General Elections

Labour’s climate policy: the fine print

The environmental section of Labour’s manifesto is more ambitious than previous policy announcements, but less so than sections of the policy passed at this year’s Labour conference . It has received much hype but less attention to detail. This article unpicks some of the finer points. The rhetoric, at least to start, seems refreshingly left-wing, it suggesting a direct working-class approach. “Just 100 companies globally are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions”, they recognise. They thus commit to “work in partnership with the workforce and their trade unions in every sector of...

Building after 29 November climate strike

Millions of young people, in the UK and around the world, will take part in the 29 November global climate strike. In many workplaces workers will take actions, whether a lunchtime photo-shoot or delegations of workers joining city-wide climate protests. In the UK, particularly important this time are the UCU strikes, which coincide. We must build on the 29th for wider climate activism. Youth climate strikers should deepen our collective and democratic organisation on town-, city-, and region-wide bases. Youth strikers must work with workplace activists to build a clear programme of...

Another socialist for US president

Q: Tell us about your campaign for president A: My campaign is about putting forward ecosocialist solutions to the life and death issues we face: the climate emergency, growing inequality, the new nuclear arms race. All these crises flow from the structure of the capitalist system. My central campaign theme and program is an Ecosocialist Green New Deal. I am talking about socialising the energy, transportation, and manufacturing sectors of the economy in order to rapidly zero out greenhouse gas emissions and build 100% clean energy by 2030. During the World War 2 emergency, the US federal...

PCS and the election

John Moloney is assistant general secretary of PCS, writing here in a personal capacity. PCS has produced a pamphlet making the case for voting Labour in England and Wales, which has been distributed to members. We don’t want the “vote Labour” position to be passive; the union is using its resources to mobilise members to get out and campaign. We’re targeting 40 seats in particular, either ones which have a large concentration of PCS members living in them, and/or where the Labour candidate has a particular connection to the union, for example two seats where the candidates are former PCS...

Sanders and Warren: What’s the difference?

American politics has made a sharp turn to the left in recent years – a turn that few anticipated, but that underpins much of what is going on in the Democratic primary now underway. The two leading progressive candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, together represent a clear majority of Democratic voters. The party’s “moderate” wing thought it had a winner in Joe Biden, but the implosion of his campaign has led to a search for viable alternatives to the two Democratic senators from New England. Mayor Pete Buttigieg is emerging as the hope of that wing of the party as all the other...

Use the election to campaign on climate!

Climate change is a more prominent topic than ever before in this year’s general election. According one polls, 27% of voters cited the environment as one of three top issues — behind Brexit and health, and on par with crime and the economy. Another poll found that 21% list environment and pollution, unprompted, when asked about the top issues “facing Britain” today – up from just 2% in 2012. Climate change is a particular concern for younger people, and another survey found that 70% of 18-24 year olds report that it will be “a factor when they cast their vote.” Youth climate strikes and...

Letter: The “strategist-dilettantes”

Bernie Sanders’s poll ratings will be important in convincing those who argue that we should support the candidate most likely to beat Trump ( see Eric Lee’s article Can Sanders win? ). But Sanders’s success will also require winning over the “anyone but Trump” tendency to more principled socialist politics. The “anyone but X” tendency is a longstanding feature of left politics the world over. The argument that we should pick policies and personnel solely because they appear most likely to defeat the right is a corrosive force in working-class politics, and in recent years has been electorally...

The parties at the bosses’ conference

On Monday 18 November the Tory, Labour, and Lib Dem leaders all spoke at the conference of the Confederation of British Industry, the main bosses’ organisation. Jo Swinson of the Lib Dems got the warmest applause. The Lib Dems, with their new ultra-neo-liberal pledge always to run a government budget surplus, are pitching to be considered the full-on party of big business. According to the Financial Times , “many admitted, sometimes grudgingly, that the Conservatives would still probably get their vote”. Boris Johnson’s policy of “taking the UK out of the EU as soon as possible... remains...

Where are the manifestos?

Labour’s manifesto is due to be published on 21 November, almost halfway through the election campaign which started on 6 November and will end on 12 December. The Tories will publish their manifesto around the end of November, more like two-thirds of the way through the campaign. The Lib Dems, too, have not published their manifesto yet. From all reports, the delay is not because of last-minute wrangling, but a deliberate ploy. It seems common sense that parties should publish their manifestos at the start of the election campaign. The manifestos should be crisp summaries of what the parties...

Liberals out Tory the Tories

The Lib Dems have proposed rules mandating a 1% surplus on current spending – meaning the day-to-day costs of public services would have to be lower than the amount raised in taxes. This is quite something. It is not done even by “fiscally conservative” governments elsewhere. It is more draconian than the approach taken by George Osborne when he was chancellor, suggesting Lib Dem support for even deeper austerity. And in fact when he announced the budget surplus policy, Lib Dem deputy leader Ed Davey condemned not only Labour’s but the Tories’ plans public spending plans as making “Santa Claus...

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