Labour Left 4 Socialism to unveil manifesto for unified mobilisation

JVL introduction

Jewish Voice for Labour is joining other labour movement groups, coming together on September 18 under the banner Labour Left for Socialism, to launch a manifesto setting in motion a process of left mobilisation around common policy goals and in defiance of attacks from the right of the party.

LL4S is backing calls for delegates at party conference in Brighton later this month to refuse to ratify  David Evans as Labour’s general secretary.

The launch on Sept 18 will set out a left agenda on climate justice; international solidarity and peace; workers’ rights; free speech and democracy; fighting racism; and public services after Covid. It aims to establish a standing committee representing all sectors of the Labour left to organise a series of working conferences over the coming year.

This announcement was published first on the website of Don’t Leave, Organise. Read the original here. 

Register here for the launch on Saturday September 18, 11.00 – 13.00

(Hosted on Zoom as a webinar. Only speakers will be visible, other participants can use alternative names. Event also available to view via YouTube).

LL4S released a founding statement on August 20 signed by a range of left organisations including the Fire Brigades Union, the Labour Representation Committee, Jewish Voice for Labour, Labour Black Socialists, Labour Women Leading, Welsh Labour Grassroots and Campaign for Socialism (Scotland).

Speakers at the online launch on September 18 will include Andrew Scattergood (Fire Brigades Union) on workers’ rights, Ekua Bayunu (Labour Black Socialists) on the fight against racism, Chris Saltmarsh (Labour for a Green New Deal) on the climate crisis and Matt Wrack (FBU General Secretary) on Public Services.

Barry Gardiner MP will also speak about the campaign for his Private Members Bill to outlaw fire and rehire, which has its second reading in parliament on Sept 22.

The event will be chaired, in personal capacity, by Howard Beckett, activist and an Assistant General Secretary of Unite.

A standing committee is to be established representing supporting organisations, to plan a series of working conferences to debate and organise resistance based on the manifesto outlined below.  Work is under way for an initial conference on November 27.

“This is the start of something for the whole of our movement, the result of months of work by members of left groups and unions working together to confront attacks from the Tory government and also from Labour’s right wing,” said Beckett.

“With the ferocious ratcheting up of suspensions and expulsions in recent weeks, it’s clear that delegates to Labour Party conference in Brighton next week need to follow the lead of Unite the Union and vote down Evans as party general secretary,” he added.

“The right have got away with a full-scale assault on the left of the party, to rid it of socialism, to become a party of the establishment, because the left has not been united. Now we are putting down a marker that we are united and we are not going anywhere. We are calling on all socialists in the party to come together around common goals and join us in setting in motion the process of left mobilisation.”

The Zoom link to register for the launch webinar taking place 11.00 – 13.00 Saturday September 18 is here.

[Updated 16.15 September 16, adding Barry Gardiner MP]

For further information contact [email protected].

LABOUR LEFT FOR SOCIALISM – BUILDING THE RESISTANCE: MANIFESTO

Workers’ rights

The sustained attack on workers’ rights, using the excuse of austerity and now the pandemic, is about furthering the wealth of the elite. Labour must call for urgent legislation to ban fire & rehire; zero hour contracts; age pay discrimination; bogus self-employed status and more. As fewer workers have benefited from the protection of Trade Union collective bargaining, so wealth inequalities have grown. Labour must outlaw attempts to exclude trade unionists from employment and commit to the abolition of all anti trade union laws. We fight against racism, sexism and all forms of discrimination in the workplace. Labour must support the New Workers Deal, promote the rights of trade unions to bargain across sectors as well as in the workplace, and oppose deregulation within Freeports. We stand in solidarity with those taking action over pay, conditions and jobs.

Climate crisis

Labour needs to robustly challenge the Tories on the climate change crisis which poses an urgent and existential threat to humanity. Global temperatures are increasing, sea levels are rising and extreme weather events (floods, fires, droughts etc) are rapidly becoming more frequent. We need a global, just transition.

The developed countries, responsible both for the overwhelming majority of historic carbon emissions and the current highest per capita emissions, are failing to act to keep temperature rises below 1.5°C. A catastrophe is unfolding, which can only be stopped if huge resources are deployed now to green the global economy.

In advance of the UN COP26 conference the Tories absurdly claim that Britain is a world leader. Labour must nail this nonsense. The Tory government has no serious plan to meet the climate targets it has announced; it is subsidising fossil fuels, supporting continued oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, and has cut Green Home Grants

The TUC is calling for the immediate investment of £85 billion for a Green New Deal, to cut the substantial majority of carbon emissions by 2030 and create 1.2 million green jobs. Labour is currently calling for less than half that. Labour needs to build on our 2017 and 2019 manifestos and the Socialist Green New Deal policy agreed at the 2019 Annual Conference.

The urgency of this task makes it essential that Labour campaigns, in office and out, for immediate action alongside the unions in mobilising society for a just transition. We must vigorously attack the dangerous complacency of the Tory government and expose its dishonest claims.

Free Speech and democracy

Free speech and the right to question leaders, ideas, rules and laws are fundamental democratic rights that are increasingly under attack. From the imprisonment of Assange, to the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the threats to academic freedom by defunding universities who do not adopt the IHRA, to Prevent, immigration controls and Windrush, our rights are being curtailed as never before.

Freedom of lawful speech is a pillar of democracy. It is a protected right under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act. Labour must commit internally and externally to protecting lawful free speech (including in its disciplinary procedures), stop and reverse the proscription of groups who do not stand candidates against the Labour Party and oppose any “conflation of antisemitism with legitimate advocacy for Palestinian rights”, as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign put it in a recent statement.

War and internationalism

As socialists and internationalists, we stand in solidarity with people against oppression everywhere. We stand in solidarity with those under attack from imperialism and suffering internal repression. An ethical Labour foreign policy must champion these principles across the globe by promoting peace, conflict resolution and nuclear disarmament at its heart.

Anti-racism

The Tories intent, aided by the right-wing media, is to normalise a racist society. It is revealed in their legislation, attacking the GRT community, demonising Muslims, opposing BLM, criminalising refugees, doubling down on creating a Hostile Environment. But Labour is failing to expose this. Labour should stand up against all forms of racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. It should stop being silent in the face of Tory racism and instead vigorously oppose it. Labour must commit to promoting an agenda of equality and respect by campaigning to ensure a diverse selection of candidates is supported into leadership positions; by improving our understanding of class, race, gender, disability and LGBTQ issues in our socialist practice and confronting racism in the Party as well as wider society, specifically including anti-Black racism.

Public services

A democratic social state that serves the people must have at its core public ownership of our essential public services, transport and utilities, the availability of social housing, including the state provision of a complete National Health Service to all. This means cancelling private service contracts and returning to in-house provision, and reclaiming the freehold of hospital property.

Decades of rip-off profiteering have destroyed the public services we need. Local Authority services must be brought in house and resourced to meet needs. We must urgently engage in a nationally co-ordinated programme of council house building to tackle the housing crisis. Since 2014, accessible NHS services have been withdrawn before our eyes by a corporate American profit scheme with cross-party support -“ICSs”- that incentivises cuts to care. Labour must heed its own 2017-19 conferences, opposing ICSs outright and their exemption from competition law, committing to a fully nationalised NHS, with Social Care under public ownership and control, and to reward front line workers with a minimum wage of £15 per hr.

 

Comments (9)

  • Dave Postles says:

    Good luck. I’m afraid that I’ve already left (when the 4 leadership candidates accepted ALL the BoD’s demands). I really can’t re-connect with Labour – the PLP will continue to traduce the left.

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  • Anthony Shorter says:

    This is a Labour agenda I can get behind and support. A fairer tax system should also be on the agenda.

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  • Nick Elvidge says:

    Essential to attend all such organising ahead of conference

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  • John Bowley says:

    Great. I look forward to more from Labour Left for Socialsim.

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  • Sabine Ebert-Forbes says:

    Brilliant programme, Manifesto. Am looking forward to the event, and to get subsequently actively involved. reading the article about the LABOUR LEFT FOR SOCIALISM – BUILDING THE RESISTANCE: MANIFESTO ha lifted my spirits.

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  • Stephen Richards says:

    Why conflate everything? If you identify as being left wing you must agree with every common policy goal or you don’t belong with us. OK I don’t agree with everything so goodbye!

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  • Margaret West says:

    I don’t think you need to agree with every word
    Stephen Richards – there is one issue I have reservations about.

    However the last sentence of the paragraph on anti racism sums up the position so far as I am concerned in that it should be about “respect” and discussion is allowed !
    This is singularly unlike the current position of the Labour Party.

    Also for those who have left the Labour Party in disgust – I don’t think you need to be a member to attend?

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  • Mary Davies says:

    Exciting. Inspiring. ‘Rebirth of HOPE’ (Tony Benn)

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  • Jay Kramer says:

    Solidarity comrades. I think this is great. Can’t be there tomorrow as I am in Canada and don’t think I can cope with a zoom at 3am! Look forward to hearing the outcome from the launch

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