Can there be a new left party? Ken Loach – and 2,000 people – hope so

Kate Hudson

Film director Ken Loach has called for the creation of a new party of the left in Britain. Kate Hudson explains why she is supporting the call.

Austerity is wreaking economic catastrophe on the people of Cyprus, but George Osborne is still following the same disastrous policies. This week’s budget comes as no surprise – yet another £2.5 billion in cuts. He’s digging us even further into an economic hole, and ordinary people are paying the price. The virulence of the government’s economic attacks knows no bounds: Atos, workfare, the bedroom tax – punitive policies against the most vulnerable in society.

Where can we turn politically? Who is on our side, to fight for an alternative? In the past we expected the Labour Party to stand for us, and with us, but no longer.

Workfare? Today Labour abstained on the vote and now the government can work over a quarter of a million jobseekers. Bedroom tax? Will a Labour government repeal it?

We need policies that reject Tory cuts, regenerate the economy and improve the lives of ordinary people. We are not getting this from Labour.

There is no doubt that Labour’s past achievements have been remarkable – the welfare state, the NHS; a redistributive economy making unprecedented levels of health and happiness possible. But such achievements are in the past. Now Labour embraces cuts and privatisation and is dismantling its own great work. Labour has failed us. Nothing shows the contrast more clearly than Ken Loach’s new film, The Spirit of ’45.

Now Ken is calling on people to join the discussion on forming a new party of the left. The working class cannot remain without political representation, without defence, when all its victories and advances are being destroyed. Over 2,000 people have signed up to Ken’s appeal within three days of its launch. Please support it urgently.

Ken Loach’s appeal is here

20 March 2013

5 comments

5 responses to “Can there be a new left party? Ken Loach – and 2,000 people – hope so”

rob says:

March 20, 2013 at 10:21 am

The tags of left, centre or right are wrong. There are many things a “radical” party could take from the principles of many existing parties; what is needed is elected representatives that adhere to them. I know Ken personally to be a principled honourable person with a great talent of portraying the truth in his films instead of the glossy “Hollywood” type rubbish. Ken is correct with his opinion of the current established political parties and in his appearance on BBC Question time it was not a surprise to see him receive the greatest applause from the audience.
Rachel Scicluna says:

March 20, 2013 at 11:49 am

I strongly believe that a new conscious rising is already on the way. One aspect I would like to add is that this new left political forum, like in the past, is not only about the now so called “hardowrking families”. But the current punitive and discriminatory system has engulfed the middle class (not upper middle class) too. So I sense that this inequality will bring together a plethora of different voices and experiences, like never before. All we need is a place to meet and act sensibly and peacefully.
Stuart Inman says:

March 20, 2013 at 3:18 pm

On the subject of numbers, I checked at 11.30 this morning and the total of people who signed in favour of a new party stood at 2,452. At midday it was 2,460 and at 3pm it was 2,475. So, although there was a great rush of people in the first 24 hours, some 800 or so I believe, a momentum has been establish and between 5 and 10 people an hour are still signing, well over 100 a day. No doubt this will eventually dry up, but I think that numbers will certainly be well over 3,000 before long. Remembering that this is only a website asking if people think it is a good idea to form a party, not an actual party seeking election, it suggests a much greater degree of support is possible if a party is established and if, IF, it delivers the right sort of party and goes out, getting noticed, arguing, campaigning, on many different levels. It could actually gain real popular support and, while such a thing is entirely hypothetical at the moment, it does suggest that it is at least possible to achieve.
Geoff Barr says:

March 20, 2013 at 5:15 pm

It seems to me that if this party is to work it will need to deal with the lunacy of the left sects.

In particular it will attract the SWP and the like. They wrecked the Socialist Alliance because for them the sect is always more important than the larger project. What is the proposed way of dealing with the left groups?
- PhilW says:
  
  March 22, 2013 at 11:14 am
  
  It is very reasonable to question how the far-left has behaved in its attempts to set up “broad parties”. The Socialist Alliance, TUSC and Respect come to mind as organisations ultimately unable to cope with demands by left groups for special privileges for left groups over the rest of the membership. Although I am a member of what you might call a “left sect” (Socialist Resistance), I think it is important for any new left party to not provide privileges for them, or for unions, for that matter.
  
  At the same time, left organisations cannot be excluded, without creating a dangerous, witch-hunting atmosphere, which will ultimately destroy the party. (The “left sects” have plenty of experience of that in their own groups). Part of the answer, I believe, is to have individual membership, not party or union affiliation. The latter inevitably raises the issue of how many votes affiliates have, or even whether they can veto decisions, as happens in TUSC now (and is one reason why it is making no progress). Another expectation should be that they participate in the party’s public activities primarily as members of that party and not as members of their “sect”: for example, holding its placards on demos, selling its publications and organising in its electoral and other campaigns.