Campaign news

LEFT PLATFORM

19th January 2015

Left Platform

Saturday February 7th 2015 from 11am to 4pm
University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1E 7H

Left Platform is a roundtable discussion being hosted on the 7th of February 2015 with the aim of bringing together Left MPs, PPCs, Left Trade Union Representatives, elected Local Government Members, representatives from Left Labour organisations, and a number of key Left academics, policy analysts, commentators and activists to discuss and determine the key bottom lines in policy terms that we will be campaigning for Labour to adopt in Government and as base lines in any coalition negotiations if Labour goes down that road.

If the outcome of the National Policy Forum is anything to go by, Labour’s Manifesto is likely to be light on significant policy commitments that most on the Left would consider vital not just to address the needs of our society but also to mobilise the support we need to be elected.

Many MPs, Candidates and activists will want to campaign for a more radical agenda of policies and many people will look to Labour to have any chance of their implementation in government.

We would argue that there is no contradiction in standing on Labour’s eventual official Manifesto and advocating the policies that we would want a Labour Government to implement. We would be simply campaigning democratically for Labour to go further when in office.

The reason for trying to assemble a broad Left policy based coalition prior to the election is that many voters will want to know that there are people within Labour arguing for real Labour policies and that by voting Labour there is still a hope that these policies will be implemented.
In addition, if Labour does end up negotiating a programme in any form of coalition, the Left should not allow itself to be ignored and should have its own policy bottom lines for any negotiations.
The event is already sponsored by:
Labour Representation Committee, Left Economics Advisory Panel, Red Labour, Left Futures, Campaign for Socialism, Labour Left, Welsh Labour Grassroots.
John McDonnell MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ian Mearns MP, Mike Wood MP, Jim Sheridan MP, Ian Lavery MP, Kelvin Hopkins MP, Ian Davidson MP, Dave Anderson MP, Graeme Morrice MP, Mike Wood MP, Ronnie Campbell MP, Ian Davidson MP, Katy Clark MP, Grahame Morris MP, Chris Williamson MP, John Cryer MP, Michael Connarty MP, Sir Alan Meale MP, Michael Meacher MP, Elaine Smith MSP, Neil Findlay MSP.
Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) and Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU).

To register to attend, and for more details: visit http://leftplatform.com/