February 2012
4 posts
1 tag
Stop the war before it starts - 3 things you can...
This is via Stop the War Coalition:
Everyone who took part in our last Don’t Attack Iran day of action found widespread feeling that an attack on Iran would be a disaster. SEE REPORTS: http://bit.ly/zkPecb Everyone can play a part in helping to build the campaign to stop our government taking us into yet another war in the Middle East region. * GET INVOLVED IN LOCAL ACTIVITIES In the coming...
Florence Anderson responds to right-wing silliness
Florence Anderson, a left-wing Labour councillor in Sunderland, has today been vilified for a regrettable instance of ‘liking’ a Facebook comment (back in July 2010) that joked about bombing Tory Party conference. The mock hysteria was insitgated by Mark Wallace, formerly associated with the right-wing Taxpayers’ Alliance, and fuelled by the Labour Party’s over-reaction in...
Sparks force climbdown by Balfour Beatty
My news item for Counterfire:
Electricians across the country have won a major victory in their battle with major construction firms.
Following several months of protests and unofficial walkouts, Balfour Beatty has abandoned the new contracts they were trying to force electricians working on their sites to accept. Balfour Beatty Engineering Services is just one of seven construction firms...
Intelligent radicals and dim conservatives?
I’ve noticed that lots of left-wingers are sharing this article - which reports research which apparently shows that more intelligent people tend to become left-wing, and less intelligent people become right-wing. Tempting as it is to endorse this, it doesn’t seem terribly convincing to me.
Of course there’s a relationship between rationality and left-wing politics. Intelligent,...
January 2012
23 posts
3 tags
From 26 March 2011 to here: how have Labour's...
Eoin Clarke has published an illuminating post about Labour’s declining opinion polling figures. It requires no further comment from me.
‘At the start of 2012 Labour led by 4% points against the Tories (YouGov). Then Jim Murphy outlined cuts of £5bn, Liam Byrne signaled a war on ‘evil scroungers’ and Stephen Twigg gave a fairly rightwing piece on education. Almost...
3 tags
The Plan
Owen Jones wrote a useful piece earlier this week, building on Len McCluskey’s intervention in the debate about Labour and cuts. Owen refers to the Surrender Tendency of those in the Labour Party who capitulate to cuts. He juxtaposes to them the ‘Alternatives’, i.e. all those, inside and outside the Labour Party, who reject cuts and support alternative economic policies. He...
Len McCluskey on Balls, Miliband and the pro-cuts... →
‘It leaves the country with something like a “national government” consensus where, as in 1931, the leaders of the three main parties agree on a common agenda of austerity to get capitalism – be it “good” or “bad” – back on its feet.’
1 tag
Yes, Ed Balls really does mean it.
On Friday night, when the twitterstorm about Ed Balls’ Guardian interview broke, everyone who is to the left of the Labour leadership was initially stunned. Since then, many Labour-supporting commentators and activists have perked up as a result of convincing themselves - and attempting to convince us - of a particular version of events. A new narrative has been established to deal,...
5 tags
Iran: making a stand against war and sanctions
I was at a very good Stop the War Coalition steering committee meeting in London on Saturday. It was well-attended, including representatives from various local STW groups (I was representing Tyneside Stop the War).
Although a wide-ranging meeting - with discussion of current developments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Pakistan etc - there was also clear agreement that our top priority...
3 tags
Stiglitz on a virtuous economic cycle
Joseph Stiglitz writes HERE about the bleak economic prospects for most Americans, connected to the global crisis. He goes on to comment on the need for an alternative economic strategy to austerity, writing:
Meanwhile, long-term problems – including climate change and other environmental threats, and increasing inequality in most countries around the world – have not gone away. Some have grown...
2 tags
Labour: trapped by the crisis
I didn’t hear Ed Miliband’s Today interview, but judging by twitter and the account on the Guardian’s site it was pretty appalling. The main characteristic seems to be a lack of anything to say - as I commented the other day, there’s a policy vacuum where Miliband is concerned. Lots of waffle and no substance.
The personal element in this is captured brilliantly by Lauren...
Michael Ignatieff and Liberal Failure →
Luna17: The 'Left' and the anti-cuts movement →
The Accountability Myth and the new Tory answer →
From smashing the poll tax to stopping the cuts
What was it that stopped the poll tax? The new Thatcher biopic, ‘The Iron Lady’, has prompted recollections of the poll tax era. The film’s apparently depoliticised approach means less media attention, however, is devoted to the movement which brought both Thatcher and the poll tax down.
I think it is generally recognised that mass non-payment was the really decisive factor....
2 tags
Ed Miliband and the 'policy vacuum'
Ed Miliband’s problems are summed up neatly by the remarks he makes in this Guardian interview. The Labour leader complains about people saying he has allowed a ‘policy vacuum’ to develop. But where are the policies here?
Read through the whole article and you’ll see there is a great deal of talk about what’s wrong with the Tories, vision, steering in a new...
Yemen's ongoing and parallel revolution →
Racism vs "racism": why Diane Abbott was right →
Dorian Lynskey, author of ‘33 Revolutions Per Minute’, nails it.
Paul Mason: how the revolution went viral →
6 tags
5 predictions for global politics in 2012
Over at Luna17 on New Year’s Day, I recklessly made a series of 20 predictions for the year ahead. Some of them concerned likely global developments. I’d like to briefly explain WHY I made 5 of those particular predictions. These concern Egypt, the Middle East, the US, China and Europe.
Egypt’s revolutionary movement will continue to battle on the streets and win some of its...
Jesse Jackson, Diane Abbott and Lee Jasper at... →
Details of tomorrow morning’s press conference, following the verdict in the Stephen Lawrence case.
Tony Blair's adviser starts a free school →
Jon Rogers: what next for local government... →
Factually useful - and politically sharp about the need for unity in action to defend ALL workers’ pensions.
2 tags
On Wallerstein's 'The World Left After 2011'
Immanuel Wallerstein offers a few interesting thoughts on where the international left is, where it could be, and how we might get there, in his new article ‘The World Left After 2011’:
His starting point is that 2011 was a year of welcome progress - Arab revolutions, indignados, Occupy, mass strikes - but that much more is required to score serious victories and build a more powerful...
Verso Books - spring 2012 catalogue →
John Riddell on different interpretations of the... →
Some valuable lessons from the early years of the Comintern, summarised by the International’s foremost historian John Riddell
From resisting to winning
Over at Luna17, I’ve posted my list of 20 predictions for 2012.
All in all it’s not as upbeat a post as might perhaps be expected, with more emphasis on pessimism of the intellect than optimism of the will. It’s worth remembering, though, that the best things (from a socialist’s perspective) are often the unexpected - who, for example, predicted the Egyptian revolution? So...
December 2011
28 posts
The re-emergence of riot grrrl music and politics? →
Juan Cole: Top 10 Myths about the Arab Spring →
An intelligent analysis of North Korea →
Revolutionary organisation today: an exchange →
A fascinating dialogue between John Riddell and Paul Le Blanc from 2008
3 tags
Anti-cuts movement: beyond the fragments
There are loads of good things going on in this country’s anti-cuts movement. Local groups and campaigns have developed in most areas, with thousands of people involved actively in the movement. We’ve had the biggest trade union demonstration in generations (on 26 March) and two major days of nationally co-ordinated strike action.
Within the movement, radical arguments (for example,...
Being gay is a class act →
Durham's People's Bookshop - a welcome development... →
One of Polly Toynbee's better columns →
John Riddell: Revolutionary internationalism in... →
Paul Mason: three big questions for the eurozone →
3 tags
Mark Serwotka strikes out at Labour and union...
One of the best things about PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka’s excellent comments in the Morning Star is his attack on the idea that - when mounting opposition to the Tories - ’damage limitation’ is the best we can hope for:
“There is a deep-seated fatalism within parts of the leadership of the movement that says you can never win. That industrial action, even on the...
Michael Rosen's new blog →
One week in and there’s already some great material on here…
Income inequality in the US since 1945 →
Read (and check the graphs in) section 2 for an excellent summary…
2 tags
Let's talk about socialism! →
Huffington Post reports on a perhaps surprising poll result…
1 tag
Mike Davis: Spring Confronts Winter →
Useful, exceptionally well-informed, overview of the global situation from New Left Review
2 tags
The Churchill you didn't know →
An old Guardian piece showing, through his own words, that Churchill had some (ahem) unsavoury views.
1 tag
Cheap populist gestures are in; a genuine change... →
My article on why Maurice Glasman is - yet again - part of the problem, not the solution.
7 January: organising conference to defend...
The PCS Left Unity National Committee invites all activists from all unions to an organising conference on the 7th of January to debate how we can build the campaign to defend our pensions and fight the cuts and prevent any unacceptable “deal” that makes us work longer, pay more and get less.
Saturday 7 January, 11am-4pm, Friends Meeting House in London
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Mark...
2 tags
Timelines: a political history of the modern world →
No to right-wing sectarianism in the movement
The next time anyone speaks as if ‘sectarianism’ is the preserve of the radical left, re-read this little piece of vicious silliness. It’s a reminder that nobody does sectarian and divisive quite like those on the right of our movement.
‘Ultra left’ is the put-down most beloved of Unison’s moderate wing. It is used so indiscriminately that UnisonActive recently...
Revolution, riots and resistance in 2011: images →
Chris Bambery on united fronts and British CP in... →
Owen Jones on trade unions and 2011 →
Owen gets the balance just right here…