I’m paying up for a year’s worth of Left Unity
Mark Perryman explains why he has sent Left Unity a cheque.
I’ve signed the appeal. Been to a local group meeting. Leafletted a showing of Spirit of 45. Chipped in on the website. And now I have no hesitation (well not many) investing in a year’s worth of Left Unity.
I don’t consider myself particularly left-wing its just that all of the mainstream have marched rightwards while I stood still leaving me somewhere on the outside, Left. I mainly vote Green nowadays, walked ten foot tall the morning after George Galloway won in Bradford West, was crushingly disappointed when Respect squandered that enormous window of opportunity.
Left Unity? Can’t wait for it to become The Left Party, or whatever. Do I have any doubts? Of course. People might not join, it might become a snakepit of the revolutionary sects, could fail to grasp the need for a new language of a commonsense alternative to neo-liberalism, will fail if it it sinks back into the old, familiar ways of working. But 8000 signatories can’t be wrong, this is our best chance in a generation to make a difference, a new start for the politics so many of us believe in but simply aren’t represented by Labour any more, or much else either with any degree of effectiveness.
We have to have faith. £3 a month? I’ve signed and posted a cheque paying for a year’s worth of Left Unity today . No more ‘modest flutters’ its time to take a risk and invest in the future.
Left Unity?? A pensive looking Mark Perryman
18 comments
18 responses to “I’m paying up for a year’s worth of Left Unity”
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Brilliant! Well done and an inspirational step.
How weird, in the 2013 book “After The Party” about the collapse of the Communist Party, Mark Perryman describes himself as a Communist, but here we are with him saying he is not particularly left wing. Perhaps this explains why the CPGB died after all.
Thanks Dave.
Those of us who experienced the Blairist-Brownite years simply needed to stand still politically as Labour marched full square righrwards to end up on the outside, Left. My values remain Communist, but if we could have the kind of Labour Party back that Ken Loach representes so well in Sprit of ’45 I;d be perfectly happy and so would most of us entirely disenfranchised by Labour’s degeneration.
I don’t consider what I’ve seen from Left Unity so far particulrly left wing. Thats not an insult, its a compliment. If it becomes the property of the Far Left sects and their hangers-on then count me out. I don’t want to be in a ghetto party I want to be in one that can effect change, its what Labour for the most part used to represent. It no longer does, my £36 is an investment in seeing if we can mount any sort of challenge.
Mark P
“My values remain Communist, but if we could have the kind of Labour Party back that Ken Loach representes so well in Sprit of ’45 I;d be perfectly happy and so would most of us entirely disenfranchised by Labour’s degeneration.”
Although I confess I haven’t seen ‘Spirit of ’45’ yet, I would appreciate seeing a more critical and less misty-eyed nostalgic attitude to Labour Party and British labour movement history than we are generally getting on this website – especially from those who one would think should know better. It prompts the worrying thought – who in LU might benefit most from allowing a distorted view of British labour history to persist and take root?
Personally I think we need to see – and PDQ – a more coherent and in-depth analysis of why and how we came to be here (in LU, in 2013)- from those who have initiated this organisation – rather than perhaps in the LP trying to move it to the left. I think Ken Loach was right therefore to declare his own primary views and beliefs at the national meeting because we have to begin to frame the debate about what we stand for and against – and why – and as far as I’m concerned I want to know the views of those trying to establish this organisation. It concerns me that Hudson and Burgin are trying to keep their cards close to their chests. It is not inherently hierarchical for them to explain their views and beliefs.
Related to this I feel that there is a worrying dearth of analysis to help inform people’s views at the moment. In its absence sectarian activists are more likely I think to retreat to their ideological comfort zones and rote doctrines, and those members – or prospective members – who come from a less ideological and possibly less activist background might come to feel aimless and confused. Even bottom-up, non-hierarchical movements need to have some system of pedagogy in order to facilitate active learning and, from that, begin establishing coherence, unity, and a sense of direction. Might I suggest that a really good place to start might be the issue of sectarianism in British left politics, allied to a honest attempt to try to agree a functional level of shared purpose and understanding based on reason – rather than expedience, appeals to emotions, or individual party tactics. Or is this being too naive?
What is ‘brilliant’ in this, Liz? Mark Perryman is worried Left Unity might degenerate into a so-called ‘snakepit of the revolutionary sects’. This is an expression of his anxiety that Ken Loach may engate in successful negotiations with Dave Nellist (on behalf of TUSC) to stop Left Unity being forced to add to the tragic, the frankly obscene Monty Python caricature that is the split in the left-of-Labour vote.
Let’s face facts, comrades. Left Unity has split already. It has not split organizationally. Not quite yet. However, given the very low percentage of the 8,000 who have been persuaded to join a local group, to allow them a modicum of democratic participation in the ‘organization’, there is precious little to split at this stage.
Having said that, Ken Loach’s voting for Nick Wrack’s procedural motion reflects the fact that those who initiated this project are far from united. The fact that Kate Hudson lost the vote to push through statements that apparently could mean anything anyone wants it to mean proves that the majority of those who attended the other day share at least some of my anxieties about the way this project is going.
Furthermore, it is crystal clear that those who are reporting on Saturday’s procedings are not united even on what is and what is not positive about it. If these reports are anything to go by, it is safe to assume that Left Unity today is as stable as a matter/anti-matter bandage. They appear to be divided on pretty much everything. Those who find silver linings in Saturday’s meeting want to park the fact that fifty percent or more of that meeting have an exactly opposite idea of what are the silver linings and what are the clouds.
There are those who support omov (including some elected to the leadership) who adopt a very healthy attitude towards the revolutionary left. I am not for one second challenging their sincerity when it comes to uniting the SWP, SP and others in an omov Left Unity. I don’t think anyone can doubt that that this is Ken Loach’s position. I am sure there are many others. These are the comrades who need to negotiate with Dave Nellist and co because I am sure a deal can be struck that will keep all of us happy.
But Mark Perryman is one of a very vocal section of Left Unity who post regularly on this website whose idea of left unity is joining with the Thatcherites, the Blairites and every other supporter of capitalism in order to engage in an unremitting smear campaign against every member of the revolutionary left. He does this in exactly the same way Eduard Bernstein and Neil Kinnock did. This is done to transform Left Unity into an impossible dream. It is designed to give all of us who belong to the tradition of Rosa Luxemburg no option but to stand candidates against Left Unity. Who would benefit from that, Mark Perryman? Ed Miliband, Nigel Farage, David Cameron. That’s who.
Incidentally Bertolt Brecht’s ‘In Praise of Communism’ sums up the values that are both mine, and I hope will become Left Unity’s too. In the current context they are anything but left-wing, but they aren’t represented and remain vital.
“It’s quite straightforward, you’ll understand it. It’s not hard.
Because you’re not an exploiter, you’ll easily grasp it.
It’s for your own good, so find out all about it.
They’re fools who describe it as foolish, and foul who describe it as
foulness.
It’s against all that’s foul and against all that’s foolish.
The exploiters will tell you that it’s criminal,
But we know better:
It puts an end to all that’s criminal.
It isn’t madness, but puts
An end to all madness.
It doesn’t mean chaos
I just means order.
It’s just the simple thing
That’s hard, so hard to do.”
That the common-sense politics I hope Left Unity will become, its why my £36 is in the post today.
Just one point – Have we stopped growing over the last 2 or 3 weeks? We were growing at a rate of knots before, like a thousand a week or something. Are we still stuck on 8000? Surely we have got to 8500 by now?
Ray. I e-mailed two weeks ago to be involved in Southampton, a major city that has no LU presence and received no reply. I e-mailed one week ago and received an inadequate reply. I have e-mailed again today. I suspect other people are experiencing similar frustrations
Concerning Tom’s point about the currently low fraction of signatories who have not yet become involved in a local group, I think we should allow more time before getting unduly worried. I for one had been waiting for the first meeting to give me a better idea of how things might be shaping up, and I am sure that there are many others new to political action who will have been doing the same. After reading the reports on Sunday I got in touch straight away.
That said, I have my concerns about what seems like a premature concentration on party organisational details and tactics, rather than developing the core message of what we collectively stand for – decent lives for all, irrespective of origins, etc. There seems to be a real risk of losing the broad support that Left Unity is starting out with, and such an outcome would be a tragic waste of an opportunity to try something fresh, rather than dutifully bang our heads once more against that bit of brick wall that the establishment provides specially for lefties…
Bit early for policy but re membership I did wonder about a pay what you want/can afford membership fee – you decide! I e 10p for the unwaged 50p if in part-time work, £1 or so in low paid work and if in a good job as much as you want as Mark feels he can afford £36 which is similar to me. But always let new members decide. We will need money but I value people more! This could help buid a mass party and would be socialist – I would have an equal say with an unemployed person who pays 10p ‘from each to his/her ability to each according to his/ her need.” Just some food for thought . We want people – and this could attract w class people as well as the progressive m class. Would welcome people’s thoughts.
With best wishes.
Oh dear
Perhaps some of the 8,000 may have been put off by some of the posts from the professional pessimists here.
They remind me of why I never watch East Enders!
I haven’t seen a positive idea or suggestion from any of them yet and they only seem to knock down rather than trying to build up.
When I recognise their names I ‘m afraid I now rarely bother reading their comments. Perhaps some of the 8,000 like me think I can go elsewhere to be bored. Would be interesting to have like/ dislike buttons next to comments!
I as always have hope because I am a w class very well read socialist who has had many years grassroots community and political experience.
‘To the oppressed and those who fight on their side’ – Paulo Freire. ‘Rise up with me against the organisation of misery’ – Pablo Neruda. ‘You better give them what they really own’ – John Lennon, Power to the People . Finally I agree with Rosa Luxemburg who believed the best thing we can all bring is critical thinking.
There is hope!
There is a strand of opinion in some of our LU blogs that I do not think is very helpful to the Left Unity project.
It is a strand which represents a type of émigré or exile politics, that is, which is still fighting battles of an earlier era and from another place and comes from people ‘who had to leave their homeland, often for political reasons, and who wish to return,’ to quote from one definition of exile.
That homeland, their world, was a world of British left-wing splits and intrigues and factions and verbal punch-ups involving all manner of organisations. Just yesterday I learned of another one, Militant (SPEW), and had to Google it to try to find out what it means and what that group stands for.
Yes, we do need to appreciate what has occurred on the British left over the past 20 or 30 years and take it into account as one factor, but only ONE FACTOR, as we try to chart out a different course…and as we try to reach out to and WORK TOGETHER with the tens of thousands of people in this country who were (or are)NOT part of that history. Why not? They — and include myself in this group — were not living in this country at the time. Or they are younger people or they are relatively new to socialist politics.
Karl Marx was quite right when he wrote that,‘the tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.’To be sure, breaking free from this nightmare won’t happen in a week.
But as contemporary men and women and transgender people,we can also MAKE OUR OWN HISTORY…while also admitting that we are making it under circumstances we did not choose,‘but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.’
Like Bazza, I believe ‘there is hope.’
Yes!
I’ve matched Mark’s donation of £36.
No sects please , we’re middle England .
My cheque would follow John’s & Mark’s but I’ve lost me chequebook: any chance of an electronic way to pay, or LU bank details to transfer?
More to the point: that t-shirt is not up to the usual standards Marko.
I’m beginning to think that Tom is your fictional alter-ego, created as a wind-up rant-u-like … no I’m getting carried away with meself.
Ben:
Here are the bank details of the LU account.
http://leftunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Left-Unity-SO.pdf
That’s what I have done.
On the principle of ‘each according to her/her ability’ and ,of course, depending on other needs —and definitely NOT meant to guilt people, I’ve been there and done that — those of us on better-paid professional salaries can afford to pay more money than those on lower salaries and supporting other people financially, in my opinion.
Ta Alan. Yes, agreed.
I was just remembering with my partner today about when we were very, very skint (living on £12 a week) and our party (CPGB in about 1984) in Cymru, where we were living then, put out an appeal for a new printing press. I had just been given a very unexpected £100 by my gran, so – highly disciplined communists that we were! – we gave the lot to the party.
The then Welsh Secretary will confirm this if he is reading (Dave, where are you? Long time no see!) and promptly put the cash towards a ‘new’ car, as his Lada was on its last legs. After a brief indignant “how dare he …” we laughed at the cheek of it and remained happy in our self-imposed, politically motivated ‘poverty’.
Back to the present, we need to apply the principle of “from each… – to each…” throughout our alternative culture, organising and activity.