I still owe Vince Mills a pint from last summer. I tried to buy him one in Bournemouth but he was en route somewhere else. Now I probably owe him another one now after shamelessly nicking a piece he has written from the Morning Star but I hope he will forgive me. Vince is a member of the LRC and Campaign for Socialism in Scotland. Like me, he used to have a lot more faith that we could use existing structures within the Party to "re-claim " it. And maybe, like me , he used to think the end of Blair would herald a new era which would at least be social democrat if not socialist. That simply hasn't happened. So if we are ever to build the Labour Party again then we have to reach out beyond it in a new way.
Trade union activists are as disillusioned as any other Labour Party members, not least because trade unionists are watching a Labour government that consciously works to limit the effectiveness of the trade union movement.
I have, therefore, come to the conclusion that there are not the resources within the Labour Party to bring about the transformation which we seek.
Clearly, the left needs a vehicle for bringing activists together in a way that will not only allow us to pool resources but also to begin a dialogue about the nature of our common problem, contemporary capitalism.
The new Labour leadership is, of course, deeply hostile to the Labour Party being used in that way because, as promulgators of feral capitalism, they are part of the problem we seek to address.
The LRC has to become the change that we seek.
Founded originally in 1900 to fight for political representation for the working class and refounded in July 2004 to fight for socialist policies in the Labour Party, it has the history and the flexibility to bring together those forces willing to fight with us for socialist policies in and beyond the Labour Party.
I am not saying that the Labour Party cannot be salvaged as a vehicle for radical change.
I am saying, however, that we need to work together with those forces that are willing to work together with us, whether they are committed to the central role of the Labour Party or not, to bring about the alliance we need to attack poverty and inequality in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
The one option that we do not have is that of doing nothing.
There are too many people in Scotland, Britain and, more importantly, beyond it in the Middle East and Africa who are suffering too much.
Inaction is being complicit with that suffering. Let's end both
Thursday, 6 December 2007
WELL SAID, VINCE!
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2 comments:
Good piece, but sadly many of the groups who would have been sympathetic to the left, disability groups, anti-welfare reform campaigners, etc have largely been ignored, only the anti-war groups and other globally focussed groups have a look in. The left has to look closer to home again, as well as its undoubted internationalism.
btw, the small labour left does now have an opportunity, but it cannot wait any longer. It must seize the
iniative from the discredited blairites, if it dithers too much about accusations of disloyalty,(which will surely some) it will be too late.
Ano0nymous, I agree with both your points. If we don't challenge Brown directly now, we've had it.
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