Should I join the Labour Party?

hmm, "it's labour" is also a better reason *because* the other lot are bloody awful

Just clicked on the labour website to find my local party office and that pledge card scares the bejesus out of me.

Labour doesn't particularly have liberal roots. It's had socially liberal ministers who have championed liberal policies but it's not particularly liberal by nature.

...as long as you only mean the general election and not local ones (half-joking)

i think i'm in yet another v safe labour seat (sedgefield, oxford east, tottenham). cheltenham was the only place i could really "make a difference") so maybe another protest vote for whatever the socialist alliance is called this time...

so:
-4 pledges on the family, addressed to a person at the head of a family
-1 pledge on migration
-1 pledge on law and order
-1 appeal to the economy, stupid

i can't see much of labour in this. the bit about 'borders' really took me aback though.

even so, no. they'll draft in some apparatchik no doubt "well i've been working at grey's inn for the last 5 years so i've a real feel for the area" in fact, i think i know who it might be (friend on national policy forum who's just started lawing).

also RickyT wins today's OTM badge...

I shall have to fight this carpet bagging scallywag.

led by who?

http://bigrikcouk.brinkster.net/images/ff_foxy.jpg

Disappointing that, given all that is going on at the moment, the Labour Party's new party political broadcast bangs on about immigration.

at the risk of repeating myself, forget it, the party's dead.

Laziness has stopped me from cancelling the £2.50 or w/e a month i give them up to now. Will do it at lunch.

cool

from the other thread -

"Having had some time to think about it, I think I'm going to start volunteering time for the labour party some how. Does anyone else do anything? I'm a bit unsure where to start, do i just go and be like "hiya diane abbott sure i'll put the kettle on and sort mail"? Is there a good website that details how to help?"

i want to do this too. though not sure if i join and become a paying member, if i get to actually do much. which is what i want. i want to be active. anyone here a member?

talking to ppl I know tonight, a lot of v strong anti-corbyn sentiment from labour people, it seems so ubiquitous, I can't help but feel my grievances & indeed whole perspective on this are so marginal there's no point in being in the party

My wife is a member

I don't think you have to agree with everyone else in order to make a positive contribution fwiw

I'm not naturally a joiner and it's been a struggle to suppress the crippling frustration and dejection I feel wrt british politics but right now it's hard to feel optimistic about a party run from the bottom up and honestly I have no idea how I can make a positive contribution at this point

not sure theres any use in supporting corbyn at this point. you can only support a man, deserted as much as he has, so far. its no longer practical from the looks of things.

i still want to join though.

I was a member for the last year but stopped paying subs a couple of months ago for a combination of financial and ideological reasons. If you join your local party will most likely be VERY keen to get you involved in any way you want - stuffing envelopes, attending meetings, canvassing on the streets, etc etc. There's loads of opportunities to get involved practically.

otm

I vacillate between thinking i should join and go for it seriously over the next few years - aiming to be a ward Councillor and, in the fullness of time, a PPC - and mostly assuming the party is heading in a direction i couldn't bring myself to vote for let alone represent.

lots of local movers and shakers - organisers, councillors and so on who are part-timers apparently doing it out of belief and wanting to contribute - seem to have the same sort of cliquey, manoeuvring, driven, insubstantial on-message alternative reality mindset, in thrall of their local labour mp/mayor/anyone with a degree of ~power~ ready to regurgitate the plp pov in order to futher their own...careers?

I would like to get more involved because I don't have and don't want a career so might be an asset of sorts or at least be viewed as a hinderance and they'd have to expend effort marginalising me? either way

my support for corbyn was more for the movement to democratise the party and run it from the bottom up, but given the nature of the machinations that have been used to make his position untenable it looks like that is anathema to the ppl who are still evidently running things

with both this and the referendum result we've had democratic decisions which the establishment has been unable or perhaps just unwilling to make work. not sure what people are supposed to do in the face of this sort of anti-democracy

the willingness of people to make practical compromises is what has sustained the system for so long, I don't think it will be sufficient to solve the deeper problems, but hey, there's an election coming, got to look good for the tabloids

Yes, that's the key thing a lot of people are missing. It's not specifically about Corbyn - the idea of Labour as a democratic political movement goes far beyond the choice of leader. The naked contempt for members, not just within the PLP but from the Labour-aligned press and centrists within the wider party, clearly shows that's never going to happen unless Corbyn manages to hang on an implement a huge structural reform.

I vacillate between thinking i should join and go for it seriously over the next few years - aiming to be a ward Councillor and, in the fullness of time, a PPC - and mostly assuming the party is heading in a direction i couldn't bring myself to vote for let alone represent.

yeah this has been my thing for a long time, Corbyn's election swung me towards the former but here we go again

No

A reminder of how the Labour Party is now bad.

Blacklisting candidates for liking tweets from Sturgeon saying she had recovered from COVID is a disgusting look for Labour. https://t.co/4nMzqMdTEV

— Tom Sutton for NW YL Chair 🔶️ (@PushTheSutton) October 22, 2022

is this about enforcing anti-snp party discipline or is it more whatever pretext is to hand to keep out the wrong sort of people? or a two birds one stone situation

Pretty sure the SNP is not a big talking point on the doorsteps of Milton Keynes North.

I believe it is part of a general purge of socialists, though I don't know much about this particular individual.

is the party just going to get more and more reactionary on the assumption that tory fuckery and FPTP and lesser evil guilt tripping will hand them victory anyway regardless of how toxic they are and how little they have to offer to anyone who matters? or are they just spiteful pieces of shit as a matter of habit

Both.

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/selective-history

funny to see chessum beef make its way into the lrb