Get Harry Leslie Smith Speaking to the Undecided

Like countless other Labour Party members I have great respect for Harry Leslie Smith. Harry is inspirational, a veritable crucible keeping the flame of the true Labour Party and its values alight. Were it that there were more people of his mettle leading our party.

However, on reading the piece in the OP, I felt the need to question the sense of sending an ambassador of Harry’s standing on such an election mission. Harry visited some 50 cities, towns and villages speaking at what appear to be a wide range of gigs.

http://labourlist.org/2015/05/you-cant-replace-the-experiences-of-millions-of-workers-with-aspirational-politics/

Yet, Harry, follow link above to article, appears to have been preaching to the converted, existing Labour supporters:

“Everyone I talked to had a different life experience but each person I spoke with held similar beliefs when it came to what type of government they wanted to lead Britain. They wanted a Labour government that could help maintain a strong and diverse economy but protected the rights of workers.”

He appears to have been addressing Labour supporters, which in my view is not the best use of someone of Harry’s very real campaigning skills. He goes on to expand on the concerns he encountered from Labour supporters:

“Not one person I spoke with, during the election, thought Labour was being led astray by trade unions or that they had a negative influence on its policies. The concerns of those diverse but ordinary Labour supporters were about the real threats Britain’s economy and society faces from unbridled corporations’ intent on earning profit for their shareholders but refusing to contribute to the upkeep of British society by paying fair taxation to the Treasury.”

Harry would have been better deployed speaking to the undecided, those uncommitted.

Keep Doing That Thang DPAC

There have been complaints from a disability campaigner that DPAC devotes too much time speaking against certain political parties and is too involved in trade union politics. As for speaking against UKIP; I'm fully in favour and will always speak down this fascist bunch. On trade union politics...it's best I keep quiet on that one. 

DPAC is correct in lending support to progressive campaigns that aren't primarily disability based. We as disabled people are not one-dimensional beings. While disability informs our lives in many ways, it not alone our only identifying factor.

Our lives are also affected and shaped by a whole range of other concerns. Issues that impact on everyone. When I fight for equality it isn’t merely to break the chains of a disablism; no it is also to struggle against race, gender, sexual, age, and class inequality.

Inequality that hurts black people, gays and lesbians, elderly and young, women and poor people is a hurt we should all feel. Our strength is in the commonality of our cause.

It saddens me when allies decide to view things from a narrow perspective of the snapshot. The snapshot only serves to isolate our cause into single-issue politics. This ignores the larger canvass of the class struggle. More crucially it gives government free-rein to pick us off, one at a time.

We end up divided and fighting our battles alone; we scrabble around vying with our allies for such scarce resources as funding and most important the time activists lend to our struggle.

For these very reasons I salute DPAC’s class struggle approach to the cuts, austerity, corrupt government and the fight against inequality and injustice.

In a Country...

In a Country...

In a country of plenty we’ve got food banks

A parasitic royal family whose only thanks

Is to continue scrounging from the civil list

Poncing our hard earned taxes hand over fist.

In a country ranked sixth richest on earth

It’s a criminal shame to observe the dearth

Of facilities and services afforded the young

Yet corrupt City bankers still get their bung.

In a country where we see fabulous wealth

Ill-gotten by privilege, cheating and stealth

Where ordinary people are forced to pay tax

While rich tax dodgers live off their backs.

In a country that ignores the poor and needy

And instead makes life plush for the greedy

Thus allowing this class to rule with ease

As they push the working class to its knees.

In a country with such massive social divide

Don’t be surprised if there isn’t a nationwide

Uproar against all those who keep us down

The Tories, scum press, bankers and Crown.

In a country where all privilege is now dead

This is truly a place that sees we’re all fed

Where you head to work with a cheery smile

To a decent job that makes work worthwhile.

What did the ConDems Ever Do For Us?

What did the ConDems Ever Do For Us?

Before you vote

Here’re a few facts

Remember who gave us

The bedroom tax

Who continued the

WCA; and

Introduced PIP

To Replace DLA.

Jobless sanctioned

Benefits withdrawn

For turning up late;

With it a growth

In benefit claimant hate.

Asylum seekers

Woken up at dawn

By the UKBA

Breaking down the door

To drag them away.

Then there’s the poor

Who can only give thanks

For the existence

Of high street food banks

Paying social assistance.

So next week

Make your choice;

But, ask yourself

In whose voice

Your MP will speak.

Another Royal Joins the List

Another Royal Joins the List

Hip hip hooray a royal baby was born today

Another of the clan Windsor for us to feed

One more for whom we’re expected to pay

As the family business of privilege and greed

Continues amassing more riches and wealth

While millions of poor struggle to survive

In social conditions that eat away at their health

Not earning enough to keep body and soul alive.

Banks are thriving and bankers’ bonuses paid

The divide between rich and poor grows wide

When parents can’t even sufficiently provide

So their kids go hungry; are our priorities mislaid?

The birth of any baby should be cause to celebrate

The new born is an innocent not a figure of hate

Instead we should harness our energy and toils

In creating a republic and getting rid of the royals.

   

A Left-moving SNP

The Guardian brings up the SNP's role in bringing down Callaghan's Labour government in 1979. Of course as we know this heralded in Margaret Thatcher and her toxic brand of neo-liberal economics. 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/30/tory-labour-deals-will-shape-parliament-minnows-relegated?CMP=share_btn_fb

Come on people that was 36 years ago. Over that period we have seen the Labour Party move more and more to the right. Who would ever have thought a Labour government would act the aggressor and invade Iraq?

By 2014 SNP had moved further to the Left than the modern Labour Party. The SNP now back what are considered Socialist policies such as scrapping Trident. It has defended disabled people by promoting the very social policies that should be the preserve of Labour.

By moving to the Left the SNP has captured the Zeitgeist of the Scottish Referendum. Even if it political expediency; so what, it is working.