Mao as a Marxist
I have often wondered how it was that a number of Maoist currents emerged in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s; I mean, call me an irredeemable pessimist if you like, but surely it must have dawned on those involved that protracted peasant-based guerilla struggle is not a strategy optimally suited to conditions in this [...]
Ahmed Hussain leaves Respect: the end of the united front of a special kind
One of my new year’s resolutions was to devote this blog entirely to major British and world political issues, leaving the minutiae of far left politics to other writers. But after yesterday’s confirmation that Tower Hamlets councillor Ahmed Hussain – an SWP member elected on the Respect ticket in 2006 – has defected to the [...]
Beijing Olympics boycott: what Tessa Jowell forgets
The argument over whether it is right to use sporting to push home a political point has been raging ever since I was at junior school. I’m old enough to remember the 1968 controversy when ‘coloured’ cricketer Basil d’Oliveira – fresh from making a superb 158 in the final test against the Aussies – was [...]
The case for a written constitution
Does Britain need a written constitution? Traditionally, this isn’t an issue to which the left has paid much attention. Either it has been written off as being of little importance, or else the very concept has been seen as favouring conservative forces in a society. As a result, the ruling class has essentially been able [...]
Teenage kicks: youth violence and the working class
David Nowak – a 16-year old kid with the street name ‘Turk’ or ‘TK’ – fell victim to a knife killing in the playground across the road from my apartment block shortly before Christmas. Another teenage gang fight, apparently. Same thing happened to some other boy a couple of blocks away only a few months [...]
Should Labour adopt all-black shortlists?
If not positive discrimination, then what? An internal Labour Party report on increasing black representation in parliament – written by Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote – is recommending that current law be changed to allow all black shortlists for parliamentary selections. This is a proposal I am instinctively uneasy with, largely because I can [...]
Labour treasurer: netroots challenger
A group of Labour bloggers are pushing human rights barrister Mark McDonald – also an associate editor at LabourHome.org – as a netroots challenger for the position of party treasurer. That’s him, pictured left. In principle, I think that’s an excellent idea. Incumbent Jack ‘dunno, mate’ Dromey’s performance has clearly shown that he’s not up [...]
Lord Jones and non-domiciles: the class politics of tax
How would you like to pay no income tax whatsoever for the next seven years, and then switch to a special single-figure percentage tax band not available to anyone else in Britain? Silly question, I know. An arrangement like that would seem pretty damn good to those of us who open our payslips each month [...]
Should al Qaradawi be allowed into Britain?
I’ve tried listening to those on the left who repeatedly try to tell me that I should see the utterances of Yusuf al Qaradawi ‘in context’. I really, really have. But the man widely regarded as one of the world’s leading moderate Muslim clerics openly argues that it is permissible for husbands to beat their [...]
Caroline Flint: blaming the unemployed for unemployment
Britain routinely sees jobs destroyed through outsourcing, downsizing, financially driven mergers and acquisitions, low investment, bad training, the pursuit of short term profit goals, high dividend payments, poor management and spectacularly wrong-headed political decisions. But Caroline Flint – pictured left – knows exactly who is to blame for unemployment; it’s the unemployed, stupid. Of course [...]
