Left Unity: In Principle & In Practice

Left Unity was and still is a very ambitious initiative which sought to not only unite various strands of the left but to spread the left message to the massive chunk of people not engaging with the left, or politics in general. We have had some degree of success in this regard, bringing in members from ex-Labour, the far left, and general activists. What do we do now to move the project of Left Unity forward, where do we go from here?

As it stands presently Left Unity has members who are involved in other political projects and other political organisations, these people have put their toe into the water but have yet to take the plunge. We should be looking at why, and how we can assimilate not only them, but their organisations within our ranks. This is imperative not only for the success of Left Unity but for the success of the left in general.

The system we have in place now was fine prior to our becoming a party and standing in elections, but the organisation has moved forward, we cannot have such an overlap between groups, not only is it confusing but it leaves Left Unity open to infiltration and a situation could arise where we are left with mud on our face, we can be brought into disrepute. At the moment groups can freely take part in Left Unity, with all the benefits going to their organisation but what do we get in return? Absolutely nothing.

There are various ways how we can remedy this situation, I will list them here before going into more detail, these are:

• LU can open up talks with organisations and groups to discuss what we can get out of allowing their members to organise within our ranks.
• We can expand on our internal structure to allow these groups to come within the Left Unity structure and operate officially as extensions of Left Unity, in a similar fashion to tendencies.
• These groups can become amalgamated into Left Unity ceasing to exist.
• Becoming a member of Left Unity means members have to renounce membership to previous groups/organisations

As a member of Left Unity and only Left Unity, I feel like our internal democracy can be subverted by outside organisations who can all lump together to impose their organisations will on our organisation. As a member of Left Unity, I have no say, or knowledge of what their organisation gets up to, yet they know everything about us. Even worse than this, as a member I have no say over what organisations can do this, there is no policy in place to ensure this process is two way. At the moment we are giving everything, and getting nothing in return, that is why we could open up talks with the groups involved with Left Unity and work at how they can organise within our party, and how the membership can hold these organisations and their representatives within Left Unity to account. This could range from something as simple as a democratically agreed list of “affiliate organisations” to something much more in depth.

As it stands we have a very rudimentary way to allow groups to form within the party in the form of tendencies, we could expand on this structure so that pre-existing groups can become part of Left Unity, retaining most of their individual identity. This can improve our internal democracy, it means that members of various organisations can be held accountable to the membership of Left Unity, it ensures that we cannot be put into disrepute by groups of people who are part of this group and that organisation. It will also promote lively debate within Left Unity, as various tendencies operate officially within our structure to promote their views, instead of doing this from the outside and from within. We could accommodate them expanding what rights tendencies have, fleshing out how they operate within the party while promoting healthy democratic debate.

Amalgamating the various organisations of those involved would be something similar to what historically happened to the Labour party, and would definitely make the left a lot stronger than it is. At the moment we are like a hundred people all pulling in different directions, if we united under one organisation, we would be one hundred people pulling in the same direction. However Left Unity are still the new kids on the block and how successful we are going to be is still being decided by the jury, one thing is for certain we will be as successful as those committed to Left Unity make us. There is that age old workers maxim, unity is strength and this holds as true today as it did one hundred years ago, the left is in a mess because of its disunity, Left Unity exists to remedy that. Everyone involved must want some form of left unity, or at least recognise the need for it.

Making members renounce political affiliation to other organisations, would cause a lot of work for Left Unity. First and foremost our membership would drop slightly, secondly we would come under attack by these organisations. All of which will distract us from our real concerns, fighting capitalism and helping those feel its effects. However it isn’t all negative, it would ensure that the people left are committed to Left Unity and Left Unity alone, we would be free from internal distractions brought about through various outside influences, and we would all be working towards the improvement and betterment of Left Unity. This would therefore empower the membership who are left to have full control over the organisation, the only problem would be just how many activists we lose and the danger of LU falling into the trap of sectarianism.

What path Left Unity should take, I am not one hundred percent sure, one thing is for certain though this debate needs to be had, and it needs to be resolved sooner rather than later. We are leaving ourselves open to attack from within and while this may not be a massive problem at the moment, as we grow it will become a much bigger possibility. We need people who are taking Left Unity seriously, and are committed to the project wholeheartedly, we need to work at improving our grassroots structure and our democracy, empowering the membership to take Left Unity on the journey they want it to. It is very bizarre that we can have people not involved with Left Unity at all, in a completely separate organisation influencing our policy through having their members in this position, or voting on that motion. In the long run this leaves us as members completely powerless over our own destinies. The first step in finding a resolution to this, is Left Unity having this debate and discussing what kind of party we truly want this to be. We can hold a meeting with all these organisations, get their input, get your input as a member, this is our party, lets ensure it succeeds.

Land of Hope and Misery

There aint no great in Britain any more
but what was great about Britain?
Because I have my doubts

Was Britain great when it hungered for war and blood
instead of spreading peace and love?

Was Britain great when we had ladies and lords
when we were stopped by the sword?

Was Britain great when we used concentration camps
killing over 30,000 people?

Was Britain great when we brought and sold human life
enslaving whole nations at the point of a knife?

Was Britain great when it turned its guns on its own people
hungry and desperate for a fair deal?

Was Britain great when the majority of its people were poor
struggling to survive?

Was Britain great when surviving childhood was an achievement
with child labour being the norm?

Was Britain great when it worked its people’s fingers
to their bone?

Was Britain great in Northern Ireland where we
brought destitution to a whole nation?

Was Britain great when we killed and killed
all for the sake of the rich mans greed?

Was Britain great in Africa, India, China and beyond
when it murdered all who didn’t dance to their song?

Was Britain great when it drew lines on a map
that from past until present make war instead of peace?

Was Britain great when it was a racist nation
that spread fear and hatred?

Was Britain great when Alan Turing was persecuted
because he preferred men to having a wife?

Was Britain great under a Thatcher government
that destroyed our industry and community too?

So next time you repeat those hollow words with your
hand on your heart,
remember your history, remember it right from the start
for people like me and you have struggled with each day anew
We have never had it easy that has been a luxury reserved for a few
They may lie and sing Britain was once great
but you have to ask yourself great for who?

I will let you in on a little secret
It was never great for me or for you

Woe is Society

Maaan, when you look at who runs what, how can you not feel anything but anger?

The vast amount of wealth sits in a handful of peoples bank accounts, ain’t nobody working harder than 50% of the population, I don’t care if you only sleep 1 hour a bloody night.
Power sits in the hand of a small rich elite, why the hell do we let them do all the decision making?
Every single layer of society we look at, is all controlled by the same power interests, the same small group of people, who only have their own interests at heart.

This pattern has repeated it self throughout history, and alongside this, there has been people like you and me, the disenfranchised, the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden – those that have less, those that have little, those who have nothing.

We have fought throughout the ages for a fairer and more just society, we have fought to get a little more of the pie, instead of subsisting on the crumbs. Shit we have fought to not eat pie, we have fought so we can eat cake!

Whether you actively take part in this struggle or not, this struggle is happening, you can sit on the fence, you can watch from the side lines, as our futures literally get stolen from us, or you can become an active participant, but ultimately when you moan about the way things are, the only way they are going to change, is if you take an active part, we are all powerful beyond measure.

We are the glue that runs the machine we call society, we do not need stock brokers to run society, we do need cleaners – we are the ones that are running things in all but name, why then do we not get a fair share in all this? We do the majority share of the work, without getting our just reward.

If when you were a kid someone sat you down with a contract and said to you: “Ok, we want you to work five days a week, nine hours a day, for the rest of your life, in exchange for that, we will give you a little bit of money, so you can buy your own food, and live in a house, while we take the majority of the profits, live in a bigger house, eat better food, drink better wine, be your boss we will make all your decisions for you, all you need to do, is be our slaves” – Ain’t nobody going to sign that contract.

This world is ours, all of ours, do not sign your freedom away, as the saying goes “all evil needs to triumph is for good men (people) to do nothing” – Another way is possible, we just have to make it so.

Peace, love and unity

I’m an Anarchist and I’m in Left Unity, there I said it!

I am involved with Left Unity because it is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. The left as a force within this country is spent, it is on its knees and the only way it stands a fighting chance against the onslaught of capitalism is if we work together. Thus I became part of the Left Unity project, sceptical of what it really was, and afraid it was more of the same but lucky enough for me, it did not turn out to be any of the things I expected! There is no one ideology of Left Unity, you can be a Leninist, Marxist, Maoist, Makhovist and everything in between, I am not being told I have to kneel down and pray to Karl Marx five times a day, I can have an opinion.

Our local branch is pretty free to do as it pleases which is a massive plus, there is not some central top down leadership attempting to control my every action and thought, I feel like I am free to express myself and that I have a voice. Right from the get go the party has been an inclusive place for all those along the left, a place where we can come together to fight our common enemy and work for the common good. It also seeks to be more than just a political party, it seeks to be a social movement and if the left can’t pull its act together, what then? For me to not just pay lip service to the term Left Unity, I had no choice but to get involved.

Before the founding conference and beyond members within Left Unity hold the power, we created the constitution, we can submits motions and far from Left Unity pretending to have all the answers, it asked all the right questions. There seems to be a real commitment within Left Unity for members to have wildly different views and be allowed to express them as they wish. Not only that but we have some really interesting policies which are their to either curb someone attaining to much power or to keep them in check in case they do, e.g Only being allowed to hold a position for three years and yearly elections both of which are massively important in holding the leadership to account and providing power to the grass roots.

Left Unity has that commitment to grass roots, bottom up leadership which to me makes it an ok place to work. I do not want to be part of an organisation where everyone thinks and acts the same, because that is not healthy and the fact Left Unity has a massive local agenda, I feel it does not jeopardise my anarchist views. We all want to see the end of capitalism, and there is no point in arguing about what comes next until the end of capitalism is a possibility, we have a long way to fight and it makes no sense being spread out and divided, unity is our strength.

I hope I’m not the only Anarchist within Left Unity, and if there is enough of us we should get a tendency together.