LIEN (Labour in Exile Network) is holding its first public ‘fightback’ meeting at 6pm this Saturday (March 27).
A statement released by the group says:
Suspended members across the country are now forming ghost CLPs to form a “national linked-up shadow Labour Party”. Since Sir Keir Starmer became Labour leader last year, scores of party officers and hundreds of members have been suspended or expelled over motions of support for former leader Jeremy Corbyn.
We are open to unfairly suspended and expelled members, as well as those who are still hanging on in there but want to get OUR party back!
Those interested can register for the meeting here.
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Wishing them all the wisdom and courage in the history of the world🌟🌟🌟
‘Labour in Exile’, another total waste of time , like the (identical membership and Leadership ) ‘Labour Against the Witchhunt’ grouping , doomed to be internally fractious, mainly London-based, entirely middle class, and tiny in number – composed of ‘the usual ultraleft suspects’ of serial Left initiative wreckers and obsessives.
The coming May local government elections , AND the looming Scottish Parliament elections, are going to be a quite easy to predict TOTAL DISASTER for Starmer’s NuLabour2 neoliberal flag-waving Party. But what is the correct political response for socialists to the now quite evident, terminal, ‘PASOK moment’ for Labour , as a party with any future UK Westminster, (or Scottish Parliament) government-winning potential ?
For too many self-identifying Lefties the predictable response is to just repeat the dumb behaviour of every past easily defeated Labour Left , from the 1930’s, the 1960’s and the ‘Bennite’ 1980’s, ie, simply hope for the best, ignore the actual , corrupt, totally Right dominated reality of Labour , from its very formation, as a reactionary, status quo-supporting, bourgeois-led workers party, and ‘have another, fruitless, go ‘ !
The setting up of the , doomed to be tiny and internally fractious, ‘Labour in Exile’ gimmick grouping, by the same old 300 or so, old ( mostly ANCIENT) ultraleft obsessives, mainly in London, shows yet again that what passes for the ‘UK Left’ simply cannot break from Labourism . Or , in the case of the mainly lifelong serial entrists who compose most of ‘Labour in Exile, and ‘Stop the witchhunt’, they are actually just inside Labour to posture their ultraleft demands and obsessions (even under Jeremy’s reign’) and pinch a few members for their hopeless ultraleft sectlets ! Even when these exact same tiny collection of people had , for a while, written off Labour , in the 90’s to 2015, they all repeatedly joined (‘entered’ with malign sectarian intent) every radical Left initiative launched , such as Respect, and Left Unity, and proceeded to wreck them with their toxic sectarianism and ultraleft posturing .
Labour is now electorally dead – as a potential governing Party, OR as a political vehicle for mobilising working class resistance to neoliberalism and Austerity. It’s tragedy is that it is a still moving corpse , a zombie Party , bereft of a function – other than to block the emergence of a genuine radical Left Party – mainly by tying up hundreds of thousands of potential socialist (or radical Left Liberals at least) members of such a Party in the swamp of Labourism. The chances of a new radical Party grouping would , of course, actually be improved if all those 300 or so OLD serial entrists (eg, the serial ultraleft wreckers of the CPGB/LPM, the Left-faking opportunists running Momentum, etc) kept on fruitlessly trying to ‘turn Labour Left’ and let those socialists who do want to build a serious radical reformist Party to pursue building a new Left Party WITHOUT their perennial sectarian wrecking behaviour !
Prioritise aims. Sequence. Strategy. Focus. The general electorate is the audience. When we feel we’ve heard something often enough, the general public may have only just heard it, let alone absorb it as a common sense basic idea.
Fingers crossed and thumbs pressed Labour in Exile Network will focus on the achievable basics and be determined to make them happen.
Presumably, a person can join LIEN whilst also being a member of the Labour Party?
According to the rules, as long as LIEN doesn’t stand candidates against Labour, campaign for candidates standing against Labour or advocate voting against Labour, there is no problem joining.
But, hey, who cares about the rules nowadays?
And who cares about advocating voting against Labour, if you’re Mandelson?
Labour Left Alliance meeting tonight 6pm with Tony Greenstein.
https://tinyurl.com/5xnp2p5f
Yes, I see that LIEN invites current members to join.
Question is, does the billionaires-backed new management, i.e. Evans and Starmer, see membership of LIEN as an auto-expulsion?
How would that work?
A pound to a penny.
Does it bloody matter their loss,its not as if they will kick you in the nuts get on with it if you want to be in exile.and rule book…whats that?.didn’t you know that’s optional extras and forbidden under standing rule xxxx and early morning motions..heh heh?…good luck though!
Labour is not in exile. Labour is a Name, a Brand, The Thatcherite Neolabour Party claimed the Brand “Labour” when they killed The UK Labour Party. Their Politics can NEVER align with Keir Hardie’s, Democratic Socialist, ‘Labour MOVEMENT’ no matter how much Neon and LED they stick on it! The international movement belongs to us the Exiles, The People, The Democratic Socialists.
All we need is a Democratic Socialist Party with a Union. We only have 15 / 20 UK Labour Party, Democratic Socialist MPs left, inclusive of one or two dubious or unworthy MPs. If we could have just 10 MPs represent Democratic Socialism, we could have the freedom and the power to shake the HoC like it never did before. We don’t need to live in their fearmongered world of lies and deceit.
With a 10 MP Party, Small but effective Union, we might not win the next GE, but we certainly would be back to being a strong Opposition Party and instead of enduring another 41 years of flogging a dead horse under Thatcherite Neoliberal and Neoconservative Hell we will have Hope and Unity once again, and perhaps take the following GE!
Namesake voting is not going to get us anywhere, we need to accept and move on UK Labour Party is dead and there is nothing anyone can do to revive it. Even when JC was LOTO it was 80% PLP vs 20% PLP, to be frank we had no chance, but look how close we came.
Like many others, I won’t be around for another 41 years, so please UK Labour Party MPs we need a Party, to pull us back together, before The Nasty Neoliberals/Neocons get rid of all of you and then we’ll have no representation for Democratic Socialism! This time we take every fight to their gutter, every single fight with a well documented Wiki. We can do this, but not bound and gagged in that cesspit of vipers and wasps, we need to free ourselves and we will probably see their demise as they need us, they need us so that they can sweet talk their Sun/Guardian/Mail luvvies! Without us there is no more pretence, they’ll have no one to hide their Tory Arses behind!
Spot on✊👍
Might it be called just LEN? It sits easier. Presumably ex-Labour members can join along with people completely new to the Left? In other words is it a new political party or an internal pressure group?
The LEN thing could work…they’d have to clear it with Comrade McCluskey, of course…but I think the idea was that they were putting a kind of moral “lien” on the party.
Reading this post brought “Go Down Moses” into my head. Time to move on …
Where was LIEN in 2017/18/19?
Where were they when we were warning about what was happening to us? They stayed silent, didn’t want to know. They stayed silent and gave the first round of victims no support, no solidarity. In fact many even denied that it was happening.
But now it’s come to them and they want to be noticed and they want support, even though they do not even acknowledged the previous victims of Labour’s witch hunt and abuse of members.
I checked LIEN out. They are about as much use a the proverbial smell in a spacesuit. Do they have a strategy for countering this? No.
“And then they came for me”.
They didn’t exist then. They may settle on an open ended commitment to trying to win back the LP which would be a serious mistake, but they have my support to try now, and maybe up till the next Conference. If significant ground has not been gained then, I think the LP should be abandoned to its fate.
John Thatcher if you want to see were true Socialism is going look at the article in the morning star covering the Belt road initiative,or as some call it the New Silk road.I have personally witnessed the rise of a country from the ashes of war,much like my son witnessed in Veitnam when he lived there. Keep healthy john!
Nemtona..I think I would have liked them more if they had a name change to LEN and added IN…?
Just noticed that SH steve Hall putting up a pretty good defence of Patel spends on cosmetics and cup cakes saying that it was confirmed that its the civil servants spends…not hers..that also includes the usual bumph from HQ that’s being paraded on @ boxcartrend..Hes certainly consistent and soldiers on..I never realised what a good boss she is ,cupcakes on demand eyebrows nails,feet..skin masks and massage 💆 ITs almost like party time at the Home office?….and the hungry kids in poverty?
Sadly, I will have been long asleep when the meeting commences, but I do hope it goes well and begins to put together a programme and structure which the group badly needs.
John Thatcher….did you read the article in the morning star covering the endorsement of Steve Turner unite union by the communist party of Britain.IT appears that despite Steve being a self confessed Socialist and a Working class Stalwart who defends his people there has been a campaign of dis information about Steve Turner and a concerted professional campaign to discredit his left wing working-class credentials ….I like the communist party and many other members of the unite union have been appalled at the dirty Tricks by the right wing and fake left to descredit Steve Turner…John have a read it is educational on Steve Turner and his long time commitment to the working-class movement and the Union that hes spent his life fighting for.
Craig Murray is exemplary at standing up, posting up, speaking up, speaking truth to power no matter what as often as he can manage. He’s been attacked mercilessly by the establishment. Yet he never hides. What a week in the life of a man with dynamic integrity who sticks by his principles in public. No backroom stitch ups which serve to erode the good and keep “the many” marginalised.
All the best wishes in the world to Craig Murray who stands up against the massed verminous establishment.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2021/03/what-a-week/
🌟🔺🌟🔺🌟🔺
Well it seem Squawky have got an article defending Steve Turner after the Communists party in Britain endorsed him in writing and Officially. People are noticing the dirty Tricks and smears against a rock solid socialist and it frankly stinks especially when the smears come from the fake left wing whos main interest seems to be Being Labour and hijacking the Unite union.Some of us are a bit long in the tooth to listen to l smears of vested interests in the working-class movement and the Unite union…Fake endorsments to have the opposite effect from Labour Hate figures,and fake comments in support of a clean campaign whilst dumping a load of dirty washing on Steve Turner…. Pathetic and Sad..!..Try smearing now the Communists party of Britain are behind Steve Turner…We will be told next that the communist party are Right wing centrists who support the establishment?…Hes not been accused yet of AS or stealing milk from babys.?…somebody needs to get on it youve missed a trick there
Labour in Exile Network.
God, how much more pathetic can you get. Still clinging on to Mummy with an increasingly ragged looking comfort blanket. Let it go FFS and leave!
The LP is more important to you lot than fighting for socialism. And don’t kid yourself you’re ‘staying in to fight’ because that’s a battle you’ll never win.