John McDonnell

In the 23 May Euro-election, Labour, by not putting their lot in with the Remain parties, muddied the waters and stopped a clear Remain vote emerging.

The Labour leaders also allowed the Lib Dems to detox. For the first time since the 2010-15 coalition government, lots of people are willing to vote for them. That is damaging for Labour (though also for the Conservatives).

According to the 16 May issue of the satirical magazine Private Eye, “former Labour staffers have… collected 100,000 emails, including tens of thousands showing how the party ignored complaints that supporters were promoting antisemitism”.

They plan to submit the material to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, and probably also to make it public. The story has been boosted by the pro-Tory Daily Mail. The main movers evidently have axes to grind. But that doesn’t mean that their grindstones are invented, and surely not that all of them are invented.

On Wednesday 13 February, Lambeth Council voted through another cuts budget. The document included a line in a table cutting £500,000 from Children’s Services. Five children’s centres are to be closed, seven more will have their service provision cut, and staff across the borough will lose their jobs.

The controversy surrounding John McDonnell’s alleged support for Jackie Walker is not a clear as the press coverage suggests.

“I want to make it absolutely explicit that capital controls would not happen under a Labour government”, said Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to the Financial Times on 23 January. That, he said, is the answer he gives to reassure City plutocrats in a series of meetings now underway.

Solidarity goes to press soon after Tory prime minister Theresa May decided to delay the parliamentary vote on her EU withdrawal deal, maybe until January, and to seek “reassurances” from the EU to sweeten the deal. The deal would have been heavily defeated if put to the House of Commons as scheduled on 11 December.

The following statement has been endorsed by a number of labour movement activists including Andrew Coates, Sacha Ismail, Kelly Rogers, Julie Ward MEP, Catherine West MP, and Zoe Williams, and includes a proposal to be put to the conference of Another Europe Is Possible on 8 December.

An interview with the former Labour MP Alan Simpson about Brexit, free movement and climate change. Read the left case against Brexit, a piece by Grace Blakeley, here.

Workers from McDonalds, Wetherspoons and TGI Fridays all took part in an international co-ordinated day of action for £10 per hour and union rights on Thursday 4 October.

In London they were joined by Deliveroo and Uber Eats riders, and supporters from across the labour movement. At their rally and demonstration in Leicester Square they were joined by traffic wardens in Camden Unison, who are also currently on strike for a £11.15 an hour.

Solidarity action took place in cities across the UK. The first Wetherspoons strike was also coordinated from two sites in Brighton.

More than 12,000 people attended Labour Party conference 2018, with local parties sending noticeably larger delegations then in previous years. There was less of a focus on Corbyn as “a celebrity”, an improvement, and proceedings involved less political grandstanding. But the level of political debate was still, overall, quite low.