Which side are you on?

 

There are some things where the choice can only ever be heads or tails. There are really only two types of politics, progressive or reactionary. You can't have a mix of the two. It's like in maths, a plus and a minus will always equal a minus. Reactionary politics being the minus. It's a hard border between the two. One doesn't merge into the other. There is no middle ground, no centre. 

Is there any point voting for one reactionary party because it's not the other reactionary party? I don't think so. You might think they will improve your lot but they really won't. They will always be a disappointment. Maintaining the status quo is a reactionary political choice. 

Unfortunately when you have a population that is politically illiterate how do you affect positive change? I really don't know. I am truly baffled. Without a major political party that supports progressive politics we can't even begin to move forward. Should we just give up and 'know our place'? That is what people seem to want. So I guess the answer is yes.

A broad church of reactionaries and progressives is never going to work. It will always be a constant tug of war with no real outcome apart from political impotence.

The choice is capitalism or socialism, fascism or democracy. Capitalism is fascism. Socialism is democracy in its purest form. Only trust people by their actions rather than what they say. Beware wolves in sheep's clothing; people will claim to be what they are not just to gain power.

If you appease capitalism you destroy all hope.

If you are not a socialist it is probably because you don't understand it. Get a grip. Educate yourself.

Perhaps one day we will have a mass membership socialist party.

Yours despondently

PS. I didn't vote for Keith.

A co-operative networked Labour movement

Following on from my Eureka post of the other day I saw this article on openDemocracy entitled, The revolution will be networked, by Paul Hilder. It offers some very good arguments as to how the left needs to organise going forward. I urge you to read it.

We can take back control by building a popular progressive network, a movement built from the ground up. Now is not the time to give up hope. A people's network can help establish true democracy and put real power in the hands of the people. It will require action and enthusiasm action to make a start on some of the practical issues that need addressing, and action to start projects that will help to improve working people's lives. We need to educate people and help them to help themselves. Enough is enough.

It will mean a lot of work at grass roots level. Improving and expanding the foundations that we need to build upon. We have to build socialism, we have to build Jerusalem from below upwards. It cannot and will not be imposed from above. As the article says:

Rather than simply seizing the broken machinery of top-down control from the old right, the Corbynite left should be leading Labour towards a networked party. It is time to build a base of millions of active and empowered supporters, to fundamentally reshape our country’s culture as well as our politics. Only then will Labour grow strong enough to win; only then will Labour truly deserve to.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone that feels of a same mind and wants to get things done.

Eureka!

Or is it an epiphany?

I retired at the end of June this year and so far I’m enjoying it. For the first few months it all felt like a very long holiday and then I started to feel like I was wasting a lot of time. I’d been doing art but that didn’t feel like enough. One needs an active and interesting life to be able to draw inspiration for creating. The older I get the more aware I am of my days being numbered, of time running out. I had just started to look around for something to do when the election was called. Whilst I thought it was a pretty stupid time to call an election I was keen to do my bit. It was quite pleasurable going, what felt like, back to work. Despite it often being monotonous in its process the conversations were interesting and mostly good humoured, and I enjoyed the taking part as part of a team again. Obviously I was gutted by the result but the key now is to go forward.

I don’t really celebrate Christmas, so no obscenely oversized meal for me, just an ordinary sized light snack for me at lunchtime. It was accompanied by a little light reading; I happened upon an article on the openDemocracy website entitled Labour should focus on building a new co-operative economy from the ground up. A very interesting read. It seemed to be saying things that chimed with me. Ideas that equated to the way I had been thinking for quite some time. It’s always pleasing when you come across people that think the same as you, especially when it’s around ideas that perhaps deviate from the orthordox.

One disadvantage that the left has in politics is that the right wing have all the infrastructure, the mainstream media outlets and money. We can be well organised and have a large membership, but if we can’t get our message across we can’t make progress. We also need to challenge many of our traditional ways of thinking. Given that it’s going to be five years before the next general election we have to perhaps consider that there are other ways of radically changing this country. Centralised control and planning might not be the way forward. We need to think this unthinkable thought. Perhaps the way forward is to develop an alternative economy. This Tory government doesn’t give a shit about the working classes. Do we just drop to our knees and let them do their worst or do we fight back? If they won’t help the working classes then we should just blinking well help ourselves. The Labour movement needs to reorganise, modernise and rebuild its network and reach out to people. We need to restore trust in our movement, we need to help people to improve their lives; co-operation is the key.

An alternative economy, a new commonwealth, will enable us to take back control, build in sustainability, reinvest in local economies, establish co-operatives to tender for local and national government contracts, starve traditional capitalist businesses of custom and generally shift the balance of power. Also if we shift the power base away from London and develop a network of co-operative economic cells it will make it much more difficult for the right to divide us. Economic and political devolution needs to be strived for. Public ownership doesn't necessarily mean government ownership.

We also need to help educate people. Take over the running of schools. Set up colleges. A highly educated working class would be a powerful force. Now when I say educated I don’t mean trained as in the current tick box regime, I mean educated with the power of critical thinking and able to apply logic. As a movement we definitely need to take the moral high ground. We also need to present a more positive approach; less of a protest group more of can do organisation for change. We all need to moderate our language. It's okay to be angry but it's not acceptable to be aggressive, to wish people ill etc. That's fascism. We need to be smart. We need to prove we are better than the right. Robustly arguing our beliefs but politely. Aggression prevents equality. Aggression is oppression.

For me starting to work on some of these initiatives is far more important than who our next party leader is. Not that it’s not important. The real power of the party is in its members and that’s how it needs to stay. Yes it’s important to win back power on a national level, because that way we can put so many beneficial changes into place, but in the meantime there is much we can do to show the world that we are a credible political movement and that we practice what we preach. We need to take back control from the elite and enable a transition of power to the people in a way that no government can take it away again.

These arguments need to be refined but for me they form the basis of something I can work on and discuss with other people.I for one have found my occupation, my cause célèbre, and something I can dedicate time to in a bid to try and help others.

Unity is strength

Ask ten Labour party members why we lost the election and you'd get at least eleven different answers. I have no idea (apart from Brexit) as to why we lost the election in such devastating fashion. I hope when the dust has settled all will become clear. But until that time arrives it would be useful to stop the blame game. To one degree or another all party members are responsible for what happened. You cannot blame one person or group of people.

I’m a remainer but I feared all along that calling an election before the dreadful deed was done was asking for trouble. The opposition parties should have stood firm. But of course they didn’t. The cowardly LibDems capitulated yet again. Anyway what is done is done and we can’t go back.

One thing as a party that we need to realise is that we are still a broad church. We need to accommodate as many views as we can. I say this as someone on the left of the party. There is room for both socialists and social democrats in the Labour party. We can’t have one side or the other throwing their toys out of the pram if they don’t get all their own way. If we don’t appeal to as wide an electorate as possible we can never hope to regain power. And not only that. We need to at least be talking with other parties on the left of the Tories. Whilst we don’t necessarily want to mimic their policies we need to at least have some understanding. Looking at the overall numbers of votes cast and where they went it would appear that a large proportion went to the Greens and the LibDems; divided, they (the Tories) conquered. We have to at least discuss some kind of cooperation. Don’t we?

But problems don’t just lie with the Labour party. There are a lot of very vulnerable people in our society. People that will be at the mercy of the bullying, uncaring, vindictive Tories. How do we protect them? Can we assemble a broad coalition of resistance? Can we form our own alternative economy? Can we opt out of as much of the mainstream, the part that the neoliberals control, as we can? We need to try and as much as possible hit the neoliberals where it hurts. Break free from many of the bonds they control us with? We need a rebel alliance made up of left of centre organisations, societies and charities. A large well coordinated resistance movement. Our far from perfect democracy is about to be destroyed. We need to hold on to as much as we can.

I don’t have many answers yet. But I do have a lot of questions. Some of those questions are difficult, but we shouldn’t shy away from them. We must ask them. Divided we will fall again, united we can win at every opportunity going forward.

JC, Elvis and Clive

I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to getting around to going to the Burston School Strike Rally but this year I finally managed it.

For the uninitiated the Burston School Strike was the longest strike in British history and it took place in Norfolk. You can read about it here and here.

Clive Lewis MP

In September every year a rally is held to commemorate the event and guest speakers from the labour movement turn up to 'entertain' the comrades. Tony Benn often spoke there. This year though it was Jeremy Corbyn who was the main speaker and of course he'd drawn quite a crowd. Introduced enthusiastically by my MP Clive Lewis. I still can't get over the novelty of electing an MP. Jeremy spoke in similar vein to his speech in Norwich; inclusive and emphasising the need to listen to party members and involve as many as possible in policy making; you know that alien concept called democracy. But for democracy to work there has to be mass involvement. If it's left to a few it won't work.

Jeremy Corbyn MP

The poet Elvis McGonagall had the unenviable task of following on from Jeremy's speech. Unenviable as many left as he came on, which was a pity because he was very good. I listened to his set and enjoyed it muchly.

Elvis McGonagall non-MP

And, the sun shone as well.

Wearing my heart on my sleeve

“I am the message”

Sounds very corny and very American I’m sure you’ll agree. That’s because it is. I borrowed it from the corporate bullshit of my former employer. It might sound like nonsense but it kind of needs to be a necessity for those of us on the centre left. If the progressive left is going to progress then we need to get our message out there to as many people as possible.

Given that most of the mainstream media (including the BBC) is either owned by or controlled by the right wing, we are left with very few outlets in which to broadcast our positive ideas and policies. The alternative is to do it ourselves. In reality it’s our only choice. Social Media is the obvious first step but that doesn’t embrace everyone. There are large numbers of people out there who either through personal choice or circumstance don’t want to or aren’t able to access social media. We need to take our message onto the streets. Explain it to people we meet. We need to wear our message and leave it in strategic places.

As Billy Bragg sings, possibly tongue in cheek, in Waiting for the great leap forward:

“So join the struggle while you may

The Revolution is just a t-shirt away”

...and how true that is. If we are going to convince people that there is a better way. A way that doesn’t favour the few over the many, then we need to shout about it. At every opportunity the left wing viewpoint needs to be aired. One by one we can change minds. Go forth sisters and brothers and spread the word.

I see nothing wrong with graffiti particularly if plastered on the property and the tools of the oppressors. Sticking posters over ads for the likes of Sky television might be a useful exercise. So might sticking stickers on the Daily Mail, the Sun and other reactionary newspapers; ‘Warning! This rag contains fascist lies!’ might seem appropriate.

In my own subtle and wimpy way I’ve made a first start. I carry a rucksack to work. I walk through the city and then get on a bus. There is space on the face of my rucksack doing nothing constructive. Or it wasn’t until now. Now it's sporting a nice red 3” badge proclaiming that AUSTERITY IS A LIE, and truly it is. A lie invented by the Tories to enable the rich to become even richer and the poor to become even poorer. And so many people have fallen for their lie. My badge is just the beginning; from small acorns etc etc.

I urge you to do the same. Get out there. Word up!

Today I read this article by Owen Jones in which he makes some very valid points. If Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership vote then it's not mission accomplished, it is just the beginning of a very long and, what will need to be, determined struggle. The prize could be a just and equal society if we don't waiver.

It's my party and...

@Corbyn4Leader  #corbyn

Tonight I witnessed something quite remarkable. And something that five months ago I would have thought was not possible; enthusiastic, smiley happy people attending a political meeting. Labour party people mostly, plus labour supporters, and no doubt, the odd curious reactionary as well. But for the good part the audience were party members, including myself. We had to queue at Open in Norwich, a venue that is normally host to music acts, for about an hour just to get in. The queue was long, very long. Several hundred yards long. Blimey I thought, you don't even get queues this long for popular beat combos.

Why the queues? Well. JC was in town. No, not that JC, but, Jeremy Corbyn; conviction politician extraordinaire. And hoards of ordinary people like me had turned up to hear him speak. Sadly the meeting was so popular that not everyone could get in. Apparently about two hundred people were denied access as the venue had reached capacity. So what did Jeremy do? He went and addressed the people outside first. How cool is that?

Anyone who thinks that Jeremy Corbyn's popularity is bolstered by infiltrators and Tory sympathisers hoping that Labour will elect a leader who will not be popular with the electorate at large is very much mistaken. I would wager that the majority of his support comes from genuine committed labour supporters who want a leader that puts equality and policy before personality, and believes in opportunity for the many rather than for just a few. What the New Labour Blairites don't get is that we want our party back and we want it back now! We don't want to be told what we can and can't do by Oxbridge suits. We want a people's party with policies that benefit the whole of society. A party that will oppose the Tories rather than mimic them. 'Tory Light' has no place in the Labour Party.

If I was in any doubt about which leadership candidate I was going to vote for before tonight I'm not now. Jeremy Corbyn gets my vote. A vote for JC is a vote for REAL LABOUR.

I really hope that this time we can make a difference. That we can start to affect real political change. Political change that will challenge the evil Tories and the austerity lie.

You too can join the Labour Party. Be part of a growing movement. Now is the time. Do so here, please. And to find out about the policies and ideas that Jeremy stands for please visit here.

Life could be a lot better for us all if we are prepared to play our part!

A clause for the common good

“To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.”

I still like the original version of Clause IV, drafted by Sidney Webb in November 1917 and adopted by the Labour Party in 1918, and feel that it is still applicable and a desirable aim to aspire to. Our world would be a much better place is these ideals were the driving force of a democratically elected government.

UpdatED

I haven’t really commented much on political stuff of late. The Labour Party conference was on whilst we were on holiday, with the leadership election announcement being made on the night before we flew out. Ed Miliband was my third choice but I was very pleased that he won over David. Blair might have delivered us into the land of electability, but many of the associated ideas and ideals of New Labour are now well past their sell by date, so it was good to get a leader than was not part of the Blair camp. I thought his acceptance speech was excellent and particularly his ‘I get it’ bits. I sincerely hope that he does ‘get it’ and keeps his ear to the ground enough to continue getting it. His divvying up of the Shadow Cabinet jobs was most certainly inspired which proves that he is a pretty shrewd operator Let’s hope that he can lead us back to the political promised land and that the next Labour government doesn’t ignore the people who elected it.

Alternative Vote

Since turning eighteen I have voted in every election that I’ve been eligible to vote in. At every general election I’ve voted Labour. I’m now fifty-five and I’ve never elected a Labour MP in my life. Do you know how painful that is?

In 1997 I came close. Labour were less than 400 votes short of taking true-blue Bury St Edmunds. Now that would have been a victory. When we moved permanently to Norwich last year it was to a constituency that had a sitting Labour MP, Charles Clarke. Not an MP whose political views seemed to wholly equate to mine, buy hey it was a Labour seat. Then of course as we know disaster struck and Charles narrowly missed re-election. So close and yet so far. If I live until I’m sixty will I finally elect a Labour MP? I do hope so.

I have never liked the first past the post system. It is so undemocratic, and just plain unfair. How can it be fair when less than half the voting public in a constituency vote for a particular MP? Why have we put up with it for so long?

One thing that I along with many others don’t want to lose is having a member of parliament that is directly elected by a constituency, but that doesn’t mean you have to stick with first past the post. AV gives you a constituency MP, and an MP that has actually been elected by more people than first past the post gives you.

Democracy has to be about consensus and often compromise. It is totally wrong to stick with an outdated system just because it favours a particular party or parties. No political party should ever push for a system because it favours them. That’s immoral.

Emily Thornberry in her blog posting on LabourList doesn’t seem to grasp that first past the post is undemocratic and therefore can never be supported by a party that should always take the moral high ground.

Come the referendum I shall vote for AV. It may not be the very best solution but it is a damned site fairer than what we have now. I think that’s called progress. Labour is a progressive party, isn’t it?

I’m voting for Dianne Abbott

The circus came to town today. Murdoch’s Media Circus, along with the five Labour leadership hopefuls. My ballot papers arrived the other day and I’d sort of made up my mind how I was going to vote but I went along to today’s performance with a relatively open mind. Well as open as it could be given my political leanings. The extravaganza was being held at a venue in Norwich called Open 247; a rather grand hall that was previously a Barclay’s Bank but is now a youth centre. Being in the audience of a television programme is a little tedious. There’s a lot of waiting around and when you’re finally allowed to take a seat you have to listen to some non-entity of a presenter (no idea who he is) go over his lines several times whilst your bum gradually starts to go numb and any political fire you might have in your body evaporates ceiling-ward. Does anyone actually watch Sky News?

The audience was made up of roughly fifty percent Labour members and a fifty percent mix of non-aligned voters and a token ‘youth contingent. At the ‘standing around with a coffee and losing the will to live’ stage before going into the hall I had a brief conversation with a ‘non-aligned’ gent of around my age. He was apparently a Labour voter but not a member. He was persuaded to come along by a market research company who phoned him up on behalf of Sky. Obviously he was interested to hear the candidates speak, but they also offered him twenty quid. He said that as he could cycle there he thought ‘why not?’Labour party members did not get the twenty oncers. I’m not sure why Sky insisted that members of the general public needed to be there as ‘balance’ shouldn’t really come into it. This nonsense meant that less party members could attend. I feel so lucky to be one of the few who got a ticket.

The presentation, for that’s what it was, was an interesting show. It wasn’t a debate as there was no cut and thrust of argument and challenge. But that doesn’t make it a bad thing. It doesn’t always have to be adversarial. All five candidates presented themselves very well. If fact the only one that was not as slick as I thought he’d be was Ed Miliband. His older brother David was perfect in terms of delivery and apparent ease with which he answered questions. Shame he’s a bit too Blairish for my liking. Before today the one candidate that left me cold was Andy Burnham, but after seeing him in the flesh, so to speak, I warmed to him a bit more than I would have imagined. He’s another Blairite so he doesn’t really float my boat but I was impressed with his passion for ‘care’. I’m not totally sure I know what Ed Miliband stands for apart from whatever it is it is to the left of David, and he mentions ‘change’ a lot. He no doubt feels that if it worked for Obama and it worked for Cameron he might as well give it a go. Ed Balls is a star. You can’t greatly fault the man. He talks such sense. He’s the only one that has been seriously challenging the Con-Dems on their vindictive Tory policies. His arguments are credible. His economic policies are sensible, right and fair. If he doesn’t make party leader and Labour do get re-elected at the next election he would make a fantastic chancellor. He makes no apologies for being part of the last government, whilst at the same time pointing some of the things he was unhappy with and argued against; the joys of cabinet collective responsibility hey Ed? He also quite rightly points out that 13 years of Labour actually delivered some really good stuff. Stuff to be proud of. And in fairness all five of the candidates took this positive stance just that Ed Balls was the most robust, credible, eloquent and convincing on the matter. Ed Balls was my number one choice for leader until Dianne Abbott joined the race. Dianne Abbott just ticks all of the boxes for me. You can’t not approve of anyone that was against the war in Iraq. A thorn in Labour’s side that many in the party I’m sure don’t realise how many votes it cost us. But she’s not a one issue woman. For me she offers the policies closest to my beliefs of any of them. And, more importantly I think she is the most ‘in touch’ with real people out of the candidates. With Dianne Abbott as Prime Minister we could just well get the fair and just society that so many of us crave.

If I had any doubts before the presentation they were put to rest when all the candidates were asked which one of their policies was key. Dianne Abbott mentioned the magic words of building many more council houses. That sealed it for me. Dianne Abbott really gets it. She’s my number one choice.

The Labour Party

I wrote a post a short while back connected with the democratic process. In it I suggested that I intended to join a political party. Well I’ve done just that. I've just rejoined the Labour Party after a gap of thirty years. Why did I leave all those years ago and why rejoin now?

I left the party in 1979 in what could be described as a marked manner, and had no intention of ever returning. I was so disgusted with the broad labour movement giving Margaret Thatcher such as easy ride to power that I just felt that I no longer belonged in a party and a wider movement that seemed hell bent on self destruction. My feelings were such that I couldn't stomach to witness the inevitable bloodbath that was surely about to happen. I’m glad I didn't hang around because as history affirms it turned out to be more of a massacre than perhaps many of us imagined.

Why rejoin now?

I suppose because I was so incensed by the MP’s expenses 'scandal'. I was incensed that parliament had allowed it to get to the state that it had become, but I was even more incensed at the general public’s reaction. How dare people criticise when they are not prepared to play a part in the democratic process I thought. Then I thought, well apart from vote at every election, what do I do? Democracy is more than just putting a cross on a piece of paper. Democracy is about debate and influencing decisions. The degree to which you do this is up to the individual and what they feel comfortable with, but it is a healthy democracy that has a high degree of engagement from the constituency at large.

So I have rejoined the Labour Party to reconnect with the democratic process. I'm not sure yet to what extent my involvement will be but I intend to play my part however small. Watch this space.

We get what we deserve

The recent shenanigans over MPs expenses have left me shouting, ‘What do you expect? ‘at the telly and/or radio on a number of occasions. This is not because I’m a cynic that believes that power corrupts and that they are all in it for the money. Heaven forbid. No, I shout because people are so quick to criticise whilst sitting on their fat arses, whilst at the same time they are not prepared to engage with the democratic process. How many of those that moan actually turn out and vote at every election? When you discover that it’s usually in around 60%/70% for a general election and around half that for local or Euro elections it shows what a farce our democracy is. ‘He who is without sin cast the first stone’. Participation doesn’t end with trolling down to the polling station, that’s just a tiny part of it. Elections are about choosing a representative, but how can they represent the people in their constituency when they don’t know how those people feel? How can they be held to account if they are not questioned, challenged or lobbied by the people they represent?

If we are to live in a true democracy then it requires the vast majority of the people to participate in a more vigorous way than they do now. That means that people should join a political party, go to surgeries, go to council meetings, ‘shout’ about what they believe in and generally let their representatives know how they feel. Until we all start doing some of this we have absolutely no right to criticise and no right to expect MPs, councillors etc to do any better than they are now. That not to say that many don’t do a good job already, because many do. You will often find that idealism, and not personal gain, is what drives people into politics. I think it’s fair to say, no matter of what persuasion that you are, that our prime minister Gordon Brown is one such politician. Doing something, however small, is better than nothing. If you don’t feel ready to go to join a party or go to meetings then start small. If you are reading this then the chances are that you have internet access (unless someone else has printed this out for you). Check the news sites to see what your representatives are up to. Join in with online debates on forums and blogs. Visit ‘TheyWorkForYou.com‘. This is a really useful website that helps to keep tabs on the UK’s parliaments and assemblies, and it also allows you to contact your representatives about issues that are dear to your heart. A sister site’WriteToThem.com‘ enables you to make contact with local councillors and MEPs.

Please do something, however small. Our democracy needs you! Use it or lose it.

Just in case you are wondering, I plan to join a political party, and to see where that takes me.

X

Gordon isn't a moron

Seeing Gordon Brown on the Andrew Marr show this morning made me realise what an asset we have in our prime minister. I didn't much care necessarily for many of the policies of Tony Blair and I certainly didn't care for the spin or the celebrity persona, but I do thank him for delivering us from conservative immorality and government. I feel much happier that we have someone who's strong and unflappable like Gordon running the country now. He came across very well this morning as someone is determined to do the right thing and to continue with socially just policies. He’s not flash, he’s not smarmy, and he cares about this country and all the people that live here. I think this last week has proven that the current economic problems are not of his making, but with him at the helm I firmly believe that we are better placed to come out of this with less pain than if the Tories were in charge. I lived under too many Tory administrations where they just piss away the economy, give loads of dosh to their cronies, and make the working people that suffer. We don’t need the return of spin; we have a good prime minister, let’s not desert him now!