BENN AND McDONNELL BACK THE CONVENTION OF THE LEFT ......

I was asked last night to circulate the following statement which will be the basis of debate at the Convention Of The Left in September in Manchester . Inside Labour, the Convention is backed by the LRC and Labour Briefing. Outside Labour, support comes from a range of groups including RESPECT, the Green Left, the SWP, but NOT the Socialist Party (they are, one assumes, still vainly trying to launch their Campaign For A New Workers 'Party)
The Convention is a lot more realistic and united. It's not about standing alternative candidates to Labour ( otherwise the LRC could not be involved). It is about standing together on what unites as as people on the left - NOT indulging in faction-fighting, splitting and wrecking ( as per usual)
We're awaiting support from a variety of people who wil be making a prominent contribution to the debate in a few weeks' time. Tony Benn and John McDonnell MP are among the first to do so In the meantime, I have a little but nevertheless important caveat. I think we must distinguish between "New" Labour and of course the Labour Party which is not, and never will be the same as those who have hi-jacked our aims and dreams over the last 11 years. Those still remain. Beyond that, I agree........here's the original statement

"We explicitly challenge Labour’s programme of warmongering, neo-liberal privatisation and failure to tackle environmental destruction.
We believe that there is an alternative. The wealth exists in the world to abolish famine and poverty and to pay for our essential needs; the debt-fuelled culture of conspicuous consumption does not produce a fairer or happier society – and is anyway unsustainable; and peaceful collective public enterprise is preferable to the private profit-making of the unregulated market and its escalating competition for scarce resources. The problem is capitalism, which produces only for profit not need, which destroys the environment and carries out endless warfare in pursuit of market domination.
But we also believe that we must win these arguments. The Left is weak and has been repeatedly forced on the defensive. We must find ways to develop and promote alternative positive policies and demands – of peace, social and environmental justice, public ownership, workers’ rights, civil liberties and equality.
We must join together with all those seeking a better society, as an anti-capitalist left fighting for an alternative socialist society.
The Convention of The Left therefore aims to debate alternative strategies that are critical of capitalism – environmentally and socially just, inclusive and peaceful, pluralist, tolerant – in pursuit of a greater common objective that benefits the many and not the few. We aim to ask ourselves the essential questions – the whole Convention is a kind of “Question Time For The Left” – and we hope to arrive at some of the answers.
We also aim to encourage participation from below, not top-down platforms. We want to start defining new ways of working - so that we can join together in making policies, putting forward demands and campaigning in practice - regardless of the organisations (or none) that we may belong to or support.
We are not saying that this means the construction of another political party. But we do resolve to find ways that the Left as a whole can co-ordinate action both nationally and locally wherever we can. We are not aiming to displace existing united campaigns, but to strengthen these and to encourage working together across the widest range of organisations and individuals.
We therefore resolve to encourage the development of local left forums, and support those already in existence, in order to promote discussion and co-ordinate united action across the Left, in an inclusive, participatory, pluralist, tolerant and democratic way.
We also resolve to hold a “Recall Event” on Saturday November 29th at which we will seek agreement to ideas and demands emerging from the Convention.