Labour Party

What the dispute is not about: 1. AWL attempting to do entry work in the existing or soon-likely Labour Party. Nobody proposes that or thinks it makes sense. The most that is on the agenda in this field is sending a scout here and there into the Labour Party. 2. AWL committing to the view that the Labour Party will certainly revive after the coming general election. Nobody says that - only that a revival is possible, or probable, and that that has to be important in our calculations now. 3. AWL committing to the view that if the Labour Party does revive, it will return to its old pre-Blair...

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" John Maynard Keynes "You say that in all this time you have not departed by an iota from the platform of 1925, which I had called an excellent document in many respects. But a platform is not created so as to 'not depart from it,' but rather to apply and develop it. The platform of 1925 was a good document for the year 1925. In the five years that have elapsed, great events have taken place". Leon Trotsky (remonstrating, in 1930, with Italian communist-oppositionists). "The test of the seriousness, the maturity, the honesty and...

If Gordon Brown wanted to find measures which would increase Labour support, but would not worsen the Government's huge budget-deficit problems, there are a few obvious ones. He could have undertaken to repeal the anti-union laws carried forward from the Thatcher government, and replace them by a charter of workers' rights. He could have cancelled the Trident replacement, and withdrawn troops from Afghanistan. He could have have stopped the vast pay-outs from central government on contracts for private “management consultants”. In April such contracts advertised for tender totalled £4 billion...

In his speech to this year’s conference of the public services union Unison, in Brighton in mid-June, general secretary Dave Prentis called on the “Labour Link” section of the union to stop funding constituency development plans, and to work only with Labour MPs who abide by the union’s values and objectives. He also called on them to campaign to ensure that the manifesto the Labour Party draws up for the next general election does not continue privatisation. The conference gave him a standing ovation, reflecting the anger delegates feel about the Labour Party. But in Unison all activity...

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB general union, used his speech to the GMB congress in Blackpool (15 June) to call for the Labour Party to select "fresh working-class candidates that people can relate to". He called on the Labour Party "to help with the process of rebuilding trust with not bankers but bakers, butchers, bricklayers, and bus and tram drivers; and god preserve us from any more solicitors in the House of Commons. We do not want solicitors, we want security workers, steelworkers, supermarket workers, school support staff, and no more consultants. How about a few carers?...

What should socialists conclude from the debate at the Communication Workers’ Union conference on the union’s political relationship to the Labour Party (where no policy was passed)? The AWL’s National Committee favours disaffiliation moves where they are linked to positive moves for independent working class politics. We are also conducting a debate on this issue in the AWL ). Two responses. Activists should back working-class candidates By John Bloxam Events at the CWU Conference on Monday 8 June says much about the wretched state of the union leadership and the urgency of pushing the fight...

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public services union Unison, declared at the union's conference in Brighton on 16 June that Labour MPs and candidates at the next election who backed further privatisation of public services would have funding withdrawn. According to the Unison website summary of his speech, "he called on the Labour Link [Unison's political arm] to suspend constituency payments [i.e. for "Constituency Development Plans" of local parties], ensure that the next manifesto does not continue privatisation of public services and 'ensure that our union only promotes and...

On 6-7 June members of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty were on the streets of south east London campaigning for our candidate in the next general election. Jill Mountford will be standing against New Labour’s Harriet Harman in Camberwell and Peckham. Comrades and supporters ran stalls, leafleted, sold our paper, and canvassed the area around Camberwell. Like many inner London neighbourhoods, Camberwell has some well-off residents, but the big majority are working class. Canvassing and discussing on street corners is a very useful, interesting experience. Many people walk past without paying...

John McDonnell, the left Labour MP who challenged Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership in 2007, has made an appeal for a distinctive left "slate" within the Labour campaign at the coming general election. Writing in the Guardian, McDonnell declared: "The only responsible act in the long term interests of our movement would be to offer a real change in political direction by mounting a challenge to the political leadership of the party and letting the members of the party decide but this route would almost certainly be blocked again by MPs failing to nominate. Then the only alternative is...

The Fire Brigades Union conference in May rejected a motion from Durham for "a study" paving the way for reaffiliation to the Labour Party. The FBU disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 2004, disgusted by the Labour government's attitude in the FBU's 2002-3 pay dispute. At the 2007 FBU conference, the Executive proposed: "Concern has been expressed that disaffiliation has closed a number of doors... It is right that the Union should continue to debate its political direction and this will inevitably include the issue of possible re-affiliation to the Labour Party... The Executive Council will...