#292 working_01 cover 23/04/2018 12:50 Page 1 CHARTIST For democratic #292 May/June 2018 £2 Saving the NHS

Stephanie Clark Selling our health Bob Littlewood Council's in frontline James Anderson Ireland borders Ruth Taylor & Janey Stone May 1968 Billy Hayes Fixing the system Paul Garver Trump resistance plus Book & Film reviews

ISSN - 0968 7866 ISSUE

www.chartist.org.uk #292 working_01 cover 23/04/2018 12:50 Page 2

CONTENTS

Contributions and letters deadline for FEATURES Editorial Policy CHARTIST #293 NEW COUNCILS ON THE FRONTLINE The editorial policy of CHARTIST is to promote debate amongst people active in 08 June 2018 Bob Littlewood outlines the challenge radical politics about the contemporary Chartist welcomes articles of 800 or 1500 words, and 8 facing local Labour relevance of democratic socialism across letters in electronic format only to: [email protected] the spectrum of politics, economics, ALTERNATIVE LOCAL MODELS science, philosophy, art, interpersonal Receive Chartist’s online newsletter: send your email address to [email protected] relations – in short, the whole realm of Alena Ivanova and Paul Smith on Preston and social life. Chartist Advert Rates: 9 Bristol initiatives Our concern is with both and socialism. The history of the last century Inside Full page £200; 1/2 page £125; 1/4 page £75; 1/8 page £40; 1/16 page £25; small box 5x2cm £15 single has made it abundantly clear that the sheet insert £50 BREXIT & THE IRISH BORDER mass of the population of the advanced We are also interested in advert swaps with other publications. To place an advert, please email: James Anderson on the perils of a hard capitalist countries will have no interest [email protected] border in any form of socialism which is not 10 thoroughly democratic in its principles, its practices, its morality and its ideals. LEFT REMAIN CASE Yet the consequences of this deep attach- Ireland border issue threatens Brexit Stephen Marks on socialists for the EU ment to democracy – one of the greatest Page 10 advances of our epoch – are seldom 11 reflected in the discussion and debates CHARTIST AGM 2018 Cover by Martin Rowson amongst active socialists. POLITICS FOR MANY CHARTIST is not a party publication. It Billy Hayes on a new drive to make votes brings together people who are interested Can Labour find winning ways? in socialism, some of whom are active the 12 count CHARTIST Labour Party and the trade union move- ment. It is concerned to deepen and BOBBY KENNEDY LEGACY FOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM extend a dialogue with all other socialists Number 292 May/June 2018 and with activists from other movements Nigel Doggett recalls , the politics involved in the struggle to find democrat- Saturday July 7th 13 and the man ic alternatives to the oppression, exploita- REGULARS tion and injustices of capitalism and Central TRUMPING TRUMP class society Venue tbc US resistance is growing to the populist OUR HISTORY 78 Editorial Board 14 president says Paul Garver 4 The Commonwealth party Manifesto CHARTIST is published six times a year EDITORIAL by the Chartist Collective. This issue was Speakers & discussions on Brexit, neo- NHS UP FOR SALE 5 Tory Brexit home truths produced by an Editorial Board consisting Stephanie Clark on how Tories are letting of Duncan Bowie (Reviews), Andrew liberalism, , the predators in GREENWATCH Coates, Peter Chalk, Patricia d’Ardenne, 16 6 David Toke on onshore windfarms Mike Davis (Editor), Nigel Doggett, Don Momentum, Labour strategy. Flynn, Roger Gillham, James Grayson, Jeremy Hunt selling off the NHS Page PARIS MAY 1968-50 YEARS ON POINTS & CROSSINGS Hassan Hoque, Peter Kenyon, Dave Lister, Check www.chartist.org.uk for further details 16 Ruth Taylor & Janey Stone remember the 7 Paul Salveson on local surprises Puru Miah, Patrick Mulcahy, Sheila revolt plus Chartist archive Osmanovic, Marina Prentoulis, Robbie 18 FILM REVIEW Scott (Website Editor), Mary Southcott, 25 Patrick Mulcahy on Funny Cow John Sunderland. WORKERS’ DEMOCRACY? Production: Ferdousur Rehman Ian Bullock considers soviets, delegate & BOOK REVIEWS 26 Andrew Coates on Rethinking Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of 20 representative systems Democracy; Duncan Bowie on Labour the EB CHARTIST Church, Paul Salveson on Walt Join the growing body of supporter LULA IMPRISONED Whitman; Stephen Marks on FOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM subscribers for which you will receive Wainwright’s democracy; Nigel Watt on Contacts occasional discussion bulletins and an Thomas Zicman de Barros on high stakes in Making Africa Work; Maria Prentoulis invitation to readers’ meetings and the 22 Brazil on Social Democracy; Mary Southcott Published by Chartist Publications AGM. Alternatively, just take out an on Erdogen’s Turkey PO Box 52751 London EC2P 2XF ordinary subscription. SOCIAL SECURITY SCANDAL tel: 0845 456 4977 STRASBOURG VIEW £15 ordinary subscription Rory O’Kelly argues Labour needs to stand 32 Julie Ward MEP on Brexit shambles Printed by People For Print Ltd, Unit 10, Riverside Park, £30 supporter subscription 23 up for the poor Sheaf Gardens, Sheffield S2 4BB – Tel 0114 272 0915. (6 issues) Email: [email protected] Visit www.chartist.org.uk/subscribe for ANTISEMITISM & WINDRUSH Website: www.chartist.org.uk details Bryn Jones sees moral panic & Don Flynn Email:[email protected] Ex-president Lulu da Silva fighting to traces migrant ire Twitter: stand again Page 22 24 @Chartist48

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OUR HISTORY EDITORIAL

OUR HISTORY - 78 Tory Brexit dreams hit reality

COMMON WEALTH MANIFESTO 1943 Brexiteers crow about the great prospects for Stephen Marks discusses a new must-read pam- Britain’s future trade and prosperity outside the phlet arguing the left remain case for a European he was a Christian study of four radicals who were involved in the party. EU. The freedom to strike trade deals as ‘global recovery and reform programme within the EU. socialist political party founded in July 1942, The Common Wealth party had no significant impact Britain’ is held up as the alternative to the domi- James Anderson puts the spotlight on the big by the alliance of two left wing groups, the after 1946 and was finally closed down in 1993. nation and bureaucracy of Brussels. The emptiness issue which could upset the whole Brexit apple 1941 Committee, supported by “The age that is ending is based on competition and duplicity of this promise was further revealed cart, namely the Irish border. He outlines the and J B Priestley, Spanish Civil War veter- between men and nations. It was the age of capitalism by two developments last month: first, Trump’s minefield in difficulties in avoiding a hard border Tan and Communist and the neo- and monopoly, nationalism and imperialism. It has trade war threat and secondly, revelations over the unless agreement on a customs union is reached. Christian Forward March movement led by Liberal MP greatly increased the productive capacity of the world: ‘Windrush generation’. Julie Ward MEP reports on Brexit negotiation for Barnstable, . built railways; grown cotton; dug coal. It has also built Trump threatened huge tariffs on European and developments, the inadequacies of UK lead David It appealed to egalitarian sentiments and hence slums; grown hatred; dug graves for two generations of Chinese steel and oil exports, to which the EU and Davis and the need for Labour to firm up its posi- aimed to be more appealing to Labour's potential vot- youth. It was not without value in its growth and flow- China responded in kind. This action if pursued tion. ers, rather than voters leaning Conservative. Common ering, but it is now outgrown and decayed. The beliefs opens the way to a vicious trade war which could Meanwhile chancellor Hammond continues the Wealth stood for three principles: , and forms of authority that shaped it are today shack- translate into a loss of 100,000s of jobs and compa- tough austerity regime hammering public ser- Morality in Politics and Vital les on humanity. ny bankruptcies. Of course, Trump is the big vices, pay and living standards. Bob Littlewood Democracy. Disagreeing with Our proposals, we change since the UK EU referendum. This is the reports on the opportunity in local council elec- the electoral pact established gladly admit, do not ‘America First’ president, as Paul Garver reports, tions for Labour to clear out many Tory controlled with other parties in the make sense in terms of playing the populist nationalist cards to white authorities but it has to be an anti-austerity cam- wartime coalition, key figures the ideas of the City or Anglo-Saxon Americans. No way is Trump going to paigning message from Labour. There is no room in the 1941 Committee began the Foreign Office. be giving preferential treatment to UK firms in for business as usual. Alena Ivanova reporting sponsoring independent can- They cannot be under- any future trade deals. Rather the UK will be on Preston’s Community Wealth plans and Paul didates in by-elections under stood by those who exposed with no effective trading bloc for protec- Smith highlighting Bristol’s radical housing ini- the banner of the Nine Point think that if all men tion. tiatives provide two examples of a progres- Group. and nations pursue Nor will the Commonwealth countries sive alternative for Labour. Following the electoral their own interests, provide an economic refuge. These While outsourcing is becoming success of in universal prosperity countries of the Empire, currently of a increasingly discredited following the Maldon with this support in and good will must UK trading value of 9% compared to collapse of Carillion, tin-eared 1942, there was a move to result. Our pro- 44% with the EU will be looking ‘Be Tories like Health secretary Jeremy form the Committee into a gramme is based on elsewhere for their economic devel- Hunt, put the NHS at the sharp political party, through a completely different opment. Liam Fox is whistling in realistic. end of two frontal assaults: big merger with Forward March. ideas. We say that it is the wind if he expects India, now effective cuts in funding allied This was led by Sir Richard no use patching up a assuming its place as fifth largest Demand the with a determined push to priva- Acland, Vernon Bartlett, J.B. way of living that has world economy, is going to do tise. Stephanie Clark outlines Priestley, and Tom changed into a way of favourable trade deals with UK. impossible’ the threat from the likes of Virgin Wintringham. Its programme death. We believe the This links with the Windrush scan- Care and US multi-nationals given a of common ownership echoed British people will not dal long highlighted by backbench further green light from newly that of the Labour Party but turn back towards the Labour MPs, migrants’ rights groups launched Accountable Care stemmed from a more idealis- old world; they will and a sustained campaign by The Organisations. tic perspective, later termed pioneer towards a new Guardian. It is the threat of deportation and Rory O’Kelly exposes the Tory assault on ‘libertarian socialist’. It came social order. denial of rights to over 50,000 British citizens as a the poor and disadvantaged through Universal to reject the State-dominated In this new social consequence of Theresa May and Amber Rudd’s Credit and changes in the social security system. form of socialism adopted by order: ‘hostile environment’ for migrants. Revelations Labour needs to sharpen its focus on this assault Labour under the influence of Fellowship will finally hit home during the week of the on the most vulnerable, he argues. Sidney and , replace competition as Commonwealth Heads of Government conference Getting our system of democracy right is funda- increasingly aligning itself the driving force in our in London. Cue huge embarrassment. All those mental to making effective social change. Billy instead with co-operative, community. Indian and African sub-continent students denied Hayes outlines an initiative aimed at trade syndicalist and guilt socialist Co-operation with any long term rights in the UK. The regime of unions to reform our antiquated electoral system traditions. our fellows, not the landlords, schools, health professionals expected to while Ian Bullock examines the strengths and Vernon Bartlett was elect- pursuit of self-interest, undertake checks, the Theresa May ‘Go Home’ weaknesses of representative, direct and soviet ed as an independent in will be the driving buses all begin to come home to roost as cheap style democratic systems. Bridgwater in 1942. Common force in the lives of election ploys. So behind the Windsor Castle flat- Our current flawed democratic systems contin- Wealth intervention in by- men and women. tery the reality is alienated Commonwealth coun- ue to alienate millions. As Ruth Taylor and elections allowed a radicalis- Life will come before tries. Janey Stone celebrate the events of May 1968 in ing electorate to return property. As Don Flynn points out, this is but the tip of we are reminded that engaging and socialist candidates in A society built on an iceberg and requires Labour policies which empowering citizens in political life, whether in Conservative heartlands, in Eddisbury, Skipton and these principles will be inspired by vital democracy, a unashamedly say that long-term residence in the the community, trade union or government, is not Chelmsford. In the 1945, general election, democracy which is a living freedom, not dead, formal UK does lead to permanent residence; that an optional extra but the only true safeguard of Commonwealth held the Chelmsford seat, but the MP, or buried in red tape. migrants in all categories will be protected from our liberties and rights. Populists, authoritarians joined the Labour party in 1946. Work, responsibility and wealth will have to be adverse discrimination whether in employment, and racists of the right, in Hungary, Poland, Before the 1945 election, Common Wealth had asked shared according to the needs and abilities of all men, housing or the use of public services and citizen- Turkey or the US can only triumph if the people the Labour Party to let it have a free run in 40 seats, a women and children. Today this means the common ship and a right of appeal will be available to all are passive and disempowered. proposal rejected by the latter. Acland joined the ownership of the great productive resources, with who want to settle here. The challenge for Corbyn-led Labour is to build Labour Party as did Driberg. Bartlett kept his seat as democracy in industry as well as in politics. Of course, it also connects to the rights of the 3 an active social movement based on our common an Independent. Very little has been written about There will have to be security and equality for all cit- million EU citizens working in the UK and the mil- interests for equality, solidarity and social justice. Common Wealth. A 1968 PhD by has izens. There will have to be colonial freedom and an lion plus living in Europe. Labour has rightly said This means reaching out also to our brothers and never been published. Vincent Geoghegan’s 2011 advance towards world unity.” that their right to UK citizenship will be a number sisters in the EU and beyond. As the students in Religion and Socialism: Roads to Commonwealth is a one commitment. Not so with the Tories. ’68 demanded: ‘Be realistic. Demand the impossi- Much comes back to Brexit and its follies. ble’.

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GREENWATCH P&C

How Labour can put the wind up New voice in town- the Tories part of the solution? Dave Toke calls for more onshore windfarms Paul Salveson on local surprises n previous issues of members are from the large cen- Chartist I’ve commented on tre, which is often economically the appalling state of the deprived. It’s not uncommon for town where I spent most of the smaller ‘satellite’ towns to be my childhood - Farnworth - more affluent ‘outer suburban’ Iand questioned why people places often returning non- weren’t rioting on the streets. Labour councillors. So the gov- Well it’s started. A ward by-elec- erning Labour elite can justify tion a few weeks ago saw new ignoring the ‘satellite’ towns on political party Farnworth and the basis that a) they don’t vote Kearsley First (FKF) win by a for us and b) they’ve fewer social substantial margin over Labour. and economic problems anyway. Traditionally, Farnworth has Yes it stinks, and it’s politics. In been a rock-solid Labour area. cases like Farnworth, where the Yet FKF’s Paul Sanders won ‘satellite’ town is both Labour- with 1,204 votes while Labour voting and economically dead or came second with 969. UKIP got dying, the excuses are even thin- 169 votes while the Tory garnered ner. a mere 153. The Lib Dems did The new leader of Bolton abour is well placed to onshore windfarms. Doing so venting the Government from pro- much worse, polling just 23, with Council has gone on record sug- embarrass the Tories would embarrass the Government viding opportunities for onshore the Greens getting 18. gesting that the regeneration of A wake-up call- Farnworth Kealey First elected councillor by attacking the and also sow division inside the wind. So what’s going on? Part of the Farnworth is a high priority, but Government’s war on Tory ranks. More practically, it The Minister of State for problem is the marginalisation of a lot of people would say it’s far councils have limited powers. the onshore wind would offer hope to people who Energy, Claire Perry, has, in small to medium-sized towns fol- too late in the day and the rot set That should change. Lindustry in the UK. Despite are working in the industry that recent months, been making some lowing local government reorgani- in back in the 1980s, with pre- The debate on what makes for onshore wind now being the they might have a future. Places encouraging noises about provid- sation in the mid-1970s, coupled cious little having been done an appropriate size for a local cheapest widely available electric- like Grimsby are benefitting from ing some 'contracts for differences', with the catastrophic collapse of since. The so-called ‘trickle down’ authority is an interesting one ity source the Government is offshore wind projects which are CFDs as they are know in trade- traditional industries, mainly cot- theory that investing in a large and I would always go for small actively sabotaging the industry still being built, but onshore wind jargon, available for onshore wind. ton. There’s something about hav- centre will somehow help the units with a manageable size and by refusing to allow long term factories are being closed down, They were available for onshore ing your ‘own’ council that bol- peripheral towns is a fallacy. identity. Farnworth has a popula- contracts to be issued to wind the latest being the Glasgow wind when the CfD system was sters identity and engenders a Turning it all round is difficult. tion of 30,000 which for local developers. Meanwhile large sub- based Gaia Wind. launched in early 2015 but since sense of pride, and participation, But where smaller towns have authorities in many towns in sidies are being offered to gas, Independent experts say that then, while some offshore wind in a place. Being part of larger their own council (be it parish or countries like France, Germany coal and nuclear power stations. onshore wind can be built costing contracts have been awarded, units, often with meaningless town) they can make a difference and is on the large side. Yet Under the last Labour the consumer less than new large onshore wind has been carved out names which mean nowt to and bring a focus, in a way that in the UK there’s still a mentality Government incentives were gas fired power stations. However of bidding for such contracts. Yet nobody (Kirklees, Tameside Labour’s much-loved ‘area com- that going for bigger and bigger given to build up a large increase orders have dried up because the Perry appears to lack the required amongst others) only make things mittees’ or similar, never will. councils (as in Wales at the in onshore wind power, which Government is refusing to organ- political clout to do much that worse. ‘Huddersfield’ is a big But it’s ultimately down to the moment) brings benefits. It’s non- now supplies around a tenth of ise long term guarantees of prices changes anything, especially to enough place to have its own communities themselves, sup- sense. Small councils bring focus, UK’s electricity supply, with off- paid for electricity to be generat- overcome the vocal hostility of the council, but so is Dewsbury and ported by their councils, having good governance and strong com- shore wind and solar farms now ed by the wind farms. Long term climate-and-wind sceptical group possibly Batley. Lumping them the guts to get stuck in, stop munity support. It makes sense supplying around another ten per contracts are needed because the of Tory MPs. all into one unit and calling it blaming everyone else, and just to share appropriate facilities cent of UK electricity. But right technology is capital intensive Making a priority of embarrass- something meaningless in the do it. So, forming your own politi- with neighbouring councils but wing English Tory pressure has meaning that while the wind is Dr David Toke is ing the Government over this issue hope that people won’t think cal party – like Farnworth and Paul’s website is above all maintain that local prevented any move towards free, the money for the equipment Reader in Energy should be a win-win situation for Huddersfield, Bolton or Bury Kearsley First – could be part of www.paulsalveso democratic base. Let elected enabling long term contracts to be needs to be paid for at the start of Politics at the Labour. Renewable energy, includ- dominates, is laughable. In the the solution. It will almost cer- n.org.uk regional authorities have respon- issued so that new windfarms can the project. Hence effective (say University of ing wind power, is very popular case of Farnworth, Horwich and tainly bring out the worst in sibility for the strategic stuff. be financed. Meanwhile the UK 15 year) long term price guaran- Aberdeen among all voters, especially with Westhoughton whoever decided many Labour politicians but they From what I’ve seen of them, risks becoming increasingly tees are needed to persuade young voters. On the other hand these things had the sense to call should realise their own failings FKF supporters aren’t local dependent on supplies of gas from banks to offer loans to support by supporting onshore wind the new council ‘Bolton’ which is and understand why groups like UKIPers – they’re the sort of peo- places like Russia and Qatar. windfarm construction. Labour can proclaim it is promot- the obvious dominant town, but it FKF have come into being. If they ple who would be involved in com- The Labour frontbench is The majority of the capacity of ing consumer interests of obtain- didn’t make the loss of your local had any sense, they’d extend a munity activities and probably in beginning to realise that young UK’s onshore windfarms have ing electricity - above all clean council any more palatable. hand of friendship to the new the past would have naturally people in particular want to see been installed in Scotland. energy – from the cheapest possi- With even the best of inten- councillor (and others to come) inclined towards Labour. The green energy being given a Despite the fact that the Scottish ble source. Attacking the tions, a local authority in which and work with them in the inter- May elections will show whether chance, and, for example, John Government is keen to have more Government for its failure to sup- one centre dominates will always ests of the town. Farnworth and Kearsley First McDonnell has recently attacked windfarms, control over what con- port onshore wind is a very good be seen by the smaller towns as A town council for Farnworth was a by-election flash in the pan, the Tories for failing to do any- tracts are issued for electricity way of taking votes from the being against their interests. and Kearsley, matching what or the beginning of a much bigger thing to revive support for the supply rests with Westminster. Tories. Please, John McDonnell Often there’s more than an ele- other Bolton ‘satellites’ Horwich shift in people’s thinking. Like its feed-in tariff scheme that helped Yet it is English Tory MPs, often and , spend some ment of truth in the perception. and Westhoughton already have, more affluent neighbour in people install solar panels on allied to the climate-sceptic Nigel time on this! Put some real wind It’s a particular problem (in my would make a lot of sense and Frome, Somerset, Farnworth their roofs. But attention ought Lawson and his ‘Global Warming up the Tories! C experience) with Labour authori- give a real focus for the town’s could shake the establishment’s also to be turned to promoting Policy Foundation’, that are pre- ties in which most of the elected regeneration, even though town foundations. I hope it does. C

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LOCAL COUNCILS

Local change-makers Community wealth fund Preston-style In the wake of Carillion’s collapse, Alena Ivanova reports on an alternative model Bob Littlewood on prospects for Labour councils in the face of continuing austerity for delivering council services

hen it comes to ration behind the Preston Model has multiple stakeholders - it is the loss of con- and Heather Wakefield from not business first; trol and UNISON explaining the initia- 6) Place matters - growth accountability tive. Brown explained that outside the neighbourhood that we all feel through using anchor public doesn’t trickle down! Hyper whenW our services end up in pri- institutions Preston have lever- localised investment is needed; vate hands, previous Labour gov- aged their substantial procure- 7) It’s about a systemic ernments and current Labour ment power to breathe life into change. local authorities have plenty to local businesses by deliberate As inspirational as the session answer for. reorganisation of the whole pro- itself was, the following Q&A was A recent success story comes curement network, as well as more informative: participants from a northern local authority embedding core principles of pub- asked when this will be official where councillors reached out lic control. Ted Howard then Labour local government policy, across the pond for guidance on expanded on those principles. when their local authority will how to take back control of their 1) First principle of the start implementing some of these procurement for the benefit of the local economy - keep as many principles, rather than selling off residents, not international cor- people as possible in work, rather Alena Ivanova is land to private developers. porations. The ‘Preston model’ than make capital happy; a member of Further, why is this only gaining Brent Labour campaigning in local elections has become something of a buz- 2) Local broad-based own- Tower Hamlets momentum now, when local can- zword in the past 18 months. A ership matters - so does local Labour Party and didates for council have been t election time we talk knew best and were there to con- health) to take action together. democratic control workshop at decision making; Momentum selected and manifestos drawn about Labour trol rather than enable Councils With us. the Labour Alternative Models of 3) Economic multipliers are up, most not mentioning commu- Councils’ achieve- to decide what to do locally We do need rank and file Ownership conference (see previ- extremely important; nity wealth building? Party mem- ments rather than the And our failure on housing in Councillors to give full support. ous Chartist report) had Cllr 4) Investment vs extrac- bers need to raise this approach effects of austerity in particular was scandalous. The concentration of power with- Matthew Brown, Ted Howard, tion; now with councillors if we want it Aorder convince people we make a Outright resistance and acting in Councils (Mayors, strong lead- from Cleveland, Ohio - the inspi- 5) Economic partnership to happen. C difference. So often when we illegally in the way that Lambeth ers and Cabinets not accountable make cuts we present changes in and Liverpool tried in the 1980s to rank and file Councillors and too positive a light-- transforming isn’t back on the agenda. Instead the local party membership) is services, protecting the most vul- we must hang our hopes on the something which needs to be con- nerable, efficiencies, etc. We DO election of a socialist Labour gov- fronted. As long as elites call the Social housing Bristol fashion make a difference, but too often ernment and make changes with- shots countering austerity togeth- it’s quite marginal. Local turnout in our Councils er will be a tall order. does seem to indicate that there So it isn’t surprising that local On a positive note, there are Paul Smith on using council land ownership to boost social housing are many people who believe that Labour is inward looking and on Labour Councils that are taking local Councils don’t make a differ- the back foot, given our approach steps to be ready for the time he 2016 local elections land and even be the developer ning policies into their land deals ence to elections and the concentration when more resources and powers in Bristol saw the itself. Bristol has a council house or have unconvincing arguments Thatcher was determined to of power in too few hands in so become available to them: first Labour majority building programme and is set- for why affordable housing is not neuter socialist Councils through many Labour Councils Fairness Commissions which in a dozen years and ting up a wholly council-owned viable. Once projects have plan- rate-capping and forcing Councils It’s possible that an intake of Bob Littlewood is inform them in detail about overwhelming back- development company, which can ning permission we have a hous- to outsource services, stopping left Councillors in May might aiming to inequalities; progressive procure- ingT for the Labour Mayoral candi- access both borrowing and council ing association fund of £57m to the building of Council houses, change this outlook. Enormous continue as a ment policies supporting local date. One of the headline promis- land. Bristol has allocated a five- pay for additional rented homes. the right to buy etc. and she abol- efforts have been made by Labour councillor enterprise, including co-opera- es in that election was to increase year housing fund of £220m, the This both allows associations to ished the GLC. Socialist Councils Momentum and the Party’s left to in the London tives (well done Preston); service the number of affordable homes equivalent of a national pro- buy homes directly from develop- who defied the Government in select candidates for Council who borough of provision in genuine co-produc- built from between 100-200 up to gramme of around £25bn (com- ers and to compete with them for the 1980s failed. The current gov- want to be local change-makers Redbridge tion with users; wholly Council 800 per year by 2020. pared to the programme sites to develop themselves. ernment is determined to keep and challenge local establish- owned development companies, The key to such delivery would announced but not yet released of The empty properties which we local Councils in their place, ments to be more outward looking and of course the prospect of tak- be a combination of land use, £2bn). were told were too expensive to whether through cutting grants and confrontational, but there are ing services back in-house when financial investment and rigorous We are applying a filter to our repair and had to be auctioned off or using legislation/regulations to good comrades who think that contracts expire use of the planning rules. Bristol land; if we can’t develop it, then are now all publicly owned and prevent a challenge to private being on the Council won’t And there are many individual has a significant land holding but we will look to housing associa- let. Some are general council interests-- landlords, developers change anything. They are Councillors giving support to resi- the previous mayor promoted tions and community-based hous- housing, some are used by the and profiteers providing public wrong. If we want to make real dents in difficulty and bringing massive asset stripping in the ing organisations. Only if neither council as temporary accommoda- services. change we must have the right the knowledge of this into what city. In October 2015 he issued a the council nor our partners can tion and some have been leased to In the new Labour era the people in place they say and do in the Town Hall prospectus to sell 80 hectares of take a project forward will we housing and homelessness chari- pressure eased a little but the It’s just possible that local So there needs to be change at housing land, 80% of the total look to the private sector. ties on a peppercorn rent. basic furniture of central/local Council leaders from the left will all levels. available. On being elected Half of the housing land in Cllr Paul Smith is We are already seeing a signifi- relations remained the same. emerge and want to co-operate as Turnout this time will be high- Labour quickly halted these sales Bristol is privately owned and we Cabinet member cant increase in affordable homes Indeed the statist insistence on a group to take the fight to the er where local parties have been and stopped his programme of want affordable homes built there for housing, being built, which will flow performance indicators and tar- Tories. Our national leadership focusing on the Council cam- auctioning empty city centre too. We are one of three local Bristol City through into meeting the mani- gets for everything actually made must support them and encour- paigning against Tory austerity. council housing. authorities that publish develop- Council festo pledge. What we have things worse. It’s an unfortunate age members to do likewise. Those who voted in the general Of all the powers councils have, er viability assessments shown is that we can implement truth that a succession of Labour We need also to make a better election because they were land ownership is the strongest in unredacted. We also have a plan- socialist housing policies under a ministers with a responsibility for job of encouraging groups with inspired by the message of hope our ability to deliver social hous- ning committee which has the Conservative Government. local government thought that relevant single issues (e.g. dis- will turn out where candidates ing. If a council is the landowner, confidence to challenge develop- Imagine what we could do with a they and their civil servants ability, homelessness, mental put a clear anti-austerity message. it can decide what is built on its ers who have not costed our plan- Labour one. C

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BREXIT EUROPE

Ireland’s Brexit Borders? A Corbyn government with a new Could Ireland’s border be the stumbling block for Brexit? James Anderson on carrots EU vision and sticks and collateral damage

hat are Britain’s Stephen Marks outlines ideas to stay and reform in a new pamphlet* Brexit negotiators up to on Ireland’s our ‘left remainers’ - rules which are actually superior borders? We still Luke Cooper, Mary to others on offer. don’t know, nearly Kaldor, Niccolò ‘The EU has the capacity to tax twoW years after the Brexit vote Milanese and John or regulate ‘global bads’ (close tax and less than a year before the Palmer - have written havens, regulate financial flows, UK exits the EU. It’s a major aF socialist case for ‘Remain’. The control carbon emissions, for sticking point, and unsurprising- ‘Corbyn Moment’ and European example) and to promote ‘global ly many in Ireland and among socialism gets off to a good start. goods’ (overcoming inequality, ‘Remainers’ in Britain have been ‘The problem with some bringing peace to conflict zones, quick to conclude that the British Remainers’ it tells us ‘is that they constructing resource-saving Government is so divided it does- often seem to be demanding a infrastructure).’ n’t know what it wants. However return to the pre-referendum sta- They also set out a number of perhaps too quick - it’s never wise tus quo. If Labour wants to areas in which a Corbyn govern- to underestimate an opponent. change the status quo for the bet- ment could act as ‘a beacon for a Possibly they have a rabbit to ter (and not for the worse as it radical new agenda’ and ‘… pro- pull from the hat, though maybe Brexit must not mean return to hard borders will do with Brexit) then the key mote policies at an EU level that later rather than sooner as they is tackling the problems of would facilitate social justice and focus on getting to the exit in by the EU to protect its Single supporting the British inequality and deprivation, which democracy at regional local levels March 2019. Market. But what if we see the Government. are inexorably linked to free mar- in all EU countries, especially the On substantive issues, negotiators bargaining in relative Of course such a ploy may not ket globalisation’. UK’. These could include: taxing Britain’s negotiators have actual- terms with the British getting work. Indeed some Brexiters may To do this, as Corbyn has multinationals; regulating finan- ly been quite consistent, if coyly some limited access to the Single already conclude as much and are stressed, would require taxing cial flows and controlling banks; unspecific, about what they want. Market and some new trade simply waiting for the exit date multinationals, controlling finan- protecting migrant workers; digi- They have talked about technolo- deals, by using the Irish border without an overall deal, or want cial markets and addressing cli- tal rights; and climate change. gy to avoid a ‘hard’ border, but no as a ‘carrot and stick’. The merely out just as soon as ‘an unreason- mate change. As the authors I feel more cautious about examples of this exist where the ‘implausible’ becomes ‘perfidious’, able’ EU can be blamed for their point out, this would need at best endorsing some of the proposed two sides are in different customs indeed Machiavellian. It would exit. This is probably why the EU close co-operation between a areas of security and defence co- unions, and most take it with a provoke opposition – which may and the Irish Government tried to Labour government in Britain ment’s approach to cooperation operation, which could all too eas- large pinch of salt. It’s true the explain British delays on being force the UK to agree the ‘fall- and the EU, which in its turn with other progressive forces in ily slide into the sort of adven- British side have shown a specific. But in a weak position it back’ position of Northern Ireland would require what they modest- Europe - though with the excep- tures which have justifiably given remarkable lack of interest in may be their strongest bargaining staying in a customs union or in ly describe as ‘a high level of tion of Portugal these are unlike- ‘humanitarian intervention’ a bad securing their land border with ploy. alignment with the Single agreement amongst the EU27 ly to be found among the Social name. the Irish Republic and implied if The ‘carrot’ is the claim that Market in the event of ‘no deal’, which is unlikely to be forthcom- Democratic parties which are As the authors rightly con- anyone creates a ‘hard’ border it the UK getting what it wants and the British negotiators seem- ing’. increasingly vanishing down a clude, this ‘will require progres- will not be them but rather the ingly agreed to this so talks on This, they appreciate would centrist plug-hole. sive governments inside the EU Irish Government and the EU to trading arrangements could start. mean fighting for these proposals They form a useful foil to the to overcome the big business lob- protect their Single Market. So A very uncertain But the Democratic Unionist across Europe. ‘Ultimately this vacuities of ‘Lexit’ whose propo- bies, short sightedness and much for “taking back control of Party opposes any separate or means building a mass movement nents have offered no viable Stephen Marks is national chauvinism that too our borders” to stop unwanted future could boil James Anderson ‘special’ status for Northern for these goals, working with socialist strategy for a post-Brexit a member of often hijack good intentions.’ immigration, but here the British is Emeritus Ireland because it necessitates an other parties and social move- Britain unless it be a sort of ‘poli- Oxford Labour Indeed. know the leaky Irish land border down to an Irish land Professor of Irish Sea border. This, they ments’. tique de la pire’ in which an iso- Party But with Brexit of some sort or is unfit for purpose and they can border disaster Political claim, would undermine the UK’s But such a social movement is lated Britain would somehow be another looking increasingly always fall back on the Irish Sea Geography, sovereignty and territorial not something to turn to ‘ulti- forced into a ‘siege economy inevitable it seems more useful to border with checks at their ports Queen’s integrity. However, the reality is mately’ but is actually a precondi- socialism’. look as Varoufakis has suggested, and airports in Britain. removes the need for a ‘hard’ bor- University that Northern Ireland’s constitu- tion for change at the level of EU And this would be the least at a ‘Norway plus’ solution by More seriously, they’ve also der which it is widely agreed Belfast tional position as part of the UK governments. And favourable ref- likely outcome. As the authors which a Corbyn government said they want a customs would be a disaster – disrupting can only be changed by referen- erences by some of the authors to rightly point out: could be a pace-setter for Europe ‘arrangement’ where they ‘mirror’ the integration of the all-island dum votes in both parts of various proposals coming from ‘…a post-Brexit Labour govern- even from a semi-detached posi- or ‘shadow’ EU standards and economy and the Good Friday Ireland. On Brexit the DUP does the Great White Hope Emmanuel ment would have to use all its tion and a National Investment regulations, presumably to argue Agreement that brought relative not command a majority in Macron would not be taken kind- energy to fend off predatory Bank could still co-operate with that they should therefore have peace, still leaking like a sieve Northern Ireland where 56% ly by the SNCF workers whose action by larger economic blocs or the EIB. access to the Single Market. and providing a smugglers’ (including a third of unionist vot- hard-won gains he is trying to financial markets, and unpicking The same goes for many or Moreover as they are explicitly bonanza (not Single Market pro- ers) voted Remain, and they could destroy or the students who are trade deals with the likes of most of the other policies in the not in a customs ‘union’ they tection), and an attractive target be vulnerable if it emerged they’d showing them solidarity in Trump that the Conservative document. While the socialist could further argue that they for dissident republican paramili- been ‘DUPed’ into supporting a defence of their own struggles. party will have left as a poisonous ‘remain’ argued for here would be should also be able to make their taries. The ‘stick’ is the UK not British ploy where Northern Faced with a new 1968, he is legacy.’ the best outcome, a Corbyn gov- own trade deals with other coun- getting what it wants and hand- Ireland was collateral damage. more likely to prove De Gaulle They rightly point out that ernment could still fight for this tries, such as the USA. This could ing the EU and the Irish Republic A very uncertain future could boil than Mendes-France! unlike other supranational organ- alternative European vision from be what ‘having their cake and the ‘hard’ border disaster. down to an Irish land border dis- However there are many excel- isations the EU does contain a a semi-detached Norway plus eating it’ really means. Northern Ireland would be collat- aster versus an Irish Sea border lent recommendations in this text political and democratic frame- position. Especially with the Many will dismiss this as total- eral damage, with its Democratic as the more practical solution. It’s which, in or out, could and should work; social legislation, however future of the EU itself as we have ly implausible, already ruled out Unionist Party collaborators in still all to play for. C be the basis of a Corbyn govern- minimal; and environmental known it, increasingly in doubt. C

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WORKERS DEMOCRACY KENNEDY

Politics for the many Robert Kennedy and the decline of To secure a democracy ‘for the many’, we must reform our broken politics says Billy Hayes liberalism Fifty years on Nigel Doggett assesses the legacy few weeks ago, Electoral Calculus – as anybody seen my real freedom and prosperity for which regularly pro- friend Bobby? Can all, an aim targeted at South jects the results of you tell me where America as well as Vietnam and future elections in the he’s gone? He freed a much of the USA. AUK – predicted a disturbing out- lot of people, but the As Attorney General he took an come if an election was held now. goodH die young. I looked around unprecedented activist stance in It showed that in a fresh elec- and he was gone.” using Federal Marshalls to tion, the Conservatives could win This line from the song enforce racial desegregation of 40.5% of the vote and 297 seats, Abraham, Martin & John was education in the face of chal- whereas Labour could win 279 written in 1968. Starting with the lenges from the South. By his seats on 40.7% of the vote. assassinations of Abraham forthright actions he alienated In other words – Labour would Lincoln, John Kennedy and some formidable foes - the Mafia, win the election, but would be Martin Luther King, it concludes corrupt Teamster leader Jimmy Robert Kennedy on campaign trail denied office by Westminster’s with Robert Kennedy who died on Hoffa, Cuban exiles, FBI chief J voting system. Billy Hayes (second from right) protesting gvoernment cuts 6 June 1968. Edgar Hoover and Southern with the need to challenge LBJ It’s a problem that’s more com- When everyone’s vote counts, spread solely on the basis of geo- It is hard to overstate how the racists. The strong suspicion of on both domestic injustice and mon than it seems (a ‘wrong win- parties have to seek the votes of graphic concerns – think of the Kennedys loomed over the 1960s involvement in his death as well Vietnam without appearing dis- ner’ result locked Labour out in all voters – regardless of where recent influence of the DUP on political landscape: John (JFK) as as of JFK, lacks firm evidence, as loyal. Only when LBJ escalated 1951, and the other way round in they are. From almost exclusively spending in Northern Ireland. US President from 1961 to 1963 detailed in David Talbot’s the military campaign by bomb- 1974). targeting swing voters in wealthy Yet in a PR system, other groups and his brother Robert (RFK), his Brothers: The Hidden History of ing the north did RFK finally But it’s not just progressive suburbs, parties are forced to and interests can achieve recogni- closest political ally, US Attorney the Kennedy Years (2007). break with him. parties damaged by First Past campaign for every vote – no mat- tion more easily: a green or femi- General, and after JFK a New A new account by John Bohrer, Though forced from a position the Post. Progressive policies in ter where it is cast. Those post- nist party can suddenly exert York Senator. The Revolution of Robert Kennedy of power into opposition RFK the UK, as things stand, face an industrial areas left to wither on influence in a way that only a Their reputation has since - From Power to Protest after JFK never succumbed to ‘oppositional- uphill battle. the vine are no longer ignorable. regionally-specific party could become tarnished and their lega- (2017) shows how RFK attempted ism’. He stood for interventionist That’s not because there is a There is also a multitude of have done before. cy contested. How does Robert to continue the legacy of the JFK government backed by a move- lack of support for policies like studies, including Ljiphart’s Beyond these studies on policy, emerge after 50 years? presidency, whose mantle had ment of young people. Such redistributive taxation or a Patterns of Democracy, that point the concrete evidence shows that The anniversary King’s assas- fallen on his shoulders. He proactive liberalism is now close strong welfare state. to consensual - counties with a proportional vot- sination on 4th April 1968 has embarked on a series of tours, to extinct, supplanted by Tariq Last year, the archaic ‘one-per- where the proportion of votes ing system tend to elect more pro- been widely commemorated. But notably of South America, the Ali’s ‘extreme centre’ of Blair, the son-takes-all’ method of counting broadly matches the proportion of gressive governments. A less the loss of RFK was also tragic as Southern USA and finally South Clintons and their ilk. We still votes completely discounted the seats in the legislature i.e. pro- polarized political system means he advocated a new politics Africa, which served to channel grapple with the tension between voices of millions of voters. portional representation (PR) sys- that for those parties in the mid- attracting radical young people. the reactions to John’s assassina- opposition and engagement. It At the last General Election it tems - having lower economic dle, the best strategy is to work The Kennedys came from a tion. Whereas JFK had projected takes talent to challenge the con- was 22 million to be exact: that’s inequality. with the left to create a strongly privileged background, as sons of a patrician coolness, RFK Nigel Doggett is sensus and gain respect from the number of votes cast which For too long, political equality redistributive state. Joe Kennedy who was deeply appealed vehemently to a sense of a member of across the social and political had no impact on the result. and economic equality have been Time and time again we have ensconced in the Democratic injustice, speaking in venues Wealden CLP, spectrum. And one in ten voters felt viewed as totally separate enti- seen voters opt for a ‘progressive party machine. RFK gained a where opposition was expected Compass and The left often distrusts empha- obliged to ‘hold their nose’ and ties. Far from it – true political Billy Hayes of majority’ – only to be denied a reputation for ruthlessness doing (such as Southern university Chartist Editorial sis on leaders and rhetoric opt for their second or even third equality requires a level playing Politics for the progressive government because JFK’s dirty work during the elec- campuses) and did not shrink Board (Corbyn notwithstanding). The choice at the ballot box. field in the economic sphere, Many is also of ‘vote splitting’ on the left, and a tion campaign and after, which from arguing with both the right great speeches of JFK, Clinton The consequence of this is that while economic equality can only trade union more party-united right. he found hard to shake off. and left, seeking out student radi- and Blair now ring hollow in the governments are formed with be won through giving working officer for Labour Trade unionists gathered in He also worked for Senator Joe cal and South American commu- light of their legacy. But the best minority support but wield com- people a real voice. Campaign for Scotland in mid April for the McCarthy during the infamous nist opponents, earning their progressive leaders personify plete power – the ‘elective dicta- The mechanics behind this Electoral Reform STUC’s Congress – with many witch-hunts, though his own role respect if not agreement. their cause and by identifying torship’ outlined by Tory peer reality is that under consensual hoping to build a movement for was in trade and sanctions dur- Disappointingly, Bohrer omits with the poor and deprived focus Lord Hailsham in 1976. political systems, different par- real political reform. ing the Korean war. He also Robert’s presidential primary attention on remedies. A new report by trade union- ties have different electorates to While Scotland has used pro- gained notoriety for his investiga- campaign which ended in the Glenn Close recently suggested ists seeking democratic reform satisfy. When they work together portional voting systems for tion into the Unions, uncovering California Democratic Primary “We always need someone to say has highlighted just how damag- in government, they are therefore years, ‘Politics For The Many’ – a corruption in the Teamsters led victory and assassination in June “I hear you”, someone who can ing this is for progressive policies dependent on a broader range of new group of trade unionists – is by Jimmy Hoffa. 1968. put their words into unity and – and how more consensual struc- support, and must satisfy a stepping up to fight for electoral Both Kennedys were implicat- LBJ’s ‘Great Society’ pro- hope – and we don’t have that. I tures are much more amenable to broader electorate. reform across the UK. ed in the run up to the Vietnam gramme continued JFK’s work by think the last person may have progressive ends. The difference between the As things stand, the forces at quagmire but the commitment of confronting the interlinked issues been Robert Kennedy.” (Guardian Landmark studies, from which consensus required by a propor- play in the Westminster system ground troops and bombing the of poverty and racial inequality Magazine, 16 Dec 2017) the report draws, have shown tional voting system, and the con- are aligned against progressive North were ordered by new but was jeopardized by ballooning Today, with the 1960s youth that democracies with more con- sensus required by a hung parlia- politics. President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ). spending on Vietnam. Ironically, reaching their 70s, new move- sensual structures have more ment under Westminster’s sys- But a new democratic system Anti-communism was standard the war was overwhelmingly ments campaign in both the US progressive social outcomes on a tem, is that the latter tends to can help us build a new economy. rhetoric for US politicians during fought by black and poorer and UK on resurgent issues of range of measures – from a larger advantage negotiations with par- We will not build a socially-just the Cold War. RFK put forward Americans from the very commu- inequality, racism and gun vio- welfare state to more money ties with defined geographic Britain on the back of a rigged the notion that to resist the nities targeted by this pro- lence. In JFK’s memorable phrase spent on foreign aid and lower bases. politics – but through the ‘kinder, attraction of communism gramme. “The torch has been passed to a rates of prison incarceration. This means resources are often gentler’ politics we deserve. C required the ‘free world’ provide RFK increasingly grappled new generation.” C

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TRUMP

Republican controlled; due to race, gender identification, immi- widespread gerrymandering of gration status, confinement to Trumping Trump districts, more Republicans are prison, etc. The excluded must elected even if Democrats win be able to organize and defend more votes overall. themselves against the politics of Paul Garver asks can the ‘American Resistance’ defeat Trump in 2018? Since Citizens United and contemporary capitalism. A poli- other Court decisions cut restric- tics of democratic inclusion must tions on campaign finances, the include struggles against voter plutocracy can purchase politi- suppression, for effective civil lib- cians and policies with impunity. erties, for prison reform, for the The official Democratic Party has rights of undocumented immi- adapted by courting its own grants, for access to better public wealthy and corporate donors, de- education, for workplace rights emphasized door-to-door canvass- Bernie Sander’s campaign demonstrated that progressive etc. ing, and minimizing influence by ecnomics draws votes This mirrors the main social unions and workers. base of the Democratic Party, The U.S. Supreme Court is is not twiddling their collective also drawn from well-educated likely to rule shortly in the thumbs while the Democratic urban professionals and commu- “Janus” case that public sector Party fiddles. Dozens of Left nities of color loosely held togeth- unions have no right to collect candidates have made successful er by a politics of inclusion. fees from public employees they bids for local and state office, Democratic ‘Restorationists’ represent, crippling their political from legislature to district magis- and democratic socialists are activities. trates to county executive. For merely the right and left wings of However, Bernie Sanders’ pres- example, Lee Carter, a young the Resistance. Most of its foot- idential primary campaign DSA (Democratic Socialists of soldiers, who show up for march- demonstrated that money could America) member and military es and rallies, canvass door-to- be raised from small donors, that veteran, defeated an incumbent door, phone bank for candidates, enthusiastic volunteers could Virginia Republican legislative lobby for progressive bills in state bring voters to the polls, and that leader in a general election. legislators, are neither committed a more populist and progressive Democrats nor identify them- position on economic issues res- selves as Socialists. They are onates with many voters. Fashioning a new typically well-educated women Democratic Party apparatchiks working in human service or talk #Resistance, but actually majority left of center technical occupations, newly mean #Restoration of an idealized party will require politicized or recently re-engaged. [Bill] Clintonian Presidential era They strongly identify with a pol- ell into the second cannot win due to Trump. The paigns to raise the hourly mini- by merely electing more decades of common itics of radical inclusion, while year of the Trump reactionary National Rifle mum wage to $15. Many similar Congressional Democrats. work building coalitions deeply suspicious of the pervasive presidency, over a Association lobby has become widespread initiatives are orga- But most White Americans still role of big money in politics. If third of Americans toxic following massive demon- nized through autonomous social support Trump and his racist and among divergent the symbol of the Trump victory support him strations organized by students and political movements, which reactionary policies across the became the alienated, racially despiteW (or because of) his toxic against gun violence. are burgeoning in today’s USA. country except for big cities and interests resentful and frustrated formerly combination of incompetence and State and local governments But there are sharp limits to some coastal enclaves. Right- unionized industrial worker of overt attacks on basic norms of retain certain powers to resist the scope for local resistance. wing populism [or “racialized the Midwest, Resistors like these fairness, civility and responsible national political policies. National budget priorities are set xenophobic tribalism”] fanned by Thousands more candidates, may come to personify a success- governance. This is a more dis- California as the most populous by a Congress controlled by an toxic media like Fox News is diffi- many new to electoral politics, ful pushback. They might also concerting sign of political dys- state can resist right-wing unholy alliance of reactionary cult to address by the Center and are stepping forward to be determine the struggle for the function than Trump’s election. Republicans and Corporate Left alike. But the neoliberal trained and supported by of soul of the Democratic Party. Opposition to Trump policies Democrats, both wings of which economic policies of austerity and newer and older small-donor In the short term, Trumpery continues to flourish. Less visi- Democratic Party support bloated military spending corporate friendly trade pacts financed progressive groups. must be thoroughly defeated. In ble in the streets than the giant over domestic priorities. Under championed by the Clintons dev- Several Left organizations with the long term fashioning a new women’s and pro-immigrant apparatchiks talk inexorable pressure from the new astated formerly Democratic- aspirations to create lasting fed- majority left of center party will marches of early 2017, organized Paul Garver is a “tax reform” legislation that leaning unionized industrial erated structures are competing require decades of common work resistance has entrenched itself #Resistance, but actually member of slashes taxes on corporations and regions that then swung towards (and sometimes cooperating) to building coalitions among diver- at state and local governmental mean #Restoration of an Democratic the wealthiest, while discourag- Trump in a politics of racialized fill the vacuum left by the gent interests. It must be much levels, focusing on progressive Socialists of ing tax deductions that permitted resentment and frustration. Corporate Democrats. more multi-racially led and class issue campaigns and, in the few idealized Clintonian America more progressive states to finance It is not certain that Trump The Sanders campaign demon- diverse than today’s Left. electoral opportunities prior to Presidential era education and social welfare pro- and the Republicans will lose strated that the Millennial gener- Interweaving the variegated the mid-term elections this grams, attacks on such essential their monopoly on national politi- ation is much more likely than strands of Resistance into an November. programs will multiply. Even cal power in 2018. One increas- their elders to identify them- effective social and political Centrist Democrat Conor Republican efforts to allow oil without full support from local ingly likely scenario is that the selves as “socialists”. The post- movement capable of wielding Lamb, backed by a vigorous cam- drilling off its coast and to roll police, immigration enforcement Trump administration, belea- election membership surge in the power will require sophisticated paign from trade unions, narrow- back other environmental protec- agents are targeting millions of guered on all sides domestically, DSA stemmed largely from well- political strategies that have yet ly defeated a right-wing tion. It is restricting cooperation undocumented workers and fami- will launch military and/or trade educated millennials identifying to be discovered. From my own Republican in a Western of state and local police forces lies for deportation. war campaigns designed to fire as members of a “precariat” bur- youthful experience with radical Pennsylvania Congressional dis- with immigration enforcement The challenges the left faces in up its populist/nationalistic base dened by student debt, locked politics, a politics based on mili- trict that voted heavily for Trump agencies. Other relatively liberal mounting a successful Resistance for the elections. The Corporate into insecure “gig” jobs, and ready tant ideological expression rather in 2016 and had been gerryman- coastal states are following suit. are manifold. The Presidency, Democrats, without a serious cri- to make a long-term commitment than an orientation to long-term dered to be a safe Republican With efforts to raise the House of Representatives, Senate tique of militarist imperialism or to political struggle. results is normal for persons seat. Growing numbers of abysmally low federal minimum and Supreme Court remain con- a coherent progressive economic Their natural instinct is to newly involved in politics. Republican House wage blocked nationally, many trolled by reactionary policy, would likely bungle the seek alliances with other mem- Generations on the Left need to Representatives are choosing not states and cities have yielded to Republicans. Most state gover- challenge. bers of the “precariat” that are learn from each other how to con- to run for reelection, judging they well-organized Raise Up cam- nors and legislatures are also The good news is that the Left even more vulnerable because of tribute to that long-term effort. C

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NHS NHS –not safe in Tory hands Stephanie Clark explains that both cutbacks and creeping privatisation is threatening the NHS in and how to stop it

n 1 April the first Milburn introduced Foundation like hospitals UnitedHealth, is another example of a Accountable Care Trusts & the ‘internal market’, and •Promote ‘self care’ company in pole position to benefit Organisations (ACOs) Gordon Brown energetically embraced •Redefine ‘health industry’ to from the evolution of ACOs. It already were due to be intro- the Major Government’s Private allow global corporations to take over has NHSE contracts for commission- duced into England’s Finance Initiative. The NHS was left more public services ing support as well as community ser- NHS.O Concerns about the lack of con- with £81.6bn to pay off in debts –the •Introduce new ways to deliver vices. Optimum declare they are: sultation and parliamentary process cost of privatising hospital construc- ‘integrated’ or ‘accountable’ care “One of the few companies in the involved in this radical re-organisa- tion and outsourcing services via PFI based on models like Kaiser world that provides fully integrated tion by the non-statutory body NHS deals - and paving the way to the Permanente in the US, and the Alzira solutions to deliver NMC [New England are currently being consid- Carillion disaster. model in Spain and called Models of Care] requirements, from ered by the House of Commons But privatisation has been acceler- Accountable Care Organisations, or back-office transactional support to Health Select Committee. Its Chair, ating since 2012. The 2012 Health ‘ACOs’. front-line delivery”. Sarah Woolaston, asked Jeremy Hunt and Social Care Act, drafted by global An ACO requires a corporate enti- In July 2017, NHSE announced 8 to pause implementation to allow her management consultants, McKinsey ty to be set up: a commercial – non- areas that would become ACSs (now committee to complete its investiga- & Co, set the NHS up for the purpose. NHS body, though NHS providers ICSs), working towards becoming tion. He refused, but has been forced It removed the government’s duty to may be included among its con- ACOs, originally intended from April to concede a consultation on the new provide a universal, comprehensive stituent members. There is nothing 2018. ACO contract first. NHS, replaced strategic planning and currently to prevent a private compa- In this 70th anniversary year of At the same time, Judicial Reviews commissioning with local Clinical ny, including a global corporation, the NHS, we have reached the end initiated by NHS campaigners are Commissioning Groups, handed build- from taking over the contract as a game of a long project to destroy it. challenging the legalities involved in ings to NHS Property Services, intro- whole. (The “accountability” of ACOs We cannot stand by and let this this process and the national ACO duced full marketisation of the NHS relates to financial accountability to happen. C contract and have caused local plans imposing competitive tendering of all partners, not to the public.) for ACOs and hospital closures to be services, and increased the cap on In a further development this year uations of pilots and no plan for social Jeremy Hunt referenced Kaiser put on hold. The collapse of Carillion NHS hospitals’ private patients to – and rare success for the public sec- care. The national rollout of the STPs Permanente and Alzira as his two What can you do? has added to nervousness about pro- 49%. It also left governance in a com- tor – a Lancashire judge has blocked in December 2015 was condemned at models for restructuring the NHS in ceeding with further extension of pri- plete mess. the contract awarded to Virgin to run the time by Julia Simon, until 2016 addressing the Health Select Support the Judicial Reviews, which are the best current hope for vate-public partnerships into the As at 30 Nov 2017, nearly £10bn of the Lancashire County Council’s senior NHS England director, as Committee on 9.5.16. frustrating the privatisation and the cuts. heart of the NHS. NHS clinical contracts are now held Healthy Child Programme. "ridiculous”, "shameful" and "mad" Kaiser Permanente in the US is a The risks and democratic deficit by private companies, and only 34% of Virgin is an example of a predatory and the plans full of “lies”. company running its own hospitals National challenges: involved in the massive re-organisa- contracts tendered last year went to company ruthless in extracting profit The plans require co-operation and primary care, with its own health #JR4NHS, was supported by Stephen Hawking among the 5 tion of the NHS, alongside draconian the NHS. Among those with contracts Stephanie Clark from NHS patient frontline patient between the NHS and local authori- insurance plan. Its business model is campaigners cuts in budget are pushing health and are Care UK, which has links to the is a member of care, beginning with loss leading bids ties at a time when both NHS and based on saving money on treatments To be heard 23-24 May 2018 social care to breakdown. There is far Conservative Party. Care UK runs the Keep Our NHS to gain foothold in a lucrative future social care are in crisis due to under- and denial of care. #Comprehensive healthcare for all, challenging the legality of the greater public awareness and concern NHS 111 call centre and, alongside Public and local health care market. And Virgin, funding. But, both CCGs and, in The Alzira model appears, howev- new draft ACO contract due to be heard on 24 April in Leeds about cuts, however, than under- Virgin Care, has seized the opportuni- health based in a tax haven, pays no tax. many cases, local authorities are er, to be the preferred option of Simon standing of the complex programme ties for potentially lucrative communi- campaigns, and Five years on from the 2012 Health being sidelined as the new organisa- Stevens. This model (named after the Local legal challenges in South Yorkshire, Huddersfield, Barnsley for NHS re-structuring and privatisa- ty-based health services opening up Tower Hamlets and Social Care Act, there is tional structures are being set up. It town Alzira in Spain where it was and Rotherham stroke services, Dorset and Forest of Dean and tion. as the national strategy for moving CLP widespread agreement that it has is NHSE’s intention that a multiplici- piloted) functioned in part like a UK South Tyneside. Dismantling and privatisation of care out of hospitals into the commu- been a disaster. The fragmentation of ty of interim arrangements will over PFI for a new hospital (the first priva- the NHS has been a clandestine 40 nity is being rolled out. services, the destructive effect of com- time evolve into ACOs tised hospital in Spain) but also Sign the online petitions: year project by those ideologically Virgin Care has won well over £2bn petition and shocking contract fail- So what are ACOs? And where do included providing the actual health Stop Privatisation of NHS Services - to be debated in the House of opposed to a socialised health service. of NHS “business” over the past 7 ures have ostensibly been addressed they come from? care. The Alzira model was credited Commons on 23 April Margaret Thatcher went as far as she years – several large contracts in com- by Simon Stevens, head of NHS Simon Stevens’ 5YFV plan for the with bringing down costs and was - And ask your MP to attend could in introducing limited outsourc- munity health, and £1bn of NHS con- England, the body set up by the NHS mirrors the blueprint developed extended to other regions but became STOP the new plans to dismantle our NHS ing but her ambitions were con- tracts in 2016/17 – over 400 separate Government to run the NHS after the over 2012 and 2013 at the World mired in scandal over strikes, allega- strained by practicalities. However, NHS contracts. In 2017 Virgin Care 2012 Act. Stevens’ plan, “Five Year Economic Forum at Davos. Simon tions of premature deaths and bank- Build support for the NHS Reinstatement Bill. the Conservative Party’s privatisation won a 7 year £700m contract to run Forward View” (5YFW), published in Stevens was leading that project team ing corruption and in 2017 the This is being tabled for the third time as a 10 Minute Bill on 11 ambition was embodied in Oliver Bath and North East Somerset’s com- 2014, to transform the NHS is being in his then role as President of Global Valencian government passed new July Letwin’s 1988 book, Privatisating the munity care and health services. This implemented through Sustainability Health Division at the US health cor- legislation to return the Alzira health World: A Study of International is the first time a for-profit company and Transformation Plans (STPs). poration UnitedHealth. (Previous to concession to direct public manage- Join the demonstrations planned for the NHS 70th anniversary on Privatisation in Theory and Practice will run a council’s adult social care The country has been divided into 44 that, Simon Stevens was health policy ment. 30 June (preface by John Redwood). Letwin services. areas for STP delivery. These have advisor to Tony Blair.) Centene is a partner in the Greater was David Cameron’s Chief Policy Virgin also exemplifies the vulnera- been established as vehicles for cuts The WEF group commissioned two Nottingham ICS, has its UK base in Work within the Labour Party to gain understanding of what is Advisor and got into hot water for his bility of the NHS to being sued where of £25bn and privatisation, but are reports from McKinsey & Co to devel- the Kings Fund premises in London happening to the NHS, get discussion informed by the health leaked message to a private meeting companies fail to get the contract they presented as plans for the delivery of op a global template for transforming and has recently appointed Alan campaigns to embed the 2017 national Conference NHS policy to in 2014 that the “NHS will not exist” have sought. Virgin Care sued the improved health outcomes with lower “socialised” health systems. The Milburn to its Board. Centene’s role oppose ACOs and work for the reinstatement of the NHS. within 5 years of a Conservative elec- NHS after it lost out on an £82m con- costs. How to achieve this miracle? reports’ recommendations, now being in Nottingham is as a “Care If you have a Labour Council, do what you can to ensure it is tion victory. tract for children’s services in Surrey. Informed commentators have casti- implemented through the STPs, are Integrator” – a key new role in ICSs adopting national conference policy and opposes the ACOs and The Blair/Brown Government Damages have been kept secret but gated the process dictated by NHSE, to: with particular potential for the pri- cuts to health and social care. increased investment with £5bn a campaigners have discovered through the “savings” required to eliminate •Lower costs with new payment vate sector and critical to the evolu- year to the NHS, but also extended an NHSE source that they amount to the deficits within the timescales systems tion into ACOs. Support the local campaign in your area. Consider joining Keep privatisation. Health Minister Alan £2m. demanded and with no planned eval- •Reduce capacity in costly settings Optimum UK, the UK arm of Our NHS Public

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MAY 1968

famous to this day: “Be realistic. banned a number of left wing rebellions in Spain, Mexico, Ask the impossible”. organisations. Germany, Poland, Jamaica, and PARIS MAY 1968- The strike covered all parts of On Bastille Day, 14th July the US. In the following years the society. Banks and television sta- 1968, there was a further demon- student and anti-Vietnam war tions, undertakers ,the Folies stration by students and left- movement exploded, women’s lib- Revolution of ideas Bergere, schools and hospitals, wingers which was again harshly eration and gay liberation move- car factories and public transport. suppressed by the Parisian police ments took off, there were work- Petrol was rationed. Cars out of and security forces, with many ers struggles from the factory On the 50th anniversary of the May 68 events French workers are again striking. Ruth Taylor petrol blocked the streets and injured. That was to mark the occupations in Italy to the defeat moped sales rose. last gasp of the May ’68 protests of the penal powers that had been and Janey Stone recall the nearly revolution By 22 May the Trade Unions, in Paris. used to prevent strikes in started negotiating an improved Having been derailed into an Australia. wage and conditions package with electoral direction, the strike Paris May 1968 remains a cru- ifty years ago we were employers. movement itself did not produce cial milestone for the internation- doing Europe. It was an On 29 May President Charles any major improvement in wages al working class. In a highly Australian tradition. de Gaulle, fled Paris, but later or conditions. But in a larger sophisticated advanced capitalist We two 21 year old returned to dissolve the National sense Paris May 1968 had an country, working class power women were told about Assembly and announce a general impact beyond the immediate called the whole system into aF hostel in the 19th arrondisse- election for June. It was a chal- events. The atmosphere through- question. The mass strike pene- ment, a working class suburb of lenge to the country to defy the out Europe and many other parts trated every sector of society, and Paris. The hostel was run by a revolutionary process. De Gaulle of the world in that year was raised demands that went far group of anarchists, who suppos- ordered workers to go back to inspired by the French experi- beyond the confines of trade edly held all possessions in com- work or face a state of national ence. We saw student demonstra- unionism, questioning control at mon, even toothbrushes! There emergency. Workers did gradual- tions in Vienna, witnessed the centre of society. Crucially it was an exciting mix of residents, ly return to work and the police Germans and Czechs discussing was a youth-initiated movement, from an African American desert- re-took the Sorbonne on 16 June. the Prague Spring when we were youth who did not accept what er, stationed in Germany, to The June 23rd general election in Bulgaria and large anti- the previous generation had Greeks and North Africans who returned the Gaullist party with Vietnam War demos in London. handed down to them - a revolu- were lodging there long term. In a a stronger majority. The party There were strikes and student tion of ideas. C way it epitomised the spirit of 1968 - the youthful desire for free- Cohn-Bendit at a student meeting dom from restriction and authori- ty. of us, Ruth, a trained nurse, stones from the streets and built Unbeknown to us, political attended the returning injured . over 60 barricades using anything FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Spirit of May unrest had already started on 22 There was the story of a gen- they could find. As one observer March at the new University of darme throwing a tear gas canis- described it, “women, workers, Ten Years After: Author-Martin Cook, Chartist May 1978 Nanterre, a branch of the ter into a café. Another of a bystanders, people in pyjamas, Sorbonne. Students agitated demonstrator whose arm was bro- human chains to carry rocks, about their living conditions, ken by police, only to come out of wood, iron”. fter the May Events the world renowned slogans. restrictive rules on visiting times hospital, be recognised and beat- The trade union federation, authorities symbolically laid Far too often, of course, the youthful to the women’s dormitories, and en again. We were shocked by the responding to the students’ asphalt over the pave (cobbles) iconoclasm of the student revolutionaries the rigid, archaic academic envi- reports. actions and police brutality, then in the Latin Quarters— led to ultra-left disdain for parliamentary ronment. The police repeatedly Our daily lives in the hostel called a strike for the following weapons the students had so democracy, the traditional workers’ par- broke up protest meetings, pro- were also affected by the police. A Monday 13 May. Within a fort- effectivelyA used ih the street fighting. But ties, the trade unions and the ‘battle for voking the students to go on contingent of 400 gendarmes night, in a largely spontaneous the memoiry of what had occurred wouild hearts and minds’ generally, especially strike and occupy the campus. belonging to the force that spe- movement more than nine million hardly be so easily effaced, either in France after 1968 with the constant attempts to One of the leaders, Daniel Cohn- cialised in public order and crowd workers from all sectors were on or elsewhere. start May all over again with the magic Bendit, who was expelled from control, had been transferred strike, the largest workers’ strike May 68 burst on the Western world formula revolt-repression-revolution. There France on 22 May for being a from Lyons and taken up resi- in French history. grown smug and complacent in ‘affluence was often a mood of violence and irra- ‘seditious alien’, subsequently dence in the school next door to But on May 12th, not knowing and ‘consensus’ where politics had become tionality, against the boring normality of became a legend. our hostel. The street was closed where its persistent turbulent a bore and the Cold War taken for granted. the status quo. On 3 May, when students at to traffic with a security check at state was about to lead, we decid- Its links with the Third World The movement notably brought into play the Sorbonne in central Paris met both ends. ed to leave Paris, and continue Liberation movements (the Vietnamese a whole range of groups not normally to protest against the closure of The hostel was host to animat- our travels. The next day we ‘Tet Offensive’ and the anti-bureaucratic linked to left politics and trade unionism. the Nanterre University, there ed discussions of the crisis, rang- learned that the national strike movement in the East were strong and Showgirls and prostitutes in Montmartre, were clashes with the police. ing from opposition to capitalism, had brought France to a complete well-understood. Internationalism was a key aspect: lawyers and sometimes supervisors and scientific staff Following a protest demonstra- to bureaucracy, class privilege, standstill. when the government and the Stalinists denounced the joined in. Students, film-makers, journalists, archi- tion of 20,000 on 6 May, they took and authority. This generation We had been present for the ‘foreign agitator’ Daniel Cohn-Bendit, students tects, technicians and others produced critiques of the over the Sorbonne and the sur- wanted autonomy, open discus- supporting act but had missed marched chanting ‘We are all German Jews!’. way their world was organised in bourgeois society, of rounding streets. Over the next sion, the power to make a differ- the main event. While on the one hand the power of the general the authoritarian structures and alienation from fellow few days there were repeated ence, to build a fairer, freer kind The mass strike was an enor- strike gave the lie to the theory that workers in the workers, together with bold and imaginative plans for demonstrations and fighting. The of society. mously powerful act, but the West had been irretrievably ‘bought off’, at the same ‘self management’, with schemes for putting their skills police routinely tried to disperse The night of 10 May was wit- addition of workplace occupations time the appearance of new sectors in the struggle with at the service of society rather than of profit. the crowds by charging and beat- ness to the famous Night of the upped the ante considerably new problems and demands made it clear future revo- Unfortunately, rather than take up the challenge of ing them. Barricades, when the students threatening implicitly the owners’ lutionary movements would not be simple re-runs of such new dimensions to a socialist transformation of Although we did not closely fol- who had been battered for hours right of property and manage- the past. society, too many of the left groups have been mired in low the newspapers we knew by the police decided to stand ment’s right to manage. One of In its zest, its radical questioning of received ideas, fruitless searches for latter-day Bolshevik parties and major events were happening their ground and fight. By mid- the most remarkable things about its hostility to hierarchy and bureaucracy of whatever Soviets. around us from the reports of the night, finding themselves holding the events of 1968 was the ener- kind, and in its fresh and imaginative posters, the May May saw the eruption of millions of ordinary people anarchists and other residents the Latin Quarter, they built up gy, the excitement and creativity movement often approached the spirit of surrealism. on the stage of history for a brief moment. If they do so who returned bloodied from the their barricades. Thousands of that was unleashed. This was evi- ”Run Comrade, the old world is behind you”…”Power is again, will the left be able to come to terms with their daily demonstrations. The atmo- people joined this spontaneous dent in the poetry, posters and in the streets”…”Take your wishes for reality”...ran the manifold aspirations for personal and social liberation? sphere was highly charged. One movement. They tore up cobble slogans that were created, one

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DEMOCRACY

from time to time. obvious. Part of the problem with Constitution for British Soviets’ Working Class Democracy? Nevertheless, in spite of the early 20th century notions of of 1920 with its basis in ‘house- fact that the rules of delegate ‘working class’ democracy func- hold soviets’ representing about Ian Bullock reflects on problems of direct, soviet-style and representative democracy democracy are sometimes fol- tioning in idealised versions of 250 people, not to mention an lowed less than consistently, del- the soviets as a replacement for incredibly complex structure egate democracy does work rea- parliamentary style regimes is which included ‘Educational cepticism about politics sonably well in trade unions, that one can’t opt out of the state Soviets,’ and, among many other and politicians long pre- political parties and other essen- like you can opt out of member- varieties, ‘Public Heath Soviets,’ dates the MPs’ expenses tially voluntary organisations. It ship of a political party, trade was admirable in its intention to scandal, never mind the is worth considering why this is union or any other sort of volun- involve the entire population in 2017 revelations about so. Part of the reason is surely tary organisation. the detailed formulation and exe- sexualS harassment at that there are safeguards – some- Delegate democracy works rea- cution of policy at all levels. But Westminster. Nor is it confined times formal ones – against the sonably well in political parties it was hardly a realistic notion of to the Left. possibility of the organisation’s because a large proportion of how soviets might actually oper- Here richly, with ridiculous policies getting too remote from members are at least occasionally ate. display, those favoured by the member- ‘active.’ It works reasonably well When Pankhurst’s own paper The Politician’s corpse was laid ship as a whole. Often there are in unions because the range of The Workers’ Dreadnought gave away. rules that allow for the calling of issues with which they are main- Ian Bullock’s actual examples of the sorts of While all of his acquaintance special conferences or member- ly concerned is a fairly narrow latest book is ‘mandates’ given to delegates sneered and slanged ship referendums. A political one – chiefly of the ‘bread and Under Siege-The elected in revolutionary Russia I wept: for I had longed to see party example is the ILP butter’ variety like preparing Independent they were hardly the sort of clear him hanged. ‘plebiscite’ in 1936 when there negotiating positions concerning Labour Party in detailed instructions that her Making a point many of us felt was major disagreement over the pay and conditions. Interwar Britain, proposed constitution for Britain very keenly, the party’s response to Mussolini’s But states are different. Not AUPress implied. In one case they were used Hilaire Belloc’s verse in invasion of what was then called only is the range of issues with simply told to ‘stand firm” and December 2006 at the time of Lenin at the October Congress of Soviets-but problems with the system Abyssinia. which they are concerned almost carry on an “unfaltering labour Pinochet’s funeral. I’m not sure Moreover, in the final analysis infinitely wider but they are a policy without political compro- when Belloc wrote this – but actually operates in different con- they exist – to operate at this if you are that much opposed to prey to what Harold Macmillan mise with the Capitalist Class since he died in 1953 it could not texts. level. But no further. Logically, the policies adopted by your famously called ‘events.’ and to remember that behind have been the dictatorship in Delegate democracy tends, political parties or factions can union or party you can always Certainly we can –and should – them stood the workers, ready to Chile that he had in mind. inevitably, to be ‘activists’ democ- only function at base level. decide to leave it, join a rival one, mount protests when govern- lay down their lives for the great The case against representa- racy.’ One only need observe that Beyond that the only guidance to or even start a breakaway. Most ments respond to the latter in Russian Socialist Revolution.’ In tive democracy is not difficult to Left wing parties and factions be followed by delegates are their trade unionists will recoil with ways we disapprove – the lunatic another the instructions were ‘to make. It’s a con- trick. The candi- that have very little – or no – mandates. understandable horror, especially invasion of Iraq, for example. support the Soviet Government date tells you what you want to traction in ‘ordinary’ national or My own experience of delegate from the latter option, but the There was a long lead up to that with all their energies, to defend hear, makes all sorts of commit- local politics, often have an democracy was mainly in a union threat to leave can be a real one particular ‘event’ - but the notion and strengthen the conquests of ments then – safe for the next important presence in quite a few context. By and large delegate even if just implicit. The history that there would be time in most the November proletarian revolu- five years – does a Clegg. In the unions. This was so also back in democracy worked reasonably of the political Left, in Britain as instances for grassroots debate tion.’ Hardly the sort of man- nineteenth century the Left the 20th century. It is not hard well in my branch, at regional elsewhere, can be told as a series followed by local, regional and date that enthusiasts for ‘work- thought the answer was to short- to see how this works. To get level, and at the annual confer- of ‘splits’ alternating with ‘unity’ national councils made up of dele- ing class democracy’ envisaged. en the parliamentary term – the elected as an officer or a delegate ence. But even so there were campaigns. In unions, at least, gates to make the definitive deci- Nor a great advert for either sovi- Chartists’ demand for ‘annual you have to actually attend meet- sometimes people who didn’t the prospect of a significant loss sion before any response could be ets or the superiority of delegate parliaments’ – or insist on an ings regularly. This enables the understand the distinction of members is always likely to act made by the government is diffi- democracy . Attempts to practice imperative mandate which the keen activist to exercise a great between a delegate and a repre- as a deterrent against pursuing a cult to sustain as a realistic this form of democracy at state elected had to respect. deal of influence. Quite legiti- sentative. They would insist that truly unpopular course. The proposition – to put it mildly. level have not been exactly a Then, in the early twentieth mately. And most of the time it’s through the former they had the price of political disunity is all too Sylvia Pankhurst’s’ A series of run-away successes. C century with first also a really a good deal from the right, even the obligation, to and then the Russian soviets the standpoint of the ‘inactive’ mem- behave as the latter. They could notion of a distinctive working- bers. They can be pretty sure, in exercise their ‘judgement’ or fol- class form of democracy gained the case of unions, that the low their ‘conscience’ in a way ground. Essentially, this would be activists will pursue pay and con- that Edmund Burke would have workplace based delegate democ- ditions claims relentlessly. They approved even when the collective racy. Fred Jowett, a lifelong advo- can also be sure that, should they decision was clear, no new argu- cate of radical parliamentary find themselves in difficulty with ments had appeared, and the cir- reform and long-time Labour MP the management they will be cumstances had remained exact- rejected the ‘soviet’ form of dele- steadfastly supported as a matter ly the same. One instance that gate democracy many in the ILP of principle. And they get a really springs to mind was in the early were advocating in the interwar good deal in other ways. If all the ‘80s when there was a move for period. In such a system voters, work done by branch activists our union to affiliate to CND. I he maintained, quickly lost touch was ‘professionalised’ many more was in favour – but both my Printer ad with those indirectly elected – paid officials would be needed. branch and our region were even more, he said, than with Subscriptions would rocket opposed. But several of our annu- MPs. This was in speech at the upwards. al conference delegates voted for ILP’s 1919 annual conference. The way delegate democracy is affiliation. We tried to explain But an opponent was able to supposed to work is quite clear. that for this form of democracy to retort that the ILP was based “on At base level- typically the work a delegate not willing to fol- the system of delegation which branch – members meet, debate low the instructions given on any Mr Jowett attacked.” So were issues and reach conclusions by a issue is duty bound to declare this trade unions and many other vote which then mandates their and allow the meeting to replace working class institutions. But delegates at the next level of the them with someone who is willing before we reject Jowett’s argu- organisation. It is quite legiti- to pursue the meeting’s decisions. ment we should take an honest mate for political factions – where But it didn’t stop it happening look at how delegate democracy 20 CHARTIST May/June 2018 May/June 2018 CHARTIST 21 #292 working_01 cover 23/04/2018 12:50 Page 22

BRAZIL WELFARE

Brazil: Lula-a symbol of resistance Time to stand up for the poor

Corruption charges, violence and imprisonment of ex President Lula might yet unite the As benefits disaster looms where does Labour stand on Social Security asks Rory O’Kelly? progressive left says Thomas Zicman de Barros hey want to stop me he revolt within the from talking, but I will new all-white-men conservative Labour Party leading to people and benefit recipients but talk, throw your voic- government approved privatiza- the election of Jeremy it is equally true both that non- es”. With this state- tions and rudimentary austerity Corbyn was triggered working people are generally even ment, former president reforms – such as a constitutional by his willingness to poorer and that low pay is fre- andT leading presidential candi- amendment that freezes the total Toppose the Government’s Welfare quently associated with very date Lula da Silva alerted thou- amount of public expenditures for Reform Bill. One might have intermittent work. It cannot be sands of supporters that rallied in the next twenty years. On thought that Social Security, said too often that ‘workers’ and front of the metallurgical union February 16th, facing growing where the issues have been sub- ‘claimants’ are not two distinct where he started his political popular dissatisfaction, Michel stantially unchanged since 2015 groups of people. career almost five decades ago. Temer decided to make an auda- and even 2010, would have been a The initial solution to these His imprisonment may well jeop- cious political move to set a new major concern of the current lead- problems is actually quite simple, ardize his ability to travel and agenda, declaring a federal mili- ership. Strangely this is not the and would start with reversal of make speeches, but instead of tary intervention in the state of case. virtually all the changes to the killing him politically, it is trans- Rio de Janeiro to solve a so-called The fundamental problems Social Security system since 2007. forming him. Lula is no longer a Former president Lula da Silva idolised by crowds “security crisis” in the region. with the Social Security system Everyone should have the securi- simple leader. He is now an idea – Photo: Francisco Proner Ramos (Midia Ninja) As usual, to every complex and are familiar. Benefit levels, par- ty of knowing that, whatever which makes him much more stitution that guarantees the delicate problem there is always ticularly for non-working people their changes in circumstances, powerful. Like others in the past, right to appeal before gaol. In a an easy, demagogic, authoritari- of working age, are impossibly they will be able to feed and it is in the moments of apparent scene that reminds us of darker an – and wrong – answer. It was low. Child poverty is increasing clothe themselves and their chil- weakness and defeat that he gets moments, even the Army com- clear from the beginning that the dramatically, fuelled by devices dren and keep a roof over their stronger. mander, general Eduardo Villas federal intervention was a such as the ‘benefit cap’ which heads. Modest aims but beyond What makes Lula’s support Bôas, implied that troops could pyrotechnical move to produce puts a ceiling on benefits payable the hopes of many people in even more extraordinary is that it intervene to avoid possible positive media coverage. The to families, regardless of size. Britain today. For people in work takes place after more than four “impunity”. The goal is clear, and reality on the ground, however, This is targeted directly, though pay and security of employment years of constant political attacks. has been openly declared many was the absence of control and not explicitly, at children. The are crucial and are a better Lula, the first and only working times: Lula must be arrested the lack of any action plan. It was introduction of ESA has reclassi- approach than means-tested sup- class candidate to be elected pres- because, if he runs again, he from this intervention that fied large numbers of people who plements but while people are not ident in the country, left office in might well win. Marielle Franco, a left-wing, cannot work for medical reasons working there is no way around 2010 with an indisputably posi- Lula’s imprisonment is, in slum-dwelling, black, lesbian city as unemployed rather than sick the need for benefits which are tive record. Despite the contradic- many ways, a new step in the con- counsellor was brutally executed and increases in pension age (par- Shadow minister Debbie Abrahams too quiet adequate and which maintain tions while in power, his almost with her driver when leaving a ticularly in respect of Pension their value. 90% approval ratings were the debate on black feminism in Credit) have further reclassified incapacity may last, to the same In 1977 the Labour result of a government that trans- Lula’s arrest was not the downtown Rio on March 14th. many people from ‘pensioner’ to benefit level as for unemploy- Government started to introduce formed Brazil into a global player result of a fair trial, but It may seem that Marielle ‘unemployed’, leading to large ment, which is usually short- a genuinely revolutionary Social and generated economic and Franco’s assassination and the falls in income and exposure to term. Security system based around social prosperity, removing tens a symptom of the slow witch-hunt against Lula are not punitive sanctions. The propor- Faced with this catalogue of contributions and earnings-rela- of millions from poverty. death of democracy directly related. However, there tion of housing costs covered by looming disasters, what does the tion of benefits. This was system- For years now, however, the is now a growing consensus on benefits is falling, through both Labour Party have to say? The atically demolished by the media in collusion with important servative hold on the country. The the Left about their connection. general restrictions on Housing answer appears to be not much. Thatcher Government. It is a sectors of the judiciary incited process is complex, with many On April 2nd, in a rare moment and Council Tax benefits and The 2017 manifesto had some strange irony that the best aim right-wing groups by depicting expressions and actors. It got of unity, politicians and political their replacements by specific useful proposals, particularly on we can set ourselves for the Lula as the root of all evil and traction during the parliamentary activists from the entire progres- devices such as the ‘bedroom tax’. restoring benefits for people inca- immediate future is restoration of corruption in Brazil – despite suf- coup that overthrew president sive spectrum gathered in Rio. All this is about to become pable of work and abolishing the system as Thatcher left it. ficient evidence of any wrongdo- Dilma Rousseff in 2016, when a The message was clear: all forms much worse. So far the impact of sanctions, but these seemed To move beyond this we need ing on his part. Hate was irre- circumstantial and sometimes of persecution against the Left benefit freezes has been slight, derived from a pic’n’mix exercise some serious thinking in the sponsibly inflamed to the point paradoxical alliance was formed. are fruits of the same anti-demo- because inflation and wage rather than a systematic analysis. Labour Party. This seems a more that, for a growing far right, Lula It involved notoriously corrupt cratic ambience, and define a growth have been very low. As an More recently the National remote possibility than ever became a scapegoat that must be politicians from catch-all crony common adversary. example, the benefit level for a Policy Forum has published a before. The current shadow eliminated at any cost – leading parties – such as the former Lula’s arrest was not the result single unemployed person fell truly bizarre consultation docu- Secretary of State for the DWP, to a shooting of his convoy in the Speaker of the House, Eduardo of a fair trial, but a symptom of from just over 20% to just over ment In work poverty and work- Debbie Abrahams MP, though her south of Brazil on March 27th. Cunha, and Michel Temer, the slow death of democracy, 10% of average earnings between ing age inequality which, despite always inconspicuous perfor- This fury against him established Rousseff’s vice-president – fringe where those elected are removed 1979 and 2010 but this figure has the title, says very little about mance has become more so as she the background for his controver- extreme-right leaders such as from power, those who protest hardly changed since. As inflation Social Security and literally noth- has become embroiled in one of sial – and sometimes Kafkaesque Jair Bolsonaro, the big media are silenced or killed, and those increases, assuming real wages ing about personal taxation. The those incomprehensible disputes – high-speed condemnation. Like groups, and an hypertrophied who dare to mobilize a popular no longer fall, the gap will widen. title itself is telling. The Party about whether she is bullying the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Judiciary that frequently violates resistance are imprisoned. Those Further attacks on children and seems deeply ashamed to be asso- someone or someone is bullying Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland, the the constitution in order to “make who welcome his imprisonment sick people will build up cumula- ciated with the sick or unem- her. It does not seem to have judges decided Lula’s sentence justice”. ignore, however, that they might tively. Withholding benefits from ployed, though it has at least occurred to her or any of her col- first, their verdict coming after- After Rousseff’s unseating, this inadvertently unite progressive 3rd and subsequent children dropped its claim that its name leagues that the most striking wards. A right-wing clamour fol- alliance weakened, but while struggles. The future is uncer- starts for children born in April was chosen to signal its repudia- example of institutional bullying lowed pressuring the Supreme sometimes fighting each other, tain, the Left can still make mis- 2017. People who fall ill from the tion of such people. It is true that in British society today is the Court to enforce Lula’s immediate the participants continued to takes, but, like Lula, it remains same point on will normally be working people now form a large treatment of sick and unemployed imprisonment – against the con- push the country to the edge. The alive. C restricted, however long their and growing proportion of poor people. C

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IMMIGRATION FILM REVIEW

Windrush scandal A working class hero is quite hard Don Flynn on urgent need for a comprehensive immigration policy review ew readers will be In a line that goes right back to fice by developing a strategy to to see surprised by the reve- the days of New Labour prime get a rights-based approach back lations that have ministers and home secretaries, at the heart of immigration poli- Patrick lass is fluid. My moth- filled the news media the approach to managing migra- cy. er went from middle about the injustices tion has been that we strip new- We need policies which Mulcahy class (professional sufferedF by migrants from the so- comers of the rights they once unashamedly say that long-term trained nurse in called Windrush Generation had of protection from discrimi- residence in the UK does lead to on Funny Yorkshire with an because of the ‘hostile environ- nation and the assurance that, if permanent residence; that Cinterest in mountain climbing) to ment’ rolled out over the country they adhered to the rules, they migrants in all categories will be Cow working class (office worker liv- during Theresa May’s time as could look forward to the prospect protected from adverse discrimi- ing in council accommodation in Home Secretary. of citizenship within a time span nation whether in employment, South London, raising four chil- The Parliamentary Labour of five to ten years. housing or the use of public ser- dren) back to middle class in Party, with and In the place of rights, New vices; and citizenship and rights retirement (home owner). The Diane Abbott playing particularly Labour created an immigration of appeal will be available to all 2013 ‘Great British Class Survey’ important roles, has done well to control system that resembled an migrants who have kept to their conducted by the BBC Lab UK press the government on this obstacle course filled with traps side of the implicit deal. identified seven different classes, issue and demand changes that and snares designed to under- If Labour under Jeremy from the elite (those with the will meet the immediate needs of mine the migrant and show her Don Flynn is Corbyn is prepared to commit to highest economic, social and cul- the people so seriously affected by the door once a limited period of former director these principles we can look for- tural capital) to the ‘precariat’ these measures. But the bigger leave came to an end. of Migrant Rights ward to the ending of scandals of (‘precarious proletariat’), ‘the issues behind what some are This was the first of what came Network the magnitude of that inflicted on poor most deprived class scoring describing as a ‘cockup’ need to be to be a great many steps culmi- the Windrush generation. C low on social and cultural capi- brought to the forefront in a cam- nating in the viciousness of the tal’. This survey has not informed paign for comprehensive change hostile environment. Labour current perceptions of class. Maxione Peake in Funny Cow to immigration policy. needs to dismantle this whole edi- The old class distinctions still hold up. You can replace upper, a community hall in Ireland that she doesn’t want to be ‘no middle and working class with (‘Jimmy’s Hall’). The most strik- Eliza f-ing Doolittle’ - it is one of CEOs, middle management and ing British film of recent years to the script’s anomalies that she Hue and cry service workers, with educational tackle working class life is knows who Eliza Doolittle is. She qualifications having little bear- ‘Tyrannosaur’ about an alcoholic finds life in Angus’ spacious home Bryn Jones ing on where you end up. The (Peter Mullan) who forms a rela- stifling and when he takes her to Labour’s anti-Semitism—is it inflated by a McCarthyite moral panic asks ? modern working class doesn’t tionship with a charity worker. see ‘The Red Balloon’, she is non- etween 18th March sociologists call a ‘moral panic’. holding relatively mild socialist necessarily have paid employ- Its narrative addresses its pro- plussed. and 9th April a That is, an emotive campaign in or leftist views, because the ment. You won’t necessarily find tagonist’s aggression in a far ‘Funny Cow’ is like a reverse British national which a few genuine cases are McCarthyites managed to equate them in pubs. They are not even more unsentimental, honest way ‘Educating Rita’. Funny Cow isn’t newspaper included inflated by media hyperbole, these with a commitment to the unified by proximity – council than Loach’s own take on the interested in ‘high culture’. She’s 20 news stories, accentuated by political opinion overthrow of American democracy estates now a patchwork of lets, subject, ‘My Name is Joe’, also not even curious. What she wants eightB commentary pieces and two makers. and a Soviet takeover. sub-lets and owner occupied starring Mullan. is the safety of a stage to say editorials directly, or implicitly Complaints that the sacking or Similarly today, anti-Labour properties. Currently in cinemas is ‘Funny what’s on her mind – and to put critical of the Labour and Jeremy suspension of apparently culpable voices aligned with pro-Israel Television reflects working Cow’, a showcase for Maxine down anyone who wants to shut Corbyn stances on antisemitism. office holders and members con- opinion argue that leftist support- class life as a problem in pro- Peake, written by her friend and her up. She sees the power that a Investigation or analysis of the stitutes a medieval-style ‘witch ers of the Palestinian cause grammes such as ‘Undercover sometime soap actor, Tony Pitts comedian can have but not yet strength, or sources, of the evi- hunt’ are predictable. However, inevitably cleave to antisemitic Benefits Cheats’ and ‘Saints and (‘Emmerdale’). Set in the 1970s, how it can be used. dence was minimal. Yet this cov- the wider media campaign is language and ideas. To support Scroungers’. The working class when the North of England was Peake only performs one stand erage was not in a right-wing more redolent of twentieth-centu- this thesis they can cite the anti- are objectified as loud and argu- intolerant of foreigners and up set in the entire film and it has tabloid, but in the most left-lean- ry McCarthyism. Between 1947 semitic rhetoric in the more radi- mentative, unsettled and senti- homophobic (remember then?) it the impact of the final fight ing ‘quality’ paper, the erstwhile and 1956, Senator Joe McCarthy cal wings of the Palestinian mental. TV soap operas, arguably deals with a working class sequence in a boxing movie, full of Labour-supporting Guardian. led a media-driven and state-sup- cause. Corbyn’s rapport with mili- the most sympathetic to the woman who chooses stand up verbal blows to a heckler. Funny That source might support alle- ported campaign to identify and tant Arab and Palestinian groups working class, are stuck in the comedy as a means of standing Cow’s set is as offensive as the gations of an endemic and dan- root out Communists from public provides a convenient lightening eras in which they were devised: up for herself. Broken into sec- male comics that were her con- gerous form of antisemitism per- and civil sectors. With media sup- rod for such allegations. But such ‘Coronation Street’ in the 1950s tions ‘the first bit’, ‘the next bit’ – temporaries, so it doesn’t become vading the Party and its leader- port, Mc Carthy or his allies used a McCarthyite logic is fallacious. and ‘Eastenders’ in the 1980s, and moving between three time a release for the audience. The ship. Especially as Labour and Congressional committees, notori- Bryn Jones is a Did support for Afro-American with the local pub as the centre periods – Funny Cow as a girl in comedy, such as it is, comes from Momentum leaders eventually ously the House of sociologist and civil rights automatically entail at which the characters all meet the 1950s, as an abused wife in a group of acts auditioning for a admitted that there was a Representatives’ Un-American Labour Party support for the extremes of the (the Rovers Return, the Queen the 1970s and eventually as a talent show (including Vic Reeves, ‘widespread’, if ‘unconscious’, Activities Committee, to arraign member Black Power movement in the 60s Vic) being its most inauthentic success being interviewed and John Bishop and a mime). antisemitic bias in the Party. Yet and discredit leading figures in and 70s? ‘Moral panics’ inevitably element. confronting her past, is mainly What is most disappointing the evidence for institutionalised US society: State department offi- turn out to exaggerate perceived Cinema offers the opportunity about a woman who flees from about ‘Funny Cow’ is that it does antisemitism as unconscious bias cials, Hollywood actors, directors, threats to moral or civilised to give the contemporary working her abusive husband, Bob (Pitts) not examine truthfully the rage is difficult to prove, without a screen-writers, as well as seamen orders. As Labour tries to identify class a sympathetic hearing, yet and moves in with a cultured that Bob experienced that drew massive social scientific investi- and dockworkers. Especially rele- and correct the antisemitism in few filmmakers in the UK are bookshop owner, Angus (Paddy him towards violence. Brutal bul- gation of hundreds of members. vant to the current drive against its ranks it should sort the able to make a living out of doing Considine, the writer-director of lies live in fear of being found out On the other hand the variety of antisemitism are the McCarthyite/moral panic chaff so. Ken Loach has consistently ‘Tyrannosaur’) who is her polar and found wanting. ‘Funny Cow’ accusations from mainstream McCarthyite techniques for iden- from hard grains of deliberate represented the working class opposite. gives its protagonist her dignity Jewish opinion to anti-Corbyn tifying unpatriotic and potential- antisemitism. However, the but almost always in opposition The real subject of the film is and also a new focus but it does Labour and Tory MPs and their ly traitorous beliefs and activi- prospects of even our allegedly to a system, whether administer- class mobility – or the psychologi- not fundamentality ask its audi- media sympathisers could equally ties. Communist ‘witchcraft’ could liberal media conducting any ing disability benefits (‘I, Daniel cal impediments to this. The ence to reconsider perceptions of indicate the occurrence of what be proven simply by suspects forensic treatment seem remote. Blake’) or giving approval to open nameless Funny Cow exclaims class.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Thought provoking but no answers Theological Socialism

Andrew Rethinking Democracy, Socialist ened not democracy but appeals because the other people don’t Duncan The Labour Church Trevor’s religious spirit was Church relative to other Register. 2018. to France, the Nation, not just by mean anything.” Can the People Neil Johnson very pluralist, while some of his Christian socialist groupings. Coates Edited by Leo Panitch and Greg Albo. the right but also by left-wing become Sovereign on conditions Bowie Routledge £115 colleagues focused their attention Firstly, its northern base and the Merlin Press £17.95. French politicians. After eventual that they are hurled against the on more secular aspects – Fred fact that it was a working-class on French endorsement, the EU ‘not-People’? on religious his is the first monograph Brocklehurst was to have a cen- organisation operating indepen- or Leo Panitch and Greg went ahead with its plans any- Foley and Ramand take on on the Labour Church, the tral role in the founding of the dently of both established reli- Socialism Albo ‘the social revolution socialists way. board Perry Anderson’s critique Tmovement established by Independent Labour Party, while gious institutions and largely free Fof building capacities for Denis Pilon’s ‘Struggle over of the ‘vagueness’ of the term John Trevor which flourished in the Rev Philip Wicksteed, anoth- of any links to the intellectual lib- and self government’ is more impor- Actually Existing Democracy’ elite, and the idea that this is the Manchester and the north West of er unitarian minster who took a eral Christian reformers of Populism tant than gaining state power. offers a critique of ‘proceduralist’ Enemy. Three contributions on England in the 1890’s and early leading role within the early London and Oxford. More sur- ‘Actually existing liberal democ- democracy. Alex Demiorovi con- the media also register another 1900’s. There have been two pre- years of the Labour Church, prisingly, he does not examine racy’ is entangled with anti- siders Radical democracy,ć from side of his doubts, the way it vious PhD’s on the subject – one focused on developing a Christian the Labour Church’s links to the democratic institutions. The 2018 the recently deceased Miguel neglects the way hegemonic ideas by D F Summers in 1858 and one egalitarian economics. In the Unitarian Church or discuss how edition of the Socialist Register Abensour (indebted to council gain acceptance. They offer useful by Jacqueline Turner in 2010 – longer-term Brocklehurst and Trevor’s religious views diverged aims to offer ‘socialist democracy’ communism), Rancière, to the insights into the role of the media Johnson draws heavily on the for- Wicksteed had much greater from unitarianism, if they did at against reactionary ‘populist familiar figures of Ernesto Laclau in constructing ruling class hege- mer and to a lesser extent on the impact on the wider labour move- all. The Labour Church was not appeals in the name of defending and Chantal Mouffe. Enthusiasts mony. The revelations about latter. There have also been chap- ment than did Trevor, who aban- about theological differences but ‘our’ democracy’. Cambridge Analytica indicate ters on Trevor and the Labour was primarily an organi- The electoral appeal of demo- that grand ideas, from Laclau Church in what in my view are sational structure within cratic socialist ideas – they cite and Mouffe, about the Enemy, the best studies of the early which socialists were free Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie and the need for democratic dis- British labour movement - to express religious views, Sanders – inner-party democracy sensus, may be less attractive in Stanley Pierson’s 1973 volume or to put it a different and social struggles have come to the face of manipulated hatred. on Marxism and the Origins of way, that people with reli- the fore. Ramon Ribera Fumaz The benefits for the equally elu- British Socialism (not refer- gious views were free to and Greig Charnock offer a valu- sive People in this form of politics enced by Johnson) and Marc express socialist views. able account of the ‘citizens’ revo- are less than evident. Bevir’s 2011 study on The In his conclusion, lution’ attempted by Barcelona en This fear of Others perhaps Making of British Socialism. Johnson recognises that comú (BeC). But, away from its sums up right-wing populism, Peter d’A Jones’ 1968 The the Labour Church was in ideology and programme, what of and mass conservative ideas, too Christian Socialist Revival and practice a somewhat the political history of BeC’s ally, neatly. If liberals, or the very dif- Leonard Smith’s 1993 Religion undefined religious com- Spain’s national Podemos, from ferent European left turn to and the Rise of Labour also ponent within a much personalities to strategic difficul- Othering the rightwing Populists include material on the Labour wider and disperse range ties? The electoral bloc that has - and why not? - it is because Church. of ethical socialisms in enabled the Portuguese left to their policies place them as My main difficulty with the the period studied, a win power and govern successful- Corporate ventriloquists. Martijn book is that Johnson, who is a range which included sec- ly, involves not just ‘new’ forces Konings brings us back to the Methodist Minister in ular and rationalist ele- but some old ones, including the importance of economic rationali- Birmingham, seeks to locate his ments. This rather Socialists and the very old of abstract theory will find much ty. He indicates how a ‘commit- study, not within the context of negates his whole thesis Portuguese Communist Party to mull over. ment to the speculative logic of the early labour movement or that there was a distinc- (PCP). Do these theorists offer ‘inno- risk’ continues to be attractive to within the context of late tive ‘theological social- Do neoliberal elites ‘fear’ vative democratic strategies’? some voters. It can, paradoxical- Victorian Christian socialism, ism’. Labour Church democracy? A number of contrib- Should we consider one of the few ly, be worked into appeal to the but within a theological con- members had multiple utors work with Jacques concrete ideas offered by People. While many during the text. Johnson invents the term affiliations and political Rancière’s claim that elites, Rancière, who looked to Periclean Brexit Referendum claimed to ‘theological socialism’ to and religious trajectories. believers in a technocratic compe- Athens and found public office defend our Home against the out- describe Trevor’s religious The final sections of tence, have a veritable hatred of open to selection by lot? The side, the neo-liberal wing of the views and ‘theological socialists’ the book seek to relate the demos. James Foley and Pete French La France Insoumise Brexit campaign offered to make to describe the Labour Church the discussion to contem- Ramand detect this in a fear of (LFI) led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Britain a free entrepreneur on activists. The problem is this porary politics by pointing referendums. Rancière claimed practices this procedure for the world stage. Trump embodies term was never used by either doned the Labour Church move- out that a range of contemporary that the No vote in the 2005 selecting delegates to its both at the same time: he is both Trevor or other Labour Church ment to study sex questions and politicians also have religious French Referendum on a Conferences. It means that there a free-marketer and determined members. Trevor, like many of his try to earn his living as a photog- beliefs, going so far to reference European Constitution was a are no formal currents, organised opponent of open markets. colleagues, was actually a unitari- rapher. not only Tony Blair, John Smith, major set back to those who differences of opinion, inside his Rethinking Democracy is an Minister and maintained links With his theological focus, Gordon Brown, Dennis Skinner, wished their ‘science’ to be movement. This is even less thought provoking rather than with that church. His theology, so Johnson does not adequately con- Eric Heffer, , Salma acclaimed by the masses (La attractive than the ‘consensual’ answer-offering. The accelerating far as that existed - was that ‘God textualise the Labour Church in Yaqoob (of RESPECT) , and Haine de la démocratie. 2005). decision-making imposed in the crisis of most of European social was in the labour movement’. The relation to other Christian social- Sadiq Khan, but also mentioning That popular consultation wit- Occupy! movement. democracy is now provoking Labour Church was established ist organisations or writers, such Margaret Thatcher, David nessed a division on the French The ‘fear’ of populists of the left reflection and soul-searching. as a meeting place for religious as the mid- Victorian Christian Cameron and Theresa May, the left, inside both radical and and the right fails to look into Recent elections have left Italian socialists to participate in the Socialist movement, the Dalai Lama and the Ba’ath reformist camps. It was between why socialists may oppose pop- socialists of all stripes voiceless, emergent labour movement – and Christian Social Union, Stuart Socialists (though not naming those supporting national ulism. It is not disdain of the the Dutch Labour Party has been to meet on Sundays. The Church Headlam’s Guild of St Matthew, Saddam Hussein). I am unclear sovereignty and those who great unwashed, but differences overtaken by the Greens, and, had a hymn book which relied or the Northern based Church what point Johnson is trying to favoured European unity, howev- over the claim that there is left- after the long-signalled melt more on Walt Whitman and Socialist League. While Johnson make here, other than that a er imperfect. The rejection of the wing potential in the present down of the Parliamentary left, Edward Carpenter than on any discusses the relationship of the range of politicians look to reli- European Constitution only hap- ways the ‘people’ can be mobilised the anti-populist President specific Christian tradition and, Labour Church to the gious inspiration – unfortunately, pened with the help of the votes against the ‘elite’. Macron and his La République en like the unitarians was religious Independent Labour Party and religion does not necessarily of the far-right Front National, Donald Trump once declared, marche (LRM) hold all the reins without any creed or ritual and the Clarion Cycling Club, he does make you a socialist. Overall a and conservative ‘Sovereigntists’. “The only important thing is the of power. There is much to think with little mention of either ‘God’ not adequately consider what was disappointing and at times frus- The result, many say, strength- unification of the people – about. or ‘ Jesus’. distinctive about the Labour trating book.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Walt Whitman and British Socialism Socialism from below

Paul Walt Whitman and British Socialism friend of the Glasiers – Bruce and part of the wider circle. Both were Stephen A new politics from the left and economics together in a new leadership; impressed by his abil- Kirsten Harris his wife Katherine. Bruce edited well-known figures on the social- Hilary Wainwright way, based on cultural, economic ity to win votes, and previously Salveson Routledge The Labour Leader for many ist lecturing circuit, with Caroline Marks Polity Press £9.99 and cultural democracy. supportive of his policies but years and Wallace used the paper wearing herself out by the strain But that all sounds rather sceptical of his electability. on an he contribution to the devel- to promote a Whitmanite sense of of her incessant travelling. She on ver since the days of the fluffy. What is the programmatic They are now ‘on side’ - for the opment of British socialism democracy, comradeship and love died in Dundee whilst visiting Lucas workers’ corporate political conclusion? Well the moment. But a Blairite hard core inspirational Tby the great American poet of the open air. female jute workers. She had ear- participatory Eplan in the 1970s and her whole point is that it can’t be pro- remains intransigent. Hilary Walt Whitman, (1819-92) has Wallace, and his close friend Dr lier written to Wallace saying work in the Popular Planning duced in a ready-made manifesto. leaves the question open, and as poet been sadly neglected by histori- Johnston, a Bolton GP were regu- “that the great joy of Walt economics Unit at ’s GLC, As the man said, you can’t, or we have seen, it continues to ans. Whilst the influence of lar visitors to Edward Carpenter Whitman’s teaching has not been Hilary Wainwright has pioneered shouldn’t, write ‘recipes for the unfold. Its resolution is linked to William Morris has been rightly at his home on the outskirts of the capacity to love but the and expounded a radical version cookshops of the future’. a second question - can celebrated, the immense impact of Sheffield, and Carpenter recipro- strength to express it”. Harris of ‘socialism from below’. But she takes us through Momentum combine ‘the inter- the writings, and philoso- notes that Martyn’s religious She believes as she put it in her examples aplenty, from the oft- nally oriented process of changing phy, of ‘the good, gray poet’ socialism was far from conven- latest book, that ‘The daily flow of quoted Lucas Plan through the Labour Party…with the out- has gone virtually un- tional, with strong elements of the production of meanings and Newcastle Unison members pro- ward-reaching engagement noticed by contemporary mysticism influenced by problem-solving knowledge, like moting, with temporary success, with…social movements and pro- accounts of early socialism. Whitman. the development of product democratic alternatives to privati- ductive civil initiatives…?’. So Kirsten Harris’ study is The late 19th century saw a designs or of new ways of organis- sation in the early 2000’s. We are On this she is optimistic. But a very welcome addition to blossoming of the socialist press ing, is often the result of also taken on a rather breathless surely the key to success is to the history of the broader and Harris devotes a fascinating serendipity, intuition and hunch European and world tour from combine both strategies. The radical history of the late chapter to its treatment of and other forms of tacit knowl- radical municipalities in Europe social movements - activists for 19th and early 20th cen- Whitman. Whilst national publi- edge which are often difficult to to participatory budgeting and La the low-paid, black and minority turies. cations such as Labour Leader, codify in statistical or other cen- Via Campesina in Brazil. ethnic activists, workplace trade By the time of his death Clarion, Commonweal and tralisable forms’. But how does this work out at unionists and campaigners for in 1892, Whitman was Justice were of great importance, This point has always been the level of government? All too employment rights and the living lauded as one of the great Harris recognises the perhaps made, by free-market economists often, as Hilary illustrates, the wage - can and must be brought influences on that ‘ethical even greater influence of very like Hayek, as an argument for promise is to use elected office to into the party and transform it socialism’ which was exem- local, or regional, publications. the ‘free market’ and against the empower movements at the base. into a space where the machina- plified by figures such as Allen Clarke’s Teddy Ashton’s idea of an all-embracing plan. But in practice the two push in tions of the Blairite hard-core will Keir Hardie, the Glasiers Northern Weekly ran from 1896 But this practical knowledge, opposite directions with the move- find no foothold or echo. and Robert Blatchford. Its to 1908 (with various changes of Hilary insists, is collective and ments relegated to a walk-on role Is this Hilary’s conclusion? She institutional base was the name) and circulated in the tex- thus shareable and therefore ‘a in support of those elected to gov- leaves it to the reader; ‘Shutting Independent Labour Party tile areas of Lancashire and the vital dimension of creative and ernment. up is not always my strong point and the wide network of West Riding. It had a circulation also experimental collaboration’. How can this dilemma be but I think now is the time to Clarion clubs, the Labour at its peak of around 35,000 but That, she argues is the basis of resolved in the case of the Labour practice what I propose, to let go Paul Salveson’s Church movement and would have been read by many ‘a new politics from the Left’ Party? She notes that since the and leave the development of a book With Walt very localised groups and more. Clarke used every opportu- where participatory economic election one section of the PLP new politics to you, the reader’. Whitman in clubs. nity to promote Whitman and his decision-making can bring politics has been supportive of Corbyn’s Bolton: Harris’ book is primarily poetry. In the August 8th 1896 spirituality, sex an intellectual history and issue he urged his readers to and socialism is she carefully unpicks the study Whitman’s “strange yet Turning things around available price various philosophical strands that cated by attending the celebra- beautiful and homely poetry.” £9.90 including permeated Whitman’s own work, tions of Whitman’s birthday on Similarly, papers like Rochdale post and including eastern religious May 31st, which were revived by Labour Journal, The Bolton Nigel Making Africa Work, a Handbook progress has been held back by ex-President of Malawi, who packing. See thought, and its links to more local socialists in the 1980s and Socialist, Bradford Forward and Greg Mills, Jeffrey Herebst, Olusegun poor leadership, red tape, ineffi- wished she had it when she was www.paulsalveso well-known figures on the British continue to this day. Keighley Labour News helped Watt Obasanjo and Dickie Davis. ciency and corruption the pro- president. The book is meant to n.org.uk left including Edward Carpenter, Perhaps the most influential spread the word to a predomi- Hurst £16.99 posed remedies suggest that the be a guide for action and if it is whom many saw as ‘The English publication of the British left in nantly working class readership. on a way forward has to be through used intelligently by African gov- Whitman’. At the same time, the 1890s and early 1900s was Whitman didn’t consider him- frica seemed to be doing opening up to private enterprise ernments and agencies it could Whitman’s celebration of ‘manly Robert Blatchford’s Clarion, ini- self a socialist. His political core guide for well in the early 2000’s due based often on foreign invest- result in some positive outcomes. love’ made him an appealing fig- tially published in Manchester. was that of a radical democrat, Ato high commodity prices ment. There is not much exami- Let’s hope so. ure to the broad, but often sub- Wallace cultivated Blatchford and taking shape before socialism action and a lot of Chinese investment. nation as to whether a reformed merged, gay men’s culture of the persuaded him to promote came to the United States. Yet his Today most African countries are and better organised state role late 19th century of which Whitman as one of the great followers, such as Horace Traubel doing worse than those in other could work. There is recognition Carpenter was part. ‘prophets’ of the new enlightened and J W Lloyd were libertarian continents. This book attempts to of some significant African Much of the credit for dissemi- age of socialism. The paper socialists and in many cases be a practical guide to how to achievements such as the Kenyan nating Whitman’s ideas and poet- spawned an array of cultural and overtly anarchist. He was turn things around with case invention and development of M- ry in Britain was down to a social institutions whose rele- admired by Emma Goldman, Max studies of how, for example, Pesa, the money transfer system remarkable figure called James vance to Whitman’s idea of loving Berkman and Eugene Debs. Vietnam, Mexico, Panama have using mobiile phones. The William Wallace who lived a mod- comradeship and the outdoors These towering figures of the done it. The book gives solid back- authors believe that democracy est existence in Bolton for much were a perfect blend: the cycling American left corresponded with ground on factors such as the helps promote good development of his life. Harris devotes a chap- and walking clubs, field natural- the English Whitmanites and rapid population growth, urbani- while also noting the ‘Singapore’ ter to Wallace and the Bolton ists, but also choirs and club some of them, including Lloyd, sation, infrastructure and the option of enlightened despotism ‘Whitmanites’. Wallace became a houses. visited the Bolton group. usefulness of democracy. When which has brought progress to member of the ILP’s National Whilst Wallace and his Bolton Harris has done a fine job in prescribing the ‘cure’ each chap- Rwanda and Ethiopia. Administrative Council and used ‘Whitmanites’ were an entirely rescuing an important but ter starts with ‘five steps to suc- It is interesting that praise for the position to promote the impor- male group at first, female social- neglected current of ideas that cess,’ summarising the more this book comes from opposition tance of Whitman’s teaching to ists including Katherine Glasier helped shape British socialism in detailed recommendations. leaders in Kenya, Zambia and the British left. He was a close and Caroline Martyn became a the 20th century. While it is true that economic Zimbabwe and from Joyce Banda,

28 CHARTIST May/June 2018 May/June 2018 CHARTIST 29 #292 working_01 cover 23/04/2018 12:50 Page 30

BOOK REVIEWS

Death of social democracy? Scrutinising autocracy

Marina Three Worlds of Social Democracy: A assess the historical development backward, to capitalist reformers, Mary The New Turkey and Its Discontents For those who want Turkey’s the elections change anything, Global view of social democracy in different whose Third Way message sound- Simon A Waldman & Emre Caliskan back-story, rather than more the authors believe “Turkey will Prentoulis Ingo Schmidt (ed.) national contexts, from Western ed fresh and open to the future”. Southcott Hurst £14.99 recent events, this book explains still face the problems: the Pluto £19.99 European countries like France The geographical scope of the its transmogrification from Kurdish question, the nature of on and Norway, to European and chapters is impressive and cannot on nyone watching what is Kemalist secular to a virtual the future constitution, troubled premature ince the 1990s sociolo- non-European peripheries like be discussed here, nevertheless happening in the Middle Islamic (some say fascist) state. neighbourhood policies and inter- gists and political theo- Greece, Slovenia and Chile, to the there are some examples from the Erdogan’s AEast, with Russia, Iran and One can feel the tensions this is national relations, identity poli- burials rists declare the death emerging regional powers like European periphery which Turkey meeting together; Russia causing not only for secular tics, secular-religious divides and of social-democracy. India and Brazil. This allows for demonstrate how the book Turkey selling Turkey S400 missiles; Turkish citizens, but Turkish majoritarian-style politics.” Ralf Dahrendorf a sophisticated discussion which responds to contemporary chal- Theresa May’s early visit to Kurds and Turkish Cypriots, as Consensus-based politics, a new announcedS ‘the end of the social- is aware of the different strands lenges. In the introduction the Turkey to sell arms; Trump’s first Prime Minister and now Turkey, vibrant, dynamic, mod- democratic century’ in 1992 within social democracy and will- editor discusses how in Eastern reversal of US support of the ern, inclusive, democratic and because according to him the ing to engage with alternatives Europe Stalinist rule effectively Kurdish YPG for fighting ISIS, secular, seem further away. social-democratic parties had suc- for the future. discredited all kinds of left wing now reversed to take out what Two recent events illustrate ceeded in fulfilling most of politics and the discontent they say are Assad’s chemical how Turkey is seen from up their aims. The sociologist in these countries, was weapons; leaving Syria in bits, close. In January when Afrika Claus Offe arrives at the ultimately articulated in creating more refugees than EU newspaper editor, Shener same conclusion but through nationalist terms. has paid Turkey to keep within Levent, in northern Nicosia, a different reasoning: his Examining closely the its borders; or who question likened Turkey’s invasion of argument is that this end is process of this articulation either the UK’s or Turkey’s Afrin to the 1974 events in due to the immense pressure is crucial in understand- membership of NATO, should Cyprus, Erdogan said his sup- of the welfare state from the ing the contemporary poli- read this book. porters on the island knew mid 1970s. His position tics of the Visegrad group The Introduction distinguish- what to do. They attacked and becomes more topical after that divide Europe. es between the deep state (a would have killed the journal- the German election in Equally significant is phrase the authors do not like) ists. The police under September 2017, which gave the understanding of the and the weak state, they believe Turkey’s military control at the SPD (Social Democratic exceptions. Why for exam- Turkey to be, and the first ignored the Turkish Party) its worst result since ple, countries like Conclusion sets out possible Cypriot Leader, Mustafa the Second World War and Slovenia did not follow futures. The intervening seven Akinci when he tried to help. more crucially, it forced the this path and instead, chapters, with great titles, cover The subsequent demonstration party to face a huge dilemma managed to articulate left The General’s Last Sigh (the by thousands of Turkish over its involvement in alternatives. Anej Military, the coups of 1960, 1971 Cypriots for peace, democracy another Grand Coalition Korsika’s chapter explains and 1980 and the Erkenekon tri- and freedom of the press with the CDU/CSU the particularity of als); the Irresistible Rise of the showed the distinction (Christian Democratic Slovenia, compared with AKP (the Justice and between their secularism and Union/Christian Social the bloody experience of Development Party from its the existing attitude to the Union). the other ex-Yugoslavian roots in the Islamist Welfare rule of law and democracy in Rejecting the coalition and republics, which put Party); Erdogan’s Way today’s Turkey. having a new election would Slovenia in a different tra- (Majoritarianism, Paternalism The spat with Israel is strengthen the right wing jectory. This trajectory led and Authoritarianism); deeply ironic. President and especially the to the formation of IDS Breaking the News (difficulties of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan took the side of Alternative for Germany (Initiative for Democratic any independent journalism); the has to seek support from the fas- Palestinian demonstrators calling (AfD). Accepting it, allows Socialism) and a United Politics of Ecekondu (settlements cist MHP party to become the Israelis terrorists. Netanyahu’s the AfD to be the official Left Coalition in 2014, around the main cities and the first elected President with exec- response was “He who occupies opposition party. But more with a successful (even if role of urban planning); Waltzing utive powers in the snap elections northern Cyprus, encroaches on importantly for the SPD, it limited) parliamentary with Ocalan (the Kurdish on 24 June 2018. These were Kurdish territory and massacres does not allow for a clean presence but with long Question); and Davutoglu’s scheduled for 2019 or even the civilians in Afrin cannot preach to break from the previous term goals for transform- Rhythmic Diplomacy (Turkey’s second anniversary of the 15 July us on values and morals.” Merkel administrations. The ing Slovenian society. very own Kissinger whose book, 2016 coup, blamed on Fethullah Turkey does not get the latter is what a significant part of In the introduction, the editor Similarly, the chapter on Greece Strategic Depth, foresaw zero Gulen, who remains unextradited Western scrutiny its deserves, the party’s grassroots want, espe- outlines the different responses of by John Milios, offers an histori- problems with Turkey’s neigh- in the USA. The State of although Gezi Park protests in cially the young: to confront the social democracy from the 1980s cally grounded interpretation bours, Turkey as a model for Emergency was imposed then 2013 perhaps marks a threshold Conservatives heads on. Damned onwards. In other words, the regarding the crisis of PASOK Islamic Democracy, the Arab and is still being extended. before which Turkey was simply if you do, damned if you don’t and responses to the and the politics of SYRIZA. Spring, which turned into a win- Despite its usefulness this book a loyal NATO member excused damned it is, as the agreed coali- Reagan/Thatcherite offensives of According to the author, both ter, and eventually Davutoglu’s basically ends with that coup. for things found unacceptable tion secures Merkel a fourth term neoliberal globalization, which political currents, that of PASOK sacking as Prime Minister). The authors say: “No freedom of elsewhere. Now other considera- in power. divided social democrats into left and that of the Communist par- The book starts with an invalu- expression has been more stifled tions seem to weigh more: its As the ‘death of social democra- wingers focussing their energies ties of Greece, self-annulled their able List of Abbreviations and in Turkey than that of the press.” human rights record, its corrup- cy’ becomes the most widely circu- on defending what was left of the socialist rhetoric by remaining Organisation, a Timeline of Key Educated Turks are talking about tion, its support for ISIS against lated banality within academic welfare state and right wingers within the ‘dependence’ and Events and a List of Key Figures leaving their country. When Assad, and then joining the joint and political circles and the a-his- accepting the neoliberal logic. ‘inadequate development’ of and finishes with over a hundred Ataturk said a Turk is a Turk he bombing of ISIS as an excuse to torical ‘Pasokification’ concept The chapters that follow examine Greek capitalism discourse. Even pages of Notes, Biography and was talking about moving togeth- bomb the Kurds, and the Kurdish works as a welcomed excuse for the different national contexts if one disagrees with some of the Index. These are worthwhile not er as equal Turkish citizens. His militia in Syria, armed and avoiding a nuanced discussion before the general central thesis arguments, the historically just to Turkey watchers or other secularism was underpinned by trained by the US, hated by and criticism, Ingo Schmidt’s edit- of the book: “These changes led to grounded analysis furthers a readers of this book but for follow- the military. Now we have Turkey because of their close ties ed volume The Three Worlds of a dramatic internal shift from more sophisticated debate not ing the events unfolding in Syria, attacks not just on Kurdish citi- with the PKK. This book can Social Democracy is an excellent reformist socialists whose defence only of what has already hap- with the Kurds, Cyprus and rela- zens and institutions but the only help update our views of read engaging an impressive of the Keynesian welfare state pened but also on what a left tionships with Russia, Iran and Alevis, anything but the Sunni today’s Turkey and perhaps even range of authors. They are able to appeared both defensive and alternative may look like. Israel. Muslem religion. When and if push it in a democratic direction.

30 CHARTIST May/June 2018 May/June 2018 CHARTIST 31 #292 working_01 cover 23/04/2018 12:50 Page 32

VIEW FROM STRASBOURG No laughing matter

Julie Ward on the sick comedy act from David Davis and co

Julie Ward is a he European Labour MEP for Parliament plays a key North West role in assessing the England progress of the Brexit negotiations, scrutinis- Ting the Commission proposals and the subsequent Council con- clusions. Any final deal will come before myself and the 750 other MEPs from the 28 Member States for approval. This is a fact that few British people seem to be aware of. At each stage of the pro- cess the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, Guy Verhofstadt MEP, together with Danuta Hubner MEP, Chair of the Constitutional Affairs Barnier & Davis-nothing to grin about Committee, and the Brexit Working Group compromising cians of all colours should go back whip they were summarily left representatives from five of the to school and learn their history - out in the cold, demonised on the eight political groups, meet to the EU won the Nobel Peace in front pages of the Tory newspa- communicate concerns and dis- 2012 for presiding over six pers and have subsequently cuss new developments with each decades of relative stability after joined the centre-right EPP other and with the wider parlia- the obscenities of two world wars. group. The threat to citizens ment in order to arrive at a com- Whilst Eurosceptics joke about rights continue to concern many mon position. this, Europeans remain proud of of us greatly. The Petitions The EU established its priori- the achievement. It must be Committee regularly hears heart- ties for the negotiations early on remembered that more than 3500 breaking and complex cases of and communicated its red lines people were killed in ‘the troubles’ people whose lives have been but David Davis doesn’t seem to and Brexit is now the greatest thrown into chaos as a result of be listening. He arrives in threat to that peace. the UK’s decision to leave the EU. Brussels late and ill-prepared Despite some concerning elec- To try and strengthen support for and leaves early. A taxi driver tion results in Italy, Austria and citizens rights I have therefore told me how much he admired Hungary recently, the EU 27 are facilitated the establishment of a Barnier’s team who turn up well- largely united behind Barnier and Citizens Rights Friendship Group prepared, having done their his team, and the European which is gathering support for a homework and with reams of doc- Parliament’s resolutions tend to European Green Card proposal uments. reflect this consolidated position. and consolidating relationships May herself is inconsistent, However, individual sensitivities with supportive MEPs from many saying one thing to appease EU can influence voting positions. different groups and from other Subscribe toofficials CHARTIST and contradicting at herself Within the EPLP we discuss Member States. as soon as she is back in London, whether our position is in line Whilst the most recent as she did regarding her recent with the Labour Party’s position. European Parliament resolution www.chartist.org.ukcommitment to honour the To date there have been four supported the Commission pro- divorce bill - or not as it later European Parliament resolutions posal to create a framework for seemed. Meanwhile, Boris on the Brexit negotiations, each developing a new relationship Johnson’s crass and care- coming swiftly after the EU-UK with the UK, David Davis once less comments about negotiation rounds. I chose to go again jumped the gun and sug- the Irish border have against the EPLP whip in the gested trade negotiators get rightly raised December 2017 resolution and themselves over to Brussels to alarm bells at registered an abstention as I was nail down an agreement. He was home and concerned that the negotiations promptly put in his place by a b r o a d . had not sufficiently addressed the Barnier whose red lines stay put. B r i t i s h citizenship rights of certain Observing the ignorance and politi- groups of vulnerable children, e.g. incompetence of the UK govern- foster children. My punishment ment is sometimes like watching was a short meeting but when a comedy series, except that the Tory MEPs Richard Ashworth joke is ultimately on all of us and and Julie Girling defied their it is no laughing matter. C