Did Victory Just Wash Up On The Beach?

From the way the media and unfortunately many people in the Labour Party itself are talking about the local elections, you'd think that such novel things as campaigning had nothing to do with election results. “Labour did well in the north because the north is Labour and the south is Tory.” “Labour did well against the Lib Dems because their national poll share collapsed but the Tory vote held up.” These comments look correct if you're being remarkably lazy, like most of the media – but that is no basis for learning lessons about how to successfully gain the trust of the electorate and therefore win.


Blackpool's a town where there's a strange flow to events that just seem to happen – it can be unpredictable, spontaneous but nearly always with a kind of absence of control. This is encapsulated in many things - the weather, the fortunes of our football club or what you might get up to on a night out. It also usually applies to politics. For many years now Blackpool has been a marginal town that's swung with the tide of who is doing well nationally. We had two Tory MPs before 1997, then Labour won both and held them until 2010 where the hung parliament nationally translated into 1 Labour and 1 Tory MP in Blackpool.


These local elections have been different. This has been about us taking back control of our own destiny. Blackpool's a seaside resort that's seen great decline and with no alternative to the tourism industry, deprivation has increased massively – exasperated further by the out-of-touch and incompetent Tory council that ran the town between 2007 until now combined with the more recent cuts. Government statistics revealed in that period the town had risen from 12th to 6th worst area for deprivation, whilst the charity Save the Children's research rated us 9th worst local authority for child poverty.


It couldn't be more clear that we need a new economic and political direction. One that doesn't just prop up a declining tourist industry and the low-wage, seasonal labour that reliance on such an industry dictates for a lot of people working outside the public sector (of which 4,500 jobs are being axed locally).


Such a future relies on Labour winning elections, and for the first time ever Blackpool Labour genuinely campaigned as if that was in their hands, not just a question of how well we were doing in the polls. From the day the general election campaign ended, the local election campaign began. Every week outside the short campaign had 2 or 3 centrally organised doorknocking sessions, with activists and candidates directed towards target wards selected the previous summer.



What people said to us on the doorstep fed into our local policies, we vastly increased our voter ID and it changed the perception to us being the party of the community. The result was us taking control of the council by a large margin - 15 gains, 14 from the Tories, only one was off the Lib Dems (who are traditionally weak in Blackpool anyway). This was one of the best results in the country but we didn't do anything particularly special – we just campaigned hard all year round and took the time to talk to people about their issues.


We've by no means completed the changes we need to make organisationally. We need to build our membership up, better organise our grassroots, improve our ties to the local unions, get more young blood involved and find more ways of fundraising. The point the local party here has learnt however is (and we looked at the successes of places like Oxford who made gains against the trend), as much as socialists like me would like to see a more significant political change nationally, you can't blame Ed Miliband for your own failure to organise properly on the ground. You can wait for a supposed messiah to sweep us to victory or you can make it happen yourself.


The truth is Labour didn't do better in many places because we weren't organised enough to change the public's perception through grassroots campaign work. The party needs to change the way it thinks about how exactly victory comes about, the central party could help by providing more local organisers or by enthusing the members with greater party democracy but ultimately it comes down to local activists doing the donkey work at local level.

The Pramble is over, but the campaign is not.

Well what an experience it’s been. It’s easy to underestimate the sheer scale of what we’ve put into action over the last 2 weeks of March. The planning stage began back in the summer as a follow on from the re-launch of the maternal mortality blanket at Manchester Cathedral. The original launch of that blanket was around 3 years ago. Back then the number of women dying was 1400 a day compared to the current 1000. At least some progress has been made, even though there’s a long way to go….

When we questioned under-secretary of state for international development Stephen O’Brien in parliament on the penultimate day of the Pramble, I’m glad he said that“women and girls are at the heart of our development plans”. This is as discrimination against women is a huge barrier to development in a lot of the poorest countries. Furthermore the reason why our Manchester Oxfam Group chose to campaign on maternal mortality rates is that it is the least performing of theMillennium Development Goals set by the United Nations.

I can honestly say being involved with the Pramble has been a great experience. I’ve met lots of new people, seen lots of new places and developed a lot of skills. All of which has been part of an enjoyable and worthwhile campaign. There is nothing like taking positive action for what you believe in.

This has been recognised for thousands of years, indeed Aristotle said in the 4^th century BC that ‘active citizenship’ was an essential part of the good life. Things we take for granted in our country today like freedom of speech, votes for women and most relevantly free health care would not have been achieved if hundreds of thousands of people hadn’t campaigned on what they believed in. So for me campaigning with organisations like Oxfam is more than an ‘extra-curricular activity’ or ‘a bit of fun’ it’s who I am. If we as humans don’t have our principles, then what do we have?

On the whole most people in the UK are better off than the majority of countries around the world. People’s relevant comfort is probably a reason why a lot of people don’t see the point in campaigning for a more just world. I think another reason is the habits of the mainstream media, tending to focus on stories which only affect this country and are often not significant to key humanitarian issues. However I’m confident that anyone who takes part in a charity project like this one finds it rewarding and often will go on to do more voluntary work. If everyone in the UK spent just half an hour each week doing some kind of voluntary activity for the benefit of others, I’m confident that the nation would be much happier as would the wider world.

The campaign to save the lives of women all over the world goes on. Everyone can play a valuable part in that; you don’t need any qualifications, just a heart. Our Manchester Oxfam Group will now decide what other issues we want to turn our attention to, and how we want to campaign on them. The group is open to everyone and their ideas, so please contact us if you want to get involved.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has made the Pramble campaign possible. It’s a great achievement that a large number of people have between them managed to walk from Manchester to London with 4 prams, 1000 cubes and lots of other equipment!

Here’s to campaigning, justice and mums…

Just Another Day

Royal Wedding: jelly beans were the secret ingredient in portrait pictures,

And 2000 children needlessly die

Gaddafi survives ‘Nato’ attack but Son killed,

And 2000 children needlessly die

Labour aiming for Clegg powerbase,

Another 2000 children are lost forever

John Paul II Beautification Live,

Another 2000 mothers mourn their loss

Sony to resume Play Station gaming,

2000 more corpses are laid to rest

Battle over AV enters final stage,

Whilst 2000 more children can survive no more.

Heads’ pension ballot vote looms,

And 2000 more children utter their last breath

Syrian troops storm Deraa mosque,

2000 more children can cry no more

EU immigrants ‘add £5bn to GDP’

2000 more fathers have lost their child

Cyber stalking laws review urged,

Whilst 2000 more children lay dead on the floor

Readknapp demands goal technology,

And 2000 more bodies are buried or abandoned

Joy as QPR are promoted,

2000 more children can live no more

Trump finally beats Ding after epic,

2000 more children should have been saved

Royals spend secluded UK weekend,

Whilst 2000 more children leave a desensitised world

Spot yourself in our high-def wedding picture,

And 2000 more children needlessly die

Superman ‘may end US citizenship’

Whilst 2000 more children needlessly die

Somebody reads a depressing poem,

2000 more children needlessly die

Just another Day. What the media wants us to focus on and what really matters are two different things. Don’t hide from the emotions this poem brings up, fully acknowledge them. Through these emotions comes pure action and living.

Peace.

Local residents attacked by police

by Cloud

The community of Stoke's Croft in Bristol, who have been protesting against plans to open a Tesco for two years, was attacked last night as police in full riot gear attacked their peaceful protest. Scenes of violence ensued as police clashed with protesters.

Stoke's Croft, which has a reputation as a cultural hub, boasts one of the few remaining high streets in the country to be exclusively made up of independent and local businesses. That is, until now. Tesco, having been held back for two years finally opened its doors in Stoke's Croft this week. Protesters claim that Tesco already has several stores in the area, and that this one could severely damage the local businesses at the centre of this vibrant community.

The story is familiar in towns and cities across the world. When big corporations move in, small, locally owned businesses go bust. Most of us have seen it happen in our own neighbourhoods. Tesco have in recent years become increasingly expansionist, not only moving into emerging markets in countries such as China but in opening convenience stores alongside their larger supermarket branches in towns and cities across the UK.

Last night protesters gathered outside the newly opened Tesco Express branch to voice their opposition to the company opening on their high street. Youtube videos show a peaceful protest turning violent when police tried to move the protesters on, first by kettling, then attacking protesters with dogs and finally, violently charging the protesters down the street. Some of the protesters did fight back, such was the public anger at both the Tesco and the brutality of the police.

One local resident, a blogger known as Neuro Bonkers said:

I was dismayed by the council and police reaction to a sustained peaceful protest that has existed against Tesco for over two years. Until this week Stokes Croft was the last remaining major high street in the West of England inhabited exclusively by independent establishments. Tesco moved in despite universal local disapproval in an area already surrounded by dozens of Tesco stores. Despite the palpable disquiet protests have been entirely peaceful. This was not a volatile situation until police moved in to the area in full riot dress with no explanation for kettleing stokes croft except “health and safety” and “something to do with Tescos”. As police entered “Telepathic Heights” rumour spread that more raids on houses were intended. As this was not an unlikely story due to recent dawn raids on protesters houses and confiscation of computers and books over the last (xmas) exam period the community barricaded the remaining entrances to stokes croft and the police responded by charging the barricades, apparently for no other reason than for a fight. This action alone provoked violence from the famously diverse, educated, peaceful, loving and pacifist community of Stokes Croft.

With tempers high the situation deteriorated into rioting as running battles between police and protesters (and residents caught on the wrong side of police lines) persisted all night. At one point the police retreated, allowing the protesters to attack the Tesco shop as well as abandoned police vehicles. The riots lasted for several hours, as the police continued to battle with protesters who barricaded the entrances to Stoke's Croft. In this video shows scenes as protesters built barricades, and caused damage to Tesco's facade. We later see a stand-off with police, in which a few protesters throw missiles while cries of "Pacifism! Stop being aggressive!" come from other sections of the crowd.

Josh Kility, a local resident contacted The Leftists. He was not at the protest himself, but watched a live stream online from a mobile phone. He did look around this morning and took some pictures.

When you get up to the Stokes Croft junction with Ashley Road you could see police were still very much in presence with cones everywhere and the who Tesco area sealed off with CSI doing there work, I looked closer and you could see on the Tesco window 'Closing Down Sale' which was written on during the night with red graffati, the whole Tesco shop looking appsolutly thrashed [all sic]

He went on to say:

I personally think thta having a Tesco in stokes croft is totally not acceptable , it is the cultural area of the city , you've got local traders trying to make there money and here comes along Tesco and starts putting traders out buisness , ofcourse people are going to be angry , If you walk half a mile either way you'll fine a different Tesco so why must there be a Tesco in Stokes Croft? It's obvious that locals dont want Tesco there so why dont Tesco listen to locals and not open the new store

A press release by Avon and Somerset Constabulary, which covers Bristol, says that 8 arrests were made in total. It also claims that some of the protesters were arrested on suspicion of making petrol bombs, something widely denied by eyewitnesses on Twitter.

Photograph: Josh Kility. Grafiti on Tesco's Stokes Croft branch reads: 'Closing Down Sale'

The cuts bite - but there is an alternative

The cuts really are beginning to bite. Earlier today the ever fantastic Robin Hood Tax campaign posted this video on Facebook. 

The video documents the issues facing the Community Links charity in Newham, East London as it struggles to deal with the cuts. The charity runs youth clubs, play schemes and community centres throughout the area and are seeing the effects of the cuts first hand as young people struggle to find work, benefits rates change and services disappear. This is the front line of the government's assault on the country. The area of Newham, the video tells us, is facing cuts of £75m over the next four years. A Robin Hood Tax, in which banks and financial institutions are taxed just 0.05% on financial transactions could pay for these cuts in just 1.7 days. This is further proof that the government's cuts are ideological, refusing to see any alternative to its rampant attack on the most vulnerable. 

Over the next few weeks the impact of these cuts will become clearer, as we begin to face the harsh reality of spending cuts. 

Why the French are wrong to ban the burqa.

I don't like religion. Religion leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. I don't like Christians who want everyone to know about it. I don't like what it can do to people in the extreme cases. I don't like the resistance to reasoned debate it breeds - "how dare you challenge my religion" is often used in the same way as "how dare you bring up the death of my child". I don't like the ways in which the Abrahamic religions have stifled our attitudes to sex, and sexual equality for centuries - even secular people are still prone to the sexually repressive values which still permeate Western Europe. I don't like burqas - they are a potent symbol of sexual repression, gender inequality and patriarchy.

Yet I will fight to the death for people's right to have a faith. The far left made a mistake when it took the phrase "opiate of the people" too literally in the twentieth century. Decades of religious oppression and division have left scars across Russia, China and elsewhere which are only beginning to heal. The far left made a mistake in rejecting liberalism. I have always felt that at its heart, the socialist society we on the left seek should be more free and more democratic than any other. There is no one left on the left who wouldn't say that the Soviet Union was a repressive, distopian nightmare state. We agree that liberalism (which protects individuals and communities alike) is, and should remain a core value of the left.

The new threat to the rights of individuals and communities comes from the right. An ever more mainstream and centrist right, which is rejecting its own liberal values and pandering to xenophobia and division. It is not just far right nutters like the EDL, BNP or the French Front National we have to worry about. Cameron has recently claimed that multi-culturalism doesn't work, and wants to instill a so-called "British identity" into our culture (I'll ignore for now my view that there is no unified British identity). Centre-right governments across Europe are making assaults on Islam. The Swiss banned the building of minarets on mosques (yet church spires are fine). The French ban on the burqa came into effect this week.

The French have always had a secular society. It was one of the founding principles of their revolution in the late eighteenth century. There was a strict separation of the church and state - something I agree with. When they banned the wearing of religious items in schools in 2004 (including muslim headscarves), I felt this was perfectly fine. Children ought to have a secular schooling and be allowed to think and choose for themselves when they are old enough. But the banning of the burqa is not secularism, no matter how much the French government hide behind its banner. This ban directly singles out Islam, and it prevents some of its believers from practicing their religion (though, of course not all muslims believe the burqa to be necessary, some do). This is yet more pandering to the right, "security-conscious", xenophobes, racists, Christian fundamentalists. It not only reflects, but in fact serves to intensify hostilities between east and west.

If we really want to be constructive in tackling fundamentalism, perhaps try, y'know, being nice - stop treating the muslim world as an oil well to be invaded when we please, or treating them with suspicion when they come to live in our countries.  If Christians want to practice their religion, then they should expect that others will want to practice theirs - burqas and all, and that atheists like myself may want to have reasoned debates with them. Who knows, maybe we could all learn something from it. As long as everyone practices nicely, in an agression free environment - we're all happy right?

What do you think? We're interested to hear your views on this. If you'd like to write for the leftists, please find all the information in the "Write for the Leftists" tab above.

The world cannot make you happy

I think this is one of the most important lessons that I’m starting to learn. By ‘happy’ I’m referring to what people are ultimately seeking; the kind of long-term fulfilment that in my opinion everyone seeks in one way or another. By ‘the world’ I mean any ‘thing’. That is any objects, people, emotions, thoughts, concepts, activities; any thing in its truest meaning. This might sound quite dramatic or defeatist. ‘Well how am I supposed to be happy then?’ one may ask. Well I think it is possible to achieve this long-term fulfilment, if you have a deep understanding of what you’re working towards and a determination to cultivate it. However I’d say it is better described as ‘peace’ or ‘serenity’ than happiness. To me happiness is a kind of pleasure, a temporary emotion. It’s a warm fuzzy feeling you get which makes you smile. I think a common misunderstanding in modern western society is that it’s possible to feel like this all the time, and even that if you don’t feel like this consistently there is something wrong with you. Because emotions are temporary forms, by their very nature they can’t last forever.

So when I say the world cannot make you happy, I mean any ‘thing’ cannot give you the long-term peace that everyone is ultimately looking for. What’s more this peace that I refer to is not like a jigsaw, it cannot be assembled with any combination of ‘things’ either. For example it could never be achieved by being rich, and famous, and achieving all your goals, and having your ideal partner, and winning the Nobel peace prize and saving the whole world. On the contrary, it comes from a total non-identification with any ‘thing’, a kind of non-attachment.

Once again let me clarify what I’m referring to by ‘content’ or ‘at peace’. I mean a consistent contentment in ones day to day being, a significant reduction and eventually elimination of ones suffering. I’m not denying that ‘things’ bring people temporary pleasures, of course they do. Emotions are an essential function of sentient beings; we couldn’t live without their guidance. It’s obvious how ‘things’ like money, people, holidays or achievements could give people positive emotions. I’m not saying that participating in these things is pointless either, that would be silly. Experiencing positive emotions is one of the beauties of living.

What I’m saying is that it’s vital not to confuse contentment with temporary positive emotions. They are totally different concepts. No amount of positive emotions can lead to contentment, which is in my opinion what every human being is ultimately looking for. It is the understanding of this distinction which I believe is the key to contentment. Once one can live without identifying themselves with any ‘thing’ then one can be content. This is why I meditate every morning, because it awakens you to this reality. If everyone in the world meditated for just 5 minutes a day, I’m convinced it would be a much better and sane place.

A non-attachment to any thing does not mean you stop caring about any thing. It does not mean you lose your values or your desires to achieve anything in the world. It simply means that you don’t seek yourself in any of these values or pursuits. So when you run into difficulties with them, you do not delude yourself that a part of you is somehow under threat. Conversely when they go well, you don’t think you are somehow ‘more’ than you were before. This change in perspective from delusion to reality means the end of fear. It also means that the actions you take in your life are vastly more intelligent and profound. It means that the terrible things humans have created over the centuries such as war, prejudice and huge inequality are seen as the mad things that they are. This is a teaching which is given by someone called Eckhart Tolle, as shown in the video below J

Peace and Love to all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPg9DnMP2D4

My ‘Eckhart Tolle For All’ Facebook Page.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Eckhart-Tolle-for-all/180830518629862