British Left

Timeline of parties in the broad socialist movement

The biggest organisation formerly associated with the British Left is the Labour Party with over 150,000 members. The Labour Party shifted increasingly to the Right under New Labour; as an opposition party under Ed Miliband the Labour Party has not shifted policy back to more traditional social democratic territory and many of the British Left no longer see a future in the Labour Party. This has led to the alienation of much of the Labour membership, seen most strongly in Scotland where the Scottish Labour Party are on course post Independence Referendum to lose large numbers of MPs to the SNP in the 2015 general election. In Scotland there have been post-referendum calls for a new united party of the Left with such a party potentially being formed by/in collaboration with the Radical Independence Campaign and other groups such as the Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Green Party.

Aside from Labour the biggest Leftist party in the UK are the Green Party who have benefited from the collapse of support for the Left-leaning Liberal Democrats and dissatisfaction of Labour supporters. Green membership quadrupled from 13,000 members to 56,000 members from the beginning of 2014 to the start of 2015. Scottish Green membership increased after the Scottish Independence Referendum to around 9,500, giving a combined membership for the Green parties of the UK of around 66,000. The Green Party of England and Wales is now the second largest party of the European Greens, a confederation of 45 different member parties from 38 countries, and has increased significantly in the national polls from an average 1% to 7%. They beat the Liberal Democrats to fourth place in the 2014 European Elections with 8%, under a proportional voting system, electing a third MEP.

The Greens have one MP in the House of Commons. Other left-of centre parties with parliamentary representation are Plaid Cymru with three MPs (in addition to seats in the National Assembly for Wales and European Parliament) and Respect.

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest left-of-Labour organisation in the UK from its formation in 1920 until dissolution, with a peak membership of 56,000 in 1945. Its successor is the Communist Party of Britain, which contests elections and is associated with the nominally-independent Morning Star, the only daily Left newspaper. A number of smaller Left parties enter elections as the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. A new party Left Unity was formed in November 2013 and backed by a number of existing Left groups after an appeal by director Ken Loach seeking to create a united Left party in light of the unity and success seen by Syriza in Greece. The fracturing of the Left of Labour into many smaller groups over decades within Britain is seen as a problem that must be addressed by the party, which believes the various Left groups need to work towards unity around a common platform in order to challenge the Labour Party, its shift to the political Right and adoption of Neoliberalism since the 1980s. This would be with the aim of producing a united party of the Left and working class.

Active in England

Labour Party

The biggest centre-left party in the UK in terms of members and representation is the Labour Party. The party had 201,374 members on 31 December 2004 according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission. With the party's rebranding as New Labour under Tony Blair, however, the party adopted a number of Thatcherite policies. Many now describe Labour as neoliberal or social democratic, and no longer democratic socialist. Blair himself has described New Labour's political position as a "Third Way" which many believed was his way of Thatcherising the party. The Socialist Campaign Group is a left-wing grouping of Labour Party members of parliament in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1981 by Tony Benn's supporters, as a split from the Tribune Group.[1]

In the 2010[2] and 2015 UK general elections[3] the Political Compass Organisation labelled the Labour party as right-wing (neoliberal) and authoritarian.[1]

Internal groups

Magazine support

Green Party of England and Wales

In 2015, the membership of the Green Party quadrupled, and its support in national opinion polls sextupled.[4] Several factors have contributed, including the collapse of the Liberal Democrat vote, the influence of social media and greater awareness among younger people about the rise of other leftist parties in Europe such as Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece, as well as a rise in anti-austerity movements across Europe and Britain.[5] Other factors include the Scottish referendum, which has proved an inspiration for a new kind of politics. Other key factors had been the contrast in conferences of the Green Party and Labour in September 2014, and the media exclusion of the Green Party during and following their successes in the European elections. A petition against the media blackout of the Green Party reached 260,000 signatures.[6] The party also received a significant spike in membership during January, 2015 following David Cameron's demand that the Green Party be included in the leaders' debates for the 2015 General Election. The Green Party have been included in a seven-way television debate.[7] The Green Party of England and Wales' spring conference had 1,300 members attend, a record for the party.

Internal groups

Respect Party

The Respect Party, which used to have the support of other Left groups (such as the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee), the Socialist Unity Network, Socialist Resistance and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)), and was at one time the second largest left-wing party in the UK after Labour,[1] lost its final two councillors in the 2014 local elections.[8] Respect's only Member of Parliament is George Galloway, who is the party leader.[9]

Other organisations

The next largest Left organisation is the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, comprising the Socialist Party (England and Wales), Socialist Resistance, Socialist Workers Party, Independent Socialist Network, Solidarity, and others. TUSC contested the 2014 United Kingdom local elections with 554 candidates, winning 68,031 total votes, composed of 64,098 votes for the council candidates and 3,933 votes for the three mayoral candidates. The average vote for TUSC candidates was 3.4%, with one candidate winning 43% of the vote, and 8 others gaining more than 10%.[10] TUSC plans to stand 100 candidates in the 2015 General Election, and 1,000 council candidates in the local elections.

Electoral groups

Groups working within TUSC
Groups working within Left Unity
Further information: Left Unity (UK)
Electorally-inactive groups

Entryist groups within Labour Party

Further information: Entryism

Non-electoral groups

Anti-revisionists
Others

Active only in Scotland

Active only in Wales

Active in Northern Ireland

Media

Publications affiliated to parties

Unaffiliated

Archive

Further reading

Labour Party

Communist Party

Women

Critiques

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "BRITISH LEFT". World Heritage Encyclopedia™. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "UK Parties - 2010 General Election". PoliticalCompass.org. The Political Compass™. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "UK Parties - 2015 General Election". PoliticalCompass.org. The Political Compass™. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  4. ↑ Ramsay, Adam (6 March 2015). "Today, Natalie Bennett must deliver the speech of her life". New Statesman. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  5. ↑ See: list of political parties in the United Kingdom opposed to austerity.
  6. ↑ ""Invite the Greens" petition handed in to the BBC". Green Party of England and Wales. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "Election 2015: Seven-party TV debate plan announced". BBC News. 23 January 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Helen Pidd "Labour gains control of Bradford as Respect fail" theguardian.com (The Northerner Blog), 23 May 2014
  9. ↑ Helen Pidd "Who is the leader of the Respect party these days?" theguardian.com (The Northerner Blog), 28 October 2013
  10. ↑ TUSC.org, 30 May 2014
  11. ↑
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ http://www.newworker.org/nwp1.pdf
  14. ↑
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ http://socialistresistance.org/
  17. ↑ https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard
  18. ↑ http://socialistworker.co.uk/
  19. ↑ http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2010/11/10/solidarity
  20. ↑
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  23. ↑ excerpt and text search
  24. ↑ excerpt and text search
  25. ↑ excerpt and text search
  26. ↑ online
  27. ↑