Being Red and Green

Against the background of a paralysed government and an imploding Tory party, with an election increasingly likely in the near future, the hope of any kind of Red-Green Alliance looks increasingly remote. Whilst Labour scraped home in the Peterborough by-election last week, with the lowest share of the vote for any winning by-election candidate since 1918, seven newly elected Green Party MEPs took their places in the European Parliament. Jeremy Corbyn said  " write Labour off at your peril " and offers it as the only alternative party of government ,whilst Sian Berry tells Green Party Conference that Labour are one of the ' old parties' who are responsible for ' breaking politics'. It is however an alliance which is needed more than ever. With the climate crisis finally beginning to get the attention it demands, and with public services on the brink of collapse, co-operation between Labour and Greens could offer a genuine and radical alternative. In the pe...

 
 Brexit has been overshadowing everything, and not in a good way. I write on the day when the European election results will be counted, with the prospect of Farage and co being the largest party, much of the Labour vote having deserted to the Brexit Party or, probably in considerably larger numbers, to avowedly Remainer parties- The Lib Dems and Greens in particular. 
 The focus on Brexit has not, of course, prevented other issues breaking through to demand attention. The Climate Crisis rather than Brexit is likely to be remembered as the defining issue of the next decade whilst the funding crisis in public services continues to grow. Politics itself is regarded by many as ' broken' . 
 The next Tory leader will almost certainly be a ' Hard  Brexiteer ' and will become Prime Minister The deadlock in Parliament will continue however, with the proposed Withdrawal Agreement explicitly opposed by most current MPs but the EU adamant that it can't and won'...

Several people have mentioned the need to aim for/ commit to Net Zero Carbon in the UK by 2030 ,citing the Zero Carbon Britain report as demonstrating how this could be done.  I attach a link to the report here   https://www.cat.org.uk/download/25766/ The first thing to be said about the report is that it was produced in 2013. Given that little progress has made in the years since then I assume the date of 2030 needs to to be amended to at least 2036 or 2037. This new date assumes ( presumably) that there will be a Labour led government in power by early 2020 at the latest, although the authors of the report appear to be hoping for a cross party approach ( ? !) The report is extremely helpful as a statement of intent, a list of what needs to be done ( although I am not sure about all of the wood burning ! )  The authors themselves state  “ We do not explicitly model or make assumptions on how we get there “. ( ie a Zero Carbo Britain by 2030). ...

In my previous blog I suggested that Labour should consider conditionally supporting May’s Withdrawal  Deal, in return for a place in the negotiating team for the ongoing discussion with the EU about a long term trading arrangement and  an emergency spending programme to address climate change and collapsing public services.  Whilst May would be unlikely to agree to such conditions the offer would demonstrate Labour’s constructive attitude and would help it to change the terms of the debate. In any event Labour should be making plans regarding how best to use the Transition Period, set to last 20 months with the possibility of an extension. I would suggest the following:  That Labour reaffirms its commitment to undertaking a Green Transformation when elected to government and begins preparation for its implementation. Such preparation, which would involve the allocation of substantial financial resources, would involve drawing up a constituency by constitu...

Maybe Labour should think the unthinkable and conditionally agree to support the proposed withdrawal agreement,  if only to avoid a General Election completely focused on Brexit, which wouldn’t necessarily go well for us ? What conditions ? -a place/ places in the negotiating team for the ongoing discussions about the future relationship with the EU - an emergency spending programme for the period of negotiations, to prop up public services and to crank up the transition to a no carbon economy ( as outlined in the Green Transition document   https://www.labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-Green-Transformation-.pdf   )     In the likely event that such an offer is rejected then Labour would participate in voting the deal down, on the basis that it has no confidence in the Tories negotiating a satisfactory long term settlement on their own. Labour would be likely to defeat the government  in an uncomfortable alliance with Tory Br...

A well attended meeting in New Mills on Monday night ( September 3rd) was given an insight into the huge problems and injustices associated  with the implementation of Universal Credit , which is happening in High Peak next week. It also heard from activists in areas where Universal Credit has already been introduced, who are campaigning against it whilst at the same time giving practical support to those affected by its impact. Universal Credit ( UC) combines  a number of existing benefits into a single payment. Not a bad idea in itself and generally welcomed in principle when it was first suggested. The disaster that it has become has been largely due to the fact that its implementation has had the primary intention of saving money rather than having it better spent. This has meant that the original promise to ‘make work pay’ has been heavily diluted whilst those with children and/or disabilities are facing severe cuts to their payments. In addition those in part t...

Anyone who is sceptical about claims made of the Bolshevik Revolution by its supporters ,but who has also been reluctant to accept the accounts of it by right wing and Cold War historians, will find much of value in John Medhurst’s ‘ No Less Than Mystic ’ ( 2017 )  An active socialist and trade unionist, Medhurst takes the title of the book from Martov’s description of the Bolshevik Revolution . Martov was the  leader of the Mensheviks, opponents of the revolution and advocates of a more gradualist approach. Medhurst summarises Martov's view of Bolshevik political strategy as  "a cocktail of utopian desire and adventurism lacking solid plans for creating a socialist society and likely to degenerate into its opposite" and concludes that it “is a judgment supported by history". For Medhurst the real revolution of 1917 took place in February not October, " led by a wide alliance of socialists, trade unionists, peasants and populists in which the Bolshe...