Saturday 26th March 2011 marked a watershed point for the modern Labour
Party. The Trade Union Congress had called for workers, students,
pensioners and all those affected by the coalition cuts to converge on
the capital. The question was: would Labour show up to the party too?
Around 350 Labour Party members, trade unionists and socialists
attended the 2011 LRC (Labour Representation Committee) “Resist the
Cuts, Rebuild the Party” conference at Conway Hall in London on January
15th. LRC Conference tends to major on the big events of the day. Two
years ago it was the economic crash and last year the general election.
This year the conference was not surprisingly dominated by the threat of
cuts and the need to defeat them.
The depth and the scale of the damage that
the Tories and Liberal Democrats intend to impose on the public sector
will
become more apparent on the 20th October when the results of
the
Comprehensive Spending Review will be announced. Already the summer
budget has highlighted
the threat of between 25% and 40% cuts across government departments.
Against all the odds and against the wishes of the whole establishment from The Economist to The Sunday Times, Ed Miliband has emerged as Labour Party leader, simply by standing a little to the left of his brother. This clinched the trade union members vote, which shows in which direction workers want the party to go, clearly to the left. But which way will Ed Miliband go?
Socialist Appeal Editorial: The Labour leadership election contest will
be ending in September as the ballot papers finally go out. It could
have been an opportunity to discuss a balance-sheet of the right-wing
control of the party under New Labour and an opportunity to discuss a
socialist programme in face of the worst capitalist crisis since the
1930s. However, the contest has left most people cold.
We reproduce here a statement from the LRC on the campaign to decide who will be the next leader of the Labour Party.
More than a century after the
formation of the Labour Party, the
party still remains rooted in the organised working class. Despite
everything, the results of the recent general election confirm the
ingrained support for Labour throughout the working class areas of
Britain.
Further to
our earlier report that John McDonnell has withdrawn as a candidate for
election as Labour leader, it has now been confirmed that Diane Abbott
has now secured
enough nominations to get on the ballot. She will be up against the two
Milibands,
Ed Balls and Andy Burnham.
The following statement has just been released by John McDonnell
concerning his campaign to be on the ballot paper for Labour leader.
Nominations close at lunchtime today with the party NEC meeting this
afternoon. We will comment further on this once the situation becomes
clearer later today.
Last Saturday an excellent meeting of the Northern LRC was held in
Gateshead with John McDonnell, fighting to be on the ballot for the new
leader of the Labour Party, and Paul Holmes, candidate for GS of
Unison, amongst those in attendance. We reproduce here a report on the
meeting by Veronica Killen from the LRC
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of UNITE,
in a speech at the union’s conference in Manchester, declared his
determination
to “take the party back” for working people. This is a positive step but
it
needs to be made concrete.
It cannot be denied that the historic global crisis of
capitalism has not, in Britain and America, led to an immediate corresponding
rise in class struggle (unlike say in Greece). Does this rule out the class struggle in the long term?
No. But in order to understand why it has been delayed, it is necessary for
socialists to concretely analyse all the conditions of the class.