Many Left Unity members will be aware of the woefully apolitical campaign that is currently being conducted against the party’s principle speaker, Bianca Todd. As in the case of Manchester LU comrade Laurie McCauley, who has been suspended from the branch for writing a sharply critical report, the witch-hunters in this instance also pose as victims. Continue reading
‘safe spaces’
Transparency and the right to criticise
Kafkaesque
Two more articles by ComPlat supporters in recent weeks on the necessity of transparency and open debate to any meaningful and lasting unity;
In ‘Confidentiality is a bosses’ tool’, Paul Demarty argues vigorously against the Left Unity Dispute Committee’s decision to conduct disputes in private:
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1016/confidentiality-is-a-bosses-tool/
‘Bolshevism was not a safe space for opportunism'; Mark Fischer reminds us that it was the open clash of ideas which forged the Bolsheviki.
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1017/bolshevism-was-not-a-safe-space-for-opportunism/
Nuts, sledgehammers, and ‘safe spaces’
Speak no evil
Though there are real problems to be tackled in terms of ensuring accessibility and fair treatment for members of oppressed groups, the proposed ‘safe spaces’ policy is over-elaborate, non-transparent, and open to abuse. So argues ComPlat supporter Mike Macnair in the article below, in which he also proposes an alternative code of conduct:
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1012/left-unity-safe-spaces-are-not-liberating/
Report on Manchester LU, & the Gerry Adams controversy
The current issue of the Weekly Worker carries two articles concerning Left Unity.
In the first, ComPlat supporter Laurie McCauley reports on worrying developments in the Manchester branch, where a motion of censure has been brought against one comrade, for comments on the internal email list expressing polite disagreement with other members:
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1010/left-unity-what-safe-spaces-lead-to/
In other news, the writing of a fairly innocuous press release by the LU leadership on the arrest of Gerry Adams, in a rare display of initiative, has kicked off a huge barney on the article’s comment thread. Paul Demarty attempts to explain that avoiding disagreements is a road to nowhere in this article:
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1010/left-unity-keeping-disagreements-hidden/
Report on Sheffield LU
The touted ‘Safe Spaces’ policy being pushed by some in Left Unity has been hotly debated in the Sheffield branch. ComPlat supporter Tina Becker reports in the Weekly Worker:
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1008/safe-spaces-cotton-wool/
In the same issue, Paul Demarty offers comment on the ‘regroupment’ talks of several organisations also involved in Left Unity:
http://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1008/left-unity-playing-happy-families/