Now far be it from me to bring a little realism to what I am sure are the very real and passionate beliefs of the 10 or so people who make up the United Left in North West land of Unite, but just a couple of issues.

1. Can someone, anyone, please explain to me the reason for regional committees in trade unions?  They have no industrial base.  They have no direct link to workplaces at all, and I bet, please let me know if I am wrong, but I bet they meet on Saturday mornings when the majority of people who are not political anoraks (and in the trade union movement that means the hard left) are shopping, relaxing, or spending the time with their kids that they do not in the week when they are working for a living.  It is from these bodies, not from industrial branches, that the "political" rather than industrial policy proposals for conference come precisely because of when they meet, who is on the regional committee, and because they have no industrial link.  They do not promote lay involvement or lay democracy, they promote political activist and sectarian involvement and circumvention of democracy, as well as providing useful power bases for regional barons at election times.

2. But that is a point of principle on regional committees, more fun is that the launch statement of the "United" Left spends the majority of its time attacking other parts of the "United" Left for its inability to launch a national organisation; be involved in a GS election; and for being undemocratic.  That is the first thing the regional "United" Left do, still I suppose it is better than the usual approach which is to come over all friendly and comradely at the beginning of any realignment of the Left, attempting to create that broad, united face that will sweep away the bureacrats who mascarade as "industrial regional officials" before after a couple of meetings break down as they realise one faction has more members on the executive than the others and start affiliating to their own front groups and using the new organisation as a recruiting and financial tool.

Makes a change to get the factionalism and disappointment out from the start, saves the expense of setting up a new newspaper before it inevitably folds.

Have fun, look forward to the split and the realignment in a few months.


 

Can someone please write an article detailing all the left caucasus in and around the labour movement?

i'm a bit lost

Alex,

Don't have time to write a full article, but just off the top of my head, these are the organisations I can think of who claim to be Labour Party or at least about changing the Labour Party by having broad based left from inside and outside the party, as opposed to factions in the Labour Movement, that I can think of:

Labour Representation Committee
Socialist Appeal
Socialist Outlook
Socialist Action
Socialist Resistance
Socialist Alliance
Alliance for Worker's Liberty
Campaign for Labour Party Democracy
Compass
Save the Labour Party
Labour Briefing
Respect

And, of course a variety of specific groups like the Left/Green Alliance; the Left Labour Women's Network; etc who mix and match memberships from across the factions, but for a specific purpose.

I am sure they are all right in their own way.