Emancipation & Liberation » British Labour Party

Jul 02 2020

THE CRISIS OF THE LABOUR PARTY

Category: Against Unionism,Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,England,How they are organised,Ireland,Scotland,The crisis on the Left,UK state/British imperialism,Wales — RCN @ 11:37 am

Steve Freeman takes a different view if the crisis in the British Labour Party from the views taken by the British Left. Steve relates the crisis in the Labour Party to the ongoing collapse of the post-1945 UK’s social monarchist welfare state.

THE CRISIS IN THE LABOUR PARTY

I want to begin with a nursery rhyme which sums up the character of the present political stage we are living through.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty back together again

This is in original a civil war story about the royalist army having a very big cannon – called Humpty Dumpty – sitting on a wall before being knocked out by the parliamentary forces, such that all the kings horses etc. couldn’t fix it.

.I am going to discuss the Report of Labour Together – the 2019 Election Review’(RLT). We are discussing the situation before Covid 19 or Black Lives Matter. These are the immediate issues that are at the front of our minds today. Why go back over the ‘ancient’ history of a Labour defeat best forgotten? The answer is we can learn a considerable amount about the state of peoples’ views or political consciousness, as expressed through England’s two-party system, and revealed in their voting behaviour in December 2019. This ‘moment’ was a mass event with millions of participants and therefore worthy of critical analysis. Continue reading “THE CRISIS OF THE LABOUR PARTY”

Tags: 'Get Brexit Done', 'I Daniel Blake', 'Revolution Betrayed', 'Spirit of 45', 'Take Back Control', 'The Navigators', 1688-1707 Glorious Revolution, 1690 Battle of the Boyne, 1945 Social Contract, 1953 Coronation, 1984-5 Great Miners' Strike, 2014 IndyRef1, 2016 EU referendum, 2019 Labour Manifesto, Author: Steve Freeman, baby boomers, Barras, BBC, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Brissot, British Labour Party, Dominic Cummings, England, EU, Gladstone's Liberal Party, Good Friday Agreement, Iraq War, Jeremy Corbyn, Ken Loach, Labour's historic defeat, Leon Trotsky, Margaret Thatcher, Mirabeau, Napoleon, New Labour, Northern Ireland, Orangemen, Report of Labour Together – the 2019 Election Review, Robespierre, Scotland, social monarchy, Sorry We Missed You, suspension of Stormont 2017-20, The Transitional Programme for Socialist Revolution, Tony Blair, United Kingdom, Wales, welfare state, Whig Party, white Anglo-Saxon identity, Windrush

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Mar 14 2020

THE LABOUR LEFT ALLIANCE AND ROYAL SOCIALISM

Category: Against Unionism,England,How they are organised,Ireland,Scotland,The Socialist Republican Break-up of the UK,UK state/British imperialism,Wales — RCN @ 5:49 pm

This letter by Steve Freeman is a reponse to a report by Stan Keable in Weekly Worker about the post-December 12th general election conference of section of the Labour Left, who have become disillusioned with Momentum, John Lansman’s Corbyn fan club. Yet, as this letter shows the Labour Left Alliance retains the weaknesses of Corbyn, his allies and Momentum when it comes to the existing UK state.

THE LABOUR LEFT ALLIANCE AND ROYAL SOCIALISM

As reported by Stan Keable in ‘A vision of royal socialism’ (Weekly Worker, February 27), the Labour Left Alliance conference was a significant event in the evolution of the Labour Left, which was revitalised by the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2015. Stan reports that 130 delegates at the conference represented about 36 local and national Labour Left groups. Continue reading “THE LABOUR LEFT ALLIANCE AND ROYAL SOCIALISM”

Tags: 'royal socialism', 'soclal monarchism', 2016 EU referendum, British Labour Party, British Left Unionism, Chris Williamson, Frederick Engels, Ireland, James Connolly, Jeremy Corbyn, John Lansman, John MacLean, Karl Marx, Labour Left Alliance, Lenin, London LLA, Momentum, Scotland, Tony Blair, Wales

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Jul 18 2018

LEFT UNITY CONFERENCE, 20.6.18

Category: Capitalism and Communism,How they are organised,How we organise,Independent class organisations,The crisis on the Left,UK state/British imperialism — RCN @ 6:38 pm

Emancipation & Liberation has been chronicling developments in the Left Unity Party in England and Wales. Steve Freeman reports on the LUP’s recent conference.

LEFT UNITY CONFERENCE, 20.6.18

Left Unity and the crisis of democracy

On 16 June Left Unity held its annual conference. The party has been steadily shrinking since 2016 but it still has over five hundred members. Over twenty five activists attended which tells its own story. It was a significant conference after last year’s nervous breakdown. The demand LU liquidates into the Labour Party was no longer evident in resolutions or speeches.

The main question before conference was the ‘crisis of democracy’ which grew from the politics of austerity. The EU referendum has taken this to a whole new level. It has divided England between the Anglo-British and Anglo-Europeans. An emergency resolution was tabled about the recent Anglo-British mass mobilisation in London by the supporters of Tommy Robinson, the BNP and UKIP etc. Continue reading “LEFT UNITY CONFERENCE, 20.6.18”

Tags: 'Spirit of 45', Anglo-British, Anglo-Europeans, Author: Steve Freeman, BNP, Brexit, British Labour Party, British Trotskyism, CPGB - Weekly Worker, Grenfell Towers, Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Cotbyn, Ken Loach, Left Unity Party, Militant Tendency, Republicanism, social monarchism, Socialist Party, Socialist Resistance, SWP, Tommy Robinson, UKIP, Unionism, Workers Power, WRP

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Feb 25 2018

THE END OF THE ROAD – THE COLLAPSE OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND EXECUTIVE

Category: Against Unionism,Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,How they are organised,Ireland,UK state/British imperialism — RCN @ 10:35 pm

Socialist Democracy (Ireland) have posted two articles the following the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive. These were first posted at:-

http://socialistdemocracy.org/RecentArticles/RecentIrishSettlementFoundersOnTheRockOfLanguageRights.html http://socialistdemocracy.org/RecentArticles/RecentClassPoliticsVersusModernity.html

1. THE END OF THE ROAD

THE IRISH SETTLEMENT FOUNDERS ON THE ROCK OF LANGUAGE RIGHTS

When Sinn Fein collapsed the Stormont executive in early 2017 they put forward a very simple case. The Irish peace process was based on legal documents and international treaties and on a series of agreements and promises that had constantly been broken. If the process and the institutions were to survive it was time to live up to the existing agreements before moving on. This involved resolving state killings, reducing sectarian provocations, and accepting a level of gay rights such as gay marriage and an Irish Language Act. Continue reading “THE END OF THE ROAD – THE COLLAPSE OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND EXECUTIVE”

Tags: 'Hard Brexit', Arlene Foster, Author: Gerry Fitzpatrick, Belfast Agreement, British Labour Party, Cash for Ash, Clause 28, DUP, Fresh Start, gay marriage, gay rights, Gay Rights At Work, Good Friday Agreement, Ian Paisley, Irish government, Irish language, Irish Language Act, Leo Varadkar, Northern Ireland Executive, Peace Process, Save Ulster from Sodomy, sectarian veto, Sinn Fein, Socialist Democracy (Ireland), St. Andrews Agreement, state killings, Stormont, Theresa May, Ulsrer Scots

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Jul 03 2016

AN OPEN LETTER TO LEXITERS

Category: Against Unionism,England,How they are organised,How we organise,Independent class organisations,Ireland,Radical Independence Campaign,Scotland,The crisis on the Left,The EU,The Socialist Republican Break-up of the UK,UK state/British imperialism,Wales — RCN @ 6:50 pm

AN OPEN LETTER TO THOSE LEXITERS* OPPOSED TO A SECOND EU REFERENDUM, BUT TOO NERVOUS TO CALL A DEMO FOR A ‘FREE UK’ TO IMMEDIATELY BREAK WITH THE EU, WORRIED WHO MIGHT TURN UP!

Dear comrades,

June 24th hasn’t quite panned out as you Lexiters claimed it would. All those workers “justified” in supporting Brexit have not followed up their crushing victory over Cameron by taking to the streets or striking against the Tories’ austerity drive; nor does a Jeremy Corbyn led Labour Party look particularly likely to replace the Tories in any immediate general election.
Continue reading “AN OPEN LETTER TO LEXITERS”

Tags: 'Brit Left', Another Europe Is Possible, Author: Allan Armstrong, Brexit, British Labour Party, Catalunya, David Cameron, European democratic revolution, European Union, Greece, Jeremy Corbyn, Lexiters, London, Northern Ireland, Podemos, Radical Independence Campaign, Red/Brown alliances, Remain, Scotland, Spain, STUC, SYRIZA, the civic nation, the ethnic nation, Ukraine

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May 22 2013

OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR AND THE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM

Category: Against Unionism,Combined struggles for Emancipation, Liberation and National Self-Determination,For Liberation: Struggles against Oppression,For Self-Determination: Struggles against Alienation,How they are organised,Ideology and Religion: Science and Secularism,Ireland,Other Social Struggles,Scotland,UK state/British imperialism — RCN @ 9:50 am

In the following two articles, Jim Slaven of the James Connolly Society shows that SNP government’s Offensive Behaviour Act represents the latest attempt to create a ‘sectarian’ smokescreen to avoid tacking anti-Irish racism in Scotland, whilst the Labour Party’s ‘opposition’ is nothing but the rankest opportunism from a party that has long upheld the UK state’s divisive role in Ireland.

Celtic fans in Glasgow protest against the Offensive Behaviour Act

As another football season draws to a close it is fair to say this one will not be remembered for much of the action on the pitch. While off the field the increasingly shambolic nature of the administration of the national game continues to infuriate and amuse in about equal measure. However as we ponder the 2012-2103 SPL season one thing does stand out as requiring further consideration, namely the way in which football fans are policed in Scotland. This issue has been brought into sharp focus with the consistent and ongoing harassment of the Green Brigade and the excellent job the Fans Against Criminalisation group has done to highlight much that is wrong with the treatment of supporters at the hands or the police and the clubs.

Continue reading “OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR AND THE INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM”

Tags: Author: Jim Slaven, British Labour Party, Fans Against Criminalisation, Green Brigade, Offensive Behaviour Act, SNP

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