union official and a left-wing Labour councillor in Haringey, north London. He was writing in the first regular monthly issue of Socialist Organiser. The core people in the production and promotion of...