Transform: The latest "new party of the Left.
- Thread starter chilango
- Start date
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I find it quite funny that ACORN regularly do showings of that film tbh. It tries to paint Rathke in a good light but he still comes across as a certain typical leader type - the type who ruins his own project by not being able to give up control, failing to recognise that collective decision-making would be better than his decision-making. And he regularly says dickish things, like his 'there's no such thing as burnout' line. If I was joining ACORN and saw that film I'd see red flags popping up all over the place, but somehow ACORN UK show it to all their new staff. There's something a bit weird about how they manage to recruit people who are such True Believers that even watching a film about their founder's failures isn't enough to put them off. Which isn't to say the attacks on them in the US were fair or right, but they encountered a weak organisation that had primarily been weakened by having a Strong Leader. I suppose others must watch the film and see the positives, of which there are some, but my god the negatives...
Dom Traynor
Tino Pai
Anyway whether it's ACORN or something else I do think community and workplace unions are the essential building blocks of any movement for real change, whether the time is right for traditional or new forms of union, will become clear through practice.
Threshers_Flail
Well-Known Member
Just had this crop up on my Twitter.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
For completeness there was this weirdness with the IWW a few years back too - ACORN – no mighty oak! (ACG article)
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Anyway, back to Transform:
novaramedia.com
This lad wants us all to vote Labour to get proportional representation so that Transform can get elected.
Are Actual Leftwing Parties About to Give Labour a Run for Its Money? | Novara Media
Until recently, electoral alternatives to Labour seemed doomed, writes Michael Chessum. But with a host of political parties and independent candidates sweeping up the leftists Starmer has alienated, could this finally be changing?
novaramedia.com
This lad wants us all to vote Labour to get proportional representation so that Transform can get elected.
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
Anyway, back to Transform:
Are Actual Leftwing Parties About to Give Labour a Run for Its Money? | Novara Media
Until recently, electoral alternatives to Labour seemed doomed, writes Michael Chessum. But with a host of political parties and independent candidates sweeping up the leftists Starmer has alienated, could this finally be changing?
This lad wants us all to vote Labour to get proportional representation so that Transform can get elected.
I'm obviously not paying attention. Must have missed Starmer announcing that policy.
Tbf maybe it got lost amongst all the other policies he's definitely got.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Anyway, back to Transform:
Are Actual Leftwing Parties About to Give Labour a Run for Its Money? | Novara Media
Until recently, electoral alternatives to Labour seemed doomed, writes Michael Chessum. But with a host of political parties and independent candidates sweeping up the leftists Starmer has alienated, could this finally be changing?
This lad wants us all to vote Labour to get proportional representation so that Transform can get elected.
Isn't Chessum some Momentum weirdo?
Also, from the article, "Campaigns like ... Enough is Enough never quite reached their full potential". Ha.
emanymton
A cat politely sat on the flaming gardener.
Anyone else finding this unreadable?Just had this crop up on my Twitter.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
Whoever wrote it has definitely not heard of the journalist's inverted pyramid (putting the important info up top and peripheral details towards the end) but it's readable to me.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Yes, he is a long term Labour left-er. I think he used to post on here too?
A previous article for Novara was a wildly shit take on "young people simply don't read books any more".
Generation Left Rejected History. Does It Have a Future? | Novara Media
From Occupy Wall Street to Millbank, the generation that awoke in 2010 rejected left history, writes Michael Chessum. Is this why it's struggled to form a coherent political tradition?
novaramedia.com
lazythursday
Averagely-Known Member
Isn't Chessum the Momentum figure who went most aggressively down the second referendum route helping to ensure the calamity of the 2019 election?
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Well it's quite short.
I don't know that I would call that guy a fascist, though. He is clearly a mad transphobic stalinist whose presence in Acorn discredits the work they do.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
It would seem so:
Or you can read the man himself from 2012 if you can navigate the paywall:
Remain would win a second referendum – here’s why
The crucial point is not about statistics, but the narrative and logic of the campaign.
www.newstatesman.com
emanymton
A cat politely sat on the flaming gardener.
No I mean literally unreliable as in the page keep resetting back to the top.
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The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Aside from actual fascists , everybody's fascist nowadays
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Ah right - this link is the actual original Fascist Organiser within ACORNNo I mean literally unreliable as in the pageb keep resetting back to the top.
I think they used archive.org in case that got taken down, which it hasn't.
emanymton
A cat politely sat on the flaming gardener.
I now see why people misunderstood.
hitmouse
music obfuscation technology
There's a part of me that thinks it's interesting, there's always going to be a tension between an organisation trying to mobilise around some kind of shared ideological principles, and one trying to mobilise people around shared material interests, with Acorn at least trying to be the latter.
Like, I'd think that many of the people most at risk of eviction, for instance, are also likely to have various behavioural issues or mental health difficulties that manifest in challenging ways, and that's going to be more of a problem for an organisation (and I think Acorn would at least try to do this) that tries to adopt an organising approach of bringing affected people into the work on an ongoing basis, rather than just having activists turn up, do the work on someone's behalf, then go their separate ways. But then I also think "for fuck's sake, how hard can it be to just not make some WPB loon an actual paid organiser?"
Eric Jarvis
Well-Known Member
I've actually bitten the bullet and joined Transform because while I don't expect it to become a wonderful new national party any time soon, it is at least working on putting up local left candidates in selected constituencies whilst communicating with other left groups to make sure there's no duplication. Personally I think all the concentrating on trying to build a new democratic party of the left on a national basis is not going to happen before the general election. However the Labour Party was founded in 1906 decades after some of its first MPs had already got into Parliament. So it really doesn't matter. If any more than a handful of the worst Labour MPs are out of Parliament it changes the balance of the Labour Party, and if a dozen or so genuine democratic leftists are elected then there's something to build on and maybe even have some influence. A lot of the first set of Labour MPs were elected as Liberals. It's at least worth a shot. It very definitely isn't TUSC #2. As yet there are no famous big egos involved. The only problem is getting people to stop dreaming about "being big enough for the media to pay attention", because that's not going to happen even for a left party standing 650 candidates, and it is all going to have to ben done at street level. However there are at least some on the Transform steering group that understand that even if not all the members do. At least it is giving me a way to try to kick Steve Reed out of politics.
Eric Jarvis
Well-Known Member
Breakthrough have combined with the Liverpool Independents and a couple of other groups to form Transform. Basically it's a merger. A changed name because that takes away the idea that Breakthrough have completely absorbed other parties and a structure that gives all the separate groups equal control until a hybrid conference in November can decide on a constitution and elect a leadership group. At least on paper it's doing things properly. How well it will work remains to be seen, but it's not waiting on that to get campaigns and candidates set up to stand at the general election even if they end up standing as independent socialists.
ska invita
back on the other side
ska invita
back on the other side
I've said a few times over the years Left Unity on paper was an excellent bit of work in creating a fully democratic socialist party. Excellent structure with digital participatory mechanisms that was shown to work in practice. Im sure Transform will be very similiar.
Considering there is such an appetite for a new left of labour party I dont know why this feels to me so utterly doomed to irrelevance.
I think its at least partly the name and branding, which is shallow, but a factor. Its also easily confused with Reform (continuity UKIP)!
Even on Twitter where it costs nothing to like a post there was very little enthusiasm. By comparison Northern Independence seemed to do better in the ether internet non vote, and that was basically a flop too.
I just cant imagine it getting any amount of momentum up to become a proper grassroots party that can attract people to it
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
It's mostly fucked by FPTP isn't it? Even the Green Party, which has name recognition and substantial support across the country (and a more left wing manifesto than Labour), can't get the votes in due to that.
ska invita
back on the other side
yes there is that but that doesnt make it a pointless exercise IMO
that said I think logic dictates better to pile in to the Greens who have a near identical structure in that its also one member one vote + ever escalating climate change gives that party a good positioning (we've been through this topic several times so not going round again)
Eric Jarvis
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure the name will be changed at the founding conference, pretty much nobody actually likes it. However all the best names are either taken or totally discredited, usually both. It's a pretty good combination. The Left Unity people seem to have a good understanding of the need for grassroots upwards democracy, the Breakthrough people seem to be very committed to inclusivity, and the LCI people are big on involvement in community actions. It's building quite well in the South West, North West, and strangely East Anglia.
The next general election isn't going to be business as usual. With a majority of the electorate utterly ticked off with the Tory and Labour parties, the Lib Dems and Greens largely concerned with holding on to what little they already have, a lot of people are looking for ANYTHING different they can actually connect wit h. So this time around FPTP is a weakness for the establishment. It's way easier to take a few dozen individual constituencies by targeting the ones that can be taken than it is to get a huge overall percentage of the vote on a national basis. Many constituencies are vulnerable to any community based candidate from outside of the major national parties provided enough people can get their noses out of the Guardian, stop accepting everything about politics spouted on the TV, and actually get out and leaflet and doorknock for independent and small party candidates. The biggest ptoblem is almost everybody on the left waiting for other people to make everything just the way they want it to be before they will lift a finger to change anything.
The problem the Green Party have is that they are dominated by small cliques who think in terms of being a pressure group and have no understanding of community upwards political organisation. So they have support but they have no idea how to turn that into elected representatives.
ska invita
back on the other side
that sounds positive...ive never been clear if this is a new party or a process to create a new party
my feeling is whatever the problem with the greens in current state is can be improved with entryism
Eric Jarvis
Well-Known Member
100% the latter.
ska invita
back on the other side
Heard rumour people are peeling off already ahead of the founding conference!
elbows
Well-Known Member
Maybe they can have an unfounding conference instead.
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