VOTE FOR REGIONAL REPRESENTATION!

Today I'm going down to London for the LRC AGM and I will be standing for one of two posts as Vice-Chair of the LRC.
Firstly, thanks for the nominations received, which include Socialist Youth Network, Greater London LRC and West Yorkshire LRC. Thanks too to Alice Mahon, one of the best socialist Labour MPs we have ever had. Alice is standing for a seat on the LRC National Committee and I urge everyone to vote for her - we need more Northern commonense! The West Yprkshire line-up is completed by Patrick Hall of leeds campaign Group and Ed Doveton from Colne Valley CLP
I have been a Labour Party member for over 30 years and an NUJ activist for 24 years. I have held many officer positions within the Party, and am currently Branch Secretary of my local Party and a member of the Calder Valley constituency executive.
For the past five years I have served as a Town Councillor , and am currently Hebden Royd Council Chair and Town Mayor. I have also stood as a candidate for the Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council and am Chair of the Calderdale NUJ.
In recent years I have actively campaigned on a national basis for the Labour Left. Until last year I was a National Committee member of Save The Labour Party and support the Grassroots Umbrella network, which brings together all left groups within the Party at Conference. I have also been an active supporter of the Campaign For Labour Party Democracy . In May, I was elected to the Editorial Board of Labour Briefing and I am a regular contributor.
Last year I organised a successful launch conference in Hebden Bridge which was a springboard for all the regional LRCs and I have just been re-elected Secretary of the West Yorkshire LRC, which is now one of the biggest regional groups in the country. But the plain fact is that much more needs to be done to build the LRC into a truly national organisation.
One of the key tasks when the LRC was founded was to try and re-claim the Labour Party for socialist values. That is still a task which I regard as absolutely fundamental. As I have said many times on this blog, I do not believe anything can be achieved by leaving the Party other than political oblivion.
But I also strongly believe we must build bridges with those who stay outside the Party for reasons of disaffection and disillusion. That's why I got involved in the Convention Of The Left - a coalition of socialists who managed to forget faction-fighting and organise a tremendously successful event in Manchester to counter the official Labour Conference.
What divides left activists inside and outside Labour ? The truth is very very little. We can stand shoulder to shoulder with them on issues ranging from the economy, trade union rights, climate change , and peace . That work must go on.
We need an active Vice-Chair who puts in the work required over the next 12 months to build the LRC and raise its profile . If elected, I promise to do that. Within the Labour Party but also outside it in the wider labour movement. We also urgently need to ensure that comrades outside London get their voices heard. If you are going to be there on Saturday, and if you want the LRC to reach out nationally and get the message across there are still thousands fighting for socialism within the Labour Party, vote for us.

LA LUCHA CONTINUA.......

..Which , translated from the Spanish, means "the struggle continues". So thanks to all who attended the AGM of the West Yorkshire LRC. We had representatives from nine constituencies across the region, an excellent chat, and even some food and time for a drink or two afterwards.
Yesterday, I had an e-mail from someone at the meeting who had gone home and joined the LRC on-line immediately afterwards as he was so impressed.
That's not because I am Rosa Luxembourg - it is because it is sadly rare to be able to go to a meeting of people in the Labour Party and find that everyone is pleasant and comradely and you can actually have a discussion without descending into rancour and faction-fighting.
The sad thing is that of the people there only a handful of us are going to be going down to London for the LRC AGM on November 15 . Because the reality is that getting to London for 10am on a Saturday morning is pretty difficult for most people up north.
One of my hobby horses is getting organisations like the LRC OUT of London and into the regions because it is only by truly reaching out across the country that the Left has a cat in hell's chance of becoming a significant force again in the Labour Party.
To that end, I will be moving a resolution that we build our base via regional forums ( ie South and West Yorkshire LRC) on maybe a twice a year basis and try to hold key events regularly outside the capital. People say you won't get the numbers outside London but i think the Convention Of The Left, which over 5 days was attended by over 2000 people, has proved everyone wrong on that.
As of last year, I will be standing for the LRC's National Committee and given our success in building membership in West and South Yorkshire I'm also going to be standing for one of the 2 LRC Vice-Chair positions. If elected, my pledge is that I will go out and speak to any CLP interested in having a debate. Or, for that matter, groups outside Labour. Even if they profoundly disagree..... because it is only by getting out there and talking to people that we will convince anyone that the Labour Left is worth getting involved with. Talking to ourselves - and preaching to the converted - just isn't going to do it.

FIGHT, FIGHT AND FIGHT AGAIN....

A poster suggests there may be a "purge" in the Labour Party. I think he (or she) means me. Which raises an interesting question. Exactly how would I feel if I were no longer in it?

Until fairly recently, it is no exaggeration to say I would have been distraught. Since 1976 I have been a Party member through thick and thin and since Iraq I have spent what most people would regard as a ridiculous amount of time tying to convince people to re-join and arguing the case for staying in and fighting.

I still subscribe to that view. Those who counsel Left MPs to leave and form a new Party are still wrong. Without the socialist MPs we have left in Parliament this Party is well and truly over.

But it is becoming increasingly hard to see how Labour can truly be "re-claimed" as we optimistaically thought just a couple of years ago.

I think the 10p tax rate cut is the tipping-point for many. As Frank Field (hardly a cheerleader for the Left) points out, punishing the poor is not what we joined this Party for.

Again outraged this morning to read a Government source in the Guardian arguing people should "get it in perspective." A well-paid Civil servant would obviously have difficulty understanding the concerns of ordinary folk who are battling with inflation, credit crunch, house prices, and all the rest of it. And so, it seems, do Ministers. Most of whom have never ventured outside the Westminster bubble and earned their spurs as Spads or apparatchiks to new Labour.

rather than as trade unionists or local councillors.

Labour in Government has simply lost touch with the real world.If the PLP does not rally round, rebel and stop this terrible policy getting through, it will be the last straw for many.

We have a leader whose brilliance does not extend to empathising with the working-class or changing course away from neo-liberalism. A Leader who is a grave disappointment even to those who enthusiastically supported him. Purge those who disagree with Labour's current direction and there will be no Party left. Instead, it will be run by those like James Purnell who say that Labour is "ideologically neutral." A man , by the way, now being touted as a future Leader. I find that truly terrifying.

This autumn at Party Conference, we have one last chance via Calder Valley's resolution to ensure that a future Leadership contest will be drawn from all wings of the Party and that trade unions, affiliates and members might have a socialist candidate in a future election. I do not envy our delegate as he will be put under tremendous pressure to withdraw the motion, will have to get up on that daunting rostrum and argue the case, and cope with huge media interest. Last Sunday the resolution was already the subject of speculation. That puts us all under the spotlight. I make no apologies for that. Because, as Tribune points out this week,"

"This is not the ideology of a Labour administration but of one that has come to accept and champion that of a dominant ruling economic force which offers greater inequality, social divide, a wider wealth gap and a grim future for cohesion in society and humanity. It is time now, rather than after an election defeat, to break with the market-obsessed, neo-liberal agenda that has been the “new” Labour hallmark.

WHY I'M LOYAL TO THE LABOUR PARTY........

It is a long haul back on the last train back from Manchester ( which is why I won't be doing it at Conference) but a very interesting evening tonight in which, for once, I was on the "right" at a political meeting.
In September, socialists will be gathering in my home city for a "Convention Of The Left." Not the Labour Left, or the ultra-left, but the "left." And hopefully that will mean we can all debate and discuss - and disagree - without resorting to sulks or spats or physical violence.
I hate to break this news to comrades who think I am the Anti-christ. It's always nice to have a scapegoat. But actually, I am a Labour Party loyalist.
I spent a good hour this evening defending the Party warts and all against a comrade who believes that revolution is the only answer to the horrors of capitalism.
I rather suspect that, in the abstract she is possibly right. But in the real world, I have always concurred, Parliamentary socialism, aka reformism, is the only possible answer .
This , in the old days, placed me firmly in the mainstream of the Labour Party. The Campaign Group was never exactly Baade-Meinhof......
It is a mark of how ridiculously this Government has veered to the right that one can be regarded as a pariah for espousing views like anti-privatisation, anti-war, pro trade union. Not to mention civil liberties, fair taxation, and bridging the gap between rich and poor.
The good news was that I enjoyed a stimulating and interesting debate and met people I had not seen for many years. The bad news was that quite a few of them used to be in the Labour Party and I wish they still were......however it looks like September in Manchester is going to be rather more interesting than we thought......

SEPTEMBER'S SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE

Tonight I'm heading off to Manchester for a meeting to discuss plans and practicalities for a Convention Of The Left which is being held to coincide with Labour Party Conference. That particular jamboree, as we know, will be an anodyne affair with lots of back-slapping and corporate junkets. There will be very little chance to actually debate policy and of course thanks to the stitch-up agreed last year by Gordon Brown and trade union leaders no contemporary motions to actually VOTE on. It's still worth hanging around I hope for the fringe events and the chance to debate a constitutional change resolution on the leadership threshold which has been tabled by Calder Valley CLP. No doubt we will have to fight the Conference Arrangements Committee to keep it on the agenda but rest assured there will be no back-tracking from our delegate.

By way of contrast, the Convention will include socialists and trade unionists both in and outside the Labour Party and I hope there will be an honest and constructive discussion on the way forward.

Every day, thanks to New Labour policies the Labour Party's standing is going down the plughole. It's time to get out there, stop pussyfooting around and win back our Party from the careerists and self-aggrandisers who have been in charge for far too long. I have been feeling rather quiescent and low in spirits of late. Time to fight back.....

TONY BENN'S DEBUT ALBUM

I have just been chatting to a chap who helped set up the National Girobank.Its great champion in the 1970's was of course the then Minister Tony Benn and it was a brilliant idea. A bank owned by the people.......Like many other things, the Girobank was sold off by the Tories ( to Alliance and Leicester) before Labour started getting in on the privatisation act.
Still, at least I was cheered to read in the Indy just now that Tony Benn as ever remains unbowed and a debut poem will feature on a new album by one Colin McIntyre, who he recently escorted round the House of Commons. You can read it here ......
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/house-music-tony-benns-debut-solo-album-800170.html

RIGHT BACK WHERE I STARTED FROM ........

I find myself currently in a rather curious "Groundhog Day" situation. After 22 years as a journalist ( which I hope to continue) I am back part-time teaching, which I last did 24 years ago under ILEA (Inner London Education Authority) .
And it's great. Why? Because actually it's a serious positive to have the adrenaline rush of being kept on my intellectual toes and , to use the modern phrase ,"engaging" young people and challenging them.
And, after a lot of years going down the pragmatist route politically, I firmly believe that the left now has to stop apologising and start explaining why the solutions some of us embraced when we were young are still the best ones possible.
I'm no longer interested in conniving to instigate dodgy "deals" with those who remain determined to cosy up to the business community. As socialists, we should stand firm and take no prisoners. That means standing up for the working-class, defending trade union rights, and ultimately deciding which side we are on in the fight against capitalism. A plague on the neo-cons, we should be 100 per cent against globalisation and its wicked consequences,.Most of which are about to become apparent in the first worldwide slump for many a long year.
I'm one of the lucky ones. I was lucky to benefit from a vaguely social democrat world in which kids like me were able to get a decent education, live an independent life and not have to worry about mountainous amounts of debt which had to be paid back because the Govt would not tax those that could afford it.
So don't ask me to be enthusiastic about a New Labour Government, don't ask me to water down my beliefs. The only way in which we are really going to bring back a younger generation uncowed by 20 years of Thatcherism is, yes, to be idealistic, not to be kow-towing to the CBI, stand firm and yes to be embracing values of peace, social justice, and universal welfare care for all those that need it. In short, socialism.
Those are the values which inspired my parents and grandparents in times a damn sight harder for working people than they are now. And God knows they are still hard enough for millions in this country.
If anyone asks me what truly matters then what we have to do is start addressing what kind of world we want for the generations which follow us .That means re-building the left - not diluting it.

ADIOS FIDEL.....

There was I blethering on like an idiot about my reading glasses while the rest of the world was agog at the news that Castro has just announced he is stepping down. For years, I said I must go to Cuba ( ie while Castro was still in charge) and now it's too late. Time waits for no man, not even the legendary Fidel whose health has been a subject of speculation for nigh on two years. Let's hope Bush doesn't use this as an excuse for more gung-ho militarism. And that the transition to a new Cuba is a peaceful one. Viva socialismo!

Update: And Gordon Brown is already talking about steering Cuba towards a more "pluralist democracy" ie no doubt he has visions of the neo-cons in the US and the free market muscling in . To which I say "El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido" ...........the workers united shall never be defeated ...........

THE COMMANDING HEIGHTS.......

I can't help smiling at the headlines pointing out that Gordon Brown has spent much of the past 24 hours defending his decision ( and it was HIS decision) to nationalise Northern Rock.
It must really have hurt this "evangelist for globalisation" to have to take control of a busted private sector flush back into public ownership - to protect taxpayers and the shareholders.
To a New Labour generation for whom the very idea of nationalisation is probably as abhorrent as necrophilia, this will be terrible news.
For the left, I believe this is a golden opportunity for us to show that the free market cannot protect people from the iniquities of capitalism - and that sometimes the state must - and should - intervene. "Nationalisation" does not have to mean state-run shibboleths - it can actually mean , er , the public good. And there are many forms of public ownership...... just waiting to happen.
Ex Marxism Today guru Martin Jaques, one of those basically responsible for New Labour, certainly thinks this could be a seminal moment. His was the brain which coined the phrase "The Project" to describe what eventually turned out to be the end of the social democratic consensus. In latter years, he has recanted his enthusiasm for the Third Way.
Casting round the internet, I was interested to note that by 1998 Jaques and his erstwhile comrades were already begininng to realise that in discarding their leftism and embracing Blairism they might have made a tiny wincy, er, mistake.
As journalist Decca Aitkenhead reported : "It seems more likely that they are feeling a little guilty. Like a teenager, Marxism Today neglected the basics of the left, imagining that things like equality would survive just fine. As all teenagers discover to their cost, they're a little sorry when it's too late."
Ten years down the New Labour line, Jaques is clearly hopeful that the tide is about to turn back towards the left. Let's hope so.....

RED GORDON SPEAKS UP FOR SOCIALISM

The following words are an absolutely fascinating extract from the Red Paper written in 1975 by Gordon Brown . I find it extraordinary -and sad - that a man such a cogent case for democratic socialism should morph into a neo-liberal politician whose faith is now firmly entrenched in the market and Thatcherite values. What is perhaps even more interesting is that these words are just as (maybe even more) relevant than they were 30-odd years ago.
The full text is in the January 2008 edition of Socialist Standard, the journal of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.


( the stresses are mine)

"If the prospects for the least fortunate are to be as great as they can be, then they must have the final say—and that requires a massive and irreversible shift of power to working people, a framework of free universal welfare services controlled by the people who use them."
"But socialism will have to be won also at the point of production—the production of needs, ideas and particularly of goods and services. And that demands ending the power of a minority through ownership and control to direct the energies of all other members of our society."
"[The market can no longer be seen as the efficient allocator of resources and indeed that the productive forces within our economy have outstripped the capacity of the market."
"The more automation there is, the greater is the need to deal with the social consequences by increased public expenditure; yet the more the government raises in taxation, the more urgent is the need for more automation. Thus, increasingly, the private control of industry has become a hindrance to the further unfolding of the social forces of production.
"What has often been cited as an irresoluble clash in socialist theory between regulating material production according to human needs and the principle of eliminating the exploitative domination of man over man can only be met through producers controlling the organisation of the production process."
"In a society which is both mature and complex, where the total social and economic processes are geared to maintaining the production of goods and services (and the reproduction of the conditions of production), then the transition to socialism must be made by the majority of people themselves and a socialist society must be created within the womb of existing society and prefigured in the movements for democracy at the grass roots