ALB
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Apparently the Left Unity party at it policy conference in Manchester this weekend again put off testing its real level of support by contesting elections. At least this is how I interpret this passage from an article by Salman Shaheen, its Principal Speaker:
Quote:Now that Left Unity has agreed a core set of policies, the hard work of campaigning can begin. The party has had an encouraging start for an organisation that emerged from nowhere to be built from the bottom-up by independent activists fed up with the political status quo. But for Left Unity to succeed, it will now have to turn outwards. It will need to campaign on the streets, in the workplaces and in the unions. It will have to support – not hijack – local campaigns across the country to save hospitals and libraries, to shut down fracking sites, to oppose the bedroom tax and to stop the racist EDL. Only when Left Unity has done all of these things, when it has actively tried to make a difference to the lives of poor, vulnerable and oppressed people, will it have the right to ask for their vote.Ukip may be making the headlines as we approach the European elections next month, threatening to steal thousands of votes from the Conservatives and forcing them to watch their right flank. But Labour will have to watch its left flank in the months and years to come. Because Left Unity is on the move.Labour won't be worried as long as they don't contest elections. And if they don't contest elections all they'll be is a loose coalition of existing single issue campaigns and various entryist Trot groups, not much different from the trade union and left Labour supported "People's Assemblies". Or maybe they think they can do all these things in time for the general election in May 2015. We'll see.This interview with Salman Shaheen on BBC is also very revealing with Andrew Neil raising all the relevant points:http://leftunity.org/video-salman-shaheen-on-bbc-daily-politics/
This thread has become more interesting than I thought. Is there not some way of transferring the stuff on the SP of Australia and the Seaman's Union to a separate thread as it's going to get lost here and won't be able to found easily again?
TUSC picked up two defecting Labour councillors in Southampton last year:http://www.tusc.org.uk/press150513.phpOne is standing for re-election this May as a TUSC candidate. In the olden days such people were known as "Independent Labour". Which in effect is what TUSC and the SLP are.
twc wrote:It is a pity the banner (which I confess is only a token) weakens the issue inside the hall.[Spelling was only a side issue.]I hope you are not under the impression that it was our banner. Spelling is in fact the clue as "color" shows that it was done in North America (probably Canada) or even Australia (but I'm not sure how you spell "colour" down there, only that you've got a Labor Party).
Talking informally with someone from UKIP before our debate against them on Wednesday they said they were relieved, from a political point of view, by Bob Crow's death since they had been afraid that his No2EU might take votes from them. I don't think Scargill will but No2EU is a title that sums up what UKIP's basic policy is.
Here's a map of the South East Euro Region whose more than 6 million electors will have a chance to vote for socialism if that's what they want.
I only said that this was part of our case against UKIP — the part which says that in a socialist world there will be no borders or "national" states.As a matter of fact one socialist in the audience did say, almost textually, that "we do not choose our colour, race or place of birth". Nobody said "fuck". We're a respectable lot.
I take it the "Workers Party" was the name of the "Communist Party" had to adopt because it was banned?
I saw that too but will they raise the £65,000 and will they be able to get the administrative work done? We'll see.Just had a look at the No2EU site and they (or rather the late Bob Crow) call on workers to vote for them but don't say where they will be standing. Once again, we'll see. I see Militant are supporting them (usurping our name) but they'll be concentrating on the local elections the same day under the TUSC name.
I went to a meeting of election agents in Southampton yesterday and I can now understand why the three from Liberty GB asked if their home addresses would be published. The answer was "yes". One of them, incidentally, was an Italian with a vote in Italy. So, the word "fascist" can be properly applied in their case.Besides the Tories, LibDems, Labour, Green and UKIP, other opponents represented there were the English Delocrats, the Peace Party and a new not-yet registered party the "Harmony Party".The Peace Party stood last time (and got 9,500 votes).I have my doubts that the Harmony Party list will materialise as their represenhtative, an ageing hippy from Hastings, didn't seem all that au fait with the procedures to be followed. They might even been a front for some way-out sect. Be that as it may, there was an expression of disharmony in the leaflet he gave me:
Quote:Charity begins at home. British jobs for Black & White workers.As opposed to the BNP's "British jobs for White British Workers". Come to think of it, "British Jobs for Black and White British workers" is what No2EU (soon, hopefully, to be defunct) and the Scargill Labour Party in effect stand for. No indication whether these two parties will be standing as they did last time.
That reminds me. When a month or so ago I was stopped and taken to the local police station to be breathalysed ( I got off) one of the boxes the station sargeant had to tick was "ethnicity". I said I was a human being. He said, I know, we all are. I said I had an Irish passport so he put down "White Irish". I hope this distorts their statistics. In fact I think that if they tried a huge minority could get themselves described as "White Irish" if they wanted to — except for any descedants of George Henry Thompson, described by Andrew Boyd in Holy War in Belfast as "a negro who lived among the Protestants of Shankill Road" (page 96) and who in 1873 was convicted of riotous assembly for leading a mob that drove Catholics out of their homes. They could add to the welcome confusion by labelling themselves "Black Irish".
Critisticuffs have now published this talk as an article:http://critisticuffs.org/texts/david-harvey/It criticises Harvey's proposal for an "oxidisable money", i.e for money which cannot be accumulated. How someone who has written extensively on what Marx is supposed to have been can end up advocating monetary reform is incredible.
Another of our opponents in this election:http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/home/root/news-libertygb/6237-the-campaign-starts-here-paul-weston-for-mepThese people make UKIP look tame.
Quote:Most importantly, they will be presenting to voters Liberty GB's demand for the complete removal of Islam from Britain and EuropeThey seem to be a breakaway from the BNP. Anybody know anything more about them?
