2014: A year of Left Unity

Left Unity was formally founded as a party in November 2013, after several months of discussion and debate. 2014, then, was the first full year of Left Unity’s existence – here we look at just a few highlights from those twelve months.

January: Left Unity started the year getting into the swing of campaigning after its founding conference. We produced these ‘Politics Needs a New Face’ postcards. 20,000 have been distributed so far.

February: The party started to get more organised, and hired its first worker. (First but not only – Left Unity’s staff has grown gradually since.)

March: Our national conference, held at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, democratically made policy on economics, health, housing, migration and anti-racism. Hundreds of people joined thanks to a TV appearance (see above) and newspaper coverage in the run-up to the conference.

April: We called a protest that was covered across the national media – even though it never took place! Left Unity was due to protest outside Downing Street over Maria Miller’s expenses-fiddling, but a couple of hours before we got there, Miller resigned.

May: Left Unity dipped its toe in the waters of the local elections, standing our first dozen candidates. Our best result was 8.8%, beating the Tories in Wigan West.

June: A campaigning victory for Left Unity and others who joined Homes Not Spikes protests in response to Tesco installing ‘anti-homeless spikes’ outside a central London shop. Tesco was forced to remove the spikes.

July: It was a summer of action for Left Unity, beginning with our participation in the mass protests in support of Palestine as Israel launched a renewed assault on Gaza.

August: We supported the People’s March for the NHS, a new ‘Jarrow march’ from Darlington to London in support of the health service. Several Left Unity branches helped organise their local leg of the march.

September: Left Unity took part in the demonstration against Nato in Newport, as well as supporting the Focus E15 Mothers as they stepped up their campaign by going into occupation, and the Wigan Diggers Festival.

October: The ‘Doing Politics Differently’ tour, with speakers from Left Unity alongside new Spanish left party Podemos and Greece’s Syriza, visited towns and cities across Britain culminating in a packed London meeting.

November: The second Left Unity conference of the year, held in the London Irish Centre – and this time it was two days. The party made policy on the environment, education, crime and justice and social security as well as international policy.

December: Looking ahead to the future, Left Unity has made clear its intent to stand with our sisters and brothers in Greece in the new year, as the snap election raises the possibility of a Syriza government. 2015 will be a crucial year for the anti-austerity struggle across Europe.

Happy New Year and here’s to a 2015 of resistance.