It is not to grasp the former Labour leader’s reasons. He has been treated shabbily.Apart from not agreeing with the decision to stand one thing that will put people off will be the virulent anti Labour stand of some of those who will now present themselves in the election campaign.
The anti Labour deserve better campaign which also advocates backing the non socialist Green Party and a variety of independents, often eccentrics, is one of the more temperate of them.
Chartist magazine and the EB are committed to the cause of Ukraine.
The present Blog TC specialises in western European politics, above all France, Spain and Germany. It is preferable to repost others on this defining war.
As a Chartist supporter I agree with this. There are obviously things to add after the most recent Tory defection. I did not expect my old Pabloite comrade to be left wing but his recent moves are not attractive.
Jim and his comrades in Solidarity are amongst those on the left who’ve kept their nerve during the recent Gaza crisis. While condemning Israel’s atrocities and attending protests against them they have not witheld their criticisms of the Islamists of Hamas. The Tendance approaches these issues through the lens of First International Marxism and the universalist humanism of Jean Jaurès rather than Trotskyism.i
In the Falter affair most people would have found it stretching credulity that the man just happened to be in Aldwych, an area dead at weekends, just to begin with.
Jim cited I note with interest CPB leading figure, a fellow North Londoner (she even knew my Primary School) who has opposed the Morning Star line on such issues. Meeting her once she expressed views on Galloway not far off the Tendance’s.
There are lots of reports on the, ‘cancelled’, National Conservative meeting in Brussels. Coverage in the UK has focused on the one time Brexit Party leader and the one time British Home Secretary. French language articles in Belgium have focused on the way the Brussels had decided to call a halt to this ‘anti globalist’ spectacle, backed Hungary’s Viktor Obran and wealthy US hard rightists.
In France the presence of the far right leader, former French Presidential candidate and chief of Reconquête, Éric Zemmour, has drawn attention. It is hard to overemphasise how extreme Zemmour is – and I have read a number of his books starting with Le suicide Français.
Detailed article worth reading. Zemmour, one of the worst far right figures in France was due to speak. This does not get much mentioned in English language reports. https://t.co/OHG2vOQmKX
An important review by a comrade who really knows his labour movement history. The critical comments on what is known as ‘communiarian’ philosophy, no more in fashion than Blue Labour, are also well targeted.
This does not detract from the author’s strengths.
John Cruddas has had a long and fruitful dialogue with the democratic socialist left.
Oakland Socialist is US blog which has gained an audience outside of America.Its views are often similar to the European internationalist left. It is always worth reading.
Big shot Galloway is standing 13 candidates, (20 are up for the vote) in the Rochdale local elections this May. His old muckers from TUSC have helpfully not put any up there.This is their top man.
In East Anglia the Green Party is a force in many District councils . They control Mid Suffolk. They are not noticably left wing and will tell anybody who asks, eg me, they are not socialist. Polls published in East Anglian Bylines indicate they will not have a breakthrough in the General Election, even their Waveney target seat.
One can agree with them on some issues, here on the new Sizewell C nuclear plant which apart from energy issues will destroy an area of great beauty, without supporting them.
Watching Trevor Phillips on the telly this morning brought back some happy memories of his student union days. He was the leader in London, later nationally, of the NUS, of an alliance between Labour students and the Communist Party. The Broad Left, who believe it or not tried to recruit me at one point at Warwick, were not fond of the faction I was I was a member of, the International Marxist Group but obviously made exceptions for outstanding cadres.
Around that time one of our favourite IMG chants at demos was Armed road, only road. One solution armed Revolution!
We would be top of the Prevent list.
These days a few former IMG members in the former left wing New Left Review are British to the core
Not most of us I hasten to add.
IMG IMG fear and the dread of the whole bourgeoise.
The Red-Brown alliance develops, George Galloway is to back Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party for the Euro-elections.
Following the lead of former rivals, the ex-Revolutionary Communist Party/Spiked/Institute of Ideas now supporters of National Populism,..(1)
Brexit is the opposite of Nazism. It is a cry for national independence, which the Nazis loathed. It is a campaign for democracy, which the Nazis destroyed. Nazism was hateful and anti-human — Brexit is positive and democratic.
Yesterday Galloway has tweeted his backing for Farage added, (1)
This is a tactical judgement. I’m serious about #Brexit I’m even more serious about democracy. The Conservatives and the Blairite 5th Column have rendered both parties redundant in the European Parliament elections, as my critics will shortly see.
We confidently predict that this red-brown alliance will receive more support.
As Jim says,
It appears he is not on his own. Chelley Ryan is a Corbyn cultist and a prolific tweeter and Facebook poster who has also posted for Red Labour and writes for the Morning Star. She has tweeted in support of the Brexit Party.
There have been others on social media.
Is this just Stalinist fraying at the edges or is there more to it?
Sadly because the left failed to set up a lexit party, they left the platform to Farages new party and UKIP. If someone prominent on the left now stands on a platform with Farage and puts a Lexit case is this really so bad. Do we really want ppl only to hear one narrative!?
— Chelley Ryan 🖐️ #DangerousHero4PM (@chelleryn99) April 18, 2019
Can pple please not send me messages telling me I support the Brexit party. What I support is someone's right to join a non proscribed party & challenge the rhetoric that emerges from it. The ppl listening to Farage now have to listen to a voice from the left too! https://t.co/iftSBsBWrE
— Chelley Ryan 🖐️ #DangerousHero4PM (@chelleryn99) April 18, 2019
— Brexit Future #StandUp4Democracy🇬🇧 (@BrexitFutureUK) April 17, 2019
A political party launched less than a week ago is topping a national poll. If you didn't see this coming, you haven't been paying attention. https://t.co/F5Ljr1nsPw
This is the only Realpolitik decision that could possibly be made after all the insults & betrayals-the Euro Election will be OUR referendum on Brexit-a 2nd vote Remain camp has been demanding, marching about & gathering dodgy petition signatures for from all around the world.
Perhaps this tiff is forgiven now….”In an article in The Australian newspaper, 15th January 2009, ‘Critics of Israel giving voice to anti-Semitism’, I stated that George Galloway, British MP for the Respect party, had called for a boycott of ‘Israel’s shops’ and that this meant that he was calling in practice for a boycott of Jewish shops. This was incorrect and I now understand that he was calling for a boycott of ‘Israel’ shops which is a mobile retailer operating in shopping malls and who sell Israeli goods and was not referring to ‘Israel’s shops’. I apologise to Mr Galloway for the mistake, and I withdraw the suggestion made in my article that he was showing or encouraging anti-Semitism in calling for this boycott. Frank Furedi, 9 February 2009″.
Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour, joint leaders since 2022, said on Wednesday that the environmental party, a trailblazer in Europe and the first to have MPs elected to a national parliament, faced its deepest crisis in a decade after the result of the Brandenburg state election on Sunday.
“It is time to lay our beloved party’s fate in others’ hands,” said Nouripour.
The surprise announcement comes at a time when Germany’s political landscape has been shaken by the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the unexpected success of a fledgling populist leftist-conservative party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).
Sahra Wagenknecht defends left-wing positions on the economy, but her right-wing authoritarian cultural preferences (rejection of immigration, Woke culture, etc.) place her in a unique and unoccupied space in German politics. She could rally voters from the left as well as the right around her project, including activists that are anti-Vax, pro-Putin, anti-immigration, anti-Woke and prone to authoritarianism.
The Guardian puts forward these causes for their crisis:
The German Greens have been accused of losing their way, in particular since entering the federal government. Having to deal with the realpolitik of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with its resulting energy crisis, has forced the party into making decisions that appeared to go against its ideals.
In the recent election campaigns, it often appeared to be the punchbag for parties across the spectrum. Accusations were rife that the party was trying to “dictate” the lives of ordinary Germans – from which type of heating system to use, to which car to drive – with the BSW and AfD going so far as to compare the Greens to the Communist regime of the former German Democratic Republic.”
…….
That has obvious echoes of the anti-Woke right in the UK and elsewhere,. Sarah Wagenknecht wrote a whole book on the theme: Die Selbstgerechten. Mein Gegenprogramm – für Gemeinsinn und Zusammenhalt ist ein Buch von Sahra Wagenknecht, das am 14. April 2021.
….’
“The party has also lost a larger proportion of its younger voters at recent elections than any other party. In Sunday’s Brandenburg poll, for instance, it saw its support in the 16-to-24 age bracket drop by 24 percentage points, a bigger fall than in any other age range. “
Welcome. But as a Pensioner, on Pension Credit (for those with low rates of pension with small savings) who is not affected by the cut I am more concerned about the rise in fuel prices. My monthly bill has gone up, in the last few years, from between £30 to0 £40 a month to up to (at its highest) £160.
I also note that those on Universal Credit (for the unemployed, those on a very low income, and people unable to work) get a lot less than the State Pension. Single, over 25 £393,45 a month. State Pension, £221,20 a week.
There is no furore about the very low incomes those out of work get.
While this is a Conference vote, not binding on the Parliamentary Party let alone the government, its effect indicates the importance of being Labour members and not part of the confetti of groups outside it.
📢 UNITE WINS WINTER FUEL PAYMENT VOTE AT LABOUR CONFERENCE
People do not understand, I do not understand, how our new @UKLabour government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super-rich untouched.
NEW: Delegates at @UKLabour conference have backed a @unitetheunion motion calling for the party to reverse winter fuel allowance cuts, impose a wealth tax and revise fiscal rules, defying the party leadership
Mankind Quarterly, a "go to" journal for those seeking an "an intellectual" veneer for racism, was edited by self-described "scientific racist" Richard Lynn until his death in 2023, David Miller adds a thin get out/caveat, but why is he sharing Lynn's work? 1/3 https://t.co/lfYC9WjmLr
— hippo king archibald phd (pointless hippo doctor) (@SamuraiApology) September 23, 2024
“Richard Lynn is one of the most unapologetic and raw “scientific” racists operating today, arguing, among other things, that nations with high average IQs must subjugate or eliminate lower-IQ groups, which he associates with particular racial groups, in order to preserve their dominance.” Southern Law Poverty Center.
When Miller was booted out of his academic job at Bristol University there were petitions signed by many self-identifying left-wingers defending him. The case came to an Employment Tribunal this year. Not for the first time Socialist Worker came down on the wrong side, “David Miller verdict is a victory for anti-Zionists.”
Anti-Zionist academic David Miller’s landmark victory at an employment tribunal against the University of Bristol should be warmly welcomed.
It strengthens pro-Palestine people at work against bullying bosses and intimidating managers.
The tribunal said Miller was unfairly and wrongfully dismissed. He successfully claimed discrimination based on his philosophical belief that Zionism is inherently racist, imperialist, and colonial.
This judgment establishes for the first time that legally anti-Zionist beliefs are protected in the workplace.”
Tendance Coatesy 