One Nation Labour is not for me
Karen Michael, a long time Labour party member has resigned from the party and is now one of the founders of Left Unity in Norwich. This is her resignation letter.
The Labour Party
Labour Central, Kings Manor
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6PA
Re. Membership in the Labour Party:
I hereby resign my membership and affiliation with the Labour Party.
I wish I could add the phrase “with sorrow;” the truth is that it is with relief.
The weak performance of the current Labour Leadership, your unwillingness to chart a path that diverges from the austerity mantra, the way you make it impossible for viable local candidates to stand in winnable seats because well-heeled Westminster insiders parachute in and twinkle star dust in the eyes of the credulous… This is a party that does not deserve to have been founded by Keir Hardie!
Here in Norfolk the worst thing that ever happened was the accession to power of a Labour led coalition. That means there is no opposition to the cuts, because they have been (in common with every other Labour-led council in the land) not to “do a Liverpool.”
Shame on you for being co-dependent with the Tory cuts. Shame on you for supporting PFI. Shame on you for lacking the guts to stand up to the Tories and Liberals. Shame on you for forgetting that you used to be a working class party. Now you are a party of the centre right and those of us who are lovers of economic democracy have no home – you are but a dim and pallid memory of the wonderful thing that the Labour Party used to represent. You are as much in the pockets of the arms manufacturers, the bankers, and the special interest groups as the Tories. In short you have sold yourselves to the interests of capital, as the lucrative connection with Sainsbury serves to illustrate.
Peter Mandelson – self-interested, self-obsessed self-aggrandizing. All in all a proper Labour Party Grandee!
Lord (give me a break) John Prescott!
Lord Kinnock! Bloody hypocrites, class traitors one and all.
Tony Blair – war monger, sold out to the highest bidder, Peace Envoy extraordinaire to a part of the world that he busily and profitably worked to destroy.
The list goes on. Your lovely Mr. Balls mooting the possibility of alignment with the dear Nick Clegg was one of the last straws. And when the hapless Milliband felt that the best thing he could drivel about at Prime Minister’s Question time was fruit machines – in a country where the NHS is being eviscerated and NICE is deciding that older people, with their lesser economic clout, probably don’t deserve life-saving medication; it beggars belief!
If I ever vote for a Labour Party candidate again, it will be strictly for strategic reasons. You no longer represent me. And I will do my best to make sure that there are alternative candidacies in every constituency I can influence.
With profound disappointment
Karen Michael
31 comments
31 responses to “One Nation Labour is not for me”
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Whew! I can feel the heat coming off that one! But I think it speaks for a lot of people who are so profoundly disappointed in Labour and see no hope and no future with what Labour has become.
As someone who resigned the Labour whip on Basildon Council and was subsequently expelled and now sits as Independent labour I wholeheartedly agree with the points expressed in Karen’s letter. I am also a founding member of Left Unity and I hope that other socialists in the Labour Party will recognise the reality of “New” or “One Nation” as pro-capitalist Party and help with the birth of a viable socialist alternative!
Karen, you have my profound admiration. As one who has never belonged to any political organisation until joining the SNP before Christmas I have been energised by the independence debate. This has at least in part been driven by the disgraceful misgovernment of these isles all my adult life (40 + years). You are absolutely right to leave the corrupt and greedy ruling elite and I wish you all success. Be proud of yourself!
Very well put. I was nodding in agreement all the way through.
Nice one. Let us all know if you get a reply!
Saying that Labour doesn’t deserve to be the party founded by Kier Hardy underlines the futility of this gesture. If the left cannot challenge the right within the LP there is no evidence that leaving to form a new party will attract the millions who do vote labour. All resigning does is weaken the forces of the left in the party and hand labour voters over to the right wing leadership – even if it might make individuals feel better about themselves.
Simon, for how many more utterly fruitless years will left wing socialosts waste their time trying to “push Labour Leftwards ? In the 1980’s with the surge in the “Bennite Left” the superficially more democratic structures opf the then Labour Party at least gave the Left the opportunity to pass radical left motions at Party Conference. But they were always totally ignored by the Labour Leadership of course. Today the structures of the Labour Party are so undemocratic that the now totally , sold to the superrich body and soul, neoliberal New Labour leadership has no need to even pretend to listen to its ever decreasing Left wing.
The Labour Party’s working class (and overall) membership is collapsing by the day, as is its overall and specifically working class vote. The Party is a “very dead parrot” for genuine socialists to try and capture as a vehicle for building the anti austerity struggle. Time to recognise, as the Left should have actually done generations ago, that the New Labour Party is a totally collaborationist capitalist party – still trading electorally , but with diminishing impact, on the generations of working class voting loyalty – but now much more akin to the Democrat Party in the USA than to its original social democratic origins in providing an electoral voice for the working class (albeit from its creation, within a very limited reformist framework).
Time to build a completely new mass-based radical party of the socialist Left. Left Unity has at least a chance of becoming that mass party. But to do that – and really start building the fightback against Austerity and capitalism we need people like you to stop wasting their energy in the fruitless effort to transform the Labour Party into something it can never be – and join us to build a really internally democratic and genuinely radical new party of the Left.
John no one mentioned pushing labour to the left – it is a terrain of struggle. If the left isn’t able to wage a struggle in the labour party it is just as unikely to be able to launch a new party of any significance. To date all left alternatives have failed to win anything other than derisory votes in elections on anything other than very specific local conditions. Left unity to date has largely just reshuffled the fallout of the SWP with the remnants of the rest of the far left. What is missing from all of this is a re-emergance of mass class struggle that could challenge the right of labour or even lay the basis for a nee mass party. When that happens it is not going to be one or the other but is likely to be reflected in both. Simply leaving labour to the right wing won’t solve these problems.
Sadly, Simon D, your point is entirely wrong. Where is the Labour left and what has it achieved in the last thirty years? It couldn’t be any weaker than it is. It is impotent, powerless and completely and totally ineffective.
I am really pleased that there appears to be a significant drift away from the labour party. I have never been convinced of the labour party myth of being the party of the working classes. Ramsay MacDonald in 1926; Neil Kinnock in 1984. When the labour movement has most needed the labour party, their leaders have turned their backs. Old Labour or New Labour, the Atlee government notwithstanding, has there ever really been a working class labour?
Firstly, I too left the LP after being a member for only about three years. The local party was totally undemocratic, dominated by the MP and his wife who devise and run all the campaigns. The shoe leather that has been wasted in the name of the LP. I even went as far as becoming elected to our District Council becoming very disillusioned shortly thereafter. Unfortunately the dilema is, ashas been said before here in previous comments that you can’t fight the right of the party if you’re not IN THE Party. Regretably I have come to also believe a former comment that went along the lines of “was there really ever a LP that truely represented the working people of this country?. I too am a founding member and attended the inaugural conference. For I comrades am not prepared to kneel and be chained.
Labour is dying from the top down as Milliband vows to emulate Thatcher:
http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-radical-alternative/
Though I wish Left Unity well, I fear it is futile. I am the sort of person LU should be looking to attract: former disaffected Labour supporter looking for a way of expressing his desire for a fairer world through the medium of a mass political movement. And indeed, I have flirted with joining on and off for a while. But every time I come on this site and see the discussion boards, I am confronted with the anger, bitterness and bloated self-righteousness that clothes itself in ‘isms’ and ‘ists’ and God knows what else that appears to be designed to repel. I see from a comment above that LU has gathered up former SW supporters. That beer is too strong for me. I may not want the current Labour party, but I certainly do not want the SW either. I fear that a movement intended to express the true left leaning views, unhindered by vested interest and corrupted morals, will eventually simply find itself yet another broken down vehicle for the ultra-left. I do not want people spouting dogma at me. I want plain, straight forward policy.
Well Jason, you have a clear choice then, given that Left Unity is being structured to be the most internally democratic political party ever – with online voting being introduced so Party Conferences aren’t just the arena for those with loads of spare time and unlimited levels of activism. Either join us and participate and work to make sure Left Unity doesn’t become the umpteenth failed attempt to build a genuinely open, radical, Left party with policies which are actually attractive to masses of working people – OR sit on the sidelines in despair, waiting for the , from the outset, perfect political party to come along.
John, sadly, I do despair. I repeat, I wish LU every success.
I know this is old ground, but I would be interested to know what the definition of ‘working class’ is these days and whether the people who fall into that definition see themselves as such. My feeling is that they do not and that the may even be slightly or even wholly offended if you stuck that badge on them. And if that is the case, how would a rallying cry, full of stirring slogans about ‘a genuinely open, radical, left party with policies which are attractive to masses of working people’ go down. The problem is that the media has done a brilliant job of making words like ‘left’, working class’ ‘radical’ and others toxic and risible in most people’s imaginations. You may not believe that, but maybe you and I move in different circles.
The points made are essential to address. Marginalisation of socialist idealogy/principles has been overtly and covertly maintained by mass media for so long now that phrases such as ‘working class’ ‘far left’ have taken on more of a negative connotation. Unfortunately mass dissemination of this is so difficult to counteract that until a genuine persistent ‘socialist’ voice is established through mass media with the appropriate gravitas then this will remain the status quo. Mass communication is the biggest tool in this information age. As previously mentioned in your post this is old ground (obviously) but an area that requires a large amount of thought if any message is to achieve clarity for all. Movements such as Left Unity would gain massively if the machinations of the media were fully understood. I have a degree in Journalism and some of the aspects of how the media function is very scary. The fool on the abyss analogy comes to mind unless the ‘left’ is completely reclaimed or at least rebranded. Finding a place within the political landscape and the process needed to achieve this are the first steps to communicating the socialist agenda.
Well holding my nose I’ve joined the Labour party. I’ll be working for them in the election 2015, contributing to what will surely be a landslide Labour victory. I will also confess that I hope to see a few LU councillors up and down the country.
That you seriously think that the “we are definitely going to continue exactly the same pro capitalist Austerity policies as the Coalition” as is repeatedly made clear by all the New Labour leadership, Labour Party is going to win any sort of “landslide victory” in the next General election, just shows how unaware you are of just how toxic New Labour is to most of the working class.
The Wythenshawe by-election this week was indeed won by Labour – but on about a 25% voter turnout. The field is therefore wide open for a real party of the radical Left (and of course the Far Right too) – and this will be even more true if New Labour gets in in the next General election, and yet again shows its neoliberal pro austerity , pro capitalist, colours yet again.
You are wasting your time working for New Labour , Robboh, – as
you have been repeatedly posting up this pro Labour nonsense month after month after month.
John I am certainly not as prolific as you are when it comes to posting “non-sense”, which at the end of the day is all down what opinion you hold. I am not interested in hearing the terms “working class” or “capitalist”, this is the language of last century and if you haven’t noticed it has no resonance with people at large, the very people you claim you want to help. Only people in far left “cliques” sitting in some school hall somewhere will use these terms as they dream of changing the world to some sort of communist utopia – is that East Germany or Soviet Russia? or you can go better than that and be North Korea. The Labour party is not perfect, but at least its a vehicle to actually changing how things are. Once LU gets big enough there should be an LU-Labour alliance at local government level.
Sorry Robboh; there will never again be a landslide victory for the Labour Party. For the foreseeable future, our alleged failing economy could not recover from another Labour government, however short-lived. Terrible thing to say but we would be as well touching it out with he Tories than shift to Labour.
Replacing one deeply conservative government (tory) with another deeply conservative alternative (sic.) (Labour) is no change whatsoever. The electorate are really starting to wake up to the Labour Party = working class representation myth. If you doubt it – consider the seismic shift from Labour to the SNP in Scotland.
Ok Eddie, I’ll hold you to that!
When the election results come in on May 2015, I’ll come back to this post!
As I said I hope LU get at least one counsellor somewhere in the country. It would be a welcome start.
Isn’t it just harder to remain in Labour and fight for the socialist corner?
Or is it just a waste of time?
The concept of Left Unity is great – but there are many more socialists, albeit a minority, within Labour, than around Left Unity and the other groups put together.
It is frustrating. But there are no short cuts. The Manchester by-election demonstrates the reality. The trade unions have not ditched Labour.
The Labour leadership is undoubtedly way behind the curve; it doesn’t really get the reality and has no strategy that will promote fundamental change.
But jumping ahead of where the vast majority are just isolates you even more, doesn’t it?
I am not dogmatic about Labour – it is the weakness of socialist ideas among the general population that makes it necessary to work within the Labour movement – to be heard, and not just by those within Labour. Besides, the Labour Party rightly belongs to the working class, not those who are currently at the helm.
My local LP branch in Eastleigh constituency has seen a modest revival, and the most interesting development is that each meeting has a political discussion (unfortunately I can rarely attend).
Essentially a working class constituency, with a working class LP membership, the by election only marginally increased Labour’s percentage following Cameron’s attack on Labour’s reasonably socialist candidate (as far as I could tell), John O’Farrell (4,088 votes, 9.8%) – but the TUSC also stood – receiving just 70 votes 0.1%.
Doesn’t this say it all, really?
All that said, if Labour indicates that it is ready to work with the Liberal Democrats (Ed Balls intimated this recently), there are already many LP members lining up to leave in this eventuality.
Correction to my post above – the TUSC vote was 62, not 70
I stopped supporting labour over 30 years ago. They sold out long ago, it was sad to see how many still stayed with them. Now they are a Tory style party. Centre right, they even stab the unions in the back. Working people have no representation at all these days. The economic failures of capitalism are used as an excuse to run everything into the ground, including NHS, slash benefits, make food banks respectable. The politicians and bankers laugh in our face. When will the people say enough is enough. We need to kick out those greedy politicians only after self aggrandisement and power. Tony Blair should be charged as a war criminal in an international court. Sick to death of the current lot. The power lies with the people. We must make changes.
As a matter of fact, Brenda, you are right about the Labour Party.
But the point is, how to change things?
Left Unity is not uniting the Left when there are even today more (genuine) socialists within Labour (albeit not reflected in its representation), and most of the time, given the lack of a credible alternative, people look to Labour for progessive change, as Wythenshawe showed.
It doesn’t even unite those outside of Labour – in the Green Party, the independents, etc.
As these are facts, too, like I say, the question becomes how best to transform the situation to win over those millions who are on the verge of saying enough is enough but see no lead? Do you think that standing in elections as Left Unity will begin to make the difference where many other groupings have failed?
I would like to think so, but I don’t think this will happen.
The traditional organisations of Labour and the trade unions will be tried and tested before moving on to something else – which is the only reason I stay in Labour. And to be a pain in the neck to those who have usurped working class representation for their own careers.
This is the greatest resignation letter i have read to date! Thank you for posting this. Best Wishes. Jade Hope.
A sign of the times?
New Labour Facebook group ‘Progress’ supported by mutli-millionaire Lord Sainsbury and backed by many an MP, and set up on 13/12/2010, has, at 26/3/14, 1,803 supporters (‘likes’), and as of now, 1,804 likes.
A newer Labour grouping, ‘Red Labour’, set up on 1/5/2011, (unapologetically socialist) has on its Facebook page the support of 11,393 as of yesterday, and as of now, 11,445 likes.
We are not properly represented in the Labour movement, but with a huge increase in numbers we can get there. I reckon we need more than 100,000 to make a difference.
With the FPTP system and no credible alternative, we must insist that the only major workers party, the Labour Party, becomes just that once more, to make a real difference for the overwhelming majority, and begin the building of a far better World…..
I think there are so many hidden decisions being made on a grand scale by the rich and powerful about the way we as a population are to be ushered either by sleight or law to fit their plans that it becomes an impossible fight for an ordinary person
I hope this new party will go from strength to strength as it is the only voice I hear with open honest activism
Terry Crow
When the Labour Party fought its first election it won only a handful of seats, so too the Lib Dems, the Green Party won one seat at the last general election. The fact is, no new party starts with anything like the support to seriously challenge existing mainstream parties.
The Labour Party lost its chance to change the economic and social landscape of this country when Tony Blair became prime minister; after 18 years of neo-liberalism the British public wanted change and what did they get, more neo-liberalism, and the current LP have moved even further right.
I admire your stance about remaining with the LP but I fear any socialists aspirations which remain therein will not see the light of day when it comes to manifesto and policy.
Hmm, just seen this. My first question to you Karen, given that you cite Mandelson, Blair, Kinnock and Prescott all long time rightward leaning Labour “leading members” of the Labour Party. What took you so Long?
My Second Question, Knowing these people were in leading positions, how come you stayed in the party for so long?
Why would anyone serious about Socialism, stay in the Labour Party?
Ally MacGregor
Leamington Spa