The Socialist Labour Network sends greetings to workers everywhere this May Day 2023. British workers are suffering the sharpest ever fall in living standards. We are facing a nightmare of crippling price rises. Energy bills to heat our homes this year have quadrupled. The prices of staple food items have soared by up to 20%. Interest rates have shot up, putting an extra squeeze on mortgages and threatening to plunge families into negative equity and homelessness. Food banks are collapsing and children are going hungry. Millions of families face a winter in freezing homes. No wonder the British establishment is in turmoil, with five prime ministers in the last six years. And no wonder the working class has had enough! We’re witnessing a mass revolt by millions of workers resisting poverty: railway workers, postal and telecoms workers, dockers, airport ground staff, bus drivers, nurses, GPs, hospital doctors, teachers, university lecturers, barristers, delivery drivers, fast food workers, office cleaners, Uber drivers…. Calls for a general strike suddenly sound almost commonplace. But not everyone is complaining. Britain’s 177 billionaires got richer by another £55 billion just in the last year alone, to a total of £653 billion – the equivalent of £10,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s time the rich paid the price for the crisis of their system! Millions are looking for a political voice to confront this government of speculators, hedge fund sharks and black money launderers, and to speak out for the workers on poverty wages, the families living off food banks, the households without heating, the youth without a future. We can’t afford to pay for a crisis that is not of our making. And yet the sole surviving political voice of the working class has been stifled. Under its hired stooge Starmer the ruling establishment has destroyed the Labour Party as a potential agency of resistance and change. Today the working class needs to mobilise its forces and rearm itself politically by taking concrete steps to rally forces for a new mass working-class political party. The British workers only need to look across the Channel to see the exemplary upsurge of mass resistance in France, where millions have engaged in marches, occupations and general strikes to resist the dictatorial imposition of pension cuts and protect their hard-won rights. The SLN will be at the forefront in supporting mass campaigns of direct action: marches, demonstrations, pickets of the energy companies; occupations of supermarkets and food monopolies; strikes, blockades and pickets. Workers of all countries, unite!
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The Socialist Health Association Supporting the Founding Principles of the NHS:
For a Publicly Funded and Provided NHS, Providing Services Based on Need
The Socialist Health Association (SHA), formerly known as the Socialist Medical Association, has been affiliated to the Labour Party since 1931. The SHA was formed to campaign for a National Health Service. The SHA is strongly opposed to the plans of Starmer and Streeting to turn the NHS into a British version of American Medicare & Medicaid, dominated as it is by insurance companies and private companies who make rich pickings at the expense of patients. The SHA believes that the NHS must be off limits to hedge fund owners, venture capitalists, US health care companies and other capitalist endeavours.
People may remember that when Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party he pledged that:
Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders.
Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water; end outsourcing in our NHS, local government and justice system.
The SHA membership has recently elected Officers and Central Council Members wholly committed to the founding principles of the SHA- for a publicly funded and provided NHS. The SHA is aware that this appears to run contrary to the current position of the Labour Party Front Bench, and issued this statement on 11th January 2023.
The Socialist Labour Network supports the elected officers and council members of the SHA. To support the SHA and the NHS, we suggest that you:
The appeal is to trade union branches, trade councils, campaigning organisations and individuals who believe the labour movement must join together to form a mass working class party.
This film exposes some of the lying, the smearing and the corrupt tactics used to bring down Jeremy Corbyn and his socialist supporters. The establishment (including right wing Labour) was so terrified that Corbyn’s policies would take root and take power, everything possible was done to crush the movement. The film gives an insight into what goes on in British politics and the establishment collaborators, British media. A must see!
With the cost of living soaring, energy price hikes and no election in sight – it’s time to take to the streets. We know what the Conservatives will do. Starmer has given signals that Labour’s economic policies won’t be too dissimilar from Sunak’s. The people need to send a strong signal to Westminster that EnoughIsEnough and we want and need a government that will actually make real improvements to the lives of the many.
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MOTION TO SLN MEMBERS’ MEETING: THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS AND THE LEFT
1. The Truss government has plunged Britain into a deep political and economic crisis. The labour and trade union movement can take advantage of this, but only if we step up the mass strike and solidarity action began this summer to a scale that can bring down the government.
2. The Truss government was put in place by a relatively small number of Tory Party members and is only backed by a minority of Tory MPs. The government’s real base is in the most predatory sections of finance capital, like hedge funds, private equity and other speculators. Once in office the government has moved to reward its backers its already infamous “mini-budget” – a £45 billion raid on state finances to fund tax cuts for the rich.
3. The reaction by financial markets has been savage. Runs on the pound and sales of government debt (“gilts”) forced the Bank of England into an eyewatering £65 billion emergency action try to stabilise the currency and to prevent pension funds, heavily dependent on gilts, from collapsing. The Chancellor Kwarteng is now threatening cuts in benefits and public services to stabilise markets and pay for the tax cuts.
4. The political effect is a collapse in electoral support for the Tory Party and a serious chance the government will fall with the Labour Party seen as the only alternative. This is what made the destruction of Corbynism an imperative for big business and the establishment. The recent Labour Party conference also underlined the efforts of the ruling class to suppress political debate and socialist activity both in the Labour Party and society more generally.
5. All over the country we see a rising tide of action with trade unions like the CWU, the RMT and others fighting inflation and the cost of living crisis. So far we have mainly seen one day strikes except on the docks and the barristers.
6. The Truss government wants to tighten the already draconian anti-union laws forcing more ballots and requiring a minimum service level during strikes – effectively reducing strikes to demonstrations. They will try to keep the working class divided by launching ever more heartless attacks on the rights of refugees. At the same time employers, doubtless in close co-ordination with the government are moving to destroy workplace organisation – Royal Mail has announced it wants to tear up every agreement it has with the CWU and effectively to remove recognition from the union.
7. Under these conditions of a frontal assault on the entire living and working conditions of the working class including layers which have seen themselves as above the class struggle the strategy of one day strikes by each union which occasionally coincide as on 1stOctober can only be seen as inadequate.8. With the ruling class divided, the middle class in uproar over mortgages and pensions and the working class seething with rage at rising prices and falling real wages, if a real lead were given by the labour and union leaders, who can doubt millions would answer the call? We fight for: a) Strike together: indefinite strikes for above inflation pay rises – unions should bring forward their pay claims and link them into a simultaneous mass strike across the public and private sectors
b) Demand the TUC call a general strikec) Action councils in every town, city and borough: bring together the hundreds of thousands signed up to Enough is Enough, Don’t Pay, People’s Assembly, Acorn, rank and file trade union members and campaigns into unified groups to support the strikes, build protests and help build a movement for a general strike 9. Now more than ever the working class needs its own politicalparty – following the call of Ken Loach, the Socialist Labour Network aims to organise an all-Britain conference of working class organisations, including trade unions, local cost of living groups, tenants’ campaigns, ex-Labour Party members and socialist groups to discuss the formation of a new mass political party of labour.
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SLN Statement on the Collapse of NHS Dental Services
Research by the British Dental Association (BDA) and the BBC issued in August 2022 showed that 9 out of 10 dental practices in the UK would not accept new adult NHS patients while 8 out of 10 refused to accept children as new NHS patients. As the BDA pointed out this is now an emergency for the survival of NHS dentistry and the access of much of the population of the UK to dental care and the maintenance of oral health. The situation has only been made worse by the pandemic which caused much of the UK’s dental services to be suspended for months or years. As the BDA points out a horrific decline in oral health for many people has reached the stage where people are pulling out their own teeth in an effort to relieve pain and building their own false teeth so they can keep eating. This announcement of this research is here:
The issue for socialists is other than obviously protesting about the need for the restoration of dental services and an overall oral health service as part of the NHS what political conclusions can we draw? The first is of course this is not some natural disaster, it is the result of political decisions by known people and political parties and therefore those responsible should be called to account. There are two important factors in the crisis – the first is the 2006 Contract for NHS dentistry put in place by the Blair government the second the process of austerity or cuts carried out by the Tories since 2010, also enforced by the devolved governments without significant protest. We can also state that what is happening in dentistry is the forerunner to a similar process in the rest of the NHS whereby people are either forced into private provision or cut off from care altogether due to poverty. The situation in the US where tens of millions have virtually no access to oral health services and massive queues of desperate people form whenever charitable free dental services are offered serves as a warning. The fact that both Starmer and has Shadow Health minion Streeting have been publicly bought by health privatisers is a clear indicator that the Parliamentary Labour Party intends to continue the Tories’ programme of dismantling the NHS.
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Members will have received joining details by email. Please join with other members for this important discussion.
MOTION TO SLN MEMBERS’ MEETING 5 OCTOBER 2022
1. The Truss government has plunged Britain into a deep political and economic crisis. The labour and trade union movement can take advantage of this, but only if we step up the mass strike and solidarity action that began this summer to a scale that can bring down the government.
2. The Truss government was put in place by a relatively small number of Tory Party members and is only backed by a minority of Tory MPs. The government’s real base is in the most predatory sections of finance capital, like hedge funds, private equity and other speculators. Once in office the government has moved to reward its backers with its already infamous “mini-budget” – a £45 billion raid on state finances to fund tax cuts for the rich.
3. The reaction by financial markets has been savage. Runs on the pound and sales of government debt (“gilts”) forced the Bank of England into an eye watering £65 billion emergency action to try to stabilise the currency and to prevent pension funds, heavily dependent on gilts, from collapsing. Chancellor Kwarteng is now threatening cuts in benefits and public services to stabilise markets and pay for the tax cuts.
4. The political effect is a collapse in electoral support for the Tory Party and a serious chance the government will fall with the Labour Party seen as the only alternative.
This is what made the destruction of Corbynism an imperative for big business and the establishment. The recent Labour Party conference also underlined the efforts of the ruling class to suppress political debate and socialist activity both in the Labour Party and society more generally.
5. All over the country we see a rising tide of action with trade unions like the CWU, the RMT and others fighting inflation plus the cost of living crisis. So far we have mainly seen one day strikes except on the docks and by the barristers.
6. The Truss government wants to tighten the already draconian anti-union laws forcing more ballots and requiring a minimum service level during strikes –effectively reducing strikes to demonstrations. At the same time employers, doubtless in close coordination with the government are moving to destroy workplace organisation – Royal Mail has announced it wants to tear up every agreement it has with the CWU and effectively remove recognition from the union.
7. Under these conditions of a frontal assault on the entire living and working conditions of the working class including layers which have seen themselves as above the class struggle the strategy of one day strikes by each union which occasionally coincide as on 1st October can only be seen as inadequate.
8. With the ruling class divided, the middle class in uproar over mortgages and pensions and the working class seething with rage at rising prices and falling real wages, if a real lead were given by the labour and union leaders, who can doubt millions would answer the call? We fight for:
a) Strike together: indefinite strikes for above inflation pay rises – unions should bring forward their pay claims and link them into a simultaneous mass strike across the public and private sectors
b) Demand the TUC call a general strike
c) Action councils in every town, city and borough: bring together the hundreds of thousands signed up to Enough is Enough, Don’t Pay, People’s Assembly, Acorn, rank and file trade union members and campaigns into unified groups to support the strikes, build protests and help build a movement for a general strike
9. Now more than ever the working class needs its own political party – following the call of Ken Loach, the Socialist Labour Network will campaign for an all-Britain conference of working class organisations, including trade unions, local cost of living groups, tenants’ campaigns, ex-Labour Party members and socialist groups to discuss the formation of a new mass political party of labour.
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The royal family are often dismissed as a pantomime sideshow. This is a mistake; the role of the monarchy is crucial. Prime ministers are appointed and subject to arbitrary dismissal by the monarch – as seen for instance in the peremptory dismissal of Australia’s mildly left-reformist prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1973. The British prime minister is obliged to report once a week for a one-to-one meeting with the monarch at which they discuss in detail the policies to be followed by the government. Both the late Queen and her heir the new King have routinely monitored proposed legislation and on some occasions vetoed it. Above all, not only MPs, civil servants and the judiciary, but crucially the police and armed forces are obliged to swear allegiance not to the elected government of the day but to the royal monarch, thus potentially guaranteeing legitimacy to any future coup. Let’s not forget the overt threats made by members of Her Majesty’s armed forces to a future Corbyn government, when a general promised outright mutiny, and paratroopers used a picture of Corbyn as target practice – in both cases without receiving even the most perfunctory rebuke.
At times even the allegiance of the royal family to British imperialism came under question. At the time of the First World War, George V was the first cousin both of the Russian Tsar Nicolai Romanov and also of Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm, all three being grandchildren of Queen Victoria. The family felt obliged to change its surname from Gotha-Saxe-Coburg to Windsor. In the run-up to the Second World War, Edward VIII’s open flirtation with Hitler is well documented, as are well-founded suspicions of his active treachery at the outset of the war in exposing vital French strategic defence secrets to the Nazis, following which he was discreetly despatched to the Bahamas. But the whole royal family at that time was similarly tainted with Nazi sympathies. Rudolf Hess parachuted to Britain for secret negotiations with British aristocrats, and the king’s brother Prince George mysteriously crashed en route to a suspected meeting with Nazi emissaries in Sweden. Questions have also been raised about the initial sympathies of George VI in the period up to the outbreak of war.
The special function of the royal family was to sanctify the plunder and exploitation of the British Empire. This was already in terminal decline by the time of George VI’s death, when the late Queen succeeded to the throne. At that moment she was personally visiting Britain’s colony Kenya – at the very time when its colonial administrators were committing unspeakably brutal atrocities on the Kikuyu people. Now the monarchy has long become an anomaly and the relic of a long-collapsed Empire.
That being so, it is hardly likely to survive the coming disintegration of Britain itself. For where once Britain ruled “an empire on which the sun never sets”, following the collapse of the British Empire has come the disintegration of the United Kingdom itself. It is just one referendum away from losing Scotland. And the current convulsions regarding its status following Brexit mean that before long Northern Ireland could easily conclude some kind of accommodation, if not a straight reunification deal, with the Irish Republic; despite the prejudices of the Unionists, a majority of both communities there opposed Brexit.
So “Great Britain” could soon no longer exist, let alone constitute a “United Kingdom”: instead just England and (perhaps) Wales could sink to the status of a part of an offshore island off the European mainland, a tourist spot for sightseers visiting such ancient monuments as the Tower of London and Shakespeare’s birthplace, perhaps also taking in the whisky stills of neighbouring Scotland in a double bill.
How then has this obsolete relic survived apparently unscathed for so long? Deference to the late Queen Elizabeth has been maintained largely due to her personal discretion, prudence and restraint in exercising her powers over the last seven decades. We can well imagine how easily that fragile tissue could have been shattered if her role over that period had been performed instead by someone lacking that sense of diplomacy? By her husband, or her sister, or her mother, or her uncle, or let’s say, her second son? To that extent the accolades bestowed on her memory are not entirely misplaced.
But the mystique of royalty is an anomaly and an anachronism. And let’s not forget that Queen Elizabeth was not always so revered, or so immune from public hostility. Remember Britain’s most influential media mogul Rupert Murdoch? The man who when the Tories won the 1992 general election had boasted “it woz the Sun wot won it!” and who had subsequently in effect won the 1997 election for Tony Blair? For several years Murdoch shamelessly deployed his immense propaganda power to utterly lambast and ridicule the monarchy and the Queen personally – sometimes descending to cheap smutty schoolboy sneers, for instance when she had described the year in which three of her children’s marriages had broken up and her favourite castle had burned down as her “annus horribilis”.
Moreover, let’s not forget how public reverence for the Queen suddenly evaporated following the death of Diana, when by her initial display of cold aloofness she exposed the institution and herself personally to accusations of indifference – and even to widespread suspicion that Diana’s death had been engineered by a royally contrived MI5 murder conspiracy.
The death of Elizabeth Windsor, a monarch who had reigned for 70 years, marks a significant turning point in British history. It has to be understood in the context of the chronic decline and death agony of British capitalism. Where once it was the “workshop of the world”, today it is losing its last remnants of productive industry, most of them by now just assembly plants owned by Japanese, Indian and other foreign companies which had only nested here because it was a springboard into the EU, and which as a result of Brexit are now on the point of leaving.
Along with Britain’s decay, a new faction has displaced the old establishment. Over the centuries since the end of the English civil war, behind a permanent royal façade political power had shifted from the aristocracy to industry to finance. The remnants of the old patrician establishment have been ruthlessly squashed. Thatcher destroyed the captains of industry and Johnson undermined the power of the City of London. The party which ruled England for 350 years has fallen into the clutches of a bunch of property speculators and hedge fund managers.
The recent scandals of the British monarchy are not irrelevant side shows or a trivial diversionary soap-opera. The disgrace of Prince Andrew, the lasting distaste for Charles and especially Camilla, and the abdication of Harry are sure precursors to the demise of the dynasty itself. Where the late sovereign was still held in some reverence, now that her reign has come to an end, the surviving members of the dynasty will hold no such charisma or appeal.
There is a carefully maintained myth that, unlike the uncouth French and Russians, the British are constitutionally averse to revolution. Let’s remember: which country was the first to chop off the head of a King, 150 years before the French?
The AMM meeting passed resolutions on the Cost of Living Crisis and Solidarity With the Left in France. Go to the SLN Motions page to read the full text.
Our next PUBLIC meeting is on 24 June 2022, 6.30pm. It will be about building resistance to the cost of living crisis.
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The Socialist Labour Network condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We call for an immediate ceasefire and for all Russian armed forces to immediately withdraw. The working classes of Russia and Ukraine have nothing to gain from war and will pay the biggest price. Despite the terrible situation caused by the intensification of rival nationalisms, we support the building of unity among workers across national boundaries. The workers of Ukraine and Russia have common interests. We call for the abolition of NATO as an offensive imperialist alliance. We call for Britain’s unilateral nuclear disarmament and the scrapping of Trident. We stand in solidarity with those in Russia who have protested against the invasion, despite police repression. We support the building of a mass anti-war movement, including among Russian troops. We support workers in Ukraine acting independently of the Zelenski regime and building their own organisations and taking independent action. We condemn the actions of Zelensky in banning 11 left-wing parties. We condemn any far right or fascist group, on either side of this conflict, seeking to take advantage of the war to build their own organisation. In particular we condemn the supply of weapons and training to Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion by the United States, Britain and Israel. The Azov battalion has been integrated into Ukraine’s armed forces and is part of the Ukrainian state. Ukraine is the only state in the world to hold a national holiday in memory of a Nazi collaborator, Stepan Bandera, whose forces were responsible for the deaths of at least 200,000 Jews, Gypsies and Poles during the war. This war is a proxy conflict between Russia and the United States, prompted by NATO expansion into central and Eastern Europe. We oppose this expansion and any intervention in this conflict by NATO forces. Ukraine should become a neutral state which is not aligned militarily with either Russia or NATO. We oppose sanctions against Russia. Economic sanctions will disproportionately hit Russian workers and may well strengthen support for Putin. We note the hypocrisy of those in the UK government criticising the state repression of protest in Russia whilst the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill will serve to create similar restrictions on protest and democracy in the UK. We note the hypocrisy of those who call sanction on Israel ‘anti-Semitic’ at the very same time that starvation sanctions are being levelled on Russia. We note the hypocritical criticism of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine by those who are supporting the bombing of Yemen by Saudi Arabia. We call for refugees from this and other conflicts to be welcomed. We condemn the attempts by Keir Starmer to shut down such discussion on NATO within the Labour Party and to bully and threaten those with different views. We support the right of secession of the 2 breakaway republics, Donetsk and Luhansk in the face of attacks on ethnic Russians and Russian speaking Ukranians In summary: Russia, hands off Ukraine. Immediate withdrawal of occupation forces. Solidarity with the people of Ukraine in defence of their democratic rights. No trust in NATO, the EU, Biden or Johnson. Self-determination for the peoples of Donbass and Crimea on the basis of a genuinely democratic referendum. Mutual demilitarisation of the border territories on either side. Unity of the workers of Russia and the Ukraine to overthrow their corrupt reactionary oppressors.
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Socialist Labour Network stands in solidarity with Julian Assange. We condemn the extradition process being conducted by the UK and USA. Julian Assange is a journalist who revealed matters of grave importance about US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Journalists have a duty to hold the powerful to account and to uncover wrongdoing by governments and inform the people. If Julian is extradicted to the USA, every journalist, of any nationality, residing in any country could be vulnerable to the same process. This is demonstrably wrong. We resolve to continue to campaign for the immediate release of Julian Assange.
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At the all member meeting of SLN, 28 February the following motion was agreed:
This All Members Meeting believes:
That the primary blame for the crisis in Ukraine rests on the United States and NATO which has continued, since 1999, to expand into Eastern Europe despite guarantees given to the USSR and Gorbachov. [see NSA archives https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
We note that Russia’s intervention at the moment is basically defensive and has been provoked by NATO and that Russia does have the right to defend itself against NATO expansion. We call for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and reject Putin’s assertion that there is no nation of Ukraine.
We support the right of the 2 breakaway republics, Luhansk and Donetsk to secede
We oppose sanctions on Russia as war by other means
We call for the dismantlement of NATO.
We condemn the war hysteria and war propaganda waged by the MSM and in particular the call to close down RT as a means of shutting of any alternative sources of information
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These fortnightly meetings aim to network socialists who have formed local groups. The meetings take reports from groups across the country on local activism. We share ideas, campaigning strategies and other initiatives. Register here
Following the latest developments in the Labour Party, including the proscription of named groups and the continuing expulsion of many activists, there has been great speculation about the best way forward for the left in — and outside — the party.
With this in mind, Labour in Exile Network Steering Committee has been discussing the pros and cons of LIEN joining with Labour Against The Witch-Hunt. As you probably know, both these groups have been proscribed by the Party.
After some debate, the LIEN steering group has voted to recommend consolidation with LAW.
This recommendation will go to a vote to the All Members Meeting of LIEN at 6pm on Friday, 26 November.
Please come, tell us what you think and cast your vote. If you are a member, you should have received an email with a link to the meeting. Please contact info@labour-in-exile.org if you have not.
The NEC meeting on 20th July identified evidence of support for proscribed organisations (based on 2.1.4B) as follows:
…examples of “support” for any of the above organisations for purposes of Chapter 2, Clause I.4.B of the Labour Party Rule Book may include:
a. Membership of any of the four organisations; b. Standing for election to the steering committee of the relevant organisation; c. Participating in an all member’s meeting of the relevant organisation; d. Participating in a working group of the relevant organisation; e. Contributing written material to the website of the relevant organisation; f. Donating to the relevant organisation; g. Encouraging others to join the relevant organisation; h. Participating in an event organised or hosted by the relevant organisation; ..
What has Labour done to YOU? Been on tenterhooks waiting for the repeatedly delayed Forde Inquiry to report? Enough we say!!
Do you have a story of injustice, undemocratic process, or other dirty goings on in Labour? This is your chance to talk back!
As the dwindling resources of Starmer’s Labour continue to be spent paying erstwhile spies and those on short term contracts to search for signs of dissent, “Not The Forde Inquiry” will reconvene to give witness to face to face testimony from victims of the biggest political witch hunt in British history at the Resist Event in the Rialto Theatre, Brighton, during the Labour Party conference this September.
Expect the most unexpected, as Dorothy Walker (Jackie Walker’s allegedly deceased mother), rises once more from her world touring show “The Lynching” to act as judge to your witness. Send an outline of your story in under 300 words to norm6344@gmail.com. We will put your story online, and, who knows, you may even get the chance to put your case in person, on stage, in Brighton!
If you are on the left, there has never been a more important time to resist.If you feel silenced, there has never been a better time to speak out.If you are coming to the Labour Party conference in Brighton in September 2021 – as a delegate or visitor, or just staying at home watching on Zoom – this is your opportunity to be part of the discussion about how socialists continue to fight for real change.
On Tuesday 20 July, hundreds of Labour Party members picketed Labour’s London headquarters protesting against suspensions, expulsions and the proposed banning of left-wing groups.
Statement from LIEN on the Health and Care Bill (Second Reading 14 th July 2021)
The Health and Care Bill (The Bill), introduced in the House of Commons on 6 July 2021 represents, in our view, a further stage of dismantling the National Health Service (NHS), created as a result of the nationalisation of services enabled by the NHS Act 1948. The Bill builds on the cumulative impact of neoliberal “reforms” implemented by successive Conservative and Labour governments, beginning with Margaret Thatcher’s Health Service Act 1980. We oppose the Bill and call for it to be withdrawn.
In May 2020 Keir Starmer asked the barrister Martin Forde to investigate an explosive leaked Labour Party report which included outrageous allegations of racism, hyper-factionalism and even electoral sabotage by party officials. It also seemed to show how the Corbyn leadership tried to appease the right, leading for example to the expulsion of Jackie Walker and the resignations of Chris Williamson and Ken Livingstone.
But over a year later the Forde Inquiry still hasn’t reported. Many people believe Forde’s findings are being suppressed because the party’s leadership wants to bury the truth. But we’re not going to let that happen.
That’s why we held the “Not The Forde Inquiry”, to give people the chance to say in public what they would have told the inquiry if they’d had the chance.
Testifying to the inquiry were:
Jackie Walker
Chris Williamson
Graham Bash
Leah Levane
Tina Werkmann
Rebecca Massey
Kevin Bean
Greg Hadfield and many many more
The inquiry also heard a special message from film director Ken Loach
Anyone who wants to put a question or comment to the inquiry can email it to us on info@labour-in-exile.org or just do it in person on the day. Whistleblowers are particularly welcome!
Joint statement by Labour Against the Witchhunt, Labour Campaign for Free Speech, Labour Left Alliance and Labour in Exile Network
Why you should NOT participate in the JLM ‘training sessions’ on antisemitism
A number of Labour Party members and role holders have been invited by general secretary David Evans to participate in online training sessions named “Understanding Antisemitism”.
Here are some reasons why we urge Labour Party members NOT to participate:
This motion has been drafted as a model motion to go to Labour Party conference 2021, but it can be tweaked for other purposes. Please note that this has to go through your branch first, then your CLP and needs to be submitted to the NEC by September 13 in order to be heard at Labour Party conference. Remember that a CLP can either submit a rule change (which needs to be submitted by June 11) or a ‘contemporary’ motion like this one.
1. We note
1.1. That the ‘working definition’ published by the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) has been rejected by numerous legal practitioners and academic scholars , because it conflates anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and has been used to ‘chill’ freedom of speech on campuses.
If you are (still) a Labour Party member, please try to become a delegate to this yer’s conference (September 25-29, Brighton). There are few important things left-wingers can campaign around:
1. David Evans will have to be ratified by conference as the new general secretary – the more delegates from the CLPs and unions vote against him, the bigger the impact.
Please move this in your CLP asap – the deadline for rule changes to be received by the Labour Party is June 11. Please remember that you need to send all motions to your CLP secretary in advance of the meeting (one or two weeks).
Almost 1,500 people have been involved in Labour In Exile’s first fightback meeting on Saturday 27 March.
More than 550 people registered for our Zoom meeting and the rest watched via Facebook, many of them live. You can watch the video below. People from across the country, including comrades who have been expelled and suspended as well as many still in the Labour Party, spoke about their opposition to the assault on democracy by the current leadership.
In the first part of the meeting we heard reports about how comrades are carrying on the struggle for socialism and free speech by setting up “shadow” or “ghost” CLPs. The second part of the meeting saw the launch of eight fightback working groups. These will tackle everything from transforming the Labour Party and analysing the witch-hunt to engaging with the media and the weaponisation of antisemitism.
Re your article: Corbyn supporters threaten to ‘take care of’ Jewish activists (https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/corbyn-supporters-threaten-to-take-care-of-jewish-activists-1.513100)
There are a number of factual errors and misleading references in your article, which we ask you to correct immediately and publicly in the article above.
As part of the fight-back against the witch-hunt of socialists from the Labour Party, LIEN is conducting a survey of all its victims in order to determine the extent of the number of suspensions, resignations and expulsions since 2015 when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader. By building up a detailed picture of the mass purge we will be in a stronger position to take counter-action, including legal action if necessary. The more members who participate, the greater will be the weight of the outcomes, so your cooperation in this survey will be much appreciated.
Watch this powerful testimony by Benjamin Davy, suspended member from Plymouth CLP, who explains why he has become involved in the Labour in Exile Network. There are many more comrades who feel similarly and we have already posted some of them on our website here – please send us your video and/or short article!
This is the text of a speech given by GRAHAM BASH at a meeting “The Labour Party, Free Speech and Democracy” held on Saturday 30 January 2021. Graham Bash has been a Labour Party member for 52 years, and is the political officer for Jewish Voice for Labour. Graham speaks in a personal capacity about how the Left should respond to the current attack on free speech in the Labour Party.
I want to make two basic points:
First, this attack on free speech is unprecedented in my lifetime.
Secondly, although we are facing and fighting this attack primarily in the Labour Party, it is an issue that goes well beyond the Labour Party.
SUSPENDED LABOUR MEMBERS CHALLENGE STARMER TO COME CLEAN ABOUT EX ISRAELI SPY
Suspended and expelled members of the Labour Party are challenging leader Keir Starmer to come clean about the alleged hiring of a former Israeli “cyber spy” to work for the party.
The Labour in Exile Network (LIEN) Group has discovered that Assaf Kaplan who previously worked for Israeli intelligence, has been apparently trying to monitor its activities by means of social media.
TO THE LEADER AND THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE LABOUR PARTY
We the undersigned members of the Labour Party demand:
• the restoration of the whip to Jeremy Corbyn;
• the reinstatement of all Labour Party members wrongly suspended or expelled since the appointment of the current general secretary;
• a review of all previous suspensions and expulsions imposed during the previous leadership;
• a root and branch reform of the deeply flawed complaints and disciplinary processes of the party;
• and an immediate restoration of the right of constituency parties to freely discuss and pass motions on political issues as they see fit.
Until these demands are met we will pursue a policy of non-cooperation with the party’s general secretary, regional officials and the governance and legal unit, and we will absolutely refuse to comply with any advice, guidance or instructions from any of the above which we consider unfair and discriminatory.
As members of the labour movement we are taking immediate, collective action in solidarity with our comrades who have been unfairly punished.
We are a new kind of non-geographical Constituency Labour Party (modeled on the Labour International CLP), for all those who no longer feel that they are welcome in the Labour Party.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have been suspended or expelled from the Labour Party. It began under Jeremy Corbyn with the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign whose aim was to protect the Israeli state from criticism.