There is nothing more guaranteed to see the Left throwing rocks at each other than the endless debate about whether socialists should stay in the Labour Party - or leave. So let's talk about the real world. Where at the next election ALL Labour MPs face a struggle to stay in Westminster .
Such is the nature of the Labour meltdown that it's not just New Labour MPs who are in danger. My constituency Calder Valley has a wafer-thin majority( 1300) but as we're in the thick of the process of selecting a PPC I'll leave comment on that for later.
Next door is Halifax, where we have an LRC supporter Linda Riordan (pictured) and in the next valley Batley and Spen, constituency of Mike Wood. You won't see Mike on national platforms or on Newsnight. But he is a rock-solid, down-to-earth socialist whose voting record is impeccable on everything from 42 days to the Trade Union Freedom Bill. His majority is only a couple of thousand. Across the Pennine border in Pendle is Gordon Prentice. Gordon, unlike Mike and Linda, is not a member of the Campaign Group nor as far as I know officially signed up to the LRC. But he votes "left" far more often than some members of the Campaign Group and , unlike some of them also, nominated John McDonnell as Leader.
Talking to comrades from elsewhere in the country, we are pretty fortunate in this part of the country in having such traditional Labour representatives at Westminster. But we could well lose them. Pretty soon.
If Labour loses Glasgow East then Gordon Brown will be in an impossible position. Under pressure , he may stand down. In which case I don't think the public would countenance another unelected Prime Minister. There could well be a snap General Election in which case none of us will have the luxury of theoretical angst about the "reclaimability" of the Labour Party. Constituency by constituency, we'll be fighting to stop a landslide Tory victory.
Now I can understand there will be many with New Labour MPs who won't feel particularly inclined to bust a gut to return MPs who voted for war, privatisation , 42 days, and all the other policies which have brought us to the edge of the abyss. So my message is very simple. Put your energies into places where hard-working socialists are at risk of losing their seats. Here in West Yorkshire, we will welcome any help we can get. Because, like everywhere else, we are suffering from the loss of activists fed-up with this Government's endless triangulation to the right. BUt now we have a serious job to do......to try and ensure that Left MPs do not go down with the rest of the sinking ship that is New labour
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The problem is I have a rock solid Labour MP, sadly she is now a Rock solid new Labour type socialists.
I cannot or will not vote my MP back into power to have another bloody five years of this rubbish.
In the news yesterday a lad who has CP works as part of his benefits cleaning and washing dishes at part of his benefits, this week the council stopped his benefits and the council now charges him for working, so he is working but has to pay to work because he is disabled. he works for the local councillors
I went to age concern last year to get a paid job, I meet all the requirements but had to spend an hour trying to defend my self I told the two ladies and a vicar I was really disabled, in the end I pulled down my track suit and said here you are, this is whats left of my legs, they had stated they were worried about employing a disabled person in case I was in fact a fraud, one lady took one look at my legs and said oh my god, the other just looked and the vicar said OK OK we believe you, I pulled up my tracksuit and they said OK your disabled, I left without bothering to find out if I had the job.
I'm so sick and tired of New Labour I do not care if they never ever again get back into power.
Well I think my point is Robert that not all MPs are New Labour and that it would be a desperate situation if Labour is reduced to a tiny group - effectively finished for several generations.
I just read on another blog, in a report of the Campaign for a New Workers Party conference, that one Simeon Andrews of the LRC gave a speech in which "he basically said a)the Labour Party can no longer be regarded as a vehicle for socialist politics and b) it cannot be reclaimed".
Could you comment? I've never heard of this person before - are they at all representative of the LRC?
[...] war, privatisation , 42 days, and all the other policies which have brought us to the edge of the abyss.
Your logic seems to be: if 'New Labour' is unpopular, and I oppose it, I can claim that all the policies I happen not to like are unpopular/wrong too, and that the solution for Labour as a whole is to do all the things I agree with (their popularity/rightness being a matter of conjecture).
Geoff, let me make it clear I cannot speak for other people.Simeon is Secretary of the LRC. He was invited to speak at the CNWP conference last weekend but I think his words have been quoted slightly out of context.
Even if he may be more pessimistic than me.
I agree with him there is no point in pretending that the Labour Govt is actively promoting socialist policies. It is not. New labour is neo-liberal The job of re-claiming it, which many of us thought the Big Four unions would help us do, has likewise proved far more difficult than most would have envisaged. However, I have seen that particular blog report and it also says Simeon urged support for LRC MPs such as Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell who as far as they can tirelessly promote a socialist agenda.
The blunt truth is that at the moment re-claiming the Party for socialism is unlikely to happen. That does NOT mean the LRC jumps ship and leaves because that could change and I believe will change at some point in the future.
LRC Chair John McDonnell's take on it is that howevr difficult things are we continue to work both within and outside the Labour Party as much as we can on an issue by issue basis to campaign against low wages, climate change, privatisation. Etc etc. That is also the majority view expressed at the National Committiee meetings I have atended over the past 12 months. As well as the LRC National AGM. A motion suggesting we supportt non-Labour candidates was overwhelmingly defeated and I'm sure would be again if it were raised in the autumn. In my view, it would be madness to leave the labour Party
yes
surely those on the centre left and i am not briefing/LRC member need to ensure all (the few we have) Left MPs are returned from John McDonnell, to some that may on occassions have veered off the road a few times.
I cannot agree you take Cruddas he left Labour years ago when his voting record was new Labour, he voted for the war in Iraq he voted for the Welfare reforms Trident and anything else Blair asked for. Now he is left yet his voting record still looks Blairite or Brownnite, yet the Left did not fall for his I'm a socialist, you have to vote with your heart, not with the leaders.
It took me eight years to leave Labour, and I did not do it lightly, and I'll be dammed if I will vote Labour to keep in place a few good Labour MP's simple because I will also keep in place Brown Purnell and the rest of the shite.
If your not voting Labour
in 90% of seats your letting in the Tory
keep your hands clean by all means
but if the Tories are elected it is a general defeat for the Left not just those we hate in New Labour
The reality is that the Tories will win unless we change policy direction. Which looks at the moment as though the Tories will win. So damage limitation it must be. And we must fight as hard as we can to help Labour MPs retain their seats.
If people want to make a protest vote in 2010, they may not distinguish between John McDonnell and James Purnell. So it's our job in the next two years to show them there is a difference between New Labour and Real Labour values.
So you are going to pick and chose between which Party candidates you support. Whatever happened to "Unity is Strength" and loyalty. If you think Labour's many achievements are due to such behaviour you are sadly deluded. Everyone in the Party should support the Labour candidate in their own seat/ward and in the marginals nearest to where they live - if they are selected by the Party that is good enough for me.
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