The views expressed in this
email and blog are those of the individuals whose name is attached to the
posting. They do not represent a collective position of the WLG or the Labour
Party
Dear Comrades
This week’s email bulletin and blog includes important information
about our AGM and membership renewal, as well as the usual selection of interesting
sources for further reading, and can be accessed on the blog site at any time here. The
discussion piece this week tackles the issues of defending and taking forward
the NHS in Wales as a socialist example of health, as opposed to the Tory
neo-liberal English version.
Don’t forget to submit any relevant information, comments or blog
posts of your own. You can also comment directly on the blog.
WLG AGM and other
forthcoming events
The WLG annual conference and AGM will be taking place at the Welsh
Institute of Sport, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff on Saturday, 27th October, between
11.00 am and 4.00 pm. The theme will be ‘Austerity and Public Services’ and the
speakers will include Mark Drakeford AM.
There will be a roundtable discussion about the challenges facing Labour
councillors, which will include Cllrs. Uta Clay (Swansea), Siobhan Corria
(Cardiff), Gareth Phillips (Bridgend), Jessica Powell (Torfaen) and Mark
Whitcutt (Newport). At 2.00 p.m., we will be having a joint
session with the Socialist Educational Association, addressed by Cllr. Julia
Magill, Cardiff Council cabinet member for education.
As usual, a buffet lunch will be provided, so please let us know
as soon as possible whether you plan to attend, for catering purposes.
Please send any motions for debate to darren.s.williams@hotmail.co.uk by 12.00 noon on Friday, 19th October and
also any nominations (including self-nominations) for election to the steering
committee (chair, vice-chair, secretary, assistant secretary, treasurer, &
nine ordinary members) or as one of our two auditors. Some of us will be going for a drink and a meal after the
meeting – all comrades are welcome to come along.
Your WLG membership is also now due for renewal for 2012/13. If
you do not already pay by standing order, then you can either renew at the AGM
or send a cheque for £5 (waged) or £3 (unwaged/low-waged), payable to ‘Welsh
Labour Grassroots’, to Darren Williams, 33 Lansdowne Roiad, Cardiff CF5 1PQ. If
you would like to set up a standing order, please email us to request details.
The final WLG meeting of the year will take place on Saturday, 1st
December in County Hall, Swansea and our guest speaker will be Mark Seddon,
former Labour NEC member and editor of Tribune.
Other events
On Monday 8th October, the WLG Cardiff & Vale group will be
meeting at Transport House, Cardiff, beginning at 7.00 pm.
The same evening, there will also be a
UNA/Amnesty
International public meeting: Yolanda Foster (Amnesty South Asia Desk) on ‘Human Rights
in Sri Lanka’. 7.00pm, Temple of Peace, Edward VII Avenue, Cathays Park,
Cardiff. Free entry – all welcome.
On
Thursday, 11th October, the World Development Movement Cardiff group
will be presenting a free showing of the film, The Yes Men Fix the World, about two political activists/pranksters who lie their way into
big business conferences by posing as corporate executives. 7.30pm at The Gate, Keppoch Street, Roath, Cardiff CF24
3JW (meet in the Café Bar from 7.00pm).
On Tuesday,16th October, CND Cymru will be holding an anti-Trident
demo on the steps of the Senedd, Cardiff Bay from 12.00 noon with speakers
including Labour AMs, Mark Drakeford, Mick Antoniw, Julie Morgan and Christine
Chapman.
London Saturday 20th October must be in every member’s diary to
get themselves, family, friends, brothers, sisters, comrades up to London for
the TUC ‘A Future That Works’ demonstration. Everyone who wishes to see an end
to this Tory government should attend and False Economy has details of
transport from Wales here. Here is a link to the Coalition of Resistance
leaflets with posters supporting the demonstration and the TUC has also
produced a number of statements from people about why they are marching.
Last week we had an example of a motion that should go to all
Labour Party branches supporting the 20th. Here is the Labour Representation Committee’s version.
Left Week –
Len Arthur
The Labour Party conference has to be the start of any review of
the week. Nick Davies, our WLG chair, spoke on the radio – 1hr 20 min 50 sec in - about Ed Miliband’s speech,
emphasising the move from New Labour and elements the left can take forward. Seamas Milne writing in the Guardian
pointed out the contrast with what Ed Miliband was saying and what Ed Balls had
said in an earlier speech. Liam Byrne’s commitment to continue with welfare cuts could also
be mentioned in the same context. Socialist
Worker had a good left critique pointing
out that the unions, migrants and the unemployed came in for short shrift. This analysis from the Blairite leaning Labour
List is an indication that they do not quite see that New Labour has been
left behind – so to speak.
It was undoubtedly an impressive feat to speak without notes,
effectively attack the Tories, and pull it off. But it still leaves Ed Miliband
trying to ride a politically disparate Labour Party, when the weaknesses of
capitalism are there for all to see and the door is open for radical change.
International socialists are part of the international working class, we have
more in common with the workers in Greece and Spain than the rich of the UK, the fight of all workers is our fight,
their victory our victory. The danger of seeing such a view as a ‘sectional
interest’, is that you become a prisoner of the section that dominates our
society: capitalism and its supporters and in the worst-case scenario starts to
look like this. Ralph Miliband, Ed’s dad, argued that one of the key weaknesses
of Labour was its lack of socialist internationalism: Ed should get a version on
his book shelf.
Left Roundup
Other events this week that you may have missed include this
fantastic UK Uncut protest
at the dinner where corporate tax advisers – possibly with tears in their eyes
– said happy retirement to David Hartnett who has just left heading up UK tax:
yes he who set aside legal advice to allow Vodafone to gain up to £6bn from tax
avoidance. Disabled campaigners have launched a petition we can all sign against the Atos assessment process. Chicago teachers have won a victory to defend their contract and public
sector education. The TUC reports that
based upon published information including that of the Office of Budget
Responsibility, workers are only a quarter of the way through a 12 year loss of
real wages. By 2021 the indicators show that those on the median wage will have
lost £8,500 in wages.
On the information front, Michael Roberts continues with his
excellent Marxist analysis of the current crisis, in this one taking apart the
arguments that austerity can work. Open Democracy have produced an analysis showing how the BBC stifled criticism of the Tories’ NHS
privatisation bill as it coursed through Parliament. The ever more right-wing New Statesman surprisingly this week produced an analysis of the amount of money we pay in state aid to the
aristocracy through farm subsidies: useful stuff to make the point about who
are the real scroungers and sectional interests. Finally you may like to find
time to look at a film; ‘Inside Job’ is a
documentary about the 2008 financial crisis which is getting extremely good
reviews.
Labour Party
The UK Labour Party website is here. Conference has been covered above but
you may like to look at the Left Futures blog where there is a comprehensive left
view with additional discussion and analysis.
The Welsh Labour website is here. For us in Wales at the moment there is
the question of campaigning and voting in the police commission elections. It
is very difficult to drum up enthusiasm for a policy that first surfaced as a
UKIP one in 2005! However, the power that these people will hold will be
extensive and largely beyond the weak democratic control that currently exists.
A low turnout could deliver this power to some very right-wing candidates: a
frightening prospect. Should we on the left take these elections more
seriously? Finally, Owen Smith, shadow secretary of state provides his take on what One Nation Labour might mean in Wales.
All the best
Darren Williams WLG Secretary
Len Arthur WLG Assistant Secretary
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