Left Unity Milton Keynes – up and ready for action
Neil Williams reports on the first meeting of Left Unity Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes Left Unity held a very successful first meeting on Tuesday 21st May. Ten supporters were present with apologies from five more received who would have liked to be there but through illness/work etc could not attend.
The meeting started with three short video clips concerning Ken Loach’s film “Spirit Of 45“ including one in which Ken Loach takes part in a question and answer session. Members were able help themselves to tea and biscuits during this video show.
NW chaired the meeting with the agreement of those present and NW explained briefly how Left Unity came about with the Ken Loach’s appeal for a new Socialist Party and the need for Left Unity. Over 8000 people have now signed this appeal and over 90 Left Unity branches have now been set up.
The meeting went on the give everyone a chance to say who they were and what they hoped Left Unity might become.
The meeting then collectively took part in “brain storm” of ideas as to what we thought the ten most important issues Left unity should take up and have clear policy on. As you can imagine we had far more than ten and there was some lively discussion as to which were the top ten issues with the meeting getting around the problem somewhat by merging some issues into one bigger topic. This meeting item was so successful that we ran overtime on this.
A report was given of the first National Left Unity meeting by the four MK delegates who attended and a written list of the decisions made was also circulated. It was felt on the whole that for a first meeting which was bound to be difficult that the outcome was a positive start (just like our own meeting) despite a few teething problems.
At this point in the meeting we held our first elections. NW was appointed chair for the next twelve months (and will from time to time see if he can get one or two others to have a go at chairing). The position of branch secretary was left open until our next meeting when some people who could not attend tonight will be present. We also made the same decision with regard to the delegates to the next National Left Unity meeting in September. DI was appointed the branch delegate to the National Committee of Left Unity (till September or conference in November).
DI proposed a motion about future meetings being “open” and a list of discussion topics we should discuss with others on the Left. The meeting rejected the motion in favour of (at this very early stage) more internal discussion amongst possible new members using the topics we had looked at tonight (but there will be an open meeting with our proposed film show). It was agreed we would discuss what we mean by “Socialism” at a future branch business meeting (allowing about 30mins or so for this) and to use other topics agreed tonight for other branch meetings in future.
The meeting agreed to set up and run Left Unity stalls explaining what Left Unity is about at:
*Wolverton on Saturday 8th June 11am to 12.30 next to the Coop (by the bench).*
*Bletchley on Saturday 29th June 11am to 12.30 outside the old Coop.*
*It was also later agreed that we would have an open meeting, film show/social + discussion showing the full “Spirit of 45“ film on Thursday 27th June* – subject to confirmation (room booking etc). It is hoped that this will attract many others and we will be able to have a good discussion on Socialism.
Our next branch Milton Keynes Left Unity business meeting (but note the film show/social on 27th June) will be on Thursday 18th July (subject to room booking and confirmation).
Everyone was reminded about the Stop The War meeting this Thursday and the Campaign for Benefit Justice meeting on Saturday (see our blog and Facebook site for details) – we will be taking Left Unit cards to these meetings.
The meeting was able to raise the £24 need to pay for the room – thank you all who attended and took part in what was very good and positive first meeting. I have no doubt that some who could not make this meeting for very important personal reasons will be attending future meetings.
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3 responses to “Left Unity Milton Keynes – up and ready for action”
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Left Unity is reported by Neil Williams as a response to Ken Loach’s appeal for a socialist party. However, this site is littered with those attacking the very idea of socialism, of unity, of us even describing ourselves as part of the left, and jettisoning the colour red.
There has to be plenty of room for debate as to exactly what we mean by the term, socialism. We are not all going to agree. We should welcome the cut and thrust of debate. We might all learn something. We will certainly sharpen our ideas which will come in handy for when we put them to the voters, and we are faced with a hostile media.
But there has to be limits on what we think Left Unity is fighting for. We can hardly unite if we are all marching in opposite directions. We need to be clear not whether Left Unity is anti-capitalist, but why it is anti-capitalist.
Profit derives from the exploitation of the wage slaves. The latter are those with nothing to sell but their labour power. This class is sucked dry over a lifetime to create profits for those who own the means of production, distribution and exchange. This is a situation that foments class struggles. Such struggle is inevitable. And given the state of the global economy today, such struggles are going to intensify enormously because the capitalist system in the advanced world has been fueled for decades by unsustainable debt.
In order to restore the rate of profit within each nation state, something has to give. And for capitalists in one state after another, that means the economic and political rights of the people, the 99%, are going to be targeted. They are coming for us, comrades, and David Cameron’s government has barely gotten started.
The debt has just been increasing since the Tories and Lib Dems took office. From their point of view, our pensions are unsustainable, as is the NHS, etc, etc. And we are going to be sacrificed on the alter of a bankrupt economic system. We are all going to be sacrificed if we let them get away with it, that is.
If the working class and all our natural allies amongst the oppressed fight back, then not only can we win; we will win. However, fighting back means rejecting the inevitability of capitalism. It means challenging the BBC, SKY News, Channel Four News, Labour MPs, SNP MPs, etc.
If we bow down before the necessity of the profit system, then we need to find the money for all our legitimate demands from somewhere other than the corrupt, omni-shambling parasites. And that is to surrender to the ruling class without a battle. It is to allow pensioners to call for increased student fees. It is to have those in employment demand cuts in benefits for those who are unemployed, unemployed because capitalism cannot make profits from them. It is to demand workers embrace wage cuts in order to stop mass redundancies. It is to sacrifice essential health and safety for the workers (as in Bangladesh), and for the general public. It is to have public and private sector workers blame each other, to have women and men fight against each other, black against white, gay against straight, Catholic against Protestant, Jew against Muslim against Hindu, etc, etc, etc.
This is the nightmare Left Unity will face if we sanction profits as sacrosanct, rather than the illegitimate ill-gotten gains of a parasitic class who outlived their usefulness over a century ago.
Explaining the exploitative nature of the capitalist system, and of its wretched crises of overproduction is not that difficult. It is not difficult provided we want to make the case. If some members of Left Unity would prefer to surrender to the capitalists, then I would suggest they join one of the capitalist parties. No one can deny they are spoilt for choice.
Let socialists have at least one party. And let Left Unity be that party. And let it learn the lessons of the past and actually unite all socialists. And let us start by getting into urgent negotiations with TUSC, to see to it that we never have to split the socialist vote.
I do not know what the politics of the people that make up the Milton Keynes LU group are it does not concern me here.
What does concern me is that the report is billed as the first meeting of the group , but you state :
“A report was given of the first National Left Unity meeting by the four MK delegates who attended ….. ”
First of all how did you elect your delegates when you did not have a meeting before the national conference?
Secondly, how come 4 delegates were sent when groups were asked to send only 2 delegates?
I ask these questions because the only way LU can move forwards is when we can have trust in each other and that people are not doing things that could be interpreted as “manipulation”.
The answer to both of your questions is: if you had been there, you would know!
We must not get bogged down in the dogma that has hobbled the other fringe groups that have had very little impact on our political system.