By Bryn Griffiths

Post-Lockdown we still rarely get to meet in person, so it was a joy to gather on Saturday 17th February, at the Marx Memorial Library, for an Arise day school which sought to address the weighty title A World to Win – Socialist Solutions for the Crisis.

Unbelievably I have never been to the Marx Memorial Library before, so it was a fantastic opportunity to find out what a resource the library is to the whole of the left.  One of the library’s archivists took time to explain to us what the archive does and having seen the programme of events they have, I for one will be back. 

Opening the event, the former Shadow Chancellor, John McDonell MP, said  “There may not be much debate at the moment in the run-up to a general election… But when we get in, a Labour government will have to face the real world. We have to prepare for that debate now and put forward the radical policies that will inevitably be needed to confront the climate and cost of living crises.”

We have been thinking along the same lines in North Essex, so we have submitted a motion to the upcoming Momentum Convention on Sunday 10th March to establish a new initiative along the lines of the 1950s Bevanite Brains Trusts.  The Bevanites toured the country working with academics and what today we call think tanks to develop a policy alternative to, yes, you have guessed it, a right-wing Labour Government.

John was facilitating a session on Global capitalism in crisis – What’s the socialist economic alternative?  Greenwich University Professor Ozlem Oneran, speaking alongside, set out a programme for the first four years pf a future Labour government, showing how a tax on the wealthiest could create conditions for infrastructural investment and green growth.

Alongside John McDonnell was socialist economist Michael Roberts who produces a blog called The Next Recession which is well worth following.  He argued forcefully for rescinding the independence of the Bank of England and taking over of the big banks in order to plan the economy effectively.

In the session on beating back the ruling class offensive Sarah Woolley, the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) General Secretary, asked the question “How do we support the left-wing media to put our view?”  As the presenter of Labour Hub’s audio spin off the Labour Left Podcast I say ‘Amen to that.’

As you might expect, the day school came alive when we discussed Can there be a just peace for Palestine?  The session opened with a video recording from Peter Leary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who was unable to be there in person because he was on the streets of London organising yet another massive demonstration to call for a ceasefire now.

Speaking alongside her fellow Labour National Executive Committee Member Mish Rahman, Jess Barnard described the pressure we are all under as Labour members to not speak about Palestine. She then added pointedly, to approval, that we must.  In response, I must say nobody does more than Mish and Jess to put the case for Palestine within the Labour Party.  Please support the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate so they can carry on their excellent work.

Mish Rahman was resolute that there can and will be a just peace for Palestine but he added  against the backdrop of what is happening in Gaza that “our current political leaders are not fit to lead.”

We can draw great strength from the Scottish Labour Party Conference call for an immediate ceasefire and Sir Keir Starmer’s recent shift in policy. The policy change appears to be proceeding at a glacial speed but we are beginning to shift the agenda.  The credit for Starmer’s shift goes to all the demonstrators and vigil attendees. It goes to every Labour Party member, Councillor and Member of Parliament who has said the fighting must stop and has called for a ceasefire in Gaza now. We have all contributed to the shift so far and now is the time to push even harder.

The campaigning group Momentum have relaunched a mass email campaign ahead of the crunch Commons vote tomorrow, in a ‘lobbying blitz’ pressuring Labour’s MPs to vote for the SNP’s amendment for a ceasefire. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar declared himself “proud” of the vote at Scottish Labour Conference and called the SNP’s amendment “perfectly reasonable”. 

The day school ended on an optimistic note as speakers talked of a World to Win.  A determined speech by the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Rachel Garnham left no one in any doubt that the Labour left has not gone away. We are still a big part of the Labour Party.  You can hear Rachel expand on her Labour perspectives in the latest Labour Left Podcast.

Rachel Garnham of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy

Finally, congratulations, to Labour Arise for an important event.  Currently the Shadow Cabinet have bought into the old neoliberal principle of TINA – ‘There is no alternative’ -when it comes to economic policy. But as John McDonnell suggested in his opening remarks, “When we get in, a Labour government will have to face the real world.”   At that point socialists within the Party must articulate a clear alternative to Rachel Reeves’s  economic defeatism, so we will need every think-tank, day school and Brains Trust we can lay our hands on.  Arise are well placed to be part of that firmament.

I suggest you follow their activities on You Tube as they regularly organise excellent on-line seminars click here. 

Bryn Griffiths is the host of Labour Hub’s spin-off the Labour Left podcast which he produces with Luke Robinson, the podcast editor.  They 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 the episodes of the Labour Left Podcast here

Main image: Mish Rahman and Jess Barnard, Labour champions of the call for a ceasefire now in Gaza speaking at the Arise day school on Saturday 17th February. All photos: Bryn H Griffiths.