@michaelchessum.bsky.social
Socialist writer and activist /// ๐ book - This Is Only The Beginning: the making of a new left /// ecosocialist Green /// Work for a trade union /// Personal account, all views my own.
15 years ago, Britain's streets were the scene of a mass youth revolt. If it had taken place under a Starmer government, we would have ended up in prison.
We don't just need slick media performers - we need disruptive movements that can change things 'from below'.
For @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
"I cannot BELIEVE Zack Polanski said he didn't want to wipe people's bums has he no respect for these people and no we won't pay them properly are you kidding, bond markets won't like that, and by the way we're literally banning their families from the country."
07.12.2025 20:25 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0One week on from the Budget, it's clear the government has raised the tax to GDP ratio enough to give Reform an easy "Labour spent all the money" narrative.
But they're not doing much with it. People's lives are not going to improve. The geniuses present: the worst of all worlds. Again.
This weekend, Your Party members are discovering a culture of bureaucratic control freakery.
It's the same tendency that shut down Momentum's democracy, blocked Open Selections, witch hunted critics and demanded obedience. Those of us who opposed it then were branded wreckers.
So, now you know.
Net migration has plummeted. Contrary to all the lies we've been told, wages aren't about to go up.
Instead, we will find that we have no one to build the houses we need, and a worsening NHS staffing crisis. And a lot of young people emigrating from rainy fascism island.
In under 18 months, this government has:
- backed long prison sentences for climate activists
- prosecuted 2,000 people *as terrorists* for holding signs opposing genocide
- announced the end of trial by jury for almost all cases
Have we ever had a more authoritarian government?
"Greens arenโt afraid to say what so many people already believe: that clean water shouldnโt be a privilege, and pollution shouldnโt be profitable," writes Councillor Martin Abrams @martinabrams.bsky.social
leftfootforward.org/2025/11/when...
Surely Labour MPs realise that voting for the nastiest border regime in Europe will lose them their seats. "They'll vote for this shit holding their nose" doesn't work if we're wading in it.
We'll put it on every leaflet, through every door: they want to repeat the Windrush scandal every year.
Number of refugees per 1,000 people:
๐ฑ๐ง Lebanon: 137
๐ฉ๐ช Germany: 31
๐ธ๐ช Sweden: 23
๐ง๐ช Belgium: 14
๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands: 13
๐ฌ๐ง UK: 6.5
We are not a "generous country". There is no crisis, other than a bankrupt political elite scapegoating the most vulnerable people on Earth.
The good news: Jeannette Jara, the candidate of the left, has won the first round of the Chilean Presidential election.
The bad news: she will face Josรฉ Antonio Kast, an open Pinochet fan, in the run off. He will be the favourite, with the right and far right having won a majority of the vote.
The thing about the people who run the Labour Party is that they're not very good at politics, which is a shame because that's their only job.
Their next act of genius is to copy Denmark's "tough" (far right) migration policy to stop the far right. In fact, the Danish far right is surging:
A thing I've grown to enjoy recently is people who say Polanski can't be left wing because he was a Lib Dem ten years ago.
Usually they combine this view with being a super fan of Tony Benn, the establishment minister who once described himself as being "on the right wing of the middle of the road"
Sortition is sold as the solution to our democratic deficit. Michael Chessum argues that it is a chimaera ripe for undemocratic manoeuvres.
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/a...
โZack Polanski is a former Liberal Democrat who talks about expropriating the rich; the Greens are a small environmentalist party transforming into a mass party of the left.โ
@michaelchessum.bsky.social on the Green Partyโs renaissance, from the blog.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
If the Greens really were to replace Labour, this is what the early build-up might look.
Some thoughts for the @lrb.co.uk on the new left gathering around @zackpolanski.bsky.social, the contingent nature of green parties, and why this surge confounds commentators on left and right.
โAnti-capitalism and environmentalism are common bedfellows. But both the Green Partyโs activists and its sceptics would do well to avoid reading its fortunes off a script written abroad or in the past.โ
@michaelchessum.bsky.social on the Green New Left.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
ID cards are an almost perfect piece of stupidity, designed to win over Reform voters because they like authoritarianism and state action.
Except Reform voters deeply mistrust the state (look at covid). And they want it to be authoritarian to people who *aren't them*.
Fun fact: my daughter was born the same day Zack became leader. Since then, like the party, she has roughly doubled in size.
By 2029, the Greens will have about a trillion members. And Ella will be the largest organism on Earth, weighing the equivalent of 400 blue whales. Crazy times we live in.
This autumn business was absolutely fine until it started raining properly, wasn't it.
20.10.2025 09:57 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0It's properly happening - a whoosh of momentum not seen since the summer of 2015.
The Greens are no longer a minor party. We're third on members and, in many cities, second on votes. The prize is not a few more councillors, it is kicking the doors down on the political system.
On the left: the people who have an inalienable right to attend any football match.
On the right: the people who must be sent to prison as terrorists.
Listening to the radio thinking "why are they talking about the suspect's nationality? This news bulletin is basically a Reform broadcast."
And realising that the government literally told them to. It turns out it is possible to die of stupidity, and the Labour Right is doing it.
The rate of the Green membership surge is accelerating, not dropping off.
We're now on 110,000 members - 5,000 in a single day. If you think the Greens overtaking Labour is impossible, consider suspending your disbelief.
4.5 million children live in poverty in the UK. Child poverty is growing - on Labour's watch.
This government's answer? Cut more, attack benefit claimants, and don't even think about bringing back Sure Start. But sure, here's Gordon, have some nostalgia.
A month ago, I was certain Your Party was going to outnumber the Greens. Now the Greens are the home of the left surge.
If you think Corbyn and Sultana sound awkward justifying Your Party's separate existence to activists, just imagine having to do it with actual voters.
Licensing laws in this country are ridiculous, restrictive and based in a mixture of postwar paternalism and victorian moralism.
We should deregulate them as a reclamation of public space and collective joy, not "for growth", but deregulation is absolutely what needs to happen.
This is dystopian and will consolidate Britain's status as an increasingly authoritarian state when it comes to protest.
It is also stupid, because if your problem is thousands of people showing up to be arrested, threatening them with arrest is unlikely to deter.
Attending my first Green conference as a member, it's remarkable how friendly and curious everyone is.
I think it's a mistake to regard that as unserious. Contrary to what Labour hack school teaches you, being a self-important control freak is not likeable or electable. #gpconf
83% of Green Party members back an electoral pact with Your Party.
I've put forward a motion to #gpconf25 that would make it party policy to pursue an alliance. It's amendment 1 to motion D14.
If you're at conference and (big if) if we get to debate it, please support it.
You've fled torture and death. You've made it across thousands of miles. You've won your asylum claim in a rigged system. You're traumatised.
And the Starmer government says "you can stay, but you'll be alone and your family are staying where the danger is".
Unfathomably evil.
