Dear
Mathew
Direct
Debit payment
With
reference to your letter to me date December 6th 2013.
I’m
afraid I have decided to resign from my membership of the Labour Party with
effect from the date of this letter, being about the time my annual Direct Debit
(DD) payment was due. I have cancelled the four DDs that I pay to the Party
locally and nationally.
This
has not been an easy decision having been a member of the Party from 1963 –
1972 and again from 1987 – 2013. I was a local election agent in the 1964
general election and my wife, Vera and me met canvassing for the Party in the
1966 general election. I have made a contribution to most election campaigns in
that time, even when not being a member.
My
decision to leave has gradually evolved since the Iraq war and the financial
crisis of 2007 – 08. I consider the
financial crisis to be one of the most important economic events in my
political experience, exposing the contradictions and weaknesses of the
neo-liberal economic experiment: attempting to make global corporations and
capitalism profitable by making the rich richer at the expense of the working
class. This began in the early 1970s, it influenced the 1974 – 79 Labour
Government; was extensively implemented by the Tories 1979 – 1997; little
modified by Labour 1997 – 2010 and has been massively accelerated by the
current Tory government. The 2007 – 08 crisis has exposed this agenda for all
to see and created the conditions for the left to mount a radical challenge.
In a
number of ways I have tried to raise the debate within the Labour Party about
how we, as socialists, could take advantage of this situation by developing
policies that offer structural alternatives to the domination of the
neo-liberal agenda based upon collective and democratic ownership and control.
I supported Ed Miliband for leader and hoped that this would open up the
democratic debate in the Party over the content of the next manifesto. However,
it seems that democracy has been closed down, with local councillors becoming
unaccountable to members and national policy processes remaining consultative
and being overridden by statements from shadow ministers, such as Ed Ball’s
commitment to continue with the Tory cuts into at least the first year of a
Labour government. It is little wonder Labour Party members are disinclined to
take any radical discussion seriously.
Any challenge
to the neo-liberal agenda has now been swept away with the One Nation Labour
approach based upon ‘responsible capitalism’ epitomised by the Union Jack
emblem that would fit the Tories just as well. Austerity has now been accepted
by the Party and is being implemented by Labour councils up and down the UK
under the ‘dented shield’ rhetoric: they might as well stick the Party’s new
emblem on every shield to complete the image.
As
someone who does not support the efficacy of ‘personal politics’ and the power
of an individual resignation my decision has been made easier by being involved
and now becoming a member of Left Unity: a party that is serious about
challenging neo-liberalism, has an internationalist socialist agenda and is
likely to be part of the European Left. As it is the intention of the new party
to stand in elections, which will mean challenging Labour candidates, this of
course is incompatible with Labour Party membership, hence my resignation.
I will
send copies of this letter to the Pontypridd CLP; to my branch secretary and to
other Party colleagues who need to know directly. I am a Labour Party councillor on the Pontyclun Community
Council. I was elected as a Labour candidate and I do not think it is
democratically acceptable to just declare myself as a Left Unity councillor, so
I will resign as a councillor at the next PCC meeting in February 2013 or, if I
cannot attend, by letter before the meeting.
I wish
you all well and I’m sure that I will be working closely with some LP members
on campaigns where our politics coincide.
Yours
sincerely
Len
Arthur
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