Forde’s findings beg the question: What is Labour For?
JVL Introduction
This piece by Ryan Coogan shows why the findings of the Forde Report matter beyond the membership (and ex-membership) of the Labour Party; beyond the details, beyond the specifics is the unarguable reality that those on the Right of the Party, within its (un)civil service and the majority of MPs, do not support a serious alternative to the neoliberalism, marketisation, worker suppression, refugee abandonment and clamp down on civil rights being implemented by this, one of the worst ever, Tory governments.
Too often called “moderates”, these people have, at best, forgotten what the Labour Party was established to achieve – a better deal for the working class, a fairer distribution of the wealth that we create and peace and justice for all. Now there is no serious opposition with Starmer and Reeves reneging on their commitment, popular even amongst Tory voters, to renationalise rail and utilities.
This article was originally published by The Independent on Sun 24 Jul 2022. Read the original here.
The Forde report proves that Labour’s sickness is down to its right wing
The fact that people within his own party were terrified of Corbyn begs the question: which part of supporting the working class did they disagree with?
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The answer to this is, in my opinion surprisingly and depressingly simple. Sir Anthony Blair became a multi-millionaire by leading a Labour Party which looked after the interests of the rich and powerful. Most of his front bench were on the take as well as documented in Owen Jones’s excellent book “The Establishment”. These are aspirational people. They aspire to be wealthy and, unfortunately, you don’t get rich looking after disadvantaged people.
Money from certain sources ..(we know who they are and the benefactors) was put into the party for the specific purpose to destroy the labour and socialist party ..I left the party after supporting it for over 50 years ! And no longer have any where to hang my hat .
It is not a labour party as was ..so has no purpose !
Excellent article which gets to the heart of this nonsense about Labour being a ‘broad church’. Ryan Coogan asks the obvious question. What is Labour for? We have just heard that Starmer is now officially committed to not renationalising or taking into public ownership anything. So the private sector will continue to mismanage the railway system, energy, utilities whilst we pay the price.
The Unions have a heavy responsibility to remove this Tory from the leadership or else form another party
Do you really need to go back to Clause 4 to resurrect the Labour Party, as this post implies? If you believe the privatisation of the utilities was ill-considered, you simply need to go back to the 1960s when it was widely believed that these were ‘natural monopolies’ where one couldn’t rely on competitive forces to prevent them earning monopoly profits. The vogue for privatisation gained such a head of steam, backed by all sort of self-interested parties, that the ‘externalities’ were often ignored and there were (at best) unexpected consequences, as we are finding with poorly regulated water companies that increasingly pollute our rivers and coasts. The key arguments for a French-style state-run rail system does not spring from the Communist Manifesto, but from calm consideration of the costs and benefits, and the benefits include better coordination of the component parts and better long-term planning. I can’t help feel that if you anchor everything to Clause 4, you unnecessarily raise the specter of the state controlling the production, distribution and exchange of everything from steel down to children’s smarties – which is inherently unmanageable.
It always feels good to read someone else’s words that chime with oneself. Coogan’s words clarify the madness of the Labour Party leadership and give a relief to find that what seems mad to me is mad to others. Should I leave the LP? Where do I go?
Audrey White gave LOTO ‘a warm welcome. to Liverpool yesterday, reminding him of the Labour Party’s Socialist roots inspired by Jeremy Corbyn. Clause 4 is a good direction of travel for any definition of Socialism that has been rejected by Starmer & Blair.
Time surely to form a new Independent Labour Party on its own ideological ground as advised by Ken Loach – the current Labour ‘broad church’ only ever applied when the right was in control, as poor Jeremy found out. The party ‘machine’ was never going to allow itself to be taken over by an elected ‘left’ and were quite happy to see Labour defeated at the polls in return for the left’s demise. The question is not whether the right have a place in the Labour Party but why on earth socialists are still in it?
We owned, the Gas, Electricity, Water, The Railways, the Buses, the PO, BT, Council Houses, now we are being ripped off by the people that now own them and it was predicted by the experts that were against Privatisation of our Services. Another bonus for Public Ownership was, whenever there was a Recession, the prices could be held, that way you could protect the poorest in society.
We will only get these Services back if we start a new Party, a Socialist Paryy and I believe it has to come from the Unions, they have the funds and I believe it will take off.
Starmer always wriggles when he’s asked about repealing Thatcher’s Anti Union Laws, which Blair didn’t repeal, neither will Starmer.