tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post8767220664429865344..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: If You Seek a Revolution ...Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-67407566337792338222015-08-26T23:26:08.532+01:002015-08-26T23:26:08.532+01:00"Extending a hand to management"? My gra..."Extending a hand to management"? My grandfather was a miner; he struck in 1926 and stayed out for ten months, until management starved them back to worse terms than those they'd struck against. Tell him about wanting to work with management; tell my father, who never forgot the humiliation of being fed at soup kitchens. That's our history - that's where the unions came from. And they didn't get from there to beer & sandwiches at number 10 by being more reasonable, they did it by staying angry (oops, staying <i>passionate</i>), keeping a firm hand on the Labour Party and building up their strength.<br /><br />The organised Labour party has always been to the Right of its base, and the leadership has always been to the Right of the party. Blair pushed that model to its limit, denouncing the party Right as excessively left-wing and severing any links to the base which got in his way. Now, the base is making itself heard - and with no convenient Tory collapse to exploit, the Right and the leadership have little to offer to counter it. Interesting times!Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07009879034507926661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-48211299746551683442015-08-22T11:24:15.531+01:002015-08-22T11:24:15.531+01:00When you consider that all the leadership election...When you consider that all the leadership elections before 1983 only involved the PLP, it's not comparing like-with-like anyway.Igor Belanovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-71669523805713253422015-08-21T14:22:33.846+01:002015-08-21T14:22:33.846+01:00"It will be only the second time in our histo..."It will be only the second time in our history that the most left-wing option has won a leadership election"<br /><br />What about 1963? Wilson was to the left of Callaghan and Brown.Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-18748947108212867902015-08-21T08:54:45.760+01:002015-08-21T08:54:45.760+01:00I think he goes too far , there may me a few far ...I think he goes too far , there may me a few far left types enthused by recent developments but I would suggest that the majority would fit perfectly with the parties values . I can only speak for myself as a long standing member I had become increasingly dismayed by the way that the party had moved and how it was managing its affairs . The positive way in which policies and principles have been received in this election from one candidate has felt like a breath of fresh air in comparison to the bland patronising approach of the other three who still seem to suggest that the comfort of a few more crumbs from the top table following an election win on conservative policies to be acceptable politics .<br /><br />I hope that whatever the outcome we end up,with a much stronger opposition to neo liberal economic policies , promotion of a greater level of political awareness in our communities and seek to become a party that empowers people rather than one run by elites . Hopefully that is not too revolutionary Johnnyfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09489204726265099150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-64395943499367833442015-08-21T04:14:52.958+01:002015-08-21T04:14:52.958+01:00What on earth is the point of this letter? I mean,...What on earth is the point of this letter? I mean, this isn't the 1980s. There isn't, unless I'm overlooking something, some sizeable contingent of Trotskyist entryists looking to take over the Labour party and turn it into a revolutionary vanguard organisation. Indeed, as far I know, the remnants of Labour's Trotskyist wing, nowadays organised around Socialist Appeal magazine, remain as enfeebled as they have been for the last quarter-century or so.<br /><br />Does the author of this letter know something I don't? Because it strikes me as very odd that a Labour party member would go to the trouble of penning a letter bloviating about how Labour is a reformist party and cautioning against wannabe revolutionaries joining its ranks when, at least as far as I'm able to discern, there doesn't seem to be anything to justify it.malesocfemnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-57724908737872170862015-08-20T20:29:40.242+01:002015-08-20T20:29:40.242+01:00There must have been a lot more to British left-wi...There must have been a lot more to British left-wing politics than you think, because that lot wouldn't get anyone out of their armchair.<br /><br />And I'm not going to thank you for trotting out all the old cliches and contrasting British pragmatism with Continental Marxism. Most of the Western European parties were just as reformist and gradualist in practice as the left has been here, and Chartism, even of the Moral Force strand, was still an essentially revolutionary aim at the time.Igor Belanovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-19186811242879541352015-08-20T18:55:41.240+01:002015-08-20T18:55:41.240+01:00The utter contempt that the Blairites show for eve...The utter contempt that the Blairites show for even mild social democracy is truly staggering.<br /><br />What is more staggering is the utter contempt the Blairites have for Corbyn's supporters, who they clearly view as deluded cretins and fools who are ruled by emotion rather than the logic.<br /><br />Oh and by the way your laughable and short 'historical sketch' of labour party history wouldn't fool a child just arrived from Mars. And don't give me this 'we' bollocks, I was wearing vote labour stickers before you were born.<br /><br />We think it is time for the Blairites to go, we don't want revolution we just want our party back please.BCFGnoreply@blogger.com