THE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH LEFT

This I hope will be my last political blog for a few months as I plan to write some new blogs on other subjects for the next few months. However future events may overrule this plan. Anyway lets concentrate on the subject of this blog.’The future of the British Left’ As somebody who has been involved in Left wing politics for many years to be perfectly honest the future for the Left in Britain has never been bleaker.

Inside the Labour Party the Left wing can only manage to get 19 Left wing members of parliament to support a Left candidate for Labour party leader. They have been forced to support Andy Burnham the least worst of the Right wing candidates for leader. So clearly there is no future for Socialists inside the Labour party. Although doubtless the small ineffective Left wing remaining inside the party will remain carrying on their ineffective fight. But it is clear that after Labour,s recent election defeat the party will now move considerably towards the right.

Outside the Labour party the main challenge in the recent general election came from the Trade Union Socialist Coalition standing 135 candidates polling on average 0.6% of the vote where they stood. Tusc was correct to stand in the recent general election as there is no future for Socialists inside the Labour party. However the main weakness of Tusc is that you cannot join it as an individual member nor does it have a national local branch system. It is basically a coalition of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party which only comes together during elections. So Tusc goes to sleep while there is no elections taking place. Hence its lack of local activity while elections are not taking place.

The new Conservative government is obviously going to carry out major attacks on the poor and the working class and it may well possibly have the silent unofficial support of the new right wing leadership of the Labour party. There will probably be some resistance from below to the new governments measures. However what form this will take and how effective this will be we shall just have to wait and see.

In my personal opinion the best hope for the Left is if the Unite Trade Union decide to disaffiliate from the Labour party at is July conference and then decide to form a new Left wing political party with other Left wing trade Unions like the RMT. However in conclusion the future for the Left in Britain is probably bleak. I hope that future events prove me wrong.

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CONSERVATIVE VICTORY IN 2015 GENERAL ELECTION

At first I found the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election puzzling. However on reflection I am now not surprised by the result. With the Labour Party adopting a basically conservative position of a more moderate neo liberalism, of we will continue austerity and a policy of non co-operation with the SNP. So in the end the electorate chose the more convincing form of neo liberalism and continued austerity.

The SNP victory in Scotland is not at all surprising with the Labour Party being led by the arch reactionary Henry Jackson Society member Jim Murphy. A very much welcome and well deserved outcome of the election was the electoral near wipe out of the Liberal Democrats.

The vote for the Trade Union Socialist Coalitions 135 candidates of 0.6% per constituency was what you would expect under the present circumstances.However TUSC was correct and brave to put forward 135 candidates in the election.The poor result shows the need for socialist propaganda amonst the masses to build up support for socialist ideas. Also of the need to achieve long term Socialist and Labour Movement hegemony in society. More about this idea of hegemony in a future blog.

Of course the key question is what will happen in the future. As for the Conservatives their victory I will predict will turn into an economic nightmare in the next few years. The massive financial losses by Tesco and Sainsbury,s recently shows the unfolding economic crisis that the global corporate capitalist system will face in the next few years.

As for the Labour Party the situation will I feel be a repeat of the past. I expect the election defeat will lead to the election of a hard right leader. Liz Kendall seems to be the establishments favourite. I must confess that until a few weeks ago I had never heard of her.

The tragedy is that the Labour left and the Trade Union left do not seem to have the guts to break away from the Labour Party to form a new political party. This is what they should do.

The Trade Union Socialist Coalition should turn itself into a political party with TUSC branches in every town and city in the land and should be out campaigning in the streets every weekend.This is the only way that it can build up long term support. It will not do this while it only comes together in a coalition oF different groups at election times.

In conclusion I say join the resistance against the corporate capitalist elites attacks on working class people.. Get involved in your Trade Union, The Peoples Assembly and The Stop The War Coalition. Join the resistance today.