Socialists are invited…

Last Updated: September 17, 2021By Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I know this is very short notice but This Writer has only just been informed:

Left-wing groups and movements are launching a new coalition on Saturday (September 18), starting at 11am.

Called Labour Left 4 Socialism, it will be started in a webinar, beginning at 11am and lasting until 1pm.

“This is the start of something for the whole of our movement, the result of months of work by members of left groups and unions working together to confront attacks from the Tory government and also from Labour’s right wing,” said a LL4S spokesperson.

“The right have got away with a full-scale assault on the left of the party, to rid it of socialism, to become a party of the establishment, because the left has not been united.

“Now we are putting down a marker that we are united and we are not going anywhere. We are calling on all socialists in the party to come together around common goals and join us in setting in motion the process of left mobilisation.”

The Labour Left 4 Socialism coalition will launch a manifesto setting out an agenda of unified defiance on major issues affecting all sectors of the labour movement.

It will set out a Left agenda on climate justice; international solidarity and peace; workers’ rights; free speech and democracy; fighting racism; and public services after Covid-19.

It is also backing calls for delegates at the Labour Party conference in Brighton later this month to reject Keir Starmer’s ally David Evans as general secretary.

“With the ferocious ratcheting up of suspensions and expulsions in recent weeks, it’s clear that delegates to Labour Party conference in Brighton next week need to follow the lead of Unite the Union and vote down Evans as party general secretary,” the spokesperson said.

Speakers at the online launch will include Andrew Scattergood (FBU) on workers’ rights, Ekua Bayunu (Labour Black Socialists) on the fight against racism, Chris Saltmarsh (Labour for a Green New Deal) on the climate crisis and Matt Wrack (FBU General Secretary on Public Services.

A standing committee will be established, representing supporting organisations, to plan a series of working conferences to debate and organise. Work is under way for an initial conference on November 27.

That seems like a good idea to me.

Manifesto details are available here: https://www.facebook.com/104483281568745/posts/253017513381987/

Register for the webinar here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ai3OLJ18SVibhT9WjhfiNQ

Left-wing politics started with people getting together and acting in a common cause.

After the infiltration and takeover of the Labour Party by entryist members of the political right, it seems logical that the process should start again.

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26 Comments

  1. Kath Shaw September 17, 2021 at 11:32 am - Reply

    Wouldn’t the TWT in Brighton provide a good opportunity for this launch. All the right(left) people will be there.

    • Mike Sivier September 17, 2021 at 3:40 pm - Reply

      As will all the right-wing (wrong) people who would try to take names and then have anybody involved in the project expelled from the Labour Party. The kind of people SteveH seems to support.

  2. SteveH September 17, 2021 at 11:58 am - Reply

    Mike – This is part of the Labour in Exile Network which has been proscribed by the Labour Party.

    • Mike Sivier September 17, 2021 at 2:17 pm - Reply

      And what is your point – that attendees who are still in the party are likely to be expelled for taking part?

      That just shows up Labour for what it is nowadays, I’d say.

      Or are you saying you support the vile activities of Starmer and his Fake Labour cronies?

      • SteveH September 17, 2021 at 2:41 pm - Reply

        Mike – Is there a problem with informing members of LL4S’s close association and support for proscribed organisations. People can then make an informed decision.

        “We declare our solidarity with members of Socialist Appeal, Labour Against the Witchhunt, and Labour in Exile Network. While we continue to welcome Socialst Appeal in our discussions, we also invite Labour Against the Witchhunt and Labour in Exile Network to participate in our ongoing talks.
        https://labourleft.org/statements-and-campaigns/future-of-the-labour-left-update/

        • Mike Sivier September 17, 2021 at 3:37 pm - Reply

          I think anybody who knows anything about the situation in the Labour Party is already likely to have made their informed decision, without any urgings from you!

      • SteveH September 17, 2021 at 2:47 pm - Reply

        …and given the precautions that are being taken there seems to be every reason for Labour party members to exercise a degree of caution.
        https://skwawkbox.org/2021/09/17/labour-left-4-socialism-launches-manifesto-ahead-of-left-unity-but-forced-to-take-steps-to-foil-party-machine/

        • Mike Sivier September 17, 2021 at 3:38 pm - Reply

          On the contrary – this says that the organisers have taken steps to protect anyone who wishes to support them from persecution by Starmer and his cronies.

          Good for them!

          YOUR attitude, on the other hand, seems extremely suspicious.

  3. Lynne Edwards (Bebsdotter) September 17, 2021 at 12:00 pm - Reply

    Hi Mike is there any way I can have a look at the manifesto without joining Facebook?

    • Mike Sivier September 17, 2021 at 2:19 pm - Reply

      LABOUR LEFT FOR SOCIALISM: BUILDING THE RESISTANCE – MANIFESTO
      Workers’ rights
      The sustained attack on workers’ rights, using the excuse of austerity and now the pandemic, is about furthering the wealth of the elite. Labour must call for urgent legislation to ban fire & rehire; zero hour contracts; age pay discrimination; bogus self-employed status and more. As fewer workers have benefited from the protection of Trade Union collective bargaining, so wealth inequalities have grown. Labour must outlaw attempts to exclude trade unionists from employment and commit to the abolition of all anti trade union laws. We fight against racism, sexism and all forms of discrimination in the workplace. Labour must support the New Workers Deal, promote the rights of trade unions to bargain across sectors as well as in the workplace, and oppose deregulation within Freeports. We stand in solidarity with those taking action over pay, conditions and jobs.
      Climate crisis
      Labour needs to robustly challenge the Tories on the climate change crisis which poses an urgent and existential threat to humanity. Global temperatures are increasing, sea levels are rising and extreme weather events (floods, fires, droughts etc) are rapidly becoming more frequent. We need a global, just transition.
      The developed countries, responsible both for the overwhelming majority of historic carbon emissions and the current highest per capita emissions, are failing to act to keep temperature rises below 1.5°C. A catastrophe is unfolding, which can only be stopped if huge resources are deployed now to green the global economy.
      In advance of the UN COP26 conference the Tories absurdly claim that Britain is a world leader. Labour must nail this nonsense. The Tory government has no serious plan to meet the climate targets it has announced; it is subsidising fossil fuels, supporting continued oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, and has cut Green Home Grants
      The TUC is calling for the immediate investment of £85 billion for a Green New Deal, to cut the substantial majority of carbon emissions by 2030 and create 1.2 million green jobs. Labour is currently calling for less than half that. Labour needs to build on our 2017 and 2019 manifestos and the Socialist Green New Deal policy agreed at the 2019 Annual Conference.
      The urgency of this task makes it essential that Labour campaigns, in office and out, for immediate action alongside the unions in mobilising society for a just transition. We must vigorously attack the dangerous complacency of the Tory government and expose its dishonest claims.
      Free Speech and democracy
      Free speech and the right to question leaders, ideas, rules and laws are fundamental democratic rights that are increasingly under attack. From the imprisonment of Assange, to the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the threats to academic freedom by defunding universities who do not adopt the IHRA, to Prevent, immigration controls and Windrush, our rights are being curtailed as never before.
      Freedom of lawful speech is a pillar of democracy. It is a protected right under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act. Labour must commit internally and externally to protecting lawful free speech (including in its disciplinary procedures), stop and reverse the proscription of groups who do not stand candidates against the Labour Party and oppose any “conflation of antisemitism with legitimate advocacy for Palestinian rights”, as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign put it in a recent statement.
      War and internationalism
      As socialists and internationalists, we stand in solidarity with people against oppression everywhere. We stand in solidarity with those under attack from imperialism and suffering internal repression. An ethical Labour foreign policy must champion these principles across the globe by promoting peace, conflict resolution and nuclear disarmament at its heart.
      Anti-racism
      The Tories intent, aided by the right-wing media, is to normalise a racist society. It is revealed in their legislation, attacking the GRT community, demonising Muslims, opposing BLM, criminalising refugees, doubling down on creating a Hostile Environment. But Labour is failing to expose this. Labour should stand up against all forms of racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. It should stop being silent in the face of Tory racism and instead vigorously oppose it. Labour must commit to promoting an agenda of equality and respect by campaigning to ensure a diverse selection of candidates is supported into leadership positions; by improving our understanding of class, race, gender, disability and LGBTQ issues in our socialist practice and confronting racism in the Party as well as wider society, specifically including anti-Black racism.
      Public services
      A democratic social state that serves the people must have at its core public ownership of our essential public services, transport and utilities, the availability of social housing, including the state provision of a complete National Health Service to all. *This means cancelling private service contracts and returning to in-house provision, and reclaiming the freehold of hospital property*. Decades of rip-off profiteering has destroyed the public services we need. Local Authority services must be brought in house and resourced to meet needs. We must urgently engage in a nationally co-ordinated programme of council house building to tackle the housing crisis. Since 2014, accessible NHS services have been withdrawn before our eyes by a corporate American profit scheme with cross-party support -“ICSs”- that incentivises cuts to care. Labour must heed its own 2017-19 conferences, opposing ICSs outright and their exemption from competition law, committing to a fully nationalised NHS, with Social Care under public ownership and control, and to reward front line workers with a minimum wage of £15 per hr.

  4. disabledgrandad September 17, 2021 at 3:48 pm - Reply

    It is a little too late the right-wing cult of new Labour 2.0 has taken over and is in charge. FFS if it has taken them MONTHS to get together it’s just papering over the gaping wounds.

    Daily we hear of more purges, the last leader is kicked out of his own party. Sorry Labour is too much of a mess to bother even trying to change. Why fight for years just to get back to the 2017 to 2019 level of socialism in Labour?

    Far better to start a socialist ONLY Labour movement free from the right-wing wreakers and learn the dam lesions never allow any right-wing scumbag in. This county needs socialism to lift us all Labour will never again be that change. Better to accept Labour is dead a zombie party looking for a grave… Then to get socialism a false hope this way! It’s people that can see Labour is dying and can’t see the truth we can’t carry on like this, it’s gone too far to correct…

    • Mike Sivier September 18, 2021 at 1:36 pm - Reply

      Better late than never!

      Why fight for years? Well, we do have a few years until the next general election. Starmer certainly isn’t going to win it – nor are any of his cronies, so we might as well work to get somebody in who might have a chance.

      It would take a new party at least 20 years to build a big enough support base to win power.

      • SteveH September 18, 2021 at 2:02 pm - Reply

        In the last poll that I saw Yvette Cooper was the front runner if there was a challenge and those on the left were trailing miles behind.
        What would you gain by swapping Yvette for Starmer.
        As I’ve said before I very much doubt that there will be a leadership challenge before the next GE. The RW aren’t that stupid and ‘the left’ don’t have the numbers and would probably lose anyway, even if they did manage to scrape together the numbers. Time will prove which of us is right.
        Have you settled on a candidate to coalesce behind yet or is that bit still in the ‘planning’ stage

        • Mike Sivier September 18, 2021 at 4:32 pm - Reply

          What poll was that and who was polled?

          I’ve already said there is no point in swapping one right-wing twit for another. Labour must be cleared of all of them. Not one of them is socialist.

          The Left has huge numbers among the party membership but sadly the right-wing headbangers in the PLP have rigged the system to ensure that they can force their choices on the party at large.

          Why are you asking me if I’ve settled on a candidate? I’m not in the Labour Party now.

          • SteveH September 18, 2021 at 4:54 pm

            Mike – As i understand it the threshold for a challenge were upped during Corbyn’s tenure to protect him from further challenges.
            I’ll see if I can dig out a link to the poll for you.

          • Mike Sivier September 18, 2021 at 5:50 pm

            You are mistaken. The threshold was LOWERED.

            It was to protect Corbyn, though. Because right-wing entryists now outnumber what might be termed proper members of the Labour Party – democratic socialists – the number of nominations required for a candidate to trigger a leadership election was lowered to 10 per cent of the MPs in the Parliamentary Labour Party.

            I believe Starmer wants to increase that number, to make it impossible for a democratic socialist ever again to become the leader of that democratic socialist party.

            Strangely, there seems to be no inclination among MPs on either side to allow rank and file party members to have a say in whether a candidate should be nominated.

          • SteveH September 18, 2021 at 6:30 pm

            Mike – Unfortunately you are mistaken there is a second section that you’ve missed.
            Yes the threshold was lowered when there is a vacancy but it was put up to 20% for a challenge.
            The drop to 10% was to ensure that the left could get on the ballot paper in the future and the uplift to 20% was to protect Corbyn from repeated challenges. It’s logical if you think about it.
            Labour Rule Book 2020 page21
            Chapter 4, Clause II, 2, B, i&ii

          • Mike Sivier September 19, 2021 at 12:40 pm

            Oh, it’s been put up to 20 per cent since, has it?

            Seems to me that it would be more likely to protect Starmer from any challenges now. Doesn’t that seem more likely, when you think about it?

            Corbyn was safe from challenges because the membership would protect him. Further challenges after 2016 would only have turned the rank and file members against the challengers and those who supported them.

          • SteveH September 19, 2021 at 3:30 pm

            Mike – You are right that the % required for a challenge has been 20% for some time. I had wrongly assumed that it had been changed at the same time as the drop from 15% to 10%. However this doesn’t alter the fact that a challenge needs 20% and ‘the left’ don’t have the numbers to get on the ballot paper.
            Prior to the 2018 Rule Book (I’ve checked back to 2014) the required number of PLP nominations was 15% for when there is a vacancy and 20% for a challenge.
            This changed to 10% and 20% for the 2018 Rule Book.
            Which as there is little chance of Keir stepping down before the next GE brings us back to your statement that “the number of nominations required for a candidate to trigger a leadership election was lowered to 10 per cent of the MPs in the Parliamentary Labour Party.” is mistaken.

            The rule book is quite clear (Rule Book 2020 page21
            Chapter 4, Clause II, 2, B, ii) “Where there is no vacancy, nominations may be sought by potential challengers each year prior to the annual session of
            Party conference. In this case any nomination must be supported by 20 per cent of the combined Commons members of the PLP and members of the EPLP. Nominations not attaining this threshold shall be null and void. The sitting Leader or Deputy Leader shall not be required to
            seek nominations in the event of a challenge under this rule.”

            It requires 20% to trigger a leadership challenge

          • Mike Sivier September 19, 2021 at 4:08 pm

            Yes, and I’m grateful to you for showing up this shocking offence to democracy, perpetrated on the Labour Party after I was ejected from it, by Keir Starmer’s mob.

            If he was interested in democracy, he’d drop the 20 per cent requirement to a single nomination and let the party membership decide.

            What a shame he’s too chicken to do it.

            And you support this disgrace?

          • SteveH September 19, 2021 at 5:24 pm

            Mike – Let’s not forget that you (as did I) also subscribed to these rules and supported the incumbent leader who presided over these rules when you were a member.

            I agree with you that if there is vacancy then any member of the PLP should be able to put themselves forward to be on the ballot paper for the leadership election. Neither the PLP or CLPs should be able to act as gatekeepers.
            BUT
            If a democratically elected incumbent leader is being challenged then I think it is justified to require the support of at least 20% of the PLP before a challenge can be mounted. Otherwise the party could end up in a permanent state of chaos.
            The real problem that ‘the left’ has is that they don’t currently have a credible candidate to put forward.

          • Mike Sivier September 19, 2021 at 9:22 pm

            I didn’t subscribe to those rules. I had been suspended – and then expelled!

            Of course you agree that a right-wing, Tory-entryist Labour Party leader should be protected from being removed from his position by genuine democratic socialists. You don’t want the lefties to take their party back.

            No, you are wrong – deliberately? – about “the real problem”. It is that Starmer and his right-wing cult are determined to destroy the Labour Party as a democratic socialist organisation – meaning they are determined to destroy the Labour Party.

            And your protestations here are becoming tiresome. I think it’s time to end this particular correspondence.

          • SteveH September 18, 2021 at 6:38 pm

            Mike – Here are the details you requested about the poll I mentioned earlier https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/4mv3rr0na8/SkyNews_LabourMembersPoll_210629.pdf

            Sample Size: 871 Labour members in GB
            Fieldwork: 22nd – 29th June 21

            Imagine that Keir Starmer stepped down, there was a fresh election for Leader of the Labour Party and the following people stood. Which of the following do you think you would you be most likely to give your first preference vote to?
            [A total of 7 respondents chose to skip this question]
            Angela Rayner 12%
            Lisa Nandy 13%
            Yvette Cooper 35%
            Richard Burgon 6%
            Rebecca Long Bailey 11%
            None of these 13%
            Don’t know 9%

          • Mike Sivier September 19, 2021 at 12:43 pm

            I see. Labour members after Starmer’s many purges. And were they specially-chosen? I bet you don’t know – or won’t answer!

            Polls like this aim to tell people what to think in the future – not to reflect what people actually think now.

          • SteveH September 19, 2021 at 4:06 pm

            Mike – Well I suppose that you could say similar things about any political poll whose results you don’t like.

            They were however remarkably accurate about the 19GE
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2019_United_Kingdom_general_election#2019

          • Mike Sivier September 19, 2021 at 4:09 pm

            Well, I suppose you could say that about any political poll whose results you DO like.

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