Important: We have told John McDonnell that we are up for this. But it needs to be more than a paper exercise - we need people to get involved, to get these policies discussed, online and offline, in local Labour Party meetings and in trade union branches - but most importantly, beyond the already converted. In the run up to the election, we could even organise local Red Labour meetings based on five or six common left policies. How about it? As usual, your feedback is appreciated: A Left Platform for the Election: There is a massive opportunity still for the left to mobilise the anger and frustration of the vast majority of people who are not sharing in any economic lift off and who are repelled by UKIP’s policies as soon as they are explained and exposed. What is needed is to solidify the common left policy platform that has emerged, based on investing in public services, ending and reversing privatisation, controlling finance, large scale building of council houses, a £10 an hour Living Wage, restoration of trade union rights, ending the attack on welfare benefits and re-establishing the right to free education. We must use the next six months, when people are looking for political answers, to embed these policies in the general political discourse. If the outcome of the National Policy Forum is anything to go by, Labour’s Manifesto is likely to be light on significant policy commitments that most on the left would consider vital – not just to address the needs of our society but also to mobilise the support we need to be elected. Many MPs, candidates and activists will want to campaign on a more radical agenda of policies. There is no contradiction in standing on Labour’s eventual official Manifesto and advocating the policies that we would want a Labour government to implement. We would be simply campaigning democratically for Labour to go further when in office. The reason for trying to assemble a broad left policy based coalition prior to the election is that many voters will want to know there are people within Labour who are arguing for real Labour policies – to know that by voting Labour there is still a hope that these policies will be implemented. labourbriefing1.wordpress/2014/12/05/a-left-platform-for-the-election/
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 16:51:43 +0000
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