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Tom Blackburn is a Tribune columnist. He is a founding editor of New Socialist and lives in Greater Manchester.
The Labour leader’s Beergate gamble is a thin cover for the fact he has nothing to say on the cost of living crisis – and making personal integrity a central pillar of your politics is a risky strategy when you don’t have any.
Rachel Reeves’ admission that she’s ‘pleased’ Jeremy Corbyn isn’t prime minister was a betrayal of all those who campaigned for a Labour victory – and the policies they fought for.
Democracy is under threat, but it won’t be saved by centrist technocratic solutions – the only way to revive it is through the grassroots movements that elite liberals despise.
During austerity and Covid, workers were told they had to sacrifice for the good of the economy while the rich got richer – don’t let the ruling class fool you again.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves recently argued that bringing utilities into public ownership wasn’t ‘good value for money’ – but for millions of people, privatisation has led to higher bills and worse services.
2021 saw setbacks for the Left across much of the West, but victories in Latin America are a reminder that socialist policies continue to offer an alternative to a system in crisis.
Every day brings new reason to be furious at Tory rule. But little of this anger gets reflected by Labour MPs.
Three stalwarts of the Labour right – Margaret Hodge, Barry Sheerman, and Harriet Harman – are stepping down at the next election. But we should be just as worried about who might turn up in their place.
A new book explores the legend surrounding the disappearance of one-time socialist MP Victor Grayson – and offers a stark lesson in the political trajectories of those who leave the Left.
Labour’s financial crisis was made inevitable by Keir Starmer sacrificing loyal supporters and socialist policies to impress millionaire backers. Unfortunately for Labour’s leader, the super-rich already have a party that serves their interests.
Keir Starmer was elected to the Labour leadership on a pledge of party unity, but his actions since have shown that Labour’s right-wing cares more about defeating the Left than winning power.
In the run-up to party conference, Labour right-wingers are salivating at the prospect of another public war on the Left – but Neil Kinnock’s actual record as leader demonstrates why that is a dead end.
Twenty years ago, the far-right British National Party gained its first council seats in Burnley, Lancashire following a series of riots in Northern towns – a new book explores the lessons from their rise to prominence.
Keir Starmer’s Future Candidates Programme promises to bring ‘normal’ people into politics – but in reality, it is designed to produce handpicked MPs with no sense of connection to the party membership.
The Labour leadership’s ‘listening tour’ will do little to rebuild relationships with postindustrial communities – but it will provide plenty of opportunities to repeat right-wing attacks on the party’s progressive base.
Keir Starmer’s reshuffle of his top staff is an attempt to shift the blame for the party’s ongoing poor performance – but bringing in more Blair-era right-wingers will only make Labour’s problems worse.
GB News, which launches today, will be Britain’s most openly reactionary broadcaster – but it is just one part of a much broader effort to drag our media rightwards, most notably by placing political pressure on the BBC.
The latest relaunch of Labour’s centre-left has seen it contrast its own modernity with socialist ‘nostalgia’ – but the Blairites remain wedged in the 1990s, and are determined to take the party down memory lane.
Starmer’s response to last week’s election disaster has been to push further rightwards in messaging and personnel – a move that will make it even harder for Labour to articulate a progressive alternative.
The Labour leadership’s decision to lean on Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool is just the latest sign that it is running out of ideas – and instead turning to discredited establishment hacks to bail it out.