The Mandelson scandal reveals a political settlement in which democratic choice is curtailed and the power of markets eclipses the will of voters – only the left can challenge this, writes JON TRICKETT MP
Starmer, Blair, 1935 and all that
By bending history, the Labour right is trying to convince us that social reform is deeply unpopular with the voters and the only way forward is further into bland technocracy. SOLOMON HUGHES gives the facts - on past and present
Building social reform is hard, but possible over time — the Labour right wants to deny the recovery of 1935 just as it wants to deny the recovery of 2017.
Corbyn’s intervention exposes a corrupted system, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Paul Holden’s book, The Fraud, exposes a hidden war inside Labour, where claims of anti-semitism, amplified by media power and factional networks, were used to break Corbynism and recast the party. JOHN ELLISON revisits the scandals, investigations and suppressed evidence from that era
In the second of a series of articles, Storming the Heavens author JENNY CLEGG introduces the key themes of her book on the Chinese revolution
The growth of Cuba’s biotechnology sector is an example of how socialism can prioritise scientific innovation, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Paul Holden’s The Fraud reveals how a network of donors, MPs and opaque organisations quietly organised to destroy Corbyn’s leadership and manufacture a new centre of power inside Labour, writes JOHN ELLISON
Systems of power enable, excuse and normalise abuse, while survivors are ignored and women’s exploitation is repackaged as commerce and choice, warns CHARLIE WEINBERG
LABOUR’S current leadership is trying to justify its sharp turn to the right by pointing at the 2019 election result and talking about it being “the worst election defeat since 1935” — a comparison made by Keir Starmer and almost every other Labour spokesman.
Yes, 2019 was bad, but this is a very odd comparison. Labour didn’t win in 1935, but it was actually a good result — Labour got 102 new MPs in 1935, a huge recovery from the real disaster which happened in the election before, 1931.
That year Labour lost 235 MPs, reducing it to just 52 MPs. The 1931 election was a disaster because the Labour right had wrecked the party in an effort to prove it was “sensible.”
Similar stories
While Hardie, MacDonald and Wilson faced down war pressure from their own Establishment, today’s leadership appears to have forgotten that opposing imperial adventures has historically defined Labour’s moral authority, writes KEITH FLETT
STEPHEN ARNELL examines whether Starmer is a canny strategist playing a longer game or heading for MacDonald’s Great Betrayal, tracing parallels between today’s rightward drift and the 1931 crisis
PHIL KATZ describes the unity of the home front and the war front in a People’s War
Like pieces on a chess board, centrist parties lose ground as they accommodate rather than challenge far-right agendas — socialists must play things better, warns MATT KERR