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Dear
Comrades
This week’s
blog – number 10 - follows on from a collective sigh
of relief that we do not have to cope with President Romney, but that we still
face the cold reality of fighting international capital’s ‘austerity’ onslaught. Below are some pieces
about how socialists who stood locally in the US fared and also, how they now
read their situation and the dangerous fudge that is likely to emerge from the
‘fiscal cliff’ debate.
The Labour
Representation Committee, to which Welsh Labour Grassroots is affiliated, held
its annual conference on Saturday 10 November and we provide a report below.
The practical realities of resisting austerity and taking a socialist
alternative forward were key issues at this conference and overlap with those
raised at our WLG conference two weeks earlier. Our discussion piece last week
– which has become a bit of a hit on our blog – has taken the dialogue forward
and in this week’s we explore the extent to which diverse forms of resistance
can be brought together.
Forthcoming events
Tomorrow,
Saturday, 17th November, there will be emergency demonstrations around the UK
in solidarity with the people of Gaza, including at these locations in Wales:
·
Cardiff – 2.00 pm, Aneurin Bevan Statue, Queen Street
·
Swansea – 2.00 pm, Castle Square
·
Wrexham - 12.30 pm, Hope Street
Also tomorrow, in London, the Socialist
Educational Association and other progressive educational campaign groups are
holding a conference called ‘Picking up the Pieces after Gove’, 9.45 am –
4.00pm at Camden Centre, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street, London WC1H 9JE.
Cardiff Trades Council is organising a meeting as a follow up to
the TUC demonstration on how to come together to fight the politics and
policies of austerity. This takes place at 6.30 pm on Monday 19 November at the
Holiday Inn, Castle St Cardiff. Here is the Facebook link with the details and facility to indicate
that you are coming.
On
Tuesday 20th November, UNA Cardiff & District branch will be holding a
meeting on the theme, ‘Limits to Growth, a Global Problem?’ with Phil Kingston
(justice and peace campaigner) and Pippa
Bartolotti (Green Party). 7.00pm
at the Temple of Peace, King Edward VII Avenue, Cathays Park, Cardiff. Free entry –
all welcome. The next WLG meeting will
take place on Saturday 1st December at Swansea Civic Centre (11.00am-1.00 pm)
with Mark Seddon as guest speaker.
Left Week – Len
Arthur
Well I started this bit with the US Presidential elections but had
to cover the 14 November ETUC day of action. We have also, in the last couple
of days, seen the latest murderous Israeli onslaught against the people of
Gaza. And we’ve had the police commissioner elections – results of which are
still coming in – and the Cardiff South & Penarth by-election, where Labour
has retained the seat. We will comment on these developments in next week’s
bulletin and blog.
The US Presidential elections have to be part of a look at last
week. Coverage has been huge but via ZCommunications you may be interested in these two pieces by US socialists
on how they read their situation at the start of Obama’s second term. First, Shamus Cooke explores the ‘fiscal cliff’ debate which will present a crunch
situation for Obama and the Democrats in challenging the neo-liberal onslaught
on the US working class. Second, is by Jack Rasmus who looks at the extent of the working class vote for Obama,
indicating that, despite all the money thrown at the election by the right,
workers have the power and ability to think and act differently. Karl Rove - sometime
advisor to the last Bush and now a political consultant to Fox and the
Republicans - could not accept the reality of the results trend toward Obama
and went into meltdown, delightfully caught by the Simpsons cartoon and TV commentator Jon Stewart. Closer to home, Michael Roberts provides a Marxist look at just how deep is the US economic crisis. Finally - in German,
but click the translation button if you wish - the European Left report on the sizeable votes for socialists that stood at the
local US elections, indicating that some seismic shifts of politics are
possibly emerging from the current crisis.
Some other bits of news you may not have picked up from the usual
sources as they perhaps are not ‘new’ but certainly have not gone away. From my
CND background I’m familiar with the white poppy as the peace movement’s
alternative to the red and a number of people who saw my Facebook posting
expressed an interest so here is the background information again. Regional pay proposals
emanating from the Tories are a threat to living standards and the economy - a
point made well by a recent press briefing from Unison.
The New Economics Foundation returns to the issue of ‘peak oil’
but with a different analysis, indicating how it can put a glass ceiling on economic
recovery. Left Futures blog updates the awful plight of the
people of Ireland under the hammer of austerity, showing that, as people like
Michael Roberts have argued, the real aim is to shift wealth from workers to
profits. The Bank of England appears to have thrown in the towel according to Duncan Weldon on the TUC’s Touchstone
blog. And finally, Michael himself has just updated his engagement with the Marxist debate about the economy which, as ever, is well worth a read.
As I write, not only have we had the news about the fixing of gas
prices, but the financial pages of the
Guardian over recent weeks have provided
ever more evidence of just how bankrupt is the capitalist system under which we
live. To take the headlines from just one day (2 November): ‘Comet plunged into
chaos as suppliers commandeer stock’; ‘Sharp fears for future amid predictions
of $5.6bn [full year loss] slump’; ‘Thinktank says global collapse in demand
will cut UK growth’; MP [Tory chair of Treasury select committee] criticises
Bank’s [of England] ‘defective governance’ ; ‘Lloyds adds £1bn to costs of PPI
payback’: says it all really. Yes, it seems, we do need to fight capitalism!
Left roundup: Labour
Representation Committee 2012 conference
Here is LRC conference report that I have just lifted from their
latest email – see the innovative TV section with excellent debates:
Over 200 LRC members and delegates from affiliated organisations
attended the annual conference on Saturday 10 November at Conway Hall in
London. In the morning session, conference passed the National Committee statement moved by
John McDonnell MP, which set out 14 action points for the incoming National Committee to take
forward. This was followed by an impromptu speech from Tony Benn (watch John and Tony’s speeches here).
LRC Conference TV:
Labour Briefing
Conference voted to endorse the decision of the outgoing National
Committee to adopt Labour Briefing, after its readers voted to transfer the
magazine to the LRC. Read more here: http://www.labourbriefing.org.uk/ . The
December issue of Labour Briefing will be out shortly, with campaign news on
the NHS, abortion rights, adult social care, tackling racism in football, the
prospects for a general strike, industrial action campaigns, full reports from
LRC and Welsh Labour Grassroots AGMs, and reports from the US, Nicargua and
Europe – and much more. Take out a Labour Briefing subscription today to
receive the December issue.
And closer
to home here is Darren’s report, taken from his Facebook posting:
Really good LRC conference in London yesterday.
There was a particularly interesting panel discussion involving councillors
from Broxtowe (Notts), Preston, Hull and Islington, who spoke about their
different approaches to the cuts. The Broxtowe and Hull councillors had taken a
straightforward 'no cuts' decision and had voted against the whip in doing so;
those from Islington and Preston were trying to minimise the impact of the cuts
on the most vital services but had made cuts in some areas, including (in
Islington) redundancies. Despite the differing approaches, all impressed with
their sincerity and commitment. The conference was also attended by George
Barratt, a Barking & Dagenham councillor who has been expelled from the
party after breaking the whip over cuts and is now an independent, while a
message was read out from Kingsley Abrams, a Lambeth councillor who was
suspended after he too voted against cuts but has now reluctantly decided to
accept the whip after feeling isolated and marginalised for several months.
There are hugely important issues here about
principles, strategy and tactics that we need to discuss much more thoroughly
as a left. It’s been suggested that WLG hold a day school on local government
issues, building on the panel discussion we had at our AGM recently;
personally, I think we should try to do that early int he New Year, and invite
a couple of the councillors who spoke yesterday along and talk about their
experiences.
Labour Party
Perhaps some insight into where Ed Miliband is going is this piece by Maurice Glasman posted on Labour
List – so not much of a challenge to capitalism there, then!
All the best
Darren Williams WLG Secretary
Len Arthur WLG Assistant Secretary
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