Blog archive - February 2012

This is a free blogging space for LRC members. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the LRC.

I understand the problems - can LRC come up with some answers now please ?

Lesley Whiting
27th February 2012 at 13:30
43 comments
I’ve been a member of the Labour Party (LP), for 33 years, and like a lot of LP members have become very disillusioned over the last 20 + years. My problem is not with New Labour as such, but the fact that what was a broad church with a self balancing mechanism, has now disappeared, and been dominated by one view alone.
However, I’m one of those who believes that change to the LP has to occur from within, and as a result of this, I was drawn to the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). I suppose I naively believed that the LRC, would be full of Labour Party members working together to mount a credible alternative to New Labour discourse, and get balance back into the LP. 
Sadly though, it has become very apparent that the LRC are not a credible alternative at all. Without wanting to cause offence, what I have encountered in the LRC, I can only describe as an undisciplined shambles. Firstly, it appears that many members of the LRC are not even members of the Labour Party, yet these people still call upon members to leave the LP and set up in opposition to it. How can the LRC hope to reform the LP, if it has members who are actively opposed to the LP?
Secondly, LRC members seem to have some very questionable ideas indeed. For example I read today an article by an LRC member in Hackney claiming that prostitution and pornography do not degrade, devalue, or contribute to rape and violence against women, but are legitimate occupations. Others urge us to support appalling regimes who claim to have god on their side, yet threaten to annihilate Israel, brutalise their own people, and pervert notions of human rights and justice. How can the LRC ever hope to be offer a credible alternative to New Labour discourse while associated with such extreme views?
Thirdly, many members speak very eloquently about such things as the effect of unemployment, but offer no solutions to this whatsoever.  How can the LRC offer a credible alternative to the New Labour method of dealing with things like unemployment, if it doesn’t have an alternative?
If the LRC are going to get balance back in the LP, they need to be credible, and disciplined, rather than a platform for anyone with a bonkers idea, and no answers.  [continue/comment...]

This is a free blogging space for LRC members. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the LRC.

Imperialism is blackening Syria

Marie Lynam
21st February 2012 at 21:10
1 comment
Hello comrades of the LRC
22.2.12 I write to warn against the imperialist-inspired campaign against Syria. The press and the sectors accommodated with the war preparations of imperialism are once again on the rampage to denounce Syria. Of course, what they mean is Iran .. and Russia. But in their typical cowardliness, they attack peripheries, and move, wolf-like, towards the centre of what they wish to devour. [continue/comment...]

This is a free blogging space for LRC members. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the LRC.

Return to the Falklands

Mike Phipps
13th February 2012 at 22:58
0 comments
Riots, union bashing, privatisation, attacks on our public services - just like Tory Governments of old. Now the Coalition seems determined to emulate Thatcher in foreign policy as well. Mike Phipps reports. [continue/comment...]

This is a free blogging space for LRC members. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the LRC.

What next for the Labour Left ?

Michael Chewter
7th February 2012 at 15:25
16 comments
Now that it is increasingly clear that the Labour Party is the site of a feud between Blairites and Brownites, what should the response of Labour Party socialists be ? Should we choose the lesser of two evils, if we can identify one, or should we oppose the centre-right trajectory generally ? How do socialists give expression to their own politics in such a situation ?  [continue/comment...]