tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post4941369487333056091..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Lamentable LabourismPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-60117469598181135712022-06-30T14:34:12.769+01:002022-06-30T14:34:12.769+01:00Lammy is a machine politician, and his specific ba...Lammy is a machine politician, and his specific base is commercialised race relations, he's a slicker, smarter version of Diane Abbott. But the problem with this type of politician is they struggle when they're not on their 'professional' territory where they've got their shtick down pat. Common garden industrial relations is not Lammy's territory, it's not Starmer's territory, in fact there won't be that many front line politicians from any of the main parties who actually know much about this from personal experience because their backgrounds will mainly be as wonks, lawyers and journos. At least the wonks will have an ideological position from their former careers, but that won't be the tacit understanding that comes from actually having experienced this stuff whilst doing a real job (btw a lot of senior trade union leaders fall into this category too; if they've spent the bulk of their career on 'union duties' as opposed to actually doing their nominal job). Kamonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-10177900332184312092022-06-30T14:31:45.572+01:002022-06-30T14:31:45.572+01:00"The mistaken belief of so many on the curren..."The mistaken belief of so many on the current (remaining) Labour Left that Labour has EVER been some sort of radically transformational socialist party illustrates yet again the unwillingness of so many Lefties to actually research the real history of their party from its very formation."<br /><br />To continue........<br /><br />Today, the Labour Party is happy to identify itself with the Jarrow Crusade’s sentimental narrative. Yet, in 1936, just as they disassociated themselves from the Battle of Cable Street, the national leadership unequivocally distanced themselves from this protest march - seeing it as closely resembling previous hunger marches, organised by the Communist Party. <br /><br />Many local branches of the Labour Party, however, refused to snub the Jarrow marchers and provided them with encouragement, food and accommodation. But then again, the Jarrow marchers turned down a donation of £20 from a group of communist miners in Normanton, while at the same time accepting a much smaller donation from a local Conservative association!Dialectician1noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-62890105505297982862022-06-30T11:36:00.696+01:002022-06-30T11:36:00.696+01:00Good post Phil. The mistaken belief of so many on...Good post Phil. The mistaken belief of so many on the current (remaining) Labour Left that Labour has EVER been some sort of radically transformational socialist party illustrates yet again the unwillingness of so many Lefties to actually research the real history of their party from its very formation. <br /><br />Even Labour’s “socialist” predecessor, the Independent Labour Party (ILP), rejected class struggle, stressing the common interest of bosses and workers. ILP leader Keir Hardie—hailed as the Labour Party’s founder—wrote that it was “a degradation of the socialist movement to drag it down to the level of a mere struggle for supremacy between two contending factions. We don’t want ‘class conscious’ socialists,” he said.<br /><br />The trade union leaders of the TUC swung behind support for a Labour Party after a series of major defeats for strikes in the late 1890s. Hardie celebrated the “utter rout” of a strike of Scottish miners as “nevertheless a great victory for the Labour movement.” It had, he said, convinced many of the miners “to throw in their lot with the ILP.”<br /><br />The ILP and union leaders founded the Labour Party in 1900. About a year later the government upheld a court ruling that outlawed picketing and forced unions to compensate bosses for strikes.<br /><br />This, more than anything else, convinced union leaders to back the new party. As the TUC still says on its website today, “If the right to strike was ever to be preserved as an essential instrument of trade union policy, then the new principle embodied in the Taff Vale decision must be reversed by parliament.”<br /><br />“If this was to be done, the trade unions must secure greater and more influential representation in parliament.” So the turn towards parliament marked a retreat from trade unionism and the idea that workers’ action could win.<br /><br />In creating the Labour Party, the union leaders created a group of politicians for whom parliament came first. The Great Unrest of 1910-14 began ten years after Labour was founded. It saw strikes by three big battalions of the working class—the miners, the rail workers and the dockers, and mass demonstrations.<br /><br />Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald was disturbed. “If we had been consulted first of all we should have advised the men to begin with Parliamentary action, both on the floor of the House of Commons, and in Ministers’ private rooms,” he wrote.<br /><br />“Whilst the heroics outside are being indulged in, Parliamentary action of a general character is being paralysed and prejudiced.” It was a similar story a few years later in 1919, amid a great wave of radicalisation in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Labour’s leaders were desperate to put a stop to it.<br /><br />The year before, MacDonald had even despaired that a Tory government’s concession to a miners’ strike threat “increased the power and prestige” of people who thought action shouldn’t be confined to parliament.<br /><br />During the strike itself, Labour conspired with union leaders to have it called off at the earliest opportunity. Then, once defeated, its leaders celebrated. As Labour MP Phillip Snowden said, “the lesson of the futility and foolishness of such a trial of strength.” <br /><br />That appeal—justice through the ballot box—is how Labour usually manages to square its hostility to strikes with its claim to represent workers. It supports their struggles, but only to contain them within acceptable, parliamentary channels.<br /><br />Today, with a PLP filled with declassee opportunist careerists like Lammy, to an extend never before seen, and that includes most of the misnamed 'Socialist Campaign Group' of MPs , NuLabour2 is NEVER going to be a vehicle for defence of working class interests. Old Trotnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-14726759359382839042022-06-30T10:31:47.961+01:002022-06-30T10:31:47.961+01:00Too little, too late, but worth noting:
David Lam...Too little, too late, but worth noting:<br /><br />David Lammy<br />@DavidLammy<br />Those of us in public life should admit our mistakes. That's why I'm apologising to all BA workers for getting it wrong on Sunday.<br /><br />BA must restore the pay of their loyal workforce - and the gvt must sit down with employers and workers to address chronic low pay in aviation.<br />1:11 PM · Jun 29, 2022·Twitter Web AppJim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-59734194199221496182022-06-30T10:02:05.971+01:002022-06-30T10:02:05.971+01:00"Lammy, despite his working class background,..."Lammy, despite his working class background, entered parliament after a brief legal career."<br /><br />Yup. Lotsa lawyers in politics. What are the sociological causes and implications of this, in your opinion?<br /><br />Thanks for this blog, btw. I always find it interesting and enlightening to visit, whether or not I agree with what you have to say.EnPassantnoreply@blogger.com