Labour Party facing bankruptcy

April 2024 Forums General discussion Labour Party facing bankruptcy

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 150 total)
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  • #230224
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    As you say, ALB. The Labour Party is now unashamedly the party of the red white and blue

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/04/labour-says-it-is-now-the-true-party-of-patriotism-and-british-values

    #231368
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Ken Loach saying it as it is about Starmer

    #231393
    rodshaw
    Participant

    Fair enough, but he’s implying that all that’s needed for meaningful change is for the Labour Party to be in the right hands and presumably follow some kind of left-wing agenda again. Previous decades of Labour leadership have shown how wishful this is.

    #231417
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    So the Forde Report is out and both right and left claim it is a vindication of their position.

    What it shows is that the Labour Party model of an inclusive ‘broad church’ failing, with Labour Party ‘principles’ being a pix and mix of whatever is the dish of the day

    #231466
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Jonathan Cook on the Forde Report

    Forde Inquiry exposes Labour’s biggest problem: Keir Starmer

    “…the 138-page report is unlikely to ease tensions in Labour. Its resolute both-sidism spreads the blame around equally, and in the process ensures no one will be satisfied. But Forde’s seeming even-handedness is, in fact, a continuation of factionalism by other means. The report’s implausible premise is that Corbyn and a handful of staff in the leader’s office wielded as much factional power as the combined might of Labour HQ, the parliamentary party and the entire media establishment. Each side was apparently equally obstructive and uncooperative; each fed the other’s political paranoia.
    That misrepresents the true balance of power in Labour – and the reason why Corbyn spent his years as leader permanently on the defensive, battling internal revolts and media firestorms…”

    #231546
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    A new Corbyn?

    “…Rebecca Long-Bailey has called for Labour to drop its cautious approach to the economy and fight the next election on a radical manifesto including state ownership and a living standards contract between government and public…”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/24/rebecca-long-bailey-calls-for-labour-to-drop-cautious-approach-to-economy

    #231582
    ALB
    Keymaster

    “Long-Bailey, who as shadow business secretary was one of the leading figures in Jeremy Corbyn’s team, said her proposed contract would deliver a defined decent standard of living for all citizens, guaranteeing housing costs, food and fuel bills were affordable.
    A minister for living standards at cabinet rank in the Treasury with the same standing as the chief secretary would ensure the contract was delivered and legally enforced, she said.”

    Is that the best Leftwing Labourites can come up with (plus amending company law ie the law which authorised the legal establishment of profit-seeking private enterprises, and so which are to continue under their proposal)?

    A government law to maintain a given standard of living under capitalism. I think King Canute tried that sort of thing 1500 years ago or whatever. The current term for this I believe is “fairy tale economics”.

    It looks as if the Left in the Labour Party is as bankrupt as the Right.

    Why don’t they propose socialism as the common ownership and democratic control of productive resources with production directly for use and distribution according to needs. That would much simpler and more practical.

    #231611
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    Cnut (Cnut the Great) was from 1016 to 1035, not 1500 years ago.

    Often seen as pretty competent as an Anglo Saxon king. If his line rather than the Norman line, the UK might have still been part of the Scandinavian world.

    #231619
    ALB
    Keymaster

    I have heard it said that he himself didn’t think he could command the sea and that he only tried to in order to show his courtiers that he couldn’t. Sounds like someone who might have understood that capitalism cannot be reformed to work in the interest of the wage-working class.

    Wasn’t he Danish rather than Anglo-Saxon?

    #231625
    Moo
    Participant

    “Why don’t they propose socialism as the common ownership and democratic control of productive resources with production directly for use and distribution according to needs. That would much simpler and more practical.”

    Indeed it would, but that goes against their ideology that state-ownership is the same as common-ownership, and Parliament can reform capitalism to make it work in everyone’s best interests.

    #231629
    Bijou Drains
    Participant

    He was Danish, I meant competency in comparison to other Kings of the Anglo Saxon world. I was trying to avoid the term English King, because the boundaries and levels of control of the “English” king were very fluid.

    #231793
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    The TSSA rail union – whose picket line Mr Tarry joined – said it was “ashamed” of Labour. Tarry himself was more conciliatory towards the organisation that sacked him.

    General secretary Manuel Cortes said: “Whatever excuses the Labour Party makes about the reasons for Sam being sacked, the reality is that Sam has shown solidarity with his class and we applaud him for that. The Labour Party needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

    “If they think can win the next general election while pushing away seven million trade union members, they are deluded.

    “We expect attacks from the Tories, we don’t expect attacks from our own party. As a Labour-affiliated union, our union is ashamed of the actions of the Labour Party leadership and the anti-worker anti-union message it is sending out.

    “If Keir Starmer doesn’t understand the basic concept of solidarity on which our movement has been built then he is not worthy of leading our party.”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-62325842

    #231795
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Sam Tarry, his divided loyalties

    #231797
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Sacked for going on a picket line ! Confirmation that the Labour Party not just isn’t the party of the working class but no longer even wants to be considered to be. Good, the more people that realise this the better.

    There is a certain logic in Starmer’s position. He supports the present system of class ownership and production for profit and wants to run the political side of it. He understands that he can’t do so in the interest of the working class and in fact that this involves coming into conflict with them.

    On the other hand his position might simply be that he and the rest of his team want to further their careers and become ministers of the crown and have calculated that supporting strikes will lose them votes.

    #231815
    alanjjohnstone
    Keymaster

    Kevin Lindsay, Scotland organiser for the Aslef union, has resigned from the Labour Paty said the sacking of Sam Tarry was “a step too far” and that Starmer was failing to stand up for workers.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-62334775

    He is calling for the rail unions to cut its ties with Labour altogether, saying the party was “more interested in trying to woo Tory voters in the shires of England than representing working people”.

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