The failure of the left and the working class today

Today I listened today to Novara Fm a weekly student run radio show from London http://www.novaramedia.com It regularly features great discussion and debate on all sorts of topics. The show is hosted by Aaron Peters and James Butler two communists who I think have a great way of articulating their views and are good broadcasters too by the way. Today’s show was featuring Owen Jones of the Labour left and his thoughts on the labour party and the trade unions. In the last week we’ve seen the TUC conference where lots of hot air was produced as always. Getting on to my main theme of this post which may run and run is the left and the working class of today and where we are heading, if anywhere at all. Now I am no longer a member of any political party and for a very good reason. I was a member of the socialist party and still remains a close supporter of the party but could no longer remain member of late due to various issues which I may elaborate in time but probably not now. The left is a frustrating thing hugely fragmented and split it has so far since the economic crisis of 2007/08 failed to provide a real alternative to the current situation be that inside the labour party which I have been in and now outside which I’ve experienced for myself too. Neitehr side of the left has been able to articulate a real alternative that we can focus around for one reason or another. Political party membership of all colours is at a all time low and yet the mass interest in politics is still very high. Somethingis going wrong you may think. But yet I do think we are in a new era entirely. A era where political parties have had their day to a extent in terms of mass organisation of members anyhow. The economic crisis has not benefited the labour party or the organised left outside the labour party one bit at all. Any forms of new parties including the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition which I had high hopes for and Left unity are still yet to make any sort of impact on people. This may change but I do still think todays left have not come to terms with the new situation let alone began to think of how to address this. By this I ean the new forms of the working class and the new layers entering it. For example there are more women in the workplace than possibly ever before now with a lot of trade union membership taken up by women yet the trade unions and their methods have not changed one bit. They still largely act, as do much of the left that we still live in a industrial based largely white male labour workforce. Nothing could be further from the truth any longer I’m afraid. Failure to recognise this and to reach new layers of BME and women workers is something which I’ve been astonished from with the left who like to pride themselves of reaching new layers. So far I’ve seen very little evidence of this. Also in terms of young people and private sector workers little to no attempts have been mde from the left to engage with these layers so far since the out break of the crisis in 2008. Now this post may sound a bit ranty and not really saying anything but I do think these points need to be made and it is also backed up with my own experiences of the left and the trade unions. They are simply not fit for purpose in my opinion. Hense I am going independent for now. I don’t think at this stage any left group or party has the ideas to move things forward. They are largely stuck talking to themselves and talking of by gone days. Well I’m afraid we live in a new era. A era of uncertainty and new situations that the likes of our leaders have not seen before. I do not have all the answers and I don’t think anyone out there does. I think as a collective we can do but at this stage we are a long way from a break through. The left frustrates me but also gives me hope as there is lots of big opportunities out there if any group or party is prepared to break from the habbits of the past which do no longer work and look forward to a new way of thinking. A new way of organising which brings new layers on board. The young, Women and all who have no voice as it stands today. We can certainly learn from the pasta nd we will do but we live in a new era, one we have not seen before all be it with similar features to the past. Much of the left is held back by its old ways of organising and failing to live in the ehere and now and adapt to that. Those who can adapt and find a way of reaching a mass audience will get a boost. As a Marxist I do still feel workingpeople have the ability and the power to change things. So far the left as a politica force has failed them I’m afraid. To move on we need to learn where we have gone wrong and where we can improve. Will this happen ? We can only hope.

Miliband and labour offer no alternative for workers, time for a new workers party

This week we have been drowned in clips and interviews and speech’s room the labour party conference. What has felt more like a rock concert with big pyrotechnics and backing tracks its all felt a very hollow affair. No wonder workers do not turn to the lab our party conference like they once did to see the NEC put under pressure and sometimes turned over by the left. It just doesn’t happen anymore. A fully staged event with few opportunities for debates and what is debated on is strictly chosen by the leadership to not embarrass the party at all in anyway and even if motion is passed in favour of workers it is either forgotten about or heavily watered down. So I ask you what is the point of the labour party conference or of labour at all anymore? With anger rising against the government coalition's austerity programme, Labour is riding high in the opinion polls. But there certainly isn't any enthusiasm for Labour leader Ed Miliband as a future prime minister. In fact he has a lower personal approval rating than Tory leader David Cameron! His speech at the Labour Party conference was seen as chance to re-launch his "vision". He has been praised for his confident delivery but beyond his ability to memorise a speech and which school he went to, what have we learnt about Ed Miliband? More importantly for those drowning in Con-Dem cuts and privatisation, what would a Labour government do differently? Certainly those hoping for any new ideas will have been disappointed. The main theme of the speech - 'One Nation' - was the rehashing of an old idea, and an old Tory idea at that. In fact it was first raised by Tory leader Benjamin Disraeli 140 years ago. Miliband considers him a One Nation politician and he made sure we knew, using the phrase 46 times in his speech! He was forced to reflect the worries of ordinary people, the millions of us who can't find work or are struggling to make ends meet. He correctly said that the system doesn't work for them. But the idea of 'One Nation' cannot square the opposing interests of workers trying to improve their pay and bosses who are trying to cut it. We live under capitalism, a system where society is divided up in to classes. Rarely is this more obvious than now when the super-rich are continuing to rake it in while working class people are expected to pay for their crisis. With four out of five ministers in this government being millionaires it is clear who they represent. Bosses are getting cuts to their tax and to health and safety regulations, we're getting cuts to our pay, jobs and services. Unfortunately, what little concrete proposals there were in Miliband's speech made clear that fundamentally Labour will continue with the same agenda. Listening to other speeches at the conference confirms this. Labour's only alternative to austerity is slightly slower austerity. In many local councils Labour councillors are already implementing huge cuts. They are another party of big business. The 'One Nation' rhetoric is simply a way of masking their true intent, as the claim "we're all in it together" or the idea of the 'Big Society' were for Cameron. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Labour-affiliated trade union Unison, although a Labour supporter was forced to concede that the speech "offered little hope to the millions of low-paid public service workers ... who are going through massive pay cuts, their jobs threatened and their services privatised." In fact Miliband did offer them something: "Tough settlements for the public services and that will make life harder for those who use them and harder for those who work in them." Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader two years ago, largely by the votes of trade unionists. Many hoped that he would lead a return to 'Old Labour'. This hasn't happened. Now members of Labour-affiliated unions should be asking why their money is still going to a party that doesn't represent them. We were right to point this out at the time when Ed was elected that Ed was not red ed but a continuation of New labour if not in name but in practise. Very little has changed inside labour the left are weaker than ever and some still think the party can be reclaimed. Amazingly some are following the celebrity cult culture which the labour left cling on to with the appearance of the young squeaky clean Owen Jones who who writes a column for the bourgeois press in the name of the Independent newspaper. To be fair a lot of what Jones writes is very good his book Chav’s is not bad but he still believes Labour can be reclaimed from within. He has no strategy for this and constantly points to the unions to use their union links more well Owen does this not mean that the unions need to be transformed first before all this. Union tops especially the right wing union leaders are quite happy to play the status quo and sound radical joining with Jones on panels such as CLASS Owens’s new left think tank with very limited demands it has to be said. Owen is very good at telling us what is wrong with the system but rarely offers any alternative despite calling himself a socialist. A socialist doesn’t just say what they are against they put forward an alternative. TUSC can be that political alternative and socialism is the system we need to replace capitalism with. We desperately need a party that will stand up for working-class and middle-class people. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), supported by the RMT transport union and a number of leading trade unionists in other unions is an important step towards such a party. TUSC candidates will stand in the Manchester Central by-election and the Bristol mayoral election in November on a clear programme of implacable opposition to all cuts. Workers don't need pious speeches about how hard things are, they need support when they fight back. TUSC supporters are proud to stand on picket lines with workers defending their standards of living. There's no attempt to hide whose interests we stand for - it is the 99%. With extracts taken from http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/15380/04-10-2012/miliband-placates-big-business-by-promising-more-tough-settlements-for-public-services

Why i dont foresee a left turn for labour

So before i start this may be a contravertial post for some who read this blog and if you are a labour member and easily offended by anything that isnt wholely in support of labour then you may be best not reading this.

Also these are all my own personal views and if you wish to challenge me to a debate i'd be happy to do so. I dont intend to upset anyone and if i do that is not my intention.

Firstly i like many last year after the genearl election as a reaction to the tories gaining power with the aid of the lib dems joined labour. So you may have views on me joining then now leaving labour a month or so ago but i will explain why here.

Now labour in opposition have always tried to play to the mass's and try to appeal to all. This time they are trying to appeal to this so called "squeezed middle" with a new leader since the departure of Gordon Brown after he was forced to stand down last summer has presented labour with a leader in Ed Miliband. I did have a vote in the leadership elections and chose Ed Balls que the critisism which i will take on the chin firmly as i was lead to believe he was the most opposed to cuts and at the time had a no cuts position i thought. I later discovered this was not the case and like all polititains was using this to gain votes from the left. It worked to a extent. I was fooled. I know how lib dem and student voters feel now to be betrayed but this was just the start of a long list of betrayels for me on a personal level.

I take aboard all the critisism thrown my way for leaving labour not even a year into my membership and not staying to fight back against the blairites but i feel like many others labour can no longer be regained by the left.

There is still a element of labour members and supporters who do genuinely believe labour is a left wing party and is socialist . Neither of these terms could be further from the truth. Yes as Tony Benn once said labour may have socialists in it but is no way a socialist party in any shape or form.

Ed Miliband labours new leader has had a slow start and i felt he wasnt making the right noises in changing the direction of the arguement on the need for cuts.

My own position is no to all cuts which i feel goes along with my socialist views and approach to politics. I dont feel the working class should have to pay a penny or loose any services that they depend on due to the mistakes of the bankers.

I should have known better really with labour. I have to admit now that although i'm very involved now i was not always into politics much at all and my decision in joining labour was probably a rushed one and one i put down to my nievity in politics and not discovering what else is out there.

I personally do not see labour party turning left at all in its attempts to regain power and reach out to disaffected voters. Let me explain why.

For many years the left in labour and the left in general have been pushed back and back. One example of this is the purge on the left by Neil Kinnock who expelled many fine comrades from Militant who later went on to form Militant labour and now the Socialist Party as they are known as today.
Any attempt by the left even when it did have more of a base in labour not like today when it is just made of idealists and centrists from the LRC who make good noises in terms of socialism and may well want things to change but do very little about helping it to happen. People in the LRC and left wing members of labour i believe are being quite misleading in their attempts to draw people and socialists back to labour. After the outrageous decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and new labours attempts for privatisation of the NHS, Royal mail with consignia we all remember that especially those in CWU and who cannot forget the way Tony Blair tried to cut the link with the trade unions with labour to move to a party much like the democrats in America today.

We can also not forget how Tony Blair and his new labour government of tories in disguise failed to untighten the anti trade unin laws imposed on the British trade union movement today from Margret Thatcher all those years ago.

Labour are a social democratic party apparently but support changing things within the capitalist system we currently live in. I feel this is reformism in all honesty and quite simply you cannot make the capitalist system fair while the few at the top have the economic power and wealth and the rest have to do the best with the rest.

This was reconfirmed to me when a recent interview with Ed Miliband on labours so called alternative to the cuts and the tories program was
“We’re not about to replace it, but there are different forms of capitalism we can have . . . My socialism is not about a blueprint for the perfect society, but it is about saying we can have a more equal, just and fair society.”

How is that even possible when your still working within the capitalist society and trying to reform it ? capitalism cannot be reformed in my view and only its over throw and a move towards a socialist society will make things truely fairer. This coupled with a worker controlled planned economy with real political democracy will lead to true fairness not this muffled version polititians like to throw about like they know the meanin of the word.

I wont go into my critisisms of Ed Miliband personally here but i dont believe he is against cuts and his apearance on the big TUC demo on March 26th was just insulting quite frankly when his party support the need for cuts and would be carrying out cuts right now if they had won the election last year.
In recent months labour has tried to appeal to disaffected lib dem voters who feel betrayed also after Nick Clegg sold them out to the tories to join the coalition. It would appear especially after one of the four labour MP's who quit the party back in 1981 David owen who left over not being prepared to accept decisions on the EU, on nuclear weapons and on the structure of the party, and so he left The SDP is a lot like labour and new labour especially so we may end up seeing a party in the shape of that in the years to come under Ed Miliband he did always say one of his great politics inspirations is Roy Jenkins. Says alot about where he wants to take labour now.

As for the labour left argueing that there will always be a place for the left and socialists in labour while the trade union link is kept ensuring a link to the working class is a vaild arguement it doesnt stand up when the leadership for years has repeatably ignored the union link and appeared to take the unions funding and said thanks very much leaving the unions with their hands ringing. You do have to question what the unions get out of the labour link these days as it certainly isnt much or anything near a voice if you ask me.


Ed Miliband won't be taking Labour into general, or principled, opposition to the cuts. In his first TV interview as Labour leader, shortly after the shadow cabinet was named, he warned he would not support public sector strikes over pensions, and that industrial action would alienate the wider public and undermine Labour's efforts to fight other spending cuts.

"I don't think we should be talking about industrial action. I think it is very premature to be talking about that", he said. Didn't take long, did it?

So when would be the 'right time' for Labour to respond? When would supporting workers and communities resisting the cuts be the "right thing to do"?

The election of Ed Miliband and his shadow cabinet, even if containing many of 'the Next Generation', has not fundamentally reversed the direction that Labour has taken over the last 20 years. Labour is a party now happy to manage the market economy, and accept all its limitations, even if that means being embroiled in the sacking of thousands of workers across the country.

The coming cuts battles will be the catalyst in town after town, for the idea and building of a new party, firmly rooted in the organisations and communities of working people. The idea will grow that, let down by the three main parties, working people need their own party that will properly defend the idea of public services and public ownership against the current common agenda which accepts that the victims of the recession further punished, rather than the culprits.

The weakness of the labour left to even get their own superstar as some on the labour left like to call John McDonald, on to last years leadership ballot and not recieve 33 nominations faling short and Diane Abbot then taking the token left candidate on the ballot is another clear sign the left within labour is dead and beyond repair and must be abandoned and a new workers party formed.
Diane Abbotts record as a labour left winger doesnt look great.

Through the wonders of Google, I came up with this word to describe her: 'tergiversant' (to change sides or loyalties; apostatise to be evasive or ambiguous; equivocate). Like most Labour MPs she puts herself and her career above all else.

On her own website, after pointing out that in 1987 she made history by becoming the first black woman to be elected to the British parliament, it egotistically states: "She has since built a distinguished career as a parliamentarian, broadcaster and commentator".

Last summer she wrote an article supporting Gordon Brown as party leader, whilst in 2007 she was listed as a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and supported McDonnell in the last leadership election. She is not listed as supporting the 'People's Charter'.

She opposed the 'Blair wars' yet voted against an inquiry.
Today in 2011 she has now been part of the strong majority in the commons who voted for western intervention in Libya against Cornel Gadaffi so how left is she really ?
She also most notably sent her son to a private school to the outrage of many of her Hackney constituents. When questioned about this she replied: "In 2001, when my son was facing secondary transfer, the average numbers of boys nationally getting five GCSE A-Cs was 42%. In Hackney the average number of black boys getting the same result was 9%. And the school in Hackney that we were actually offered was so poor that it closed shortly afterwards.

But since then: a Labour government has poured money into Hackney schools; a series of excellent academies has opened in the borough; attainment levels overall in Hackney have gone up. So if he was transferring to secondary school now, I would not face the same dilemma." So she presumably supports academies.

Did I also mention her cosy late night - on the couch - TV slot with Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo up till recently.

Many within labour on the left argue for this join labour and turn it left approach this is doomed to fail in my view and is creating false illusions of being able to change the party from within.

Of course, the fact Labour did so well in the Oldham and Saddleworth by-election has Labourites all excited that the party looks electable again so soon. Such people are not allies of those wanting to fight the coalition government's cuts. For these Labourite working class betrayers why build for a strike (harms Labour's electoral chances) or go on a demonstration - unless there is a Labour MP addressing the crowd on the need to vote Labour

As has been said, the attitude to the Labour Party and the relationship and role of socialists and revolutionaries to it is an old argument. We have the dismissive sneering of those in the Labour Party that the left outside cannot get decent votes. Well, that depends, doesn't it? The Scottish Socialist Party had six MSPs for a time and Respect had one MP before the usual left splits. I wonder where the Socialist Alliance would be today if it had stayed together. Their policies of MPs on a worker's wage and recallability are even more relevant today in the wake of the electorate's disgust over the MPs' expenses scandal.

We saw all trade union strikes condemned under Blair and Brown. Now Ed' Miliband has recently condemned any idea of unions uniting in strikes against the cuts to bring the coalition government down. This from a man whose election depended on those unions affiliated to the Labour Party and who made a pitch for the votes of workers during the leadership contest.

The gap between the rich and poor widened more under New Labour than it did under the Tory governments before them - fact. We have seen the Labour Party in government take Britain into war in Iraq despite the largest ever demonstration in British history. That dwarfed the anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s. How many Labour MPs voted for war ?

We saw none of the privatised utilities brought back into public ownership - in fact we saw more privatisations - despite the pledges made against by Labour in the lead-up to the 1997 general election. Private finance initiative extortions continued under the Labour government and anti-union laws were retained. A drive towards funding by big business to move away from reliance on union funding was only set back by the cash for honours scandals!

We soon saw what happened to the promises of an 'ethical' foreign policy, of the government being 'whiter than white' and sleaze-free. We saw increasing attacks on civil liberties, the draconian and misused 'anti-terrorism' laws and a drive for compulsory ID cards - actually revoked by this coalition government! Labour got us involved in the occupation of Afghanistan, remained committed to the renewal of Trident and signed us up to the production of two aircraft carriers (destined to be without planes for 10 years).

New Labour did nothing to restrain the irresponsible gambling by the banks and finance industries and, to top it all, Brown claimed to have abolished 'boom and bust'. How many people because of those grossly irresponsible proclamations (made by a Labour leader, not a Tory) - and in the belief that property prices would forever rise - took out second mortgages or massive credit card debt?

The marketisation of the NHS and education went further under a Labour government than it did under the Tories. Privatisation of our public services were added to by attacks on final salary pension schemes. All the while most Labour MPs acted like they were to the manor born and constantly voted themselves large pay rises, pension enhancements and expenses, whilst urging restraint on the working and middle classes.

New labour were a reformist government wedded to trying to moderate capitalism. But one with a landslide majority and benefiting from a buoyant economy that produced so little gain for the working class Where was the left in the Labour Party during all this? Backing Blair, then Brown in the name of 'unity' and for a Labour victory 'to keep the Tories out' - that's where!

The Labour right have learnt enough to ensure the left will get nowhere near gaining control. Look what happened to the leadership bids of John McDonnell, a good friend of PCS. He could not even get enough nominations to stand as a candidate against Blair, and then Diane Abbott headed him off by playing the diversity card to magnificent effect: she kept John off the ballot, but not the other middle-aged, white males. A far, far cry from the Tony Benn-Eric Heffer challenge of 1982!

Internally, clause four was jettisoned and party democracy crippled, with the result that Labour conference cannot make manifesto policies; MP selection procedures were changed, allowing candidates to be imposed from above; and the Parliamentary Labour Party is not accountable to the organisation as a whole. How will the left be able to operate today? Every democratic change that the LRC argues for will be voted down if those in control (with eager media support) assert that it will hinder Labour's electoral chances.

Labour-affiliated unions will think twice about strike action against the cuts, now Miliband has argued Labour will not support them. Remind me, how many such unions called strikes under the last Labour government? What does anyone think Labour would do back in power with a massive deficit after arguing for cuts at the last general election? This will not be 1997 all over again with the cheerful optimism, seemingly justified at the time in the context of an economic boom.

There will always be those within labour who see things through rose tinted spectecles despite every betrayal. Look at the typical Labour Party membership today - either those who always justify support for Labour, no matter what the betrayals of the working class, with 'the Tories will be worse'; or those seduced by meaningless babble from Blair, Brown and now Miliband.

Those wanting to participate in the LRC and the Labour Party are aiming to engage with people whose loyalty is 'to the Labour Party, no matter how awful'. Instead we should be engaging with those disgusted with all three main political parties, not fostering illusions in Labour all over again. It is not up for change, never really was, and is even less open to socialism today.

It is, of course, far easier to mix with 'socialists' in the LRC than to engage with the mass of the working class outside the Labour Party. It is easier to stay in the Labour Party and have a pint in the bar, commiserating over every betrayal, than start a real working class party all over again. But the LRC is misleading millions of working class people into once again looking to the Labour Party rather than to a real alternative fighting for real socialism with workers faith restored in politics .


The alternative to labour

As socialists on the left we argue for the need for a new workers party.
A century ago trade unioniss and socialists came together to fight for independent political representation for the working class: the result was the Labour Party.

In the past the Labour Party, however imperfectly, provided a voice for the working class. Today, however, New Labour is a party of the giant corporations, its policies a continuation of Margaret Thatcher's attacks on the lives and living conditions of working class people.

Public services are being sold off; the occupation of Iraq has led to the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and over two thousand 'coalition' soldiers; democratic rights are being undermined in the name of fighting terrorism; and the Tory anti-trade union laws, the most repressive in the European Union, have been left almost completely intact.

We believe that the chance to reclaim the Labour Party has long passed and there is no point in continuing to fuel false hopes. The recent success of the new Left party in Germany, winning 8.8% of the vote and 54 MPs, gives a glimpse of the potential for a new left force. We pledge to do all in our power to bring a new workers' party into being in England and Wales.

We believe it would be wrong, at this early stage, to attempt to predetermine the structure or every aspect of a new party. That can only be decided on the basis of democratic debate leading to agreement amongst the forces involved.

However, if it is to be successful, it is crucial that a new party, and any pre-party formations, be open, democratic and welcoming to all those who want to work together against the neo-liberal onslaught on the working class. This means that all groups and individuals, provided they are in agreement with the basic aims of the party, should have the right to democratically organise and argue for their point of view.
This also reaches out to all who do good work within labour and consider themselves left wing and socialist but are feeling disenchanted by Labours neo-kliberal record of the last few decades. We will always welcome all that was good about labour into a new movement for a new workers party. We are not totally against labour for the sake of it we do recognise Labour did do some good things but it is not enough for the working class to live off concessions it needs real representation.

This approach will help ensure the new formation is attractive to trade unionists, community and environmental campaigners, and anti-war activists. Most importantly it will assist in reaching out to workers and to young people who are not yet active in struggle. In this way we can unite the strongest possible forces to build a powerful working class party that is capable of effectively opposing the anti-union laws, cuts, privatisation, environmental degradation and war.

We believe that such a party would represent a fundamental break with the big business parties which currently dominate politics, giving workers the opportunity to resist the neo-liberal capitalist agenda and fight for a socialist programme - including a living minimum wage, full trade union rights and for fully funded, democratically controlled public services.


So i hope if you are a labour member or not you have found my little piece interesting and i hope to have explained a bit more of my position at present. If you would like to discuss anything i have wrote here further do let me know and i again apoligise if i have offended anyone at all that is not my intention at all with this post.