Why I’ve joined Left Unity
The London Evening Standard is an odd newspaper. On the one hand it sees its role as to support the squalid capitalism of the City, but on the other it has to reflect the actual life conditions of Londoners. So on a day when we have a big story about London’s booming recovery, inside the paper this propaganda is comprehensively dismantled. We discover that the South East saw house prices rise and unemployment fall a bit (as if rising house prices is good!). The rest of the country saw things continue to worsen. Most of the new jobs were at the bottom of the pile, poorly paid and semi or unskilled. So much for the skilled workforce Britain needs! We also were told what we in Left Unity already know, that it is wage-earners, the working class, who are suffering at the expense of those with assets, with property. And this will not be a temporary blip. It is the pattern for the years ahead.
Grand narratives and accompanying statistics don’t tell and sometimes hide real stories.
I heard yesterday that a friend of mine, I shall call him Sam, had been told by his landlord that the house he lives in is going to be put on the market. This comes a couple of months after Sam lost his job.
I encountered Sam when we were both volunteering for a charity while unemployed. He is a graduate, with a particular IT based skill that we are being told is the sort of training we need ‘to compete in the world’. I found a job, then a little later so did he. It didn’t utilise all Sam’s skills but was reasonably interesting. After a couple of months the company made him redundant. The market for its products remained depressed and its sales had dried up.
Sam used up virtually all his savings in his previous period of unemployment. He won’t be near the top of any housing list so he’ll have to move in with his mother, with whom he doesn’t get on.
As well as being skilled, Sam is hard-working, versatile and reliable. He also suffers from depression. I have told him to remember that this isn’t his fault. He is not to blame. But the lies of this administration and the Daily Mail-led media don’t help.
Another sorrowful story from the torrent of misery produced by capitalist recession and neo-liberal austerity. I imagine stories like this are familiar to the Labour leadership. But I look in vain for the fury with which they should be responding. I look in vain for their vision of an alternative society.
We need a party that can reassure people that Another World is Possible. We need a party that says there is an alternative to insecure employment, worsening public services, growing inequality, and an administration that tells those suffering most that it’s their fault.
And we need a party that is prepared to talk about what will be required to make these things happen, about limiting property ownership, about maximum incomes as as well as minimum wages, about full employment, about public services being for the good of all.
This is why I believe we need Left Unity. This is why I’ve joined.
Tim Powell
8 comments
8 responses to “Why I’ve joined Left Unity”
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Stories like this are certainly familiar to our local branch. Brilliant piece, need more of this kind of thing on this site. Welcome onboard! Ps could the web team sort out the dodgy formatting when they get a mo, or is it just me? Cheers
Thanks Tim!
The great thing about Left Unity is that it is about the left, not class. That’s what makes it different, that’s what makes it better.
For far too long those on the left have been talking about class, & now all that can stop as we are left, not class warriors fighting the good fight.
People don’t respond to class talk, but they do to particular policies that give them money, status, & hope. Religions have done this for years, & we can too.
That’s why this whole thing is called ‘left unity’, not ‘workers’ unity’, not ‘socialist unity’. Recognising this is progress. People, even workers, don’t respond to being called workers or socialists. That’s why getting people to support the idea of left unity & voting for the left makes sense. Class talk is so old-fashioned – people get turned off by it, & those who talk that way as just seen as weird. And what’s the point of being ignored because you’re weird? Weirdos may feel good about themselves, that they are truthers, but everyone knows weirdos are just wasting their breath.
That’s why Left Unity must never become either Workers’ Unity or Socialist Unity. If it does it will destroy all that we are trying to do.
this is so true and there are n number of misunderstandings or interpretation of class – i dont what class i am or what i will be though my parents were working class does it matter. TIme spent arguing about it is time not getting to grips with the issues that assail people in their daily lives. if we assume they are not capitalists except for a tiny minority.
tony walker
Ok Anya. You convince the bankers to join Left Unity, I’ll convince the working class. Sound fair?
Just to clarify, that Tim who posted the last comment is not the same Tim who wrote the piece. That Tim is me. I agree that it is crucial everyone realizes this party is Left Unity. Not Marxist Unity. Not Communist Unity. Not even Socialist Unity.
I’m presuming that self proclaimed/ described Marxists, Socialist, COmmunists, etc are still welcome to join…? Otherwise might as well not set up Left Unity but join Labour or LibDodos…
Absolutely. It wouldn’t be Left and it wouldn’t be Unity if it excluded anyone who regarded themselves as on the Left. My emphasis was because it’s generally been a few of a Communist persuasion who have been keen to tell ‘reformists’ they should have stayed in Labour or the Lib Dems.
We must all defend ourselves from the accumulation of vicious attacks on working class values.