Michael Chessum

Why left populism failed The capitulation of Greece to the EU in the 2010s is a warning for the emerging British left.

Ten years on, the basic lesson of Greece is that new left parties can and do Pasokify themselves. If you're @zarahsultana.bsky.social or @zackpolanski.bsky.social, it's worth paying attention.

Some reflections on why democracy must be the basis for any genuine radical left advance.

Having pledged to keep Corbyn's legacy, Starmer barred the left from selections, told us to leave, adopted Tory policy and went round telling journalists we were all racists.

I cannot take seriously the idea that the left is now to blame for splitting the Labour vote. What were we meant to do?

Look, on the one hand the emergence of big left alternatives is great.

On the other, it is incredibly depressing watching history repeat itself: the obsession with celebrities and parliamentary leadership, the briefings, the having to fight and beg for basic democracic norms.

For the same reason, no one actually came forward with a Lexit motion in Labour or Momentum - presumably because they knew how it would go.

So we get all this shadow-boxing, and 20-year-old truisms, couched in the right jargon - but parallel to the real debate.

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So if you're from a bit of the left that's pro-Brexit and opposes the Ukrainian war effort, it's awkward to have that argument, as you're likely to be in a minority, including in the left party. Much easier to repeat old shibboleths about 'Tories on bikes', or loudly ignore them. [2/3]

There is a section of the left that is very hostile to an alliance with the Greens.

It is often dishonest about why. Really, they don't like the Greens because the Greens are pro-Ukraine and historically anti-Brexit. Those Green stances chime with the majority view on the left. [1/3]

91% of nurses balloted by the RCN have rejected a 3.6% pay rise. Turnout was not bad at 56%.

This is a very big deal. Doctors aren't on their own - we could be heading for another winter of discontent in the NHS. The industrial revolt against Labour austerity is rolling.

Join the Green Party Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party with the policies needed to tackle the climate crisis.

Today is the LAST DAY to join the Greens to vote in the leadership election.

This election is pivotal. A leftward-moving Green Party, led by @zackpolanski.bsky.social, will be a crucial part of a winning left electoral bloc.

If he loses, the only winners will be Reform and the Labour Right.

The people running Labour have entertained a fantasy that, like in the 1990s, they could crush the left.

The problem with fantasies is that they tend to dissolve on contact with reality. All they've done is externalise the left. So Labour's century-long monopoly on left of centre politics is over.

There's a lot of pressure on the Greens to form an electoral alliance with a new left party. And I strongly support one.

That cause is not made easier by the seeming inability of leading lights of the new left party to even acknowledge the Greens' existence.

This is genuinely very good - a cut above anything I've seen from a UK politician in years.

And it could not be further from where Starmer is - politically, strategically and in quality of comms.

I don't think we've seen the start of the Green surge, if @zackpolanski.bsky.social wins.

If the government wants us to save more for retirement, they could try:
💩 Reversing austerity and pay cuts
👎 Rent controls to stop landlords taking half our pay
🚫 Nationalising utilities so they aren't run by parasites

Instead they are going to:
🤩 Make us work until we die

Good.

Though I can't help feeling that if Orgreave happened now, Keir Starmer would have called for harsher jail sentences for the striking miners, and then proscribed the NUM as a terrorist organisation.

It is an absolute indictment of the state of British journalism that we are being told - as if it is a fact - that water nationalisation would cost £100bn.

This figure is taken from a 2018 report commissioned by private water companies in order to make the case against public ownership.

The unspeakable obscenity of a Prime Minister who knowingly echoes Enoch Powell suspending Diane Abbott for being insufficiently alive to sensitivities around racism is a true moment of wonder for our politics. Future generations will marvel at it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very in favour of votes at 16. But it takes a special kind of "genius" to, one day, create a news cycle alienating left wing voters and, the next, create millions of new left wing voters.

Not a bad result if you're @zackpolanski.bsky.social or @zarahsultana.bsky.social.

If you want to understand what's happening today, this paragraph in the Times is the only thing you need to read.

The Labour Party, and the country, is being run by over-excited lads who think this is an effective way to brief a newspaper.

This is apparently a real convesation from inside Number 10:

"So, Keir, last time we suspended a load of MPs, they went on to form a party that polled level with us before it was even set up. So I think we should do it again, only on a bigger scale."

"OK Morgan, let's do it."

Astonishingly stupid.

Labour have suspended three MPs for their rebellion over welfare cuts: Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Neil Duncan Jordan.

More chaos, more briefings, more doubling down on austerity. These people have no idea how to do politics.

Reeves to say cuts to City red tape will bring trickle-down benefits to households Chancellor to announce raft of deregulation changes as City regulators move to pare back transparency rules

In 2008, deregulation left the UK vulnerable to collapse. The elite's answer? Bail out the banks; wages and services to pay for it.

Labour's plan? Continue wrecking; deregulate the City even more.

For the left and @zackpolanski.bsky.social this will be totemic.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

It's ten years since the third Greek bailout. Reporting on it was formative for me. One week we cheered Tsipras. The next, we fled the teargas.

Plenty of lessons about the state and democracy. But Syriza's electoral performance provides one obvious one: left parties can and do PASOK-ify themselves.

Trump is coming to the UK again in September, at Keir Starmer’s invitation.

Join @ukstoptrump.bsky.social to tell him to get lost.

Is Starmer only pretending to hate immigrants? Or was he lying when he said he "deeply regretted" the words? Does he think he can say one thing to the Sun and another to the Observer?

It's beyond mendacious. Mendacity involves knowing what the hell you're doing.

There isn't a shortage of millionaires and billionaires in Britain.

What we have is a shortage of care workers and nurses - and politicians with backbones.

There isn't a shortage of millionaires and billionaires in Britain.

What we have is a shortage of care workers and nurses - and politicians with backbones.

Look, however embarrassing the left's leaks and internal rows, can we please remember the glorious summer when the Labour Right tried to do a coup and ended up running this guy for the leadership.

Greens Organise aims to be a democratic home for the eco-socialist left.

You can now join as a member.

Let's go!

Anyone who wants to take on the Tories, Reform and this failing Labour government is a friend of mine.

Looking forward to seeing what this looks like in practice.

I must say I find it pretty shocking that only 28 MPs, and just ten Labour rebels, voted not to ban Palestine Action yesterday.

Of the opposition parties, only the Greens showed up properly. The Lib Dems split, six on each side. An abject failure to stand up to authoritarianism.

One of the most galling things about being on the radical left is that we spend so much of our time losing to people who are just, so evidently, bad at doing politics.