The antidote to apathy and despair!
JVL Introduction
Watching the parade of Tory-lite suits at Labour Party conference in Liverpool this week, seeing the state of politics in Britain and the wider world, it feels as if the socialist, internationalist ideas that inspired hundreds of thousands during a few short years up to December 2019 have been wiped from public discourse.
But there is no cause to succumb to apathy and despair. When Labour had a principled leader in Jeremy Corbyn, legions of people gained the confidence to fight in defence of hard-won rights that are increasingly under threat, to show solidarity with one another and to unite around shared goals. That spirit has not gone away. Those legions are on the move, in trade unions, right to food campaigns, Migrant Action, combating racism, working to save the planet, fighting homelessness, defending free speech and many other massively important causes.
A new network, For the Many, launched in Liverpool on October 9 sets out to build connections from the grassroots up, between people inside and outside the Labour Party, who may or may not be members of other political organisations, who are committed to the principles which brought Labour close to power in 2017.
We reproduce below the 12 principles which form the network’s charter and below them a Morning Star interview with film-maker Ken Loach – one of the For The Many founders alongside Bakers’ Union president Ian Hodson (in personal capacity), writer, activist and former ANC member of parliament Andrew Feinstein, and JVL’s media officer Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi.
The aim, Loach says, is “putting working-class politics at the heart of the political debate.”
For The Many has no grandiose pretensions about forming a new political party. With most of the labour movement fixated on trying to oust Sunak and his increasingly deranged right-wing minions from Downing Street, the network aims to empower people in their communities, bringing to life the ideas in the charter by facilitating local mobilisation around practical issues that impact the lives of real families and individuals.
A website is in formation to connect, inform and support activists getting together in local community hubs around the country. To get involved, contact the network:
By email: forthemanynetwork@gmail.com
On Facebook forthemanynetwork
On Twitter(X): @forthemany_net
NWI
FOR THE MANY NETWORK CHARTER – 12 PRINCIPLES
- Public ownership of all public services and infrastructure, including utilities and transport.
- A National Health and Social Care Service, fully funded from progressive taxation, which employs directly all who work in it. No sub-contracting, and no out-sourcing.
- A major programme of council house building and regeneration to solve the housing crisis and to create communities that are sustainable both environmentally and socially.
- High quality, state education to ensure all have an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential without incurring the burden of debt and an end to privatisation, for example academies and outsourcing.
- Access to sports, leisure facilities and the arts available to all. We want Bread and Roses too!
- Full employment rights for all workers from the first day of employment, and the repeal of anti-trade union legislation, in order to return power to union members.
- A new Welfare State, in which those in need are not forced into poverty, and in which public service and the public good replace private greed in our national life.
- A justice system accessible to everyone regardless of wealth, and the protection of civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and the right to protest.
- Protection of the environment, with a serious plan for a just transition to a sustainable Green economy, fit for purpose to confront the impending catastrophe facing people and the planet.
- Uncompromising opposition to all forms of racism and discrimination.
- A foreign policy committed unequivocally to work for peace, the rule of international law and universal human rights, the rights of refugees, and a fair, non-racialised immigration system.
- Transformation of the economic system in the interests of the people not corporate power, so that ‘workers by hand or by brain receive the full fruits of their industry’.
‘The rock on which a new political movement could be built’
Morning Star, 10th October 2023
The Morning Star’s Elizabeth Short speaks to film-maker KEN LOACH and trade unionist IAN HODSON about the For the Many Network, a new initiative that connects grassroots activists who share a common commitment to socialist principles from Labour’s Corbyn era.
“WHAT Starmer’s done is unforgivable,” says legendary socialist film-maker Ken Loach.
As he speaks in the basement of the left-wing Casa bar, crowds pack out the room above for the much-anticipated launch of the For the Many Network in Liverpool.
Across town, a rather contrasting political scene unfolds, as corporate suits gather at what one attendee called the “Labour Ltd” conference, featuring execs from Amazon and Airbnb.
It wouldn’t be outlandish to argue that Starmer’s conference this year does nothing but prove Loach’s point: “He’s made the Labour Party safe for the Establishment.”
After years of supporting Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, Loach was kicked out under Starmer’s reign in a paranoid witch-hunt in 2021, which saw the removal of a raft of other innocent leftwingers.
Fortunately for Loach, being expelled from Labour seems to almost be a prerequisite to being a founding member of For the Many Network.
Ousted members include Jewish Voice for Labour co-founder Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, who was suspended for speaking at an event hosted by a left-wing proscribed group, and activist Audrey White who famously confronted Starmer for “feeding Tory ideology” by distancing himself from Corbyn’s pledges.
It is those very pledges, which once prompted Labour to swell into the largest political party in Europe, that inspired the 12 core principles on which the For the Many Network is built.
The aim of the network is to connect activists across movements and parties who are united through these socialist fundamentals.
These include calls for the re-establishment of the welfare state, a non-racialised immigration system, a green and just transition, as well as public ownership of public services and infrastructure.
“Since the political assassination of Corbyn, keeping unity of a great body of people is difficult, because the left fragments,” says Loach.
Instead of starting a party, “the idea is to unite on the basis of principles, rather than electoral politics.”
He says that it these very principles that could be “the rock on which a new political movement could be built.”
Ian Hodson, the president of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, who is taking part in the project in a personal capacity, laid out what this looks like in practical terms.
He explains that the network will comprise local grassroots hubs that operate similar to a constituency party “without all of the problems that a constituency party, certainly inside Labour, has.”
These will connect activists together both locally and nationally, who will then be able to arm each other with the skills to campaign effectively.
“We train each other with the skills that we possess to make all of our lives better,” Hodson says.
“How do you lobby a councillor? How do you lobby an MP? How do you get these stories into the media? How do you make the real priorities of the people come out? That’s what we want to do, to improve our communities, and build a broad movement” he says.
He adds that we’re in a climate where communities are being devastated “by the idea that division is going to somehow going to create this opportunity in this golden land.”
“We’re not going to see improvements in our lives just by hating people.”
Through the network, a cross-section of movements and communities can instead unite around principles which address practical issues.
Hodson says that one example will be that the network will train people on how to do PIP, which stems from the principle of having an accessible justice system.
The network’s practicality is evident from the outset during its launch on Monday — with Wimborne-Idrissi pointing out: “This is not a rally, this is an organising meeting.”
Individuals from diverse movements, including trade unions and groups dedicated to causes such as opposing NHS privatisation, combating racism, and advocating for disability rights, delivered speeches about their respective campaigns in alignment with the principles from which they can network and collaborate.
It already demonstrates the goal that Loach laid out in the interview before the launch — the aim to “translate these ideas into the practical issues that are facing people.
“We put these demands, real demands that people need, that match the anger and despair and the fears that people have.
“It’s putting working-class politics at the heart of the political debate.”
Loach maintains that this has dissipated after Corbyn was deposed, with Labour providing “variations on the Tory programme” in its place.
Speaking on whether Labour’s current Cabinet represents any of the principles listed out by For the Many provoked a laugh.
“Starmer made a vague attempt, but old sweats like us could see he was lying through his teeth” says Loach.
“He’s a man who’s not fit to be in the Labour movement, never mind leader.”
brilliant, that’s what we need to have in the current situation
yes brilliant will join it ASP
This initiative gives me hope. It’s practical. It keeps like-minded people connected and working in tandem with each other so we can better achieve the many shared goals we each have. It builds resilience.
I’m starting from the reality of where we are.
Repellant though many of Starmer’s actions are, it does seem likely Labour will win the next election, and with the consolidation of the right wing media’s hold, I don’t think a more honest and progressive approach could have stood a chance of winning.
Of course if you want to be a pressure group, not a government, then winning doesn’t matter. I also think despite Starmer’s purge of the left, he will find that there are still principled back benchers, and he may inevitably be drawn to a more left wing position in power than his actions suggest, especially if his majority is not too big.
Finally, I’ve had it with tribalism. I retain my Labour Party membership, but as only the Lib Dems can defeat the Tories in my constituency I’ll be campaigning and voting for them. Tactical voting, especially from Green Party members, and indeed from any progressive voters, would do more to defeat the Tories in the next election than any amount of rhetoric, and it’s a puzzle to me how few people grasp that.
I don’t want to walk home from the polling booth in the warm glow of having “expressed my personal preference” by voting for a doomed candidate, I want, first and foremost, to win, and get the Tories out.
Please add me to your mailing list
Totally endorse these principles – onwards and upwards