A letter to Left Unity and a very welcome donation!
Annie Higgs
Annie Higgs from Oxford Left Unity writes to us about Saturday’s meeting and the future
Dear Left Unity
I’ve just set up my direct debit for membership to Left Unity, an
organisation that isn’t yet fully fledged. It’s not a huge one but I can
afford it and it’s regular. I do, however, realise that without
subscriptions from ordinary people like me chances are it will never fly.
I came to the first Left Unity meeting on Saturday. I was a bit
apprehensive and certainly some of the antics there did prove my fears to a
degree. Thankfully there were also enough right minded people to assuage
those misgivings. A relative of mine had earlier been told by his localcontact
contact that he probably wasn’t left wing enough to join his local group. (?)
Such a loss. You can’t really afford to be that
subjective. He’s working on a film to promote Land Value Tax which, if
implemented,will go a long way to making our society more equal. We need
people like him. So you can imagine that I had a few negative thoughts.
I’m here because I care passionately for social justice and equality. The
Labour Party is no longer left wing enough for me but I don’t want to be
radicalised via versions of Marxist or anybody else’s ideology. (though
years ago I read and understood *some* of ‘Das Capital’) I went to my
first Labour Party Conference last September and one of my lasting memories
is of being intimidated by sellers of the SWP newspaper as I went through
the security gates to enter the conference hall. I braced myself every
morning. On Saturday I experienced shades of those zealous news sellers
again and I kept my fingers crossed. Thankfully there was resolution not
revolution or anarchy and I see a good future for Left Unity, hence my
subscription.
I’m thrilled that there’s such a high proportion of women on the
organising committee and thank them all, women and men, for the job they’re
about to do. Organising a conference at such short notice, for instance, is
no mean feat but we need to act quickly. We can’t stand back any longer
watching our hopes and aspirations, our children’s future, being turned to
dust. As a user of the many agencies of our soon to be ex welfare state;
education, housing, culture, law, health and welfare I’m ashamed at the
speed of its unravelling. Someone has to stop it. The Labour Party seem
impotent. Who else is there?
Yes, that’s right.
Left Unity.
Carpe Diem!!
Yours in anticipation
Annie Higgs
8 comments
8 responses to “A letter to Left Unity and a very welcome donation!”
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Fantastic stuff Annie. #LoveLeftUnity
It’s a shame your relative was turned away by his local group contact, I don’t think organisers should be door keepers. Tax campaigners are doing great work, and we definitely need them in Left Unity as discussions about policy gather pace.
Can we have more balance in the report backs that have been posted on the front page of the website, since the first National Meeting on Saturday. All 5 are by middle aged women and it would be useful to see the views of younger people and yes even of some men! ( Although I do agree up to now the website has been dominated by men.)
Also, some of the political views expressed are certainly to the right of the people that I have met so far in Left Unity. In the Manchester group(s) the majority of people, who I have spoken to agree with Socialism and it is my understanding this is linked to Marxism. For many people the LU ‘project’ is about reclaiming Socialism for working people.
i agree salman. all should be welcomed to left unity (especially at this very very early stage when it has no programme or strategy anyway). if they are broadly ‘on the left’, and that’s how they see themselves, then let them join. unless they are a racist or hold some other obnoxious views then the more the merrier!
annie – that’s a shame that these paper sellers were so hostile to you. they should have actually been friendly and trying to discuss and make contacts with people on the left of labour. robust disagreements and debate between socialists is absolutely fine and often necessary, but general hostility to individual labour party members (when they don’t even know if they are on the left or arch blairites anyway!) is totally wrong and counter-productive.
greetings to salman, annie and bianca.
best wishes
tim
leicester
So this is what we can expect for ‘Left Unity’ from here on in, is it? Unsubstantiated allegations of intimidation from the SWP? This is NOT what I signed up for. How did the SWP paper sellers intimidate you? Asked you if you wanted to buy a paper? Something else? If so, what exactly did they do? Do you have witnesses? Did you call the police? If not, why not? How can Kate Hudson say she wants every SWP member to join Left Unity if all their members are going to be smeared without any evidence whatsoever? Justice? I think not.
Basically Tom, they were waving newspapers in people’s faces and shouting at us to buy them. If we chose not to, which was a lot of people, we were sworn at and insulted as we passed towards the gates. There was a lot of loud conversation to each other about visitors who didn’t buy newspapers. We were shouted at for not parting with a pound coin. ‘Can’t afford £1!’ ‘Not worth the trouble’ ‘******* middle class socialists’ etc etc. I consider that intimidation. There were police around yes, to keep the peace and security. It never occurred to me to call them over. I brushed it off. I was just happy to get through and get on with what I’d attended for. That doesn’t however excuse their behaviour. There were other pressure groups around who’s behaviour was totally acceptable.
I apologise Tom. I had no intention of smearing anyone. Neither did I expect such a solid cross examination from you. I merely gave my thoughts. You’re welcome to yours. Perception sometimes over-rides actuality. My perception of what happened to me then affected how I felt on Saturday.
I was pleased to be reassured at Saturday’s meeting. That’s all.
I’m only one member of Left Unity. There are 8,000 others.
Hi Annie
I see you’re from Oxford Left Unity. Have there been any meetings of this group, or are there any planned that you know of? I’ve not seen anything listed.
Thanks
Hi Ed
The contact for Oxford is Paul Round and his email is as follows. paround70@gmail.com
Or he has a left unity address which is
Paul Round
oxford@leftunity.org
Looking forward to seeing you
Annie