Gossip on the new independent socialist councillors thing
Are Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway about to join forces? Carla Roberts takes a look at what is going on between these two reformist charlatans and the pending launch of yet another unprincipled lash-up - this time called Collective
weeklyworker.co.uk
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Might such a newly formed ‘movement’, called Collective, overcome the mish-mash of leftie candidates standing on pretty much the same political platform? And, crucially, can it go beyond electoral strategy and beyond reformist platitudes and start organising the socialist left on the basis of a serious, socialist programme and in a democratic and transparent way?
Collective was rather hastily launched at the ‘No Ceasefire, No Vote’ conference on March 2 in London, officially put on by “independent socialist councillors”. Thanks to Andrew Feinstein’s widely pre-advertised speech, a rally about Palestine rather suddenly turned into “the launch of a mass movement to the left of Labour”.
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Registered at Company’s House on February 28 as ‘Justice Collective Ltd’, it features journalist Justin Schlosberg and Pamela Fitzpatrick as company directors. The latter is also co-director of the ‘Peace and Justice Project’ (the other one is Jeremy Corbyn). The platform on March 2 also included Lindsey German, Claudia Webbe MP, Salma Yaqoob and Jamie Driscoll (North of Tyne mayor).
Andrew Murray is also very much involved. A member of the
Morning Star’s Communist Party of Britain, he formally left in 2016 after he was ‘seconded’ by Unite to support Jeremy Corbyn as a political advisor (along with two other former Straight Leftists, Seumas Milne and Steve Howell). With the collapse of the Corbyn project in December 2019 his entry work in the Labour Party came to an end and he formally rejoined. Whether or not the CPB is on board with Collective is another matter, but, thank god, the stillborn Transform is.
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Transform is one of the organisations listed as “in solidarity.”
15 The others are the For the Many Network, the Liverpool Community Independents and Reliance (who?). There was a lot of crossover between those groups already, so it is not exactly breaking new ground. But, because of the people on board, Collective looks more serious than the multitude of recently formed groups and organisations (but then it is hard to look
less serious).
The good thing about Collective is that it recognises the need to “form a party”. The bad thing is - it is (so far) operating on an even lower political basis than the many, many groups and grouplets that have clotted together since the defeat of the Corbyn movement. Its programme is centred on the call for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire”, with the five tame demands of the Peace and Justice Project tacked on:
- A real pay rise for all
- Green New Deal
- Housing for the many
- Tax the rich to save the NHS
- Welcome refugees and a world free from war
It seems rather odd that Collective only wants to turn into a party
after the general election. But we are guessing that this has a lot to do with one Jeremy Corbyn. He wants to contest the next general election as an ‘independent candidate’ and does not want to be dragged down by this or that group - or fellow members of parliament."