By Bryn Griffiths

The latest Labour Left Podcast catches up with Rachel Garnham, the Co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD), whilst she prepares for their fiftieth Annual General Meeting on 11th February 2024.  Most of the content is timeless and of general interest to anyone who wishes to find out more about the CLPD. You can watch the podcast on YouTube here  Apple podcasts here, or Audible here or listen to it on Spotify here

The purpose of the podcast is to draw on the CLPD story so we can understand our Labour left history and most importantly consider how we can rebuild our power.

The podcast starts with a fantastic BBC news clip from the 1983 Labour Conference featuring the late socialist veterans Eric Heffer and Tony Benn who  sum up the very essence of CLPD.  Newer party activists can learn about why CLPD is such an important component of the Labour left and explore the meaning of this iconic picture.

The podcast looks at Vladimir and Verer Derer’s creation of the CLPD back in 1973, Vladimir’s support of East European socialists during the Cold War, the Labour Party trade union link, the economy, left strategy and the struggle for equality within the Labour Party.

Comrades will have the opportunity to discuss the issues and themes raised at the CLPD Annual General Meeting on 11th February 2024 and at the Arise Day School on 17th February 2024.

You can get more information here.

Thank you for all your feedback in response to our second podcast with the Momentum Co-Chair Hilary Schan.  Pete Firmin thought the last podcast was a bit soft on Hilary and Momentum.  But, Pete: with the Labour Left haemorrhaging support due to demoralisation, my motivation was to point to the positive things we are still doing in the Labour Party. I am not merely an interested commentator I am a Momentum activist.  I wanted to help Hilary showcase the campaigning role a council Labour Group can have when it has an active left presence.

As Jillian Guest said about the podcast: “The more chances Hilary is given to speak the better it is for the ‘many’ and not the ‘few’.”

Finally, if you are enjoying the podcast give us a like and a follow.  Please, please share it with your friends.  Each time you do something to promote our podcast and the other great podcasts on the left you help create our own alternative media. Let us all work together to voice alternative opinions from the front line and escape the grip of Britain’s legacy media.

Next time, on 6th March 2024,  to mark the fortieth anniversary of the miners’ strike we have got a real treat in store for you.  I will be joined by the legendary Mike Jackson, the founder and secretary of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, to discuss the Great Strike’s legacy. Subscribe now to make sure you do not miss the next episode of the Labour Left Podcast.

The Labour Left Podcast is brought to you by Bryn Griffiths, the podcast host, and Luke Robinson, the podcast editor.  We are both activists in the labour movement, Momentum and The World Transformed in North Essex. Bryn writes regularly for Labour Hub. You can find all current future podcasts here.  Episodes to date have included a look at the 1980s Labour left through the lens of Brighton Labour Briefing and episodes with both Liz Davies and Momentum Co-Chair Hilary Schan.