Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1010/27948

From The Socialist newspaper, 19 September 2018

Blairites must go

Corbyn needs to lead the campaign against all Tories - blue and red, photo Mary Finch (Click to enlarge)

Mandatory reselection now

Fight for a democratic, socialist Labour Party

Ten years after the financial crisis, when the greed and recklessness of the bankers and financiers brought the economy to the brink of collapse, the Labour Party is holding its annual conference in Liverpool.

Over the past decade the bosses and their politicians have subjected us to a relentless policy of austerity, featuring a massive reduction in public services, accompanying job losses, more privatisation, low pay and cuts in welfare.

More than half the child population of Britain's poorest areas, including parts of Birmingham, London and Manchester, now live in poverty, according to the End Child Poverty coalition. Meanwhile, workers have had our ability to defend our living standards further restricted by yet more draconian anti-trade union legislation.

Newcastle Corbyn rally, June 2017, photo E. Brunskill (Click to enlarge)

So the surges in support for Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity promises, with policies aimed at improving the lives of workers and young people, are no surprise. But nor are the attempts by the super-rich and their representatives to remove him. This is the backdrop to Labour conference.

The owners of big business and their Blairite representatives in Labour have conducted a major campaign against Corbyn.

They have attempted to replace him, orchestrated a spate of coordinated resignations from the shadow cabinet, held a vote of 'no confidence' by Labour MPs, made constant attacks on Corbyn's policies in the media... And lately, whipped up an outrageous smear campaign accusing Corbyn and his supporters of antisemitism.

The Blairites are hypocrites. They react hysterically to votes of no confidence from their own constituency parties. They rage at any suggestion they should be accountable to Labour's rank and file.

But to resolve Labour's civil war successfully, local parties must be enabled to oust the Blairite traitors through the basic democratic process of mandatory reselection. The leadership of Momentum, having opposed this vital demand from the beginning, seems to have belatedly come round to supporting it.

Reselection

Corbynista MP Chris Williamson has said a majority of conference delegates would too. Jeremy Corbyn must boldly back mandatory reselection, and mobilise party members and the wider movement to fight to implement this and other democratising measures in Labour.

Labour must be restored as the party of workers, with a strong, democratic, collective voice for the trade unions, and socialists expelled or excluded from Labour permitted to join and organise.

Conference itself must be reinstated as the democratic ruling body of Labour. And it needs to endorse clear anti-austerity policies, linked to a socialist programme for replacing the rotten, corrupt system of capitalism with a system based on public ownership and planning, democratically controlled by the working class.

A democratic, socialist Labour Party, united with the trade unions, campaigning for a programme of this sort, could enthuse workers across the country, ensuring electoral victory for Labour - and a movement capable of standing up to the bosses' sabotage.

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In The Socialist 19 September 2018:

Labour Party conference

Blairites must go

The struggle to transform Labour

Momentum's 'The World Transformed' blocks discussion on Liverpool council struggle

Socialist Party news and analysis

Big drugs companies dodge £3 billion pounds in tax

250,000 families in "non-decent" homes

Bezos housing hypocrisy

Rail rip-off reversal

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University pay ballot: vote yes for strike action!

Birmingham home carers' protest demo

York health workers say no to privatisation

Liverpool airport workers demand decent pay

Leicester UCU fights redundancies

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Join our Socialist sales drive for issue 1011

March to save threatened Liverpool Women's Hospital

Socialists and campaigners protest Leicester NHS cuts

Hundreds of Newcastle United fans attend Mike Ashley Out meeting

Huddersfield Socialist Party opposes racist EDL

Lewisham: binning the rates rise

Opinion

How Irish strikers fought apartheid - and establishment anti-apartheid leadership

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