Leeds Left Unity Launch
A report from Leeds Left Unity’s launch meeting
On the 22nd of May 2013, Alan Gibbons introduced the Leeds Left Unity launch meeting with great enthusiasm and personal passion that was truly inspirational. Leeds Left Unity formed as a result of the national call from Ken Loach for a new left party to oppose the national shift to the right and the betrayals of Labour, felt so deeply by the people least responsible for the financial crisis. Within two weeks over 8000 people nationally answered that call by signing the petition and as a result over 90 groups have been set up across the country in less than two months. It is obvious to anyone at this stage that Left Unity has the potential to answer questions unanswered by the main three parties and more importantly, has the opportunity to have ordinary people feel they have a voice again that is not rooted in racism, oppression, capitalism or subservience to big business.
Kath Owen gave a brief introduction to the meeting of around 100 people as chair that called on everyone involved to stay involved and highlighted the nature of Leeds Left Unity and Left Unity nationally by highlighting that it is a member led organisation seeking to encourage people to organise themselves and fight back against austerity. Then introduced Alan Gibbons, international children’s author but perhaps more importantly, long standing left wing campaigner with too many campaigns under his belt to list here. Alan is not on an organising committte in Left Unity or a national initiative seeking to control the organisation. He is a member with a voice and it is important to recognise that while he is a truly fantastic speaker, he spoke as another member of Left Unity to the people in the room.
The discussion ranged from why we need a fightback against the coalition and Labour at this time and how Left Unity can achieve that. He spoke at length from his personal experiences in fighting for left wing politics and how to challenge nonsensical economic terms that the big business parties use to confuse and intimidate people out of action. As the discussion went on, people were laughing, shouting and so wonderfully encouraged on to action but it became very clear that this was a meeting interested in doing something new. The room was made up of around 100 people from all walks of political and personal situations. It was perhaps slightly more male participants then female, which is something Left Unity is very interested in addressing the patriarchal attitudes so present in British politics but the ratio was far better than any meeting I have personally attended on the left in some time.
The discussion had to be ended with people still indicating to speak after around 90 minutes of contributions from campaigns, personal speakers and traditional revolutionary left organisations and even a speaker still in the Labour party. The first people to speak were from campaigns already active in Leeds, with Hands off Our Homes speaker Liz detailing how it is possible to beat the government on another entirely ideological and ill-conceived plot to make poor people pay as they have already U-turned on a number of issues and it will cost more to evict people than can possibly be gained from these bullying sanctions on spare rooms. Keep Our NHS Public speaker gave a richly informative description of the work taking place in KONP in Leeds and wider and how they are always looking for more people to lobby the privatisers of a dearly loved and hard won NHS, such as Virgin and Serco.
Other contributions highlighted the need for Left Unity to be inclusive and considerate when using outdated or politically damaged terminology, to make sure that all people from all walks of left wing political opinion can feel welcomed, encouraged and strengthened by the unity that Left Unity can offer. There was already an agreed meeting on the 5th of June (details to follow) for the Left Unity organising meeting where we will determine what to do next with this rapidly and encouragingly growing movement. So, whoever you are, if you are left, please come along and let us know what you think should be done and help in a genuinely united movement interested in helping people because it is the right thing to do. I won’t spoil the excellent introduction by Alan Gibbons at this point by detailing it as video of his introduction is to follow on our Leeds Left Unity blog. So, please, watch this space and get involved.
18 comments
18 responses to “Leeds Left Unity Launch”
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What is this “outdated or politically damaged terminology”? And why would it be “inconsiderate” and “exclusive”? Left Unity is for open debate; “as inclusive as possible”, as Alan Gibson said at the meeting. Those at the meeting who object to the use of the language developed by the working class movement over the last 150 years to describe the world in a scientific way would be excluding Marx and Lenin, if the logic of this argument is followed.
Who determines which phrases or expressions are alienating to others? Who says they are alienating anyway? It’s entirely possible for those who call themselves “socialists”, but who want to suppress genuine debate for fear of being proved wrong, to be comfortable with this.
Leninism encourages open discussion and debate on all developments, using the most precise language possible to describe new phenomena as they emerge. This is done in front of the working class, drawing in as many layers of their ranks possible (and anyone else who wants to seriously engage in the debate), in order to develop their revolutionary consciousness based on what is true about the world. It is, by its very nature, “inclusive”.
Real unity can only be built around this struggle for understanding; and crucially, around the nature of the Soviet Union – both its triumphs and flaws – a debate long overdue and consciously avoided or suppressed by “lefts” of all shades.
Uniting around “the 90% we agree with” will never build genuine unity because it deliberately avoids a struggle to understand all contentious historical questions. Agreement can only be found through thrashing out all these vexed questions, until proven by experience.
Left Unity’s commitment to OMOV is welcome because it does allow for open debate against calls for special privileges, “factional rights” and “federalism”. That’s what makes it interesting and, potentially, a worthwhile movement to build, but this intolerance of scientific language and dismissal of “obscure historical debates” about “dead Russians” expressed at the meeting is a problem because it blocks the working class off from understanding the truth about the world and, hence, is a barrier preventing them from seeing the world in a revolutionary way.
Phil (EPSR supporter)
Phil, you just answered your own question. Your terminology is both outdated and politically damaged.
We will not find a way to build a new left party in the 21st century and win the support of ordinary people to our ideas by becoming a Soviet Union historical society.
To the extent that the experience of Leninism and Stalinism are relevant at all, it is as a warning and an example of a nightmare that we should avoid at all costs. Any new party that is closely associated with the Leninist/Stalinist experiment will be doomed.
Ray, if Leninist terminology is so outdated and politically damaged and never going to get anywhere, then why do so many people feel the need to oppose it and distance themselves from it? Why do they get edgy when the arguments are raised in meetings? Why are ‘blind chairperson’ techniques used at meetings to prevent these questions even being raised?
Why not just ignore such futile out-of-time crankiness?
Because there is a concern that while it is possible, inside LU, to indulge as a quaint bit of nostagia both tired Leninist cliches in language and an unwillingness to properly consider the disaster for the left that was Stalinism, outside LU it is damaging to our project.
People either don’t know the jargon or the history and see it as irrelevant to them or they DO know the history and are rightly terrified of any attempt to repeat it.
My post card to Owen Jones which I published on Facebook: “Thursday 23rd of May 2013 Leeds Left Unity Launch (7/38) Dear Owen — The main speaker, Alan Gibbons, was full of enthusiasm & energy, facts & figures, hopes & desires, encouragement and downright rabble rousing! Next, someone from Hands Off Our Homes passionately pleaded to stop the murderous Bedroom Tax. Another spoke gravely about the imminent death of our precious NHS. A few represented socialists, anarchists, Labourites, students, the elderly, with even some communist references. But basically we are all united against the catastrophic ConDems and the upstart UKIPs. We know we must join TOGETHER, find common ground, raise awareness, and build a truly smart and workable way to take back our country for ALL people. Only one person was missing last night … YOU!!! But you were busy rabble rousing in Sheffield! Our collective desired result is clear; overcoming apathy and prejudices (caused by media fabrications) against people on benefits will be difficult. We are growing and coalescing, but if we don’t win now, the Wealthy & Powerful will continue to destroy all justice and equity. Thank you for your fervent ceaseless efforts to bring forth the TRUTH. We MUST fight for our natural human rights ! Let’s do this together! Colour me keen From: Linda determined in Leeds” — with Owen Jones in United Kingdom.
Left Unity!!! Wow what a great idea. The right wing seem to be able to do it. Look at UKIP. Why can’t we.
The splits and splitters on the left are not neccesarily a negative thing. One reason, I think we split, is because people on the organised left are thoughtful. They are intelligent and have ideas beyond “stuff the tories”. I am sure UKIP organisationally is completely all over the place; with fascists, right wing tories, eu haters etc in their ranks. It is however easier for bigots to unite around nasty racist and right wing demands. On the left, we have spent years arguing about the 10% we disagree about to the detriment of the 90% we do.
In Leeds a group of people have come together to try to organise and unite around Left Unity. This is a disparate group of ex-organised left, previously un-aligned, Socialist Resistance, Workers Power, some still in labour, left greens who are still uncommitted and folk without much experience too. None of us is experienced in building a ‘big organisation’. Most of us have spent years in tiny groups. Building something big, diverse and meaningful in the communities we live in is completely new to us. We are all novices about this.
We have had 4 meetings. We have been on the Mayday March, UAF protest and a 90+ launch meeting. We have a banner, we have badges and we are keen.
I went to the national meeting with Rebecca. It was great. Reading on the internet, I wasnt sure I’d been at the same meeting. There were disagreements but this is a movement of a few months. I have been in too many organisations where everyone has to agree. I think we should have agreed the Kate Hudson statement on May 11th. I think we should have agreed a membership system. But in this interregnum we can still build like crazy.
I was glad Alan Gibbons did our meeting in Leeds. He knows and is respected by many on the left. He was blisteringly honest about his own experience of left organisations. He was incredibly inclusive too. He was funny and angry and I laughed quite a bit. He told it very clearly: why we need left unity – the bloody tories are savaging us.
One thing we have been clear about is that Left Unity is not an electoral pop up campaign. We will be trying to embed ourselves in campaigns and in communities. We are not just about big meetings. We need to build and unify campaigns. For our meeting we put together an activist diary for upcoming events and protests in Leeds. Protests, meetings and activity from the whole anti-cuts and wider left spectrum. Left Unity does not have all the answers for sure.
At our meeting we had Dr John P a konp activist who made a contribution about privatisation of the NHS. We promoted today’s petitioning outside Virgin against Virgincare taking over NHS services. As KoNP we have been doing this for the past year. Today instead of us 5 or 6 konp activists we had 15 people, many from the Left Unity meeting.
This is exactly what Left Unity needs to be. Involved in activity but very importantly saying: We need an alternative to Labour. We need a political organisation on the left that intervenes in local and national issues. That opposes privatisation, cuts, racism…..
I want Left Unity to succeed. I have been campaigning like mad over the past 2 years since leaving both SWP and then Counterfire. In that time I have met so many more people on the left in Leeds. My main worry about Left Unity is that it will detract from my input into other campaigns. Today’s experience suggests the opposite. Left Unity can strengthen the fight against austerity.
marcr
Well said – excellent contribution
“Epileptic boy evicted by Hackney Homes – despite pleas from medical staff – is fighting for his life in hospital
Emma Bartholomew, Senior ReporterSaturday, May 25, 2013
11:01 AM
Just two weeks after Hackney Homes forced a sick epileptic boy out of his home despite doctors’ warnings the upheaval could trigger life-threatening fits, he is fighting for his life in hospital.
http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/epileptic_boy_evicted_by_hackney_homes_despite_pleas_from_medical_staff_is_fighting_for_his_life_in_hospital_1_2210287”
why we fight…
barbaric, just barbaric..
But to fight and then WIN, don’t mention Stalin or Lenin.
But anyway how can anyone go on about capitalist oppression or human rights and then laud regimes like the Soviet Union??? its ridiculous.
Robboh, how do you expect to “fight and win” without openly discussing and debating in front of the working class all the issues dividing the working class movement, to a conclusion that is as close as humanly possible to the truth?
How else can real unity be built unless it’s based on a common and agreed understanding of the world?
This debate must include a serious analysis of the disastrous legacy Stalinism’s retreat from Lenin’s revolutionary perspectives into “don’t rock the boat” pacifism and Trotskyism’s total hostility towards the first experiments at socialist construction has had. Their dire perspectives are preventing the working class from seeing the world in a revolutionary way.
Without building a party that encourages such serious debate for the truth on all contentious issues, there can be no meaningful movement forwards.
Phil, wake up, the working class, DOESNT see the world in a revolutionary way. Thats why parties who campaign on the line NEVER get elected.
What were the electoral performance for TUSC? have they got an MP? no, because NOBODY is voting for them.
But you know what this is as much as Im going to say, as there is no point trying to have any sensible conversation with the brain washed fanatics from loony left. So stick your “vanguard” party, try concentrating on stopping the closures of AE departments instead. Much better use of ones time, if you really mean to help the working classes.
Talking about dead Russians is neither relevant nor interesting. As a party that should be trying to engage the working class and not students and lecturers, you are massively putting them off. Why is it too that people see the left in Britain as working class movements? They are not, the idea behind it all is to get working class people involved because it’s in their own interet but the left in Britain has been turning them off for decades maily because it is full of useless middle class people who think they know best. Let’s not get bogged down in theory and actually offer a viable alternative to people that’s not full of boring and irrelevant history. As a young working class person who did study politics, I found intellectual discussions surrounding it tedious and utterly removed from what is happening, I’ve had enough of people and their intellectual wanking about how much they know about Marx, I want political change.
Agreed, my phrase about “the working class movement” was not clear. The self-styled “lefts” are not a “movement” as such but their unwillingness to engage in genuinely open debate over contentious issues, in front of the working class, is a problem because it causes huge levels of confusion and holds back the development of a genuinely revolutionary working class movement.
What is the working class supposed to make of Libya and Syria, for example, when you have Stalinism on one side giving illusions that Assad is a step forward and should be supported unconditionally, whilst, on the other hand, Trotskyism is busy lining up with Cameron and world imperialism by supporting the so-called “rebels”? If Left Unity is to become a party of the working class, it will need to be able to explain and clear up this confusion, otherwise any foreign policies it comes up with will be meaningless.
Leninism is for the defeat for imperialism, by whoever is doing the fighting, without giving any illusions in the bourgeois nationalist leaderships currently in the firing line. This is because any blows against imperialism aids the struggle to brings the end of capitalism and the creation of a socialist society ever closer.
This theory is important because it helps to bring clarity to world developments as they emerge. Long and tedious “debates” unrelated to the real world are, as you say, nothing but “intellectual wanking”.
Agreed, my phrase about “the working class movement” was not clear. The self-styled “lefts” are not a “movement” as such but their unwillingness to engage in genuinely open debate over contentious issues, in front of the working class, is a problem because it causes huge levels of confusion and holds back the development of a genuinely revolutionary working class movement.
What is the working class supposed to make of Libya and Syria, for example, when you have Stalinism on one side giving illusions that Assad is a step forward and should be supported unconditionally, whilst, on the other hand, Trotskyism is busy lining up with Cameron and world imperialism by supporting the so-called “rebels”? If Left Unity is to become a party of the working class, it will need to be able to explain and clear up this confusion, otherwise any foreign policies it comes up with will be meaningless.
Leninism is for the defeat of imperialism by whoever is doing the fighting, without giving any illusions in the bourgeois nationalist leaderships currently in the firing line. This is because any blows against imperialism aids the struggle to brings the end of capitalism and the creation of a socialist society ever closer.
This theory is important because it helps to bring clarity to world developments as they emerge. Long and tedious “debates” unrelated to the real world are, as you say, nothing but “intellectual wanking”.
‘It was perhaps slightly more male participants then female, which is something Left Unity is very interested in addressing the patriarchal attitudes so present in British politics but the ratio was far better than any meeting I have personally attended on the left in some time.’
Yes, this is the key question facing the Left – female/male attendance ratios at meetings. I assume women weren’t excluded when the invitations went out, so presumably, the attendance ratio was due to population demographics in the Leeds area and/or fewer women were interested or could be arsed to go. No – it must be something called ‘patriarchal attitudes’, a bourgeois feminist myth.
Went to a really good meeting in Leeds.
Where I think we planted some socialist seeds.
For political actions I cannot waits.
As hopefully we get out on estates!
Intellectual discussions on historic prespectives are fine so long as they are between people who want them and at an appropriate time; they are not, however, going to win votes. It is the here and now and how it relates to the foreseeable future that is of interest to people – how the various taxes affect them now and how they will in the next 5 years. What is needed is publicity about people being forced to move, the change in living standards and the impact of the taxes brought in plus how these negatively impact on private business and middle classindividuals; e.g poor infrastructure and less money for L.A. employees to spend in the shops, etc. I have always been left wing and always will be – 60 years and counting – but I despair when the talk becomes intellectual theorisation rather than reality based on the current situation.