I recently quit the Labour Party…

by Karen Michael, Norwich Left Unity

I recently quit the Labour Party. I live in Norfolk. I left shortly after Labour assumed overall control of the Norfolk County Council. I have joined Left Unity.

I was committed to the Labour Party: I had put myself forward to be a prospective Labour parliamentarian for the Norwich North Constituency; I served as the UNISON Link officer for my branch.

When the Norfolk Labour Party went into a “Rainbow Coalition” with other parties (baptised by a nod and a wink from UKIP) they went from being a political party that opposed the cuts to vital public services, to being an agent that enforced the will of Eric Pickles’ to decimate Local Government services. I suspect that if the leader of the Council, Labour’s George Nobbs, had had to form an alliance with elected representatives from his Satanic Majesty’s party he would have gladly done so.

Anyone, they claimed, could govern Norfolk “better than the Tories.” They then proceeded to implement the Tory-mandated cuts. When the day of the budget vote arrived, Norfolk County Council (with the unanimous support of all Labour members) voted to more than decimate the budget. Erstwhile comrades excused themselves to anti-cut campaigners: “I hate Cameron” one said. Then, bizarrely, she voted to enact Cameron’s ill-will upon the citizens of Norfolk.

This is a remarkable change from the last round of budget cuts! Then we were a throng united in our opposition to the Tory cuts. Today, there is no voice of opposition in Norfolk’s highest council and democratic representation has failed.

I left Labour. I joined Left Unity.

Left Unity is about common purpose without recourse to labels. We are a socialist party in the broadest sense of the term. Socialism has been overly intellectualised and debates easily turn arcane. To my mind there are two basic thrusts behind socialism:

1)      We are community: “No man is an Island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main,” as the poet Donne wrote so evocatively.

2)      Government should be how we club together to deal with the human condition. Government is simply the biggest collective social entity of all. It should be the ultimate safety net – a source of support and nurturance. Governance that works for the interests of the few rather than the many is fascistic. Politics should be a calling, like medicine, that is about the support of health, education, decent livelihoods (housing, nourishing and appropriate food) and security when we if we are not able to work. Government should be political recognition that John Donne was correct: no person is an island disconnected from the larger social whole

 And, in the true spirit of Left Unity, the door is open, the kettle is boiling.

Come and join us.

Karen Michael