Ken Loach’s pre-conference pep talk is a reality check for Labour Party members
Pointing the finger: Ken Loach tells it as it is.
Keir Starmer won’t want you to watch this:
Nor will he want you to read Ken Loach’s article in the Morning Star. The link is at the bottom but let’s tease out the best bits, for conference-goers to bear in mind:
1. “Starmer approaches his first real Labour conference having lost over 120,000 party members – Corbyn famously more than doubled Labour’s size to make it the largest party in western Europe – and driven it to the edge of bankruptcy. “A healthy Labour Party isn’t what Starmer’s leadership is about.”
2. Starmer’s leadership is about pacifying the Establishment – assuring the Powers That Be that a Labour government run by him will be virtually synonymous with a Tory government: “Remember that Corbyn only got to stand for leader in the first place because MPs assumed he couldn’t win but a contest would give the appearance of democracy.
“Then he stood and the vast majority of members voted for him, and he and John [McDonnell] began a programme that would begin the transformation of British society in the interests of working-class people. And then we nearly won the 2017 election.
“And if the right were worried before, they became much worse. And the ruling class, not to mince words, decided that he had to go.”
3. Starmer’s leadership only makes sense as part of a long-term strategy to destroy the Left. That’s why the party machine is continuing to hound members out even while facing financial ruin because it has lost so many members. “His aim is to have a small party with few activists, and funded by donations from big business, so the leader is independent of the party itself and then someone like Rupert Murdoch can put his arm around him and say, ‘it’s OK to vote for this man,’ like he did with Blair… Big business wants a Labour Party it can rely on.”
4. Starmer does not want to end privatisation – certainly not in the health service – because the Establishment wants to privatise it and he wants to appeal to the Establishment. He won’t end zero-hours contracts or fire-and-rehire either. He’ll betray any promises he makes on workers’ rights too.
5. “The biggest obstacle to change now is the Labour right.” And Keir Starmer is the poster boy of the Labour right. “As long as they govern the party we cannot have transformative change. And we don’t have the luxury that earlier generations of socialists did, that we can fight the long war. That we can wait till the next left surge, the next time we get a toehold in the Labour Party in a few decades’ time.”
6. So Keir Starmer and the Labour right must be eliminated – pronto: “The climate emergency makes all the difference. It means we have to act now because disaster is at the door. None of us can afford to see the left recede again while the ruling class re-establishes itself. The left MPs, the unions, the disability and anti-racism and climate campaigns – we have to work together, now, to build a political movement.”
That’s a big ask. But Labour’s party conference is a great place to start, and defeating Starmer and Evans on the major changes they are trying to impose, in order to end any power the left might ever have – is vital.
One more point, though:
Better make sure the vote-counters can be trusted!
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
