Sunday 17 May 2009

New Left Blog Round-Up

I've been deluged with new left blogs this last month so I'll have to hold some over for next time. It's good to see more comrades taking up the cudgels and making their voices known.

Here's May's selection:

The
Angry Mob Blog is another addition to the growing band of leftwing blogs dedicated to pricking the pomposity of everyone's favourite middle class hate rag, the Daily Mail. You can follow the author on twitter here.

Communist Realism looks like a potentially interesting blog dealing with the interface between radical thought and academia. Unfortunately the blog hasn't been updated for a month (the last item dealing with the death of Ian Tomlinson). Hopefully a sudden flurry of visitors will encourage the author to persevere.

Left Luggage is subtitled 'the socialist strategy site'. And as you would expect there's a heavy emphasis on strategic issues. As the comrades put it in their 'about us' section, it "has been formed by a small, independent group of community organisers and trade union shop-stewards in the UK. This blog is an attempt to initiate a discussion within the British Left around strategic issues, including questioning some of our most fundamental organising principles. We believe addressing these issues is imperative if the Left is to become a significant political force in the near future."

Jewbonics is the blog of Max Ajl, an activist and writer hailing from Brooklyn, New York. Among his interests are agriculture, Latin American (particularly the Bolivarian revolution), US politics and Israel/Palestine, You can follow Max here.

The (relatively) newly-constituted NUJ Left have taken to running a
blog carrying union news. As they put it "NUJ Left is an inclusive coalition of activists in the NUJ who work together to improve conditions for members and advance socialist principles within the union, the labour movement and society at large. We are not affiliated to any political party and membership is open to all members of the NUJ and its staff." Unfortunately the blog has been quiet for almost a month - hopefully it will resume again shortly.

The Digger positions their blog firmly on the libertarian left. "We reject the slavish devotion to capitalism, corporate greed, the support of the modern opiate of consumerism and the maintenance of the modern empire of the global free market. We also reject that the only alternative to this is an equally oppressive statist culture that denies the essential liberty of the individual, of families and of communities."

Left Outside is the project of the eponymous author. "This Blog was started because I felt alienated from the mainstream political discourse, rather than turn to apathy I had to take some action, hence Left Outside. That name also points to my two other big inspirations for writing, Socialism and the Environment. I hope that this Blog can a source of inspiration and a starting point for debate."

The Proletarian Tide is authored by Christie Malry, "one of them bloody trots" and the blog promises to be a mix of "socialism, humour, literature, films, music and randomness."

World Is My Country aspires to be a blogging community as an antidote to the spread of moral relativism online. "We hope to join our voices to the tumult of public debate to provide some sensibility, to look beyond the headlines, to avoid the simple populist conclusions and provide a little humour along the way." You can follow Jeeves, the blog's primary author here.

It's always pleasing when I can plug a
Socialist Party comrade who's got into blogging. The latest one to do so is Andrew Walton - check out what he has to say about MP's expenses, the NHS and the No2EU campaign.

A couple of other mentions are in order, this time hailing from the
Labour-loyal centre left. The first is Stilettoed Socialist from Bevanite Ellie. She says "in a blogopshere dominated by right wing, angry men, I feel a certain responsibility to counteract or merely dilute their poison with a different viewpoint." The second is Frank Owen's Paintbrush, "the primary repository of the ire, bile and bellyaching of an embittered and dangerous posse of whinging, overprivileged leftists."

If you have a new left blog or know of a newcomer that hasn't had a mention yet, please let me know in time for the next round of plugs in approximately a month's time!

3 comments:

ibs said...

I always like these round ups of lefty blogs. Just a shame there's no shamelessly Stalinist fabulousness like last time's CPGB-ML!!!

ModernityBlog said...

good stuff Phil, more reading material :)

Dave Semple said...

That group blog looks interesting. I've been looking for another community to get involved with - Liberal Conspiracy is great but the comments there are all pretty much standard Tory drivel.