Campaigning on the basics, commonsense, so why big Fails?

[treelover]

Yesterday the LRC held a number of protests on the budget and a major meeting in the evening, shockingly the one on Whitehall was banned, yes banned by the police, despite a number of MP's being involved( yet why no mention of this one on P/P.)

1.30am: Protest with placards listing demands on Whitehall along the route the Chancellor will take from No. 11 Downing Street to address Parliament
·
5pm: Protest outside the Treasury near Whitehall on 1 Horse Guards Road , London SW1A 2HQ.

· 7.30pm: Budget Q&A discussions with panellists including John McDonnell MP, Economist Graham Turner, Clara Osagiede (RMT Cleaner’s Grade Secretary).,

on satrurday, there is the LEAP Conference 2009 'Capitalism Isn't Working' which takes place on Saturday 25th April, 10:30am-4:30pm at Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London.

In between participative plenary sessions, there'll be four sub-plenaries:

* Resisting the recession & Defending Jobs: the industrial agenda
* Where's our bailout? Benefits, pensions, poverty & housing
* What to do with the City and Global Finance: socialising the sector
* Neoliberalism Isn't Working: fighting the ideological battle

Speakers and contributors include: John Christensen (Tax Justice Network), Bob Crow (RMT), Paul Feldman, Professor Gregor Gall, Gerry Gold, John Hilary (War on Want), Jerry Jones, John McDonnell MP, Rosamund Stock, Graham Turner, Professor Richard Wilkinson, Matt Wrack (FBU).
Register online for the conference. We've frozen last year's conference prices: it's £10 waged and £5 unwaged.

Afaik, the Treasury protest was quite badly attended depite being late afternoon so people could maybe slope off work. There was nothing about this on the left leaning blogs, even on here. All the focus of this mass of activity largely by the Labour Left was about issues which the average person is interested in: housing, welfare, pensions, jobs, inequality, etc, yet there seems little interest from what is left of the left, yet abstract protests on A/Cap, etc, attract thousands, etc

if this doesn't change, then however unpleasant and accident prone and just plain wrong the Far Right is, they will indeed fill the vacuuum.

 

[killer b]

maybe they forgot to let anyone know?

 

[treelover]

Er, there were emails everywhere, face book site, etc, it must be very disheartening for them

 

[glenquagmire]

I was there.

Several people I know came down to London for the 11.30 demo, not knowing the police had banned it at the last minute, then finding nobody there gave up and went home.

 

[treelover]

Bad news, what i am trying to say is that whatever their failings, eg, part of the LP, the LRC is doing a heck of a lot to focus on the nature of the economic crisis and its consequences and identifying the basic issues that will become crucial over the next few years and acting on them, yet they are getting little support and the main focus is still on abstract protests, civil liberties, Gaza, etc,

It's as if they are sleep walking.

 

[glenquagmire]

Before a false dichotomy gets set up here, I wouldn't want people outside the LRC to think we are only interested in UK-centric economism.

 

[tbaldwin]

treelover...
looks like another failed attempt to inspire the populace......You can blame the people who didnt support it......Or you can look to see why people were not inspired to support it?

 

[kyser_soze]

1.30am: Protest with placards listing demands on Whitehall along the route the Chancellor will take from No. 11 Downing Street to address Parliament

Presume you mean 11:30, cos I can understand why the OB would ban a protest at 1:30 in the morning

 

[danny la rouge]

( yet why no mention of this one on P/P.)

There's this thread.

 

[Carousel]

you can look to see why people were not inspired to support it

The "basics" are essentially contestable.

 

[Left Luggage]

The LRC is a very interesting group. Treelover is right that their focus on issues of pressing and immediate concern is a smarter strategy by far than that pursued by other Left groups. We've an article on this issue up today: http://theleftluggage.wordpress.com...gn-movements-ignoring-their-lessons/#more-227

I guess there are a few problems for the LRC:
1) Their relationship with the Labour Party means they lack links to most groups on the Left, who are hostile towards Labour.
2) While their suggestions are sensible and "bread and butter", they are still ambitious. If working class people are to be attracted to such a programme, the LRC will have to win their trust by showing they can make a difference on the "smaller" issues - for example by tackling problems of crime, housing and service provision in communities. They will no doubt find it hard to do this since, as they are mainly Labour members, they are unable to stand candidates independently of Labour.
3) Labour are incredibly unpopular at the moment, so the LRC's association with the Labour Party must be a disadvantage. I hear there are debates going on within the LRC on whether or not there is any hope in the strategy of trying to reclaim the Party. See this posting: http://theleftluggage.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/democrats-without-democracy/

LL

 

[brasicritique]

if this doesn't change, then however unpleasant and accident prone and just plain wrong the Far Right is, they will indeed fill the vacuuum.

well sadly this is the way things seem to be going. Any organisation with links to the labour party is going to put people off , that and the usual 'forum leaders' which usually consist of smug patronising upper middle class twats. Politically speaking there is no where for disenchanted working class people to go.The shear arrogance of a lot of people involved in radical politics is astounding.

 

[Carousel]

As if the right's humility accounts for its appeal.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

If there's one thing I've learned over the last quarter-century of left politics it's that if you don't get your message across or inspire people to support you, there is absolutely no point in complaining that other people hold different opinions or have different priorities to your own. Nobody was ever moved to support anybody else by being denounced by them.

 

[brasicritique]

As if the right's humility accounts for its appeal.

is got nothing to do with humility has it

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I wonder whether in the current climate it wouldn't be a good idea to divorce the discussion parts from the protest parts, at least in terms of them being part of the same event. When the police start shutting down discussion events, well, that would be very hard for them to justify, but if people are coming expecting a demo, see it's not taking place and conclude that the whole thing must not be taking place, that's bad.

 

[brasicritique]

If there's one thing I've learned over the last quarter-century of left politics it's that if you don't get your message across or inspire people to support you, there is absolutely no point in complaining that other people hold different opinions or have different priorities to your own. Nobody was ever moved to support anybody else by being denounced by them.

At the start of your last quarter of a century there was a place for memembers of the working class in politics and this is clearly not the case now. And where some intellectuals do engage with this issue they often take a gendered approach which is concerned with working/under class females. So i will leave it to your discretion to spot the massively obvious flaw with this approach

In any case its your chums on urban who go round doing the denouncing on socio-economic grounds. If your really suggesting that people from the lower classes should only be allowed to participate in left wing / alternative politics in a subserviant manner are you really suprised that such politics are soley middleclass, and that nobody from wc/uc backgrounds are moved to support people they are denounced and invalidated by.?

 

[brasicritique]

366 people have viewed a thread about david cameron visiting south africa so there you have it

 

[brixtonvilla]

As someone who doesn't move in far-left/activist circles (but is broadly sympathetic), explaining who the LRC are, and what it stands for (both in an acronym and policy sense) might be a start.

 

[Carousel]

is got nothing to do with humility has it

As you say. Begs the question, what's it all about? It transpires that those with strong takes on social rights-and-wrongs have a completely different idea of common sense and the basics than the masses they seek to liberate.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

At the start of your last quarter of a century there was a place for memembers of the working class in politics and this is clearly not the case now. And where some intellectuals do engage with this issue they often take a gendered approach which is concerned with working/under class females. So i will leave it to your discretion to spot the massively obvious flaw with this approach

In any case its your chums on urban who go round doing the denouncing on socio-economic grounds. If your really suggesting that people from the lower classes should only be allowed to participate in left wing / alternative politics in a subserviant manner are you really suprised that such politics are soley middleclass, and that nobody from wc/uc backgrounds are moved to support people they are denounced and invalidated by.?

As a counterpoint: shut up and fuck off, because you don't give a shit and only ever come here to slag other people off.

 

[brasicritique]

As a counterpoint: shut up and fuck off, because you don't give a shit and only ever come here to slag other people off.

Fuck off you lying prick

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Prove me wrong by ever posting anything that isn't some worthless snide dig at somebody else.

 

[killer b]

lol.

 

[brasicritique]

yes lets ignore the thread on prospective tory policies just for the sake of it

 

[treelover]

That Left Luggage article is excellent, very incisive and tackles a shibboleth, not surprising that the biggest cheer was when the ex Panther mentioned Iraq, not their incredible record on organising in the communnity, i believe LL are going to do an article on immigration next

 

[nino_savatte]

366 people have viewed a thread about david cameron visiting south africa so there you have it

So what? Is that supposed to mean something?

 

[glenquagmire]

As someone who doesn't move in far-left/activist circles (but is broadly sympathetic), explaining who the LRC are, and what it stands for (both in an acronym and policy sense) might be a start.

http://www.l-r-c.org.uk/about/

 

[brasicritique]

So what? Is that supposed to mean something?

749 people have visited a thread about david camoron visitng south africa in his youth roughly two thirds less than has viewed this thread, a thread started by treelover which reasonbly questioned why the issues affecting many are considered unimportant so go figure

 

[nino_savatte]

It still doesn't mean anything. How old are you? 6?