WITCHHUNTS

http://4glengate.net/node/399

The above link outlines the distressing case of two comrades who have just been expelled from the Labour Party , apparently for being members of the Alliance For Workers Liberty. I am NOT a member of that organisation . If I were, would that be grounds for expelling me ? A question I pose as I do know several AWL supporters and would not like to see them thrown out. As far as I know, AWL does not stand at elections nor oppose Labour. If that's so, how can these two comrades have been expelled? If there are any messages of support we can send can I be informed. Thanks. Because if there is one thing I cannot stand, it is witchhunts.

THE WITCHING HOUR

Pendle Hill is only 10 miles or so from here but tonight I won't be boarding my broomstick and trotting off to cast some spells ( tempting though it is) . Instead I am celebrating Halloween with an important CLP meeting . I read with some amusement today that a woman called Emma Angel ( really) is leading a campaign for Jack Straw to posthumously pardon those executed for witchcraft 400 years ago. Including of course the Pendle witches. A worthy cause no doubt but probably not my top priority at the moment. Even if I am officially lighting the bonfire tomorrow in Hebden Bridge......

NORTHERN ROCK PROTEST MANCHESTER

NORTHERN ROCK PROTEST - STOP THE REPOSSESSIONS!
11am
Saturday November 1.
Northern Rock, 1 Princess Street, Albert Square , Manchester

Protestors are gathering outside Northern Rock’s Manchester HQ to campaign against Northern Rock’s policy of repossessions on a scale twice as fast as any other bank in the country.

Supporters of the Convention Of The Left which has organised the protest, say nationalised banks should be run in the interests of working people and that Northern Rock should not be pursuing a policy of taking their homes and making them destitute.

More information at http://www.conventionoftheleft.org/resources/Northern%20rock_homeprint.pdf

WOSS THE PROBLEM

When one is firefighting problems of a political and financial nature, it tends to dampen enthusiasm for blogging. Hence a recent sparseness of posting on this blog.
But the latest furore over Jonathan Ross is worthy of note for several reasons.
Ross, who reportedly earns £6million a year, is facing the sack following the "prank" he and Russell Brand engaged in . Namely leaving obscene messages on the answerphone of Andrew Sachs, most famed as Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
To be honest, I have never been a fan of Ross's brash, egotistical style of TV presenting. But his infantile antics are only symptomatic of a "culture" which panders to the modern taste for car crash TV and innuendo about the personal lives of celebrities.
What concerns me more is the inflated salary, the casual disregard for people's privacy, and the gross disparity between overpaid presenters and BBC journalists facing cuts and redundancies.
Should he be sacked ? Well, let's just say I won't be losing any sleep if he is.

POETRY IN MOTION

Tonight to Ted Hughes Festival closing ceremony. Wish I could have attended more events but clashing political engagements ruled it out, It is such a refeshing thing to escape the wrangling of Labour Party life . Well done to all who made it happen and will do my best to support via local council.

NARROWING THE GAP......

The news in today's Independent that the Tories are now only eight points ahead is a welcome respite from months of bad news for the Labour Party. See what nationalising the banks does for our standing with the electorate! The problem is of course that they have not been wholly nationalised and unfortunately the deal is when they're back in a healthy shape they will be sold off again. Maybe.....
Can you imagine how popular Labour would be if we now took on the fat cat utilities, took them back into public ownership and slashed people's fuel bills just in time for Christmas.Just a thought.
Meanwhile the Glenrothes by-election is coming up and who knows maybe Labour can hang on. I hope so because as things stand we're facing the prospect of a hung Parliament. Compared to the scenario in the summer, that's pretty amazing. But we have to put clear red water between us and the Tories - or events could yet upset the applecart. George Osborne may be toast thanks to his friendship with Russian oligarchs but the spectre of Peter Mandelson is still of course lurking in the background. The "People's Programme" advocated by the LRC is the best way forward of convincing ordinary voters that the vast majority of Labour Party members and a sizeable chunk of MPs are still on their side.You can see Andrew Fisher of the Left Economics Advisory Panel being interviewed on BBC News 24 about the crisis here

WHAT'S LEFT OF THE PARTY.......

The chances are that I will go to my grave as a Labour Party member. I have lost count of the number of times in the last few years I have defended my ongoing membership and urged people a) not to leave b) to re-join or c) join the LRC.
Unlike many on the Labour Left, I did attend Labour Party Conference ( some of it) but it would be an utter lie to pretend I found it an enjoyable experience. A resolution we had worked hard on to get onto the agenda was effectively killed by our "Real Labour" trade union leaders and the rest was an endless stream of Ministers and hand-picked speakers .
The real debates were over the road at the Convention Of The Left. Knocked by some as a "talking shop" but in terms of comradeship and debate an experience far more gratifying than the insular bubble of Manchester Central.
There are some within our Party who seem to think we should not engage with socialists outside our comfort zone. That it's a waste of time trying to find common ground with progressives who do not share our urge to try and re-claim the Labour Party . That is a position I have no time for and frankly do not understand.
But Let me make one thing absolutely clear.
I do not think a new Left Party is the way forward. I think the LRC still has a valuable role to play carrying on its often thankless work aiming to change the structures, widen democracy and get socialsim back on the Party's agenda. But I also think the LRC CAN do far more than that. #
My union, the NUJ, is not ( and will not) affiliate to Labour or any other Party but it IS part of a new alliance - the Trade Union Co-ordinating Group - led by LRC members which has an invaluable role bringing together radical voices who do not kow-tow, roll over and die at every given opportunity while proclaiming their "Real Labour " roots.
It will also, I hope, give us all the opportunity to campaign on the issues which unite us and support a programme of change to protect people currently facing the prospect of a desperate recession.
The collapse of the New Labour neo-liberal consensus is not a time to turn inward and become sectarian, nor is it time to march out of the Labour Party. But it IS an opportunity to look putward and build what alliances we can to fight together with people disillusioned by the status quo.
The new apetite for radical change is also an opportunity to build the LRC nationally and campaign up and down the country wherever we can.
So, yes, I will be going to the LRC AGM. I will also be going to the Recall Conference called by the Convention Of The Left which will debate the current crisis we face.
And I will still be trying to bring in people locally to the Labour Party though God knows the machinations of the NEC and vicious campaign waged by some of our "comrades" against our PPC makes this a pretty dispiriting business at the moment.
In short, I am not giving in.
In the past year I have spent much time traipsing backwards and forwards to London for National Committee meetings ( four hours each way from Hebden Bridge) .I've convened fringe meetings, helped launch the West Yorkshire LRC and frankly worked bloody hard instead of whingeing about things and doing nothing. I would like to think the contacts I have made and the work I have done in 32 years of Labour Party membership and 20-odd years as an NUJ activists also equip me somewhat for a very difficult task - helping build the LRC into a truly national organisation. And that is why I will be asking for support and standing as Vice-Chair of the LRC.

NOT A GOOD READ

Today I had a four-hour round trip into Manchester for a meeting of Mayors For Peace - which our council is signed up to. To while away the journey I took with me a birthday present - Cherie Blair's autobiography. Yes, he does have an extremely sharp sense of humour. ......
Actually, Cherie and I share one thing. A working-class, Catholic childhood in roughly the same era and fierce ambition academically. To that extent, I empathised with her . In fact, the first 100 pages were rather interesting . From then on in, my heart was sinking.
Aside from the rather prurient details of her sex life ( isn't three boyfriends at once rather greedy?) it is politics-lite with page after page of detail about hers and Tony's ambitions to be top of their particular trees. And of course much denunciation of "lunatic lefties. "
Oddly, though, the undoubtedly left-wing Tony Benn was drafted in to help Cherie's Parliamentary ambitions in Thanet North but I suppose a high-profile politician was useful to the campaign.
Cherie also claims to having been a member of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee. Which sits rather uneasily with her claims to have always been a New Labour kind of person. Only Labour Party anoraks will know this but the LCC was in fact a Bennite organisation - I used to be a supporter. So quite what she was doing there one can only speculate.
There has always been a myth that Cherie was always somehow more "left" than her husband. From the contempt with which the Labour Left is treated in the book, it is clear that is not the case. In short, after getting halfway through, and deciding things can only get worse, I am abandoning it in favour of better reading material for my weekend away from Calder Valley. Where allegiance to New Labour ideology would undoubtedly have cost us the seat at the last General Election.

MY PARTY RIGHT....OR WRONG

I have just got back very late from a meeting in Manchester to discover that our PPC selection is now on hold till...January. This is because certain members of our constituency have seen fit to go to the right-wing media with bogus, utterly unfounded allegations about our candidate which now have to be investigated. I really hope they are pleased that campaigning in this highly marginal constituency is now further on hold, which will only derail our chances of winning - already slight. It is utterly despicable conduct. Unlike them, I will not be ringing the newsdesks with further tittle-tattle which can only damage the Labour Party. But let me say that, if we on the left had lost the vote in July, it would have been regarded as a fair and square decision. It seems that some people cannot accept they have lost the political argument - and choose to resort to personal vendettas which, had we the financial wherewithal, would end up in the libel courts. An utter disgrace.

BAILING MYSELF OUT...

In recent weeks I have pondered various ways of making extra money. The latest was a book called Credit Crunch Tips on the lines of those household hints you see in women's magazines. I've had some good ideas. In Haworth on Saturday a friend and I came up with the idea of sharing pub lunches ( half the cost, half the calories) and , given the size of meals in Yorkshire, you don't even go hungry. I've also just signed up to something called Freecycle in the hope of culling a re-conditioned vacuum cleaner ( the cat has so far dispatched two this year) for nothing. Then I got an e-mail from a contact saying there would be no commissions for several months and reality broke into this whimsical musing. I'm now at that crunch moment when outgoings are exceeding incomings. I'm also a bit sick of red-stickered food and Christmas is staring me in the face with no prospect at all of new freelance work. In short, it's time to look for a full-time job. Labour movement, media-related. I give myself six months to find something and if that fails well, plan B.

WHY THE BAIL-OUT WASN'T ENOUGH .....

When the mines were nationalised by the Attlee Government after the war, someone (I can't remember who) famously said, "We are the masters now." Today's Guardioan front page makes it clear that despite Government intervention and part-nationalisation nothing much has changed in terms of command and control. The same people are still in charge and the taxpayers, who are bearing this burden, are not part of the process.

The chief executive of Lloyds TSB, one of the banks participating in the £37bn bank bail-out, has promised staff they will receive bonuses this year despite Gordon Brown's promise of a crackdown on bankers' pay following the investment by taxpayers.
Eric Daniels has told employees that the historic government intervention will not change the behaviour of Lloyds, which is in the throes of the rescue takeover of HBOS brokered by the prime minister.
In a recorded message to employees, Daniels stressed that the bank faced "very, very few restrictions" in its behaviour despite the injection of up to £5.5bn of taxpayers' funds. "If you think about it, the first restriction was not to pay bonuses. Well Lloyds TSB is in fact going to pay bonuses. I think our staff have done a terrific job this year. There is no reason why we shouldn't," said Daniels.

MANDELSON MAKES HIS MARK....

It did not take long for Peter Mandelson to get cracking on his new New Labour agenda .Barely is the ink dry on the promised concessions in working practices to help parents ( a key component of Gordon Brown's Conference speech) than Mandelson is trying to undo the good work and saying the time is not appropriate.....and there is also the business of Royal Mail provatisation, which he is said to be in favour of.
It is ironic that at a time when the economic climarte and the general mood of the country is rather sober and austerely turning leftwards that the High Priest of neo-liberalism should be so utterly out of sync. Why should working parents be the ones to suffer because of capitalism's excesses.?

BRASSED OFF....

Tonight to Hebden Bridge Brass Band concert - yes I know they are a Northern cliche but being a sentimentalist and a Northerner I adore brass bands so well done all and very enjoyable, too. Finally celebrated birthday yesterday in a manner NOT befitting a woman of my years. 3am is far too late ..... my excuse was it has been a stressful week . In case anyone out there is wondering, yes there have been a series of events in my local constituency which I intend to comment on at the appropriate time. Which isn't now. It is a pity that the self-styled "loyalists" have not shown the same discipline. And concern for the long-term chances of us winning this seat at the next Election.

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.

TRUE COLOURS ?

Earlier this week, after an ( inquorate ) Branch meeting, a few of us gathered to discuss Gordon Brown's handling of the current crisis. A friend of mine was rather delighted that the PM had "shown his true colours" and was coming round to the view that maybe he really was a closet socialist. The right-wing press has also been full of scaremongering on a scale which might suggest New Labour had nationalised the 250 monopolies under workers' control with no compensation. The reality is rather less exciting.
Last night I caught the News late to find that Gordon Brown is now being hailed as the "saviour of global capitalism." That's a position I have no doubt he will bask in and, from a statesmanship point of view, there is also no doubt that Brown's authoritative handling of this crisis will have improved his standing in the eyes of many people - and probably will give Labour a boost in the polls. But let us not confuse an expedient act with ideological commitment to socialist values - which would have seen a very different way forward and long-term perspective on how society deals with the meltdown of capitalism

TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF......

The rest of my life....... For the past two months, I have lived with a small but significant possibility that I might have a curable but serious illness which might require extensive treatment. So even good things which have happened have been clouded by considerable anxiety.
Yesterday, at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, I was given the all-clear and have to say that ersatz instant NHS coffee has never tasted so good. Indulged myself afterwards with late lunch of sirloin steak, chips and large glass of red wine followed by lots and lots of sleep. Today, I'm resolving the following five things.
1. Buy second-hand bicycle to improve fitness
2.Get stop-gap job to tide me over till Christmas
3. Eat more healthily
4. Read at least one Improving Book every week
5. Use public transport to access moors and nearby countryside.
Right, now back to the politics.......

42 DAYS BINNED

So. After all the arm-twisting, all the drama, 42 Days as a counter-terrorism is binned. It took one of the biggest defeats ever for the Government in the House Of Lords for this unnecessary and unwanted legislation to bite the dust. Hope Mandelson enjoyed his debut in the Upper Chamber. ......
In a bald statement to the media, Jacqui Smith makes it clear there will be no renewed battle in the House Of Commons. Why? The whole issue was only ever about Gordon Brown's authority and, now he has reassserted his leadership due to the financial crisis, the Government can just afford to let it go. One should be glad the legislation is history but I wonder what all those MPs who were cajoled into voting for it now think. Yet again, the Labour Left has been proved right. Time to get on properly with nationalising the banks, then......
As Mark Serwotka said at tonight's LEAP rally in London "The thought of New Labour nationalising banks would have seemed absurd even a few weeks ago. Now up to £500 billion is being made available to prop up the banking system in these unstable economic times.
"We should look at the conditions attached to the massive injection of taxpayer’s money into the banking system. There should be controls on top pay, and restrictions on repossessions, with future profits from the banks going to the public purse. The trend of offshoring to avoid taxation must be brought to a rapid halt too.
"The arguments for more free markets, less regulation, and more privatisation have now been found wanting and hollow. No one trusts the smooth tongued financiers anymore

PETERS AND THEIR FRIENDS

Apparently, the PLP were clapping and cheering when Mandelson returned from exile last week. Well, some of them were. And I daresay the bubbly will be flowing for Peter's friends today as he is exalted to the House Of Lords.
In the great scheme of things, Mandelson's return, though unwelcome, is a minor irritant,
Have just returned from a trip to my bank (Lloyds TSB) where exchanged some banter with a cashier over possible nationalisation.She seemed to think it would be A Good Idea.
In times like these one needs to retain a sense of humour so last night I watched Peter Kay do a spoof of Pop Idol.This now world-famous Boltonian used to be an unassuming bloke who carried on working in his local cinema long after he started being popular on the Northern comedy circuit. Phoenix Nights was utterly brilliant. Made on a shoestring, its depiction of working-men's club culture was affectionately spot-on, and on occasion made me absolutely helpless with laughter. Not so last night's offering. There was the odd inspired moment but it was a bit of a vanity project which went on and on and on. And, without being overly PC, the running joke about a band with two disabled women wasn't actually that funny.And the "spoof" was so close to the real thing that it wasn't actually satirical. You also know you're in trouble when people like Paul McCartney start being drafted in as guest stars and Gary Barlow writes specially-commissioned tunes. Like Steve Coogan, Peter Kay has become a bit TOO famous. And the massive budget which last night's show had did not improve him one iota. There comes a poinmt where affectionate observation of Northern working-class life becomes , actually, taking the piss. And Peter Kay is close to stepping over that line.

IS THIS OUR CLAUSE 4 MOMENT....

The reason I haven't been saying much about the financial meltdown we've witnessed in the past few weeks is very simple. I'm not an economist, I'm not qualified to comment at length and frankly I think the nuts and bolts of what is going on are best left to others who are au fait with finance.
But nevertheless it is kind of heartening to watch the Sunday night News and hear the pundits predicting that this really could be the end of the Thatcherite consensus and the notion that markets can be left to go their own sweet way - with no control or regulation. We have even heard Gordon Brown criticise the City bonuses and greed which have contributed to this collapse.
Now maybe it is time for the Government to take a deep breath and commit to full-scale nationalisation of the banks and finance institutions - ie what we used to call "the commanding heights of the economy" not a bail-out which as far as I can ascertain is unfortunately playing fast and loose with taxpayers' money.
LEAP - the Left Economic Advisory Panel - is suddenly to the fore in all this commentary and an emergency rally is being held tomorrow night in the House Of Commons , Committee Room 10, at 7.30pm. More details on the LEAP blog. I look forward to hearing all about it from those who live rather nearer to Westminster than I do.

WEST YORKS LRC AGM TOMORROW

Just a final reminder that the West Yorks LRC AGM is TOMORROW at the Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, 2pm. There will be food, there will be discussion and there will be a collection towards our affiliation fee...... might even be time to discuss the imminent collapse of capitalism. You don't have to be an LRC member to come - all welcome. ( but you do have to be an LRC member to vote )