Articles and Editorial

Did austerity lead to recovery? No, GDP was increased by government spending, says economist Michael Burke  The government and its supporters have been quick to claim that the most recent GDP data have vindicated its austerity policy. George Osborne says the argument in favour of austerity has been won and some more excitable commentators have even talked of a boom. […] Read more »

  The following article was written by Matt Hale of Sheffield Left Unity with the intention of initiating a debate among Left Unity supporters regards our attitude towards the union-Labour link. News that the GMB union is to slash the affiliation fees it gives to the Labour Party from £1.2million to £150,000 and disaffiliate 50,000 […] Read more »

With the traditional Labour-trade union relationship under strain and increasing disenchantment with Ed Miliband’s brand of socialism, is there space for a new workers’ party? asks The Guardian’s John Harris Ever since the general election of 2010, British politics has been in a very curious state of flux. Public mistrust in politicians runs rampant. After […] Read more »

Jim Osborne from Glasgow Left Unity sets out the task ahead In this article I am going to try and present what I think is the essential task of Left Unity or any other organisation which seeks to build a society in accordance with a socialist vision. I will try to keep it simple. Firstly […] Read more »

 UNIFOR is a new union, created by the merger of the Canadian Autoworkers and the Canadian Energy and Paper Workers Union. Author and journalist Naomi Klein spoke at UNIFOR’s founding convention in Toronto on September 1, 2013. (Climate and Capitalism via Common Dreams) Why unions need to join the climate fight by Naomi Klein I’m so very […] Read more »

by Will Skyrme As Labour is in decline there is a chance for a new socialist party to establish itself, but can it avoid the same mistakes that compromised their predecessors?   In November a new political party called Left Unity will be born. This project has sprung from two principal sources in the landscape […] Read more »

Jim Jepps on the state of Left Unity, its potential, and the dangers ahead. We are what we do. While the stories we tell about ourselves can be interesting, significant, enduring or helpful they are rarely the best guide to what an organisation is. Before the 2010 General Election I had many conversations with Liberal […] Read more »

Statement from the NASUWT and NUT unions. The two largest teacher unions, the NASUWT and the NUT, representing nine out of ten teachers, are today confirming the next phase of their jointly coordinated campaign to Protect Teachers and Defend Education. Following the continued refusal of the Secretary of State to genuinely engage with the NUT […] Read more »

Over recent weeks there have been two contributions on the Left Unity website – from Soraya Lawrence and from Kat Burdon-Manley – which have focused on questions of how Left Unity (and the labour movement more generally) should relate to questions of women’s rights. These are of course issues which Left Unity as a whole, […] Read more »

An article by Salman Shaheen in this week’s New Statesman Undominated by a central charismatic figure, and uncontrolled by a single far-left group, Left Unity is a movement that is being built from the bottom up. By Salman Shaheen Published 03 September 2013 12:01   “There is a spectre haunting Britain,” Ken Loach warned a […] Read more »