JUNE DISCUSSION MEETING

            DRONFIELD LABOUR PARTY DISCUSSION MEETING

TOPIC  :          THE FUTURE FOR THE LABOUR PARTY

TIME :             8pm to 9.15pm

DATE :            SUNDAY, 21 JUNE 2015 (A week later than usual.)

VENUE :         CONTACT CLUB, SNAPE HILL LANE, DRONFIELD


I WILL PROVIDE A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC.

WE WILL THEN QUICKLY ENTER INTO DEBATE ON KEY ISSUES CURRENTLY FACING THE LABOUR PARTY, SUCH AS -

(1) THE LEADERSHIP AND DEPUTY LEADERSHIP OF THE LABOUR PARTY.  HOW DO WE VIEW THE CONTESTANTS? (Link here, this item has relevance to this question.)


(2) HOW SHOULD LABOUR RESPOND TO GOVERNMENT POLICIES?

(3) WHAT SHOULD BE LABOUR'S OVERALL "DIRECTION OF TRAVEL" AND ITS KEY  POLICIES?

(4) HOW CAN WE SEEK TO INFLUENCE THESE MATTERS ?

                                                                                                            HARRY BARNES.
 

The ILP At Dronfield

ILP@120: Lessons from History

Jan 14th, 2013 | By willb | Category: Articles, Frontpage, News
 

WILL BROWN reports from the Dronfield Labour Discussion Group where more than 30 activists braved a wintery night to mark the ILP’s 120th birthday on Sunday 13 January.
 
Fuelled by a special surprise birthday cake made by Christine and Rosie Smith (pictured left), the audience heard the ILP NAC’s Barry Winter assess the contemporary lessons to be learned from the ILP’s history.

Barry began by reminding the audience just what a huge task the founders of the ILP faced. Hostility from the trade unions, from the Liberals and from much of the working class, meant that founding a party for labour – ‘a party that will’ – was a project that had to be argued for and fought for.

Even the later creation of the Labour Party necessitated compromises that many were unhappy with as the ILP’s commitment to socialism was tempered by the reformism and electoral priorities of others. Looking to achieve what is best under the constraints of the day, while never giving up on the longer-term aims we seek to achieve, has often been a hallmark of the ILP’s politics, Barry noted.

Looking to the present day, Barry focused on the interconnections between the necessary role of social democratic electoral parties, left groups like the ILP, and wider movements for change. While parties inevitably become focussed on short-term manoeuvring between tight electoral constraints, social movements can be more open and creative, he said. Although often short-lived, at their best movements create political space that social democratic parties can occupy.

In its history the ILP has played both roles, creating space and changing political landscapes while also engaging in electoral politics. Finding new ways for dialogue and cooperation between these two areas of political activity remains one of the most important challenges we face.
—-
Many thanks to Christine and Rosie Smith for the cake and the photo.

More articles on the ILP’s 120th anniversary can be found here.

More on the ILP’s history is here.
Buy ILP 120th anniversary calendars here.

Tags: 120th anniversary, ILP history, The ILP

The ILP Reaches 120 at Dronfield

The ILP Reaches 120

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the ILP, a milestone in British political history which the current ILP aims to mark and celebrate over the next 12 months in a number of ways. Starting with our own Discussion Meeting as shown in our right-hand column.

The Independent Labour Party was founded on 13 January 1893 when some 120 delegates gathered at the Labour Institute in Bradford to create a national political party to represent working class people and strive towards a socialist society.


As well as some known figures, such as the chair, Keir Hardie – already an Independent Labour MP – most of the delegates were young, working class men and women, mainly from the industrial north of England and Scotland, who had been active in local ILPs, trade unions and trades councils.

They were pioneers, idealists in some ways, who knew they lived in an environment hostile to socialist ideas, yet believed it was possible to change people’s outlooks, to alter the political culture, and to create a fairer, more equal, more democratic world.

The organisation they created has remained in continuous existence ever since, surviving numerous ups and downs in political fortune, and living through many changed and challenging circumstances over the last 12 decades.

Now known as Independent Labour Publications. the ILP has a(slightly) different name, and it operates in vastly transformed political circumstances, yet in many ways the ILP today continues to embody the spirit and purpose of its founders.

Like them, it advocates an ‘ethical’ socialism, one based on essential humanitarian concerns. Like them, it has stated in Our Politics in 2011, “we hold fast to the ethics and principles relating to care and compassion, fellowship and fraternity, mutuality and cooperation, social, political and economic equity, and democracy”.

These have been the foundation of the ILP's politics for 120 years.

Throughout 2013, it aims to celebrate the birth and history of the ILP, to remember the people who made it and gave their lives to it, and to mark the survival of those political ideas by discussing their relevance and importance today.

Here are some of the events and activities the ILP hope to be involved in, either as authors and organisers, or as participants. They hope that you will be involved too.


13 January: The 120th anniversary of the founding conference of the ILP

From 13 January: Online profiles of ILPers
The start of a series of profiles of figures from ILP history, some well known, others unheralded, written by academics, historians, activists and politicians. The series will begin with Fred Jowett, profiled by Ian Bullock, and continue on the ILP website throughout the year.
13 January: Lessons of ILP history
Barry Winter, former ILP general secretary and author of The ILP: Past & Present, speaking to Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group on what today’s Labour movement can learn from ILP history. More details here.

2 March: ‘George Orwell: Homage to Catalonia 75 Years On’
An International Brigades Memorial Trust conference at Manchester Conference Centre focusing on George Orwell’s account of the Spanish Civil war and the contribution of the ILP volunteers. The ILP will have a stall. More details here.
May: The ILP School
The ILP’s annual conference event will focus on its 120th anniversary with the theme of ‘Ethical Socialism: Past and Present’. Details of date, time, length and venue are still to be confirmed.
May: Book launch – The ILP: Past & Present
Launch of a brand new edition of Barry Winter’s always popular pamphlet on the history of the ILP. Last updated 20 years ago on the ILP’s centenary, this is a newly re-written and re-published version. More details to come.
(Note: the 1993 version of The ILP: Past & Present can be read here.)
September: The ILP at Labour Party conference
Look out for ILP fringe meetings, including one on ethical socialism with MP Jon Cruddas, the man leading Labour’s policy review. Dates and details to be announced.
Also, keep your eyes open for events at Clarion House in Nelson (probably in the summer), and at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, hopefully in the autumn.
And don’t forget the limited edition 2013 ILP Wall Calendars, especially published to mark the ILP’s 120th anniversary, and illustrated by political cartoons from the 1890s and 1920s. Some still available. Order yours here.

Hat Tip - Matthew Brown

"Labour 2012" by Jon Williams

New Labour is alive and well - according to Liam Byrne! One can only wonder why (New) Labour MPs continually copy Tory policies that attack the bottom of society without considering the majority of the UK.

Benefit fraud is according to the Government estimate worth just £1.2bn a year – or less than 1% of welfare spending. Compare that to the £70bn lost to the Treasury’s coffers through tax avoiding businesspeople. So why does the Labour Party think the solution is to remove benefits from the most unfortunate or even those who are in work but still have to claim benefits to make a living-wage? When there are so many people chasing every job it is surely better to invest in growth and more jobs, hence reducing the number of people claiming benefits.

Here Owen Jone's article highlights why the Labour Party is enthralled by ex consultants / business people and doesn’t seem to have a genuine voice outside the “Westminster Village”.

Polly Toynbee's article shows what Labour MPs should be trying to highlight - can it get worse when Tory policy removes benefit from children? Universal Credit and the Work Programme are two grandiose schemes that will cost more than they save. Reducing housing benefit will risk putting 800,000 homes out of reach of people on housing benefit.

Ed Miliband's interview with the Guardian suggests he will be being "playing safe" up to the next General Election, whether with the party or voters. We need more initiatives that grab the headlines that makes the electorate look towards better times e.g. investing in growth and jobs (in manufacturing). The Tory Party will gain a majority in 2015 unless Labour takes a risk by defining itself in the Centre of the current political spectrum - some would say that is now to the Left of Tony Blair.

By Jon Williams

P.S. Also hear this. HB.

Needed Wealth, Inheritance and Tobin Taxes

The German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB) has demanded that Germany’s richest citizens help with the countries debt crisis and tax burden, instead of it falling on working people. They have pressed for wealth, inheritance and tobin taxes. We need the same call from Labour Movements elsewhere - especially here. See this. In the photo, Micheal Summers, President of the DGB puts the case to Angela Merkel.

HAT TIP : Left Foot Forward.

Our Discussion Group's Submission to the "Refounding Labour" Consultation

Submission to the “Refounding Labour” Consultation from the Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group which is attended by Labour Party Members and supporters from various Constituencies in North Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.

We discussed the first two of the ideas given below and then fed into our parent body the Dronfield Labour Party and from there to the local Constituency Party of North East Derbyshire, where they took on the form of resolutions. Both the Dronfield and the NE Derbyshire Constituency have separately submitted these. We have also gained support for these proposals from a dozen Labour Party members from six constituencies ranging from Romford to Darlington. This support was received via a blog we operate here.

1. "Complex and convoluted systems undermine the operations of supposed democratic procedures. Democratic arrangements need to be straightforward and understood. The current 'Partnership Into Power' system and the functions of the National Policy Forum are not understood by the bulk of Labour Party members who participate in Labour Party Branch and Constituency activities, serve on local councils and/or engage in local electoral activity. The current system is dismissed as being one of "smoke and mirrors". It should be abandoned. In its place we require a clear structure for policy making, in which democratically run units of the Labour Party have a direct link into the activities of the National Executive Committee and into the decision-making procedures of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party".

2. Clause 4 of the Labour Party Constitution should be re-examined, especially in relation to the sub-clause which most strongly reflects the areas in which New Labour's economic failures were concentrated with its call for a "Dynamic Economy" based on "the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition". This sub-clause should be replaced by one that seeks a "Sustainable Economy" which pursues high quality public services operated democratically for the public good.

This is the suggested amendment to Clause 4 -

Replace sub-clause 2a on “A Dynamic Economy” with the following -

“A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY, serving the public interest by operating through the principles of co-operation and participatory democracy, in which wealth and economic power are fairly shared.” (Some of the Discussion Meeting came to prefer the word “equitably” to “fairly” in this proposal).

Amend sub-clause 2b on “A Just Society” as follows -

"Replace the words"equality of opportunity" with the words "social equality".

3. The Labour Party needs to involve itself with people seeking to defend their quality of life, including their public services, by its members being out in the market places with petitions on issues such as the defence of the NHS. The membership also needs to be encouraged to establish links with groups such as Tenant Associations and to be proactive locally in monitoring key issues such as the impact of inflation upon the vulnerable and then publishing their findings.

4. Labour should draw up a “Charter of Youth” attracting the involvement of people in its development. This is because they are at the forefront of problems faced in this country and throughout the world. Then without the support of young people, Labour will have no future. More details of this proposal can be found on our blog here.

5. There is a huge need for a strong commitment to non-dogmatic forms of political education to take place throughout the Labour Party and the wider Labour Movement. A person who knows only their own side of a case, knows little of that. Hence ideas need to be fully debated and dissent encouraged. When members join a political party they expect leading political matters to be to the fore. Political Educational activities need to be a major part of our work from national to local levels. More details of this proposal can be found here, which is the clearest version of our approach.

6. There needs to be a change in the make-up of the Parliamentary Labour Party, for parliament at the moment contains too many members of a “political class” where MPs often have more in common with each other across the political divide than they do with their own voters.

Socialism Not Isolationism (by Ken Curran)

Parliament In The Dark

Monday' Opposition Day Debate in the Commons on the Coalition's massive cuts which are planned in central grants to local authorities over the next four years, provides an opportunity for Labour to point out the global nature of the current financial crisis. For it is the overall economic climate which is used by the Government to attack public spending.

It is time, however, for Labour to tell some home truths. The economic crisis arose thanks to an ignorance in economic and financial affairs by politicians of all political parties. Not just in Britain but world wide. The role of the banks was the stimulus in creating the crisis. A sign of blindness and ignorance at the size of the gathering storm.

Labour should look seriously at itself afresh, for at one time it believed that capitalism had the potential to lead us into just such an economic and social disaster. To ignore the history of the part played by the banks over the 1920s and 30s beggars belief. We have to admit that Labour played a major part in creating the crisis. Whilst Gordon Brown eventually took steps to try and avoid a total collapse of world trade, we still remain in a position of great uncertainty.

Politicians of different shades appear to behave as if they understand the nature of the beast they are attempting to tame, yet increasing numbers of the general public are beginning to doubt whether any of them know what they are talking about. Public doubts about the quality and nature of our democracy are not surprising given the nature of the performance of many of our MPs in recent years. It will take more than one election to erase the memories of the expenses scandal. There is the disgrace of the recent behaviour of Nick Clegg over the question of Student Fees in his signing the Student's Petition whilst at the same time his colleague Danny Alexander was in secret talks with the Tories about the possibility of going into coalition with them if a hung parliament arose. Clegg and his colleagues deceived a generation of young people, many of them voting for the first time. Clegg has done an enormous damage to politicians and the concept of democracy as well as to his own Party.

Acting alone the Labour Party can not substantially alter the performance of the global market even to fulfil its own modest demands. Labour and other Democratic Socialist Parties need to act in concert in order to mount the maximum pressure upon the world's financial system. It is misleading the electorate to claim that the practices of the global market can be dealt with in isolation.

I see political isolationism as the great fault line in Social Democratic thinking. It is the biggest obstacle to creating a stable economic economy. This is perhaps the reason why Social Democrats fail to maintain and sustain electoral success.

The decline in the influence of Social Democratic and Democratic Socialist Parties across the world is due to the lack of a collective vision and a collective message. These parties continually sing from different hymn sheets. It is hardly the best way to sell an alternative message. It gives the electorate the impression that we know what we are against, but not what we are for.

I accept that in the course of political debate differences of approach and opinion will emerge. All of us have a duty to conduct ourselves in a responsible manner. Unfortunately in the recent past some who are (or have been regarded themselves) as leading members of the Labour Party have only been too keen to speak to the media as though they were the fountain of all knowledge and wisdom in our movement.
The preview by the Guardian of Ed Miliband's address to the National Policy Forum as he unveils his Policy Enquiries pointed out that he would warn that the same old stance will not restore trust in the Party. He promises that the Party will engage in what he describes as a million conversations to reconnect to a disillusioned public. Perhaps there is the chance of a Renaissance of Labour. New Labour led us into what eventually turned into a minefield. Our leaders disregarded our Party Values. Some even indulged themselves in behaviour unbecoming to a Party of high ideals. Let us hope that we emerge from the morass, some of which has been our own doing. We can learn from our past mistakes and still build on the ideals of Keir Hardie (photo above, addressing a rally at Trafalgar Square), Clem Attlee, Nye Bevan, Barbara Castle, Robin Cooke and many more. They all had their faults, but none of them would have advocated CASINOS as a means of improving society.

Ken Curran, Sheffield District Labour Party, Chair Sheffield Branch of the Co-op Party.

What Matters Most Is How We Think

Our last discussion meeting was addressed by Danny Dorling (see photo) and was previewed here.

His telling talk covered the subject matter of his fine book "Injustice : Why Social Equality Persists" which was published earlier this year.

Danny stimulated a fine discussion and a lot of serious thinking. Thirty people attended on a Sunday evening and there was general agreement on the significance of the meeting.

Earlier he was interviewed for the radio programme "Little Atoms". Just click here to listen to the telling nature of what he has to say. In his book he argues "...what matters most is how we think". Stimulating the type of thinking he is after is, of course, exactly what our discussion meetings are about. So we could not have had a better speaker. We now know much better what we are up to.

Injustice : Why Social Inequality Persists

Daniel Dorling is Professor of Human Geography at Sheffield University. Earlier this year Policy Press published his latest book "Injustice : Why Social Inequality Persists". He is to address the next meeting of the Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group on this key topic at 8pm on Sunday, 14 November.

Simon Jenkins has described him as "Geographer Royal by Appointment to the Left".

Richard Wilkinson co-author of "The Spirit Level" states "beliefs which serve privilege, elitism and inequality infect our minds like computer viruses. But now Dorling provides the brain-cleaning software we need to begin creating a happier society".

His book has also been described as "at least the equal of The Spirit Level" in this review. Whilst Nancy Krieger of the Harvard School of Public Health states "for injustice to flourish, inequality must appear as natural, normal, innate and inevitable. Danny Dorling, in this impassioned, empirical, and hopeful book, skewers ideologies that justify injustice - and reminds us that a necessary step towards creating a better world is collectively imagining it is possible."

Daniel Dorling who undermines the five modern tenets of injustice, viz:

•elitism is efficient;
•exclusion is necessary;
•prejudice is natural;
•greed is good; and
•despair is inevitable.