why capitalism cannot be reformed

7 06 2013

By John Keeley

There are many people who regard themselves as left-wing who do not want to get rid of capitalism. Not only Ed Miliband & the Green Party in Brighton, but also some who consider themselves to the left of Labour in the new Left Unity grouping. They believe capitalism can be made more equal through government action & that the post-war period demonstrates this. In my opinion, they fail to appreciate the material conditions.

Ed Miliband

The post-war prosperity & the increasingly equality, exemplified in more equal access to health care & education, was possible due to a genuinely high rate of profit consequent upon the huge capital devaluation of the depression of the 1930’s, the capital destruction of WWII & huge increases in productivity thanks to the application of oil & gas. Unfortunately, to really grasp this point requires an understanding of how capitalism works & why it is prone to crisis. This isn’t an easy subject, but it’s worth the effort.

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Categories : 2008 financial crisis, labour party, social democracy, the left

owen jones, cringing in the shadow of margaret thatcher

26 10 2012

Barry Biddulph says the political  pessimism of Owen Jones has resurfaced again, in the Independent, There out to get Cameron, but lets not laugh to Soon (20/10/12) focused on his fear of Boris Johnson. The political knives are out for Cameron in the conservative party, but for Owen, he is a lesser evil. Boris might seem to be a joke, but he is a natural right wing popular leader and “the best salesman for right wing populism that Britain has” Mass working class activity outside safe parliamentary channels is a particular worry for Owen. Any working class hatred and class war is likely to provoke a right wing populism, which is likely to repeat the defeats inflicted on the working class by Margaret Thatcher. But more to the constitutional point, if Boris became Conservative leader the “polls point to Boris providing a Tory boost, which at the very least, could deprive labour of a majority at the next election”

So Boris might play the fool, but he might wipe the smile off our faces and follow Thatcher’s footsteps as the hammer on the working class.  The shadow of Margaret Thatcher haunts Owen Jones; he  respects and fears Thatcher. In his article, Not all socialists want to Dance on Margaret Thatcher’s Grave ( Independent 16/09/12)  he warns against the mass expression of class hate for Thatcher by football fans and a face book campaigns. He will not be in the party mood when Thatcher dies. He cautions that Thatchers death will be a “nightmarish blend of the hysteria that followed princess Diana’s tragic accident and a month long political broadcast for the Conservative Party” Owen’s overestimation of the influence of Thatcher is clear in this comparison with Diana who was seen as a vulnerable person mistreated by the Royal Family and the state who died in tragic circumstances. He is even scared of Conservative political broadcasts.   Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : conservative party, labour party

nostalgia for old labour

2 02 2012

Clifford Biddulph reviews ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class’

Owen Jones describes how hatred of the working class finds expression in discourse, in negative images and gross exaggerations and distortions of working class experience in the media. The myth that we are all middle class except the chavs. We are all familiar with anti working class stereotypes, such as Vicky Pollard, the comic creation of the posh Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who come from a privileged background. Owen explains how the mockery of the working class demonstrates their social inferiority for their tormentors and superiors. It’s a culture which blames the victims rather than social injustice or structured social inequality in capitalism. It’s the way the “working class rump” lives that’s seen as the problem. But what is Owen’s alternative?
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Categories : book reviews, labour party, reviews, the commune

opposition and the cuts

10 10 2011

The Commune’s editorial

BBC presenters sat mouths-gaping on 26th September as City trader Alessio Rastani proudly boasted on live TV of the financial sector’s power and its disdain for the victims of the recession. He proclaimed that a crisis was a great opportunity to make a fast buck and that he dreamt of the next such meltdown. Reeking of arrogant class prejudice, here was the true face behind our rulers’ democratic and liberal mask.

That same week, Ed Miliband spoke to Labour conference, calling for a ‘new morality’ rewarding the ‘hard-working’. Yet asked by a member of the public whether he would endeavour to protect workers’ pensions, ‘Red Ed’ said he could promise nothing, since workers getting older is no longer ‘affordable’. Not only did he drive a wedge between the employed and the ‘undeserving poor’, championing harsh penalties for rioters and ‘scroungers’: he disavowed strike action as a means of standing up for workers’ living standards. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party, welfare state

miliband’s “new economy” : awkward or relevant?

21 09 2011

Clifford Biddulph argues that Labour will never be on our side 

Striking is irrelevant for Ed Miliband. He had an awkward lesson for September’s TUC conference: trade unions should offer better relations with their employers. What Labour needed was a continuation of the partnership between business and the unions. The way forward was not negative strikes but a positive “new economy” built on the Labourite value of cooperation, not conflict in the workplace.

But this New Labour desire for social peace is traditional Labour politics as well. The Labour Representation Committee originally founded Labour on the basis of  Keir Hardy’s resolution rejecting class war in favour of parliamentary representation and constitutionalism. Ramsay Macdonald, the leader of the first Labour government in 1924 advocated and acted on the commitment to growing  capitalist society, not a working class alternative. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party

no support for labour: no support for the lrc

30 12 2010

At a Communist Students’ Exec meeting on the 13th of December, a decision was made to affiliate to the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). This statement was issued by members opposed to this decision, and we republish it here in the interests of debate.

The driving force behind this was Ben Lewis of the Provisional Central Committee of the CPGB, which has recently adopted a set of theses on the Labour Party.[1] Some points of which would get support within the ranks of the LRC, for example the democratisation of the Labour Party.[2] Crucially important though for the issue at hand is the dangerous conception of a permanent united front between Communists and the Labour Party contained within the theses. Where the CPGB’s contradictory perspective of simultaneously organising a political force independent of social democracy and at the same time trying to transform the Labour Party into a “real party of labour” and putting the Labour Party into office in order to expose its leadership, is made. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party

ed miliband is no ed militant

26 09 2010

by David Broder

Yesterday afternoon Ed Miliband loomed large on a TV screen near where I was sitting. The sound was turned off, so there were only subtitles. “Whatever your view on the Iraq war it led to an appalling loss of…” A few seconds before the next word flicked up on the screen. ‘Life’, right? No. “Whatever your view on the Iraq war it led to an appalling loss of trust for us”.

But never fear, Ed, there are many on the left who opposed the war but are now pushing the anti-cuts movement towards Labour. Not just saying we need to pull Labour voters into our struggles, but focussing on the structures of the party and making plaintive appeals for Labour leaders to fight the cuts and fulfil their promises to the Trades Union Congress. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party, the left

what use an abbott in a ‘broad church’?

11 06 2010

As Diane Abbott wins sufficient nominations to stand for Labour Party leader, Taimour Lay looks at her and her party’s credentials.

What use is a ”broad church” when the pews are empty, the foundations are subsiding and the high priests at altar turn their backs on any shout of dissent? The Labour leadership election, far from being ”saved” by the  inclusion of Diane Abbott, has merely continued to go to form – token ‘left’ candidate takes on four former cabinet ministers of varying degrees of conservatism, ”enlivens” the hustings with some maverick, contrarian and media-populist rhetoric before the vote concludes with a Miliband, Balls or Burnham promising to lead Labour back to ”electability”.

Abbott’s candidacy is theatre designed by the New Labour establishment to present a democratic, inclusive party. For misguided Bennites, it’s also part of their message: come home to Labour, disillusioned socialists, in opposition we will rebuild and steer the party left. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party, social democracy, the commune

the left and new labour in opposition

9 06 2010

by Dave Spencer

After a recent “public consultation” meeting of our local NHS I was approached by an old right-wing Labour councillor.  “Have you considered re-joining the Labour Party?” he asked. “We need people like you to re-build the Party, get us back to our roots.”  He went on about the ‘good old days’ – the 1980s – when we had “great discussions” and we could get 150 delegates to a District Labour Party meeting.  Now they cannot get a quorum for meetings and the new members are just careerists.

I was a bit taken aback.  I didn’t like to remind him that I had been expelled along with 125 others in 1992 for objecting to the rigging of ballots for the shortlist for MP, or that I and others had been told on a number of occasions that we had no chance of promotion or another job working for Coventry City Council if we continued as left activists.  I remember seeing good comrades turn round and leave a meeting when they saw Bob Ainsworth (later Labour MP for Coventry North East and Minister for War) sitting in the corner with his tape recorder and note pad ready to get evidence – for what purpose one can only imagine.  That is how it works in the Labour Party – threats or bribery to gain power or keep power. I remember one leading councillor telling me that everyone has their price and that I was pitching mine too high. He said, “It’s amazing what you can get people to vote for if you just offer them a couple of tickets to the Queen’s garden party!” Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party, social democracy, the left

no choice on may 6th

3 05 2010

by Danny Ryan-Smith

With an election with less choice than ever shambling across the horizon, most of our time not spent working seems to be dominated by the question of elections, or specifically- who should we vote for?

With even capitalist media and the introduction of presidential style debates unable to drum up excitement among the general public for a contest that most of us see as largely a race between three identical parties, the time has come that we face the reality that nobody can be a substitute to represent our own needs and interests but ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : conservative party, labour party, liberal democrats

3rd may london forum: should we vote?

25 04 2010

Our next London public forum will see a debate on whether we should support candidates for Parliament. The meeting takes place three days before the general election, from 7pm on Monday 3rd May at the Artillery Arms, 102 Bunhill Row, near Old Street.

Many on the revolutionary left and labour movement are advocating the re-election of the Labour government. So should we tag along with Gordon Brown, vote for ‘socialist’ candidates, or have nothing to do with electoral politics? Join the debate. The discussion will be led off by Danny Ryan-Smith (The Commune) and Andrew Fisher (LRC). Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : events, labour party, uncaptiveminds

a future fair for all: ‘blair plus’ for five more years

13 04 2010

by David Broder

“Five more years”, the Brown loyalists chanted yesterday as the outgoing Prime Minister launched the Labour Party’s election manifesto. But what would Labour do if re-elected? A future fair for all is supposed to have the answers.

Asked whether the 78-page manifesto was ‘Blairite’, Peter Mandelson told the BBC that the document was in fact ‘Blair-plus’. So what in this document justifies the view common to much of the left that voting for this programme is a “class vote” against the Tories? Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party

the cuts consensus and the general election

22 03 2010

by Dave Spencer

The 2010 general election will be a watershed for the politics of the British left.  Business as usual will not be an option because of the scale of the attacks on the working class that are coming. No matter which party wins the election or even if there is a hung parliament, it is clear that the ruling class has decided to make the working class pay for the economic crisis and the bailing out of the banks.

The left groups have failed over 14 years to form a united alternative to New Labour. If they use the same methods and politics as in the past, they cannot possibly be up to the tasks ahead. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : conservative party, labour party, the commune, the left

no surprises as rat boards sinking ship

19 03 2010

by Chris Ford

There is a long history of British trade union leaders becoming Members of Parliament. This has often represented the next step by individuals whose primary concern is the advancement of a cause very dear to their hearts – their own self-interest.

In some cases however there are those who have genuinely sought to take the workers’ struggle in the industrial front into the political arena: individuals with principle who have sought to maintain a loyalty and commitment to the labour movement, such as John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. The coming general election should see a new recruit from union ranks – Jack Dromey, the Deputy General Secretary of UNITE. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : labour party, social democracy, unite

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