To defend Puerto Rico’s right to peace is to defend Venezuela’s right to exist, argues MICHELLE ELLNER
Keir Starmer and the Labour’s supposed ‘broad church’
Normally in British politics, leftwingers defect right. Under Blair and now Starmer however, this trend seems to reverse, calling into question the ‘broad church’ that welcomes Tories and excludes socialists, writes KEITH FLETT
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with former Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke in his parliamentary office in the House of Commons, London, after it was announced she has defected to Labour, hitting out at the "broken promises of Rishi Sunak's tired and chaotic government". Picture date: Wednesday May 8, 2024.
Despite the apocalyptic destruction RAMZY BAROUD points to Gaza’s triumph of spirit against the architecture of genocide
We are demanding action from our politicians to deliver justice, fairness and decency throughout our communities – join us, says ROZ FOYER
After NGOs and the EU, UN condemns Germany’s crackdown on Palestine Solidarity, writes LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
It’s not just the Starmer regime: the workers of Britain have always faced legal affronts on their right to assemble and dissent, and the Labour Party especially has meddled with our freedoms from its earliest days, writes KEITH FLETT
Once again Tower Hamlets is being targeted by anti-Islam campaigners, this time a revamped and radicalised version of Ukip — the far-right event is now banned by the police, but we’ll be assembling this Saturday to make sure they stay away, says JAYDEE SEAFORTH
HISTORICALLY, political defections in Britain have tended to go from left to right.
Beyond individual renegades, there are two significant markers: Ramsay MacDonald’s decision to split Labour and form a national government in 1931 and the departure of right-wing Labour MPs to the SDP (now the Lib Dems) in the early 1980s.
The 1930s also offered two further examples of significant splits. The first was Oswald Mosley’s New Party, which led to fascism. The second was the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which tried to recreate an independent socialist presence outside of Labour but was unable to do so.
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
Every few years, it seems like the ‘right time’ to build a new left party — but what are the right conditions, asks socialist historian KEITH FLETT, looking back at the last two centuries and the insights of Ralph Miliband and EP Thompson
Despite mainstream political podcasts drowning in centrist drivel, Labour Left Podcast offers an authentic grassroots perspective from decades of working-class struggle and resistance, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
Despite promises to clean up her act after previous violations, Home Office minister waited five months to declare a luxury Chelsea flower show dinner with Lloyds Bank, as Labour’s love of freebies continues, writes SOLOMON HUGHES