Time for a new Left party in UK?

[spirit of che]

Less then a year to the next General Election in the UK and the Labour Party has still yet to show the electorate that it is the party for the working class and poorest in society. While the Left is screaming at the leadership to show some Socialist commitments they continue to sit on the fence by condemning the ConDem government while stating they will continue with austerity if elected to power.Is it not time that the parties of the Left now organise to unite as one party as a serious alternative to Labour in 5 years tine?

[Q]

Moved from /intro to /politics.

There are several initiatives. Left Unity is currently the most vibrant one which has several platforms. One of the more critical ones is the Communist Platform, which is supported by the CPGB and offers its fair share of criticism.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I second comrade Q's reference to Left Unity with upper-case letters.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Anarchy in the UK?

[The Feral Underclass]

Less then a year to the next General Election in the UK and the Labour Party has still yet to show the electorate that it is the party for the working class and poorest in society. While the Left is screaming at the leadership to show some Socialist commitments they continue to sit on the fence by condemning the ConDem government while stating they will continue with austerity if elected to power.Is it not time that the parties of the Left now organise to unite as one party as a serious alternative to Labour in 5 years tine?

There's a new left party every year.

[Luís Henrique]

Hm.

Should that be a New (Left Party)...

or a (New Left) Party?

Presto, your NLP can now start its first internal tendency war, even before it manages to assemble for the first time.

Luís Henrique

[Red Son]

I third Q and DNZs comments

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

Then I second TAT's comment. The UK left seems to be proficient at generating new parties and projects, there's no doubt about that - yet it has remained impotent. Could it be that the problem has little to do with whether there's a 'new party of the left' and more to do with the attitudes and practices of much of the contemporary UK left?

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Then I second TAT's comment. The UK left seems to be proficient at generating new parties and projects, there's no doubt about that - yet it has remained impotent. Could it be that the problem has little to do with whether there's a 'new party of the left' and more to do with the attitudes and practices of much of the contemporary UK left?

Or perhaps with the entire notion of a "united" "Left" party.

[The Idler]

The parties of the left are not a serious alternative, whether united or divided.

[The Idler]

There's a new left party every year.

Whereas 'Libertarian Communist Initiative' was formed with your help out of a two year-old organisation, but then it's only an aspiring party not a proper one.

[The Feral Underclass]

Whereas 'Libertarian Communist Initiative' was formed with your help out of a two year-old organisation, but then it's only an aspiring party not a proper one.

We don't aspire to be a party at all. Our aspirations aren't limited to what form we take. But then again, why would I expect someone like you to understand the nuances of revolutionary politics, since you're a massive liberal.

The parties of the left are not a serious alternative, whether united or divided.

The irony.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

STFU used the L word. Naughty

As it is, Left Unity is probably the biggest left-of-labour 'project' to have come to fruition recently, though aside from being the likes of Owen Jones and Ken Loach walking around with a few awkward squad Labour MPs moaning about this and that, I don't really see what it has or is going to achieve.

The problem with the party as an organisational form is that parties are born out of the need for an organised apparatus to fight elections in bourgeois democracies, hence why party organisation in Britain, for example, only became much more serious when the franchise became more and more extended in the 19th century, securing Parliament's place as the main organ from which political power is derived in this country.

If we allow our organisations and movements to subscribe to the party organisational form, then that is essentially saying that no matter what the ideology and programme of our party, it is ultimately a form of organisation that is geared towards being incredibly organised and fighting elections.

The idea that when left parties fight elections it's not for the votes but for the 'education' and 'propaganda' is nonsense, since every left party from the Bolsheviks to the KKE in Greece has at some point adapted themselves towards winning bourgeois elections and in the KKEs case even taking part in bourgeois governments.

I think that the time came a while ago - but also that we are really overdue a theoretical breakthrough that nails this - to abandon the party model. If we are serious about creating a society without imposed authority, a society based on form of democracy where ordinary people have control over the direction of their own lives, then we have to forget about trying to win power with organisations that take the party form. Parties, in the modern world that is incredibly global thanks to the internet/social media, relative ease of travel and 24 hour news, are increasingly being left behind because their bias towards tight organisation and top-down decision making means that it is impossible for them to both act as democratic organs that give voice to people who otherwise wouldn't be heard, and react to changing events in anything like an acceptable or worthwhile timeframe.

[TheEmancipator]

We should focus on campaigns in the workplace and on the grassroots. The problem is these days you have to be a highly trained lawyer to be able to fight for someone's rights, and with education costs rising and rising its becoming less and less likely that we have people in the courtrooms taking big corporations to the cleaners.

Any attempt to convince the British public to vote for a left of Labour party will be futile. People aren't stupid, they know that with first past the post they would rather vote tactically to save their (sometimes oversized) public pension or cut their tax rate depending on which populist liar on TV their prefer. You've got to build your party from the ground up. The recent parties advocating preservation of the NHS for example have done well because these are people who have proved their credentials by fighting non-stop privatisation.

Respect has basically become a party for Muslim conservatives.
CPGB are a joke. Reminds me of the Hoxhaists on here. Based solely on caricature.
The other leftist parties are just ignored by MSM or shouted down on LBC.
You might as well vote Green in places where they can do well.

[The Idler]

We don't aspire to be a party at all. Our aspirations aren't limited to what form we take. But then again, why would I expect someone like you to understand the nuances of revolutionary politics, since you're a massive liberal.

No-one's saying you are limiting your aspirations to what form you take but the statement of intent says '11. The Libertarian Communist Initiative is a medium term, pre-party formation ... The Initiative intends to grow into a Libertarian Communist Party.'
I guess calling people massive liberals is understanding the nuances of revolutionary politics.

The irony.

Quite.

[Mather]

The parties of the left are not a serious alternative, whether united or divided.

Fair enough, but do you also include your own party (SPGB) in this?

If not, why not?

[Q]

CPGB are a joke. Reminds me of the Hoxhaists on here. Based solely on caricature.

And what caricature would that be? Because if you think it is Hoxhaist, you might be confused with the CPGB-ML, which are indeed a little wacko.

[The Feral Underclass]

No-one's saying you are limiting your aspirations to what form you take but the statement of intent says '11. The Libertarian Communist Initiative is a medium term, pre-party formation ... The Initiative intends to grow into a Libertarian Communist Party.'

And your point is what? That a libertarian communist party would be one of these New Left Parties that spring up every year?...Because if it is then you're an idiot.

I guess calling people massive liberals is understanding the nuances of revolutionary politics.

No, I'm just stating a fact. You are a massive liberal.

Quite.

I'm glad you're able to accept your shortcomings.

[Lord Testicles]

And your point is what? That a libertarian communist party would be one of these New Left Parties that spring up every year?...Because if it is then you're an idiot.

What would make a libertarian communist party any different to the multitude of leftist parties that spring up every election? Is it purely because they are libertarian communists and the others generally tend not to be? Or have libertarian communists found some secret tactic or approach that others on the left have overlooked?

[The Feral Underclass]

What would make a libertarian communist party any different to the multitude of leftist parties that spring up every election? Is it purely because they are libertarian communists and the others generally tend not to be? Or have libertarian communists found some secret tactic or approach that others on the left have overlooked?

The invariable problem with people's interventions in discussions like this is it always follows a pattern of form fetishisation. My criticism of yearly formulations of Unity Left Parties isn't because they're a party. My critisism is because they follow the same strategies and practices that have typified leftism for the past forty years. Namely, "unifying" the fucking "left", mass organisations, entryism, parliamentarianism, reformism, populism and opportunism.

So my first response to you would be that a libertarian communist party wouldn't be leftist. It also wouldn't matter whether it was called a party or not, that is just the moniker LCI have chosen to use to indicate a specific transition from one set of objectives to another. Specifically from an organisation whose role is to elucidate ideas and initiate campaigns to one that has built a base radical and confident enough to establish institutions of dual power.

Is that a secret tactic? No, it's not a secret. We're perfectly open about it. Is it an approach that others on the "left" have overlooked? I don't know whether they have overlooked it, but they certainly don't practice minority organisation, or see the class as being an organisation of itself, and they certainly don't see the riot communities as a terrain for building counter-power.