Corbynism

Like it or not, Stalinism is still a live force

Stalinism is a live political current today, and a reactionary one. The central place in the Labour Leader’s Office of Stalinists such as Seamus Milne and Andrew Murray, and the support for the Morning Star by a number of national trade unions and many Labour MPs, are dangers.

Labour’s manifesto and the right to strike: a welcome step forward, more to fight for
In the general election, Free Our Unions is working to kick out the Tories and win a government led by Jeremy Corbyn. In the words of a Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack, a Labour government can “deliver a shift in power away from wealthy elites and towards workers. The Tories and Liberal Democrats have left the country… in tatters. We must remove them from power.”

We welcome the range of policies to strengthen workers’ rights contained in Labour’s manifesto. This statement is focused on the section covering the anti-union laws and the right to strike – because that is crucial to all aspects of workers’ rights and to many other issues, because it has been most controversial in the party, and because it is where there is most room for improvement.

On this, the manifesto is encouraging. There is a lot to be strengthened and clarified, but two years of campaigning in the labour movement seems to have shifted the leadership in the right direction. More campaigning and pressure can shift things further.

Fight for free movement!

Labour generally criticises the Tories from the left, i.e. from a more anti-Brexit position. It has rightly denounced the government’s concessions on the right of EU citizens to stay in Britain as “too little” — because as the campaign Another Europe is Possible and numerous migrants’ rights groups have explained, the offer is hedged round with all kinds of very bad limits. It’s “too late” because it should have been done a year ago, when Labour proposed it. More generally, however, Labour’s position is as clear as mud. With one, decisive exception: senior Labour spokespeople are very clear that they support an end to free movement from the EU. In other words, the position they have tied themselves to is to the right of that taken by Anna Soubry.