The South will rise!

Yes
Very well-reasoned

21centurymanifesto

by Nick Wright

Something is stirring in the South. The South of England, regarded for some time by pundits and Labour officials as Tory territory with an occasional Lib Dem outcrop, is experiencing a Labour revival. The lost years of triangulating Tory policies and courting swing voters saw Labour decline to fringe status. But Corbyn’s new approach and a vastly invigorated Labour movement have changed perceptions. This month Labour’s Tony Winckless (above seond from right) displaced UKIP and took the Milton Regis seat on Swale Council with 53 per cent of the vote.

Turnout in council by-elections is usually low but the full results show an encouraging trend. The Labour percentage rise in this key working class North Kent community was 25.1; the Tories, with less than a quarter of the votes, suffered a 9.8 per cent decline; UKIP plummeted 14.7 per cent – over half their previous total while…

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Communists back democracy against violent subversion

21centurymanifesto

COMMUNISTS BACK DEMOCRACY AGAINST VIOLENT SUBVERSION IN VENEZUELA

The Communist Party of Britain has welcomed the results of last Sunday’s referendum in Venezuela to create a Constituent Assembly under article 347 of that country’s democratically adopted constitution.

  The support from more than eight million electors indicates the continuing scale of popular backing for the democratically elected government of President Nicolas Maduro.

  Despite the boycott of the referendum by some opposition parties and the orchestrated campaign of street violence, bombings and the assassination of election candidates and supporters, independent observers have verified that 41 per cent of all eligible electors went out to vote.

  Britain’s communists condemn the refusal of President Trump and the US administration to recognise the referendum result. Their decision to impose yet more sanctions will inflict further hardship on the people of Venezuela, who are already suffering the grave impact of domestic and external…

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Star riders close in on Berlin

21centurymanifesto

from Kevan Nelson

After 2 days of cycling in scorching 30 degrees heat, the Pedal4Progress team reached the village of Crinitz south of Berlin.

On day one the gruelling 110km ride from Prague to Bad Gottleuba in Saxony just over the German border was the toughest experienced to date by many ride participants.

Along the route the group stopped off at several monuments to anti fascist resistance fighters and fallen Red Army Soldiers. Above: at the anti fascist memorial Radeberg Saxony

On day two the riders navigated the 132km route from Dohma to Crinitz through forested areas of the former GDR.

For the final and third day of the Peace Race tribute, the group will be joined on the 110km route to Berlin by cyclists from the DKP.

On arrival a reception will be held at the Soviet War memorial in Treptow Park.

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Beware the Tory EU trap

#NeverTrustaTory

21centurymanifesto

BEWARE TORY EU EXIT TRAP, COMMUNISTS WARN

The Tory government is preparing to bind workers and a future Labour government with EU market and  competition rules after Britain leaves the EU, according to the Communist Party.

  ‘Big business is putting huge pressure on Prime Minister May and her negotiating team to reach a settlement with the EU that would prevent any form of democratic intervention in the economy through an alternative economic and political strategy’, International secretary John Foster told the party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (August 2).

  He warned that any transitional or post-exit treaty with the EU that accepted existing single market or customs union rules and institutions would outlaw policies to support industry, control capital, regulate trade or use public procurement contracts to promote local employment, trade unionism, upskilling and R&D investment.

  John Foster pointed to the European Free Trade Association court judgement…

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A very different barrister needs your help

Please help him

The SKWAWKBOX

Duncan Shipley-Dalton is a long-standing friend of this blog who has given many hours of his time providing expert legal opinion on matters of importance to SKWAWKBOX readers, as a search for “barrister” on the blog will reveal.

He’s a man with a passion for social justice and an armed-forces veteran who suffered for years with post-traumatic stress. He’s also anything but your typical barrister – and this time it’s he who needs our help.

Duncan Shipley-Dalton – not your typical barrister

Duncan was born on the Isle of Wight 1970 and grew up with his mum in a single parent household in a council house, living on benefits. He knows what poverty is like and what it is to go hungry. He went to the local comprehensive school.

After completing his A-levels, Duncan went to University of Essex to read Law, then moved to Belfast, where he first worked…

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How do we build on Labour’s election results? Not by misunderstanding our position with working class voters.

Rational and reasoned reflection

21centurymanifesto

by Andrew Murray

How does Labour do even better next time? There is no more important debate, so almost any contribution to it has to be welcome. Getting another five per cent of the vote in the next election may prove to be more challenging than the ten per cent increase secured last month.

There is one approach being promoted by a number of MPs and others. The argument runs that Labour is losing ground among working-class voters, whilst gaining elsewhere, and that this problem needs to be addressed by changing our approach on security.

Here, I will question the underpinning analysis of this approach, and argue that it appears teleological – the desired policy end appears to be determining the line of argument.

First, that argument. It was presented in its mildest form by deputy leader Tom Watson who, in an interview with the Observer, said that Labour needed…

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Great advice centre helps the struggling. Needs to raise £40k for itself to stay open

The SKWAWKBOX

Salford Unemployed Resource Centre does a fantastic job providing unemployed people with the support they need and do not get from a Tory government that has long waged war on our poorest and most vulnerable people. It helps people gain skills and the unfairly sanctioned – whose numbers have mushroomed under the Tories – to get their support reinstated. Last year it retrieved over half a million pounds for the people it helps, who regard it as their ‘fourth emergency service’.

It receives slim funding for the work it does and for the first time in three decades, it’s facing a shortfall in its funding that may force it to close.

If you’re in a position to do so, please take a look and consider chipping in a few pounds toward the £40,000 it needs to raise urgently – and then share the link so others can do likewise.

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