Labour Representation Committee

A movement formed by trade unionists and socialists to secure a voice for socialists within the Labour Party, the unions, and Parliament.

Make Labour councils defy the cuts

Labour and trade union activists meeting on 15 January in London at the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) conference voted almost unanimously to call on Labour councils to defy the Tory/ Lib-Dem cuts. The LRC is the biggest grouping of the Labour left, and has the affiliation of six unions, four Labour-affiliated and two (RMT and FBU) not. Only one speaker at the conference, Charlynne Pullen, a Labour councillor from Islington, north London, demurred. Her council has put out a leaflet denouncing the local cuts (pictured below), and council leader Catherine West has told anti-cuts...

LRC gets 25% boost

At its conference in London on 15 January, the Labour Representation Committee reported a 25% increase in membership in 2010. The conference itself was noticeably bigger than previous years'. A motion from AWL saying that the LRC should demand full public ownership and control of high finance was passed, and AWL members also worked at the conference to get support for the Labour Party Democracy Task Force and Right To Resist. The campaigning highlight of the conference was a decision to push Labour councils to defy the cuts. One downside was that the main motion proposing this was moved by Ted...

Labour Representation Committee meeting shows new confidence

About 200 people attended a conference, "After the election, join the resistance", organised by the Labour Representation Committee in London on 15 May and co-sponsored by several other groups, including the Socialist Campaign to Stop the Tories and Fascists. Although probably a majority of those at the conference were 50 or over, the mood was more confident and upbeat than at other LRC gatherings in recent times. Several speakers called strongly for socialists to get in to local Labour Parties and to link up with the new recruits now coming - and older Labour Party members who may now start...

Pulling together the left after 6 May

Pete Firmin is a Communication Workers Union activist and joint secretary of the Labour Representation Committee. He talked to Solidarity about the conference. "After the Election, Join the Resistance", which has been planned by LRC for 15 May (from 10:30 at ULU, Malet St, London), and is co-sponsored by the Socialist Campaign to Stop the Tories and Fascists and other groups. We're hoping the conference brings together activists from the unions, from within the Labour Party, from other struggles, against the war in Afghanistan and so on. We'll be in a new political situation after the election...

Labour Representation Committee: 'beacons in the darkness'

In his keynote speech to the Labour Representation Committee conference on 14 November, John McDonnell’s general assessment was that we are in a “difficult period”. We have “got to keep the Tories out”, but we know how bad New Labour is. “Our job is to act as beacons in the darkness”. In the coming general election, he urged LRC supporters to focus all their efforts on getting left Labour MPs re-elected. It is “not about alternative manifestos, or getting expelled”, he said, but “the same as every other grouping in the Labour Party, we will be setting out our programme, a platform for change”...

McDonnell to challenge again for Labour leadership

At the Labour Representation Committee conference on 14 November, John McDonnell MP announced that he will contest the Labour Party leadership again if Gordon Brown steps down after the General Election. McDonnell ran a substantial campaign for leader in 2007, after Tony Blair stepped down, only to be blocked from getting on the ballot paper by rules requiring a large number of nominations from MPs. McDonnell's general assessment, however, was that we are in a "difficult period". We have "got to keep the Tories out", but we know how bad New Labour is. "Our job is to act as beacons in the...

Labour Representation Committee: a chance to regain momentum

The Labour Representation Committee, a Labour-left group sponsored by six trade unions and associated with John McDonnell MP, holds its conference on 14 November. According to LRC: "The original Labour Representation Committee was formed in 1900 to fight for political representation for the Labour Movement. In Britain today we face a similar crisis of representation. The task for today's LRC, founded in 2004, is to fight for power within the Labour Party and trade unions and to appeal to the tens of thousands who have turned away from Labour in disillusion and despair". Some LRC insiders...

Scottish LRC set up: never mind the quality, feel the width!

That just about sums up much of the sentiments expressed at the Saturday 28 February inaugural meeting of the Scottish Labour Representation Committee, which also doubled up as the formal launch of the Scottish People’s Charter. The Scottish People’s Charter (SPC) is the Scottish version of the People’s Charter (PC), currently being touted round sections of the trade union movement as the policy statement which should be adopted in response to the current economic crisis. Curiously, the only specifically Scottish element in the SPC, apart from its name, is the call for 250,000 new publicly...

Matt Wrack: "Build unity around demands"

Matt Wrack is general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). He spoke to Martin Thomas at the Labour Representation Committee conference on 15 November. The main policies need to be based around defence of the working class - rejection of privatisation, defence of jobs and wages. We need to put on the agenda a genuine nationalisation of the banks and financial institutions. These demands require government action. But we face a New Labour government which is plainly not going to do anything like that, and a Labour Party conference where the unions can't even put down motions... I don't...

Martin Mayer: "The unions haven't been doing so badly"

Martin Mayer is chair of the TGWU Broad Left. He spoke to Martin Thomas at the Labour Representation Committee conference on 15 November. I supported a lot of what was said in the conference today. The financial crisis has suddenly made the policy of social control over the banks and financial system a viable policy to put forward for the left. It has not been seriously on our agenda before, but I think it should be now. Then I think we need to prioritise where a socialist perspective lies. We should be looking at the reversal of the privatisation of the health service and education. There's a...

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