New Blog Round-Up

Shall we take a look at the newest left blogs that have crossed my desk this last month?

The first of these is 21st Century Manifesto, a semi-official Communist Party blog. As such it appears most of the material comes from party publications, but overall it's worth following if you want to know what the CPB is thinking.

While we're on the CPB, another supporter has entered the fray. Five Fingered Left Punch promises to "say what I like and I like what I bloody well say." It's been a fortnight since the comrade last posted, so perhaps an influx of traffic will persuade him to carry on?

PonderBoxes is unusual fare for my round-ups. It pretty much does what it says on the tin: people are invited to submit blog posts on their heart's desire and, well ... ponder. All the ponders so far are of a distinct lefty-liberal character (hence its inclusion here). You can follow the blog and its founder on Twitter here and here.

Alienated Left is the new joint project from Kit of The Polemical Report and Duncan of In Place of Fear. They say "Alienated Left looks for the facts behind the big-parties', governments' and big-media groups' propaganda. We ask whether the issues they focus on, and the questions they ask, are the right ones - and provide alternative ones from independent, left-liberal, left, socialist, anarchist and other viewpoints. We are bloggers who reject blind loyalty to any one party or politician, based on the realisation that if the majority don't question the propaganda-line they're fed, or lobby for their interests and the ideals they believe in, the big companies and the billionaires will always control government policy in their own interest - and against the interests of the majority. We want real democracy, not plutocracy. To get that, we need to provide the facts (as best we can determine them), not what too many people think they know just because the lies have been repeated so many times."

It's probably still the case LGBT issues don't get as much coverage on left wing blogs as racism and sexism, so it's good another blog has limbered up to fill the gap. Academented promises to be "one queer girl's take on LGBT representation in the media." As a new PhD student expect a mix of this with reflections on academia too. You can follow the author, Han M on Twitter here.

Another is also helping overcome this unfortunate gap. Soho Politico has rapidly become another must-read blog for lefties, not least because of his excellent take downs of Tory hypocrisy on LGBT matters. Definitely a blog to watch over the coming year. You can follow Soho Politico on Twitter here.

Calling Malcolm Clarke's blog a new one might be stretching it a bit, seeing as it's been around since last December. But after an eight month hiatus he has returned to offer his take on internal Labour Party issues, what's going on around Durham way and of course, national news stories. You can follow Malcolm on Twitter here.

Do you think you can handle another CPB blog? One from the Plough. Why this name? "In many ways the plough is an icon for ordinary working people thoughout history. The original symbol for the Soviet Union was a hammer crossed over with a plough. In our own Labour movement in Britain, those early pioneers, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, would have worked the plough in the fields of Dorset. The inspiration for the name of this blog came from a great man, George Mitchell, who was a leader of Agricultural workers during the Nineteenth century near Yeovil, Somerset. Our shared first name, George, is derived from the Greek 'Georgos' meaning worker of the earth. So when searching for a name for my blog I thought that nothing sounded quite as apt as George Mitchell's nickname-"one from the plough"". Again it's been a few days since something was last posted, which I hope will be remedied by a few extra visits.

Next is Roots and Resilience. The author writes: "My main interest is in the establishment and protection of human rights, particularly the Middle East, and Southeast Asia (and Britain!). But I also have a deep interest in Latin America and central Africa. So my posts will echo this, but, will not be limited by it. I also have a focus on refugees, refugee law, and the asylum system, so it is likely that an emphasis on forced displacement, refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants will also come through."

And that's it for another month. Once again if you're starting up a new blog or know of other new lefty, socialist, communist, feminist, green, Labour etc. types who just have please let me know and they'll get a shout out in the next round-up.