Sheffield Left Unity organised a meeting on the question of “Syriza’s victory and the implications for the left in Europe”. The meeting was addressed by Joana Ramiro, LU national council member and Morning Star journalist.
This report of the meeting first appeared in the Weekly Worker: Continue reading
These are the questions posed by the Communist Platform to those standing for the leadership
1. Do you publicly criticise all calls, manifestos and organisations calling for a British withdrawal from the European Union? Will you publicly advocate the programme of establishing working class power throughout Europe?
2. Do you oppose the idea of forming some kind of bloc within Left Unity that includes the social-imperialist Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Should those who support the pro-Nato government of Petro Poroshenko, who refuse to condemn the 2003 invasion of Iraq or the possibility of an Israeli nuclear strike against Iran, be considered legitimate bloc partners?
3. Do you give priority to Left Unity or the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition? Do you agree that Tusc is a diversionary Labour Party mark II project?
4. Do you support openness and accountability? Do you consider reporting and commenting on Left Unity officers, branches, regions, national council, conferences, etc, perfectly normal and acceptable? Will you publicly condemn the suspension of Laurie McCauley? Do you demand his immediate reinstatement?
5. Do you disassociate yourself from those who resort to violence or threats of violence within the left? Will you insist that anyone found guilty of making such threats issue a public apology, no matter how belatedly?
6. Do you think Left Unity should draw a clear red line between the socialist politics of the working class and the petty bourgeois politics of the Green Party?
7. Do you support the call for a Left Unity constitutional conference in 2015?
In this article in the Weekly Worker, Paul Demarty examines the responses and wonders why many are so reluctant to respond in good faith.
nominated by Maciej Zurowski (Haringey)
I am standing for the national council because I want to fight for consistent Marxist and working class politics in Left Unity. I’ve been involved in organised left-wing politics since 2008, and have Continue reading
Nominated by Moshe Machover (Camden and Islington)
I am standing in LU elections as a supporter of the Communist Platform. Over the last few years, as inequality has widened the prevailing strategy of the left has been to slide further to the right, putting forward what it consider to be ‘acceptable’, ‘moderate’ policies.
Communist Platform is putting forward candidates in the current Left Unity elections, and supporting others from outside our ranks. We urge all LU comrades to vote in the following order of preference when it comes to the 15 directly elected members of the National Committee. (And to encourage others to do the same!) Click here for their election statements.
1. Yassamine Mather
2. Jack Conrad
3. Tina Becker
4. Chris Cassells
5. Toby Abse
6. Moshé Machover
7. Mike Macnair
8. David Isaacson
9. Sarah McDonald
10. Robert Eagleton
11. Lee Rock
12. Peter Manson
13. Daniel Gray
14. Maciej Zurowski
15. Mark Lewis Continue reading
Please pass this motion at your branch/committee/caucus – and let us know if it has been passed by sending an email to office @ cpgb.org.uk.
Our constitution is unfit for purpose.The National Council cannot properly function as a leadership. Nor does the Executive Committee provide day to day leadership. Furthermore, the November 2014 rejected the ‘Safer spaces policy’ (Left Unity constitution appendix I).Therefore the National Council will organise a special conference in 2015 to consider amendments and possible constitutional alternatives.
On February 12 the national officers of Left Unity issued an unconstitutional ‘Appeal for an alliance against austerity’, which commits LU to “support any candidate, whether they are from the Greens, the Labour left or a smaller party committed to equality, who states clearly that they will never vote for austerity and whose record leads us to believe that they are sincere”. Continue reading
This video was filmed at a meeting on November 29 at Sheffield University Left Unity student society.
(this article was first published in the Weekly Worker, November 20)
The text of our proposed code conduct is here. The motion won more votes than the safe spaces document, but the majority at conference refused to ratify it, which means LU now has neither a code of conduct nor a safe spaces policy. We fear that the current unwritten safe spaces policy will continue to operate.
Tina Becker (Sheffield) moving code of conduct:
