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Would you like to rephrase this? Your wording gives the impression that TfL is trying to expel its own employees from the country. TfL has changed nothing. The government visa rules have changed and this affects some TfL staff and their right to work in the UK. As far as I am aware, TfL and the Mayor are working with the unions to try and keep those affected in their jobs. -
where I've got to with left politics is very much not defined by labels - when anyone suggests (for example and without judgement) "a reformist socialist government" - my response now is: "like where? Which country is closest to this ideal and what challenges to they face?" -
I wonder why they didn’t use Fairfield Halls with 10 times the space -
By cowardlysniper · Posted
Was anyone commenting here actually AT the meeting? I was. Yes David Peckham; it WAS busy. I'd estimate about 150 people filling the biggest room at Ruskin House, with some standing at the back. And the bar was quite separate with no queue and sensible prices the twice I used it. To Insuflo I'd say that my reading of Zarah Sultana's piece in The New Left Review accurately admitted past (Corbyn) mistakes and sought to lay a better path for the future. Jeremy is respected by millions but has not been as shrewd or tough an operator as I hope she turns out to be. Precisely the progressive point she makes despite the fact some will try to cite it as a split. I agree The Left has been guilty of in-fighting at the cost of political success in the past, particularly given FPTP, but some of us are incurable idealists who don't just give up and snipe from the sidelines. I remember a meeting at Brixton Town Hall in the 80s where a Labour Party member advised someone from one or other of the fringe Left parties to 'get out of your ideological telephone booth'. Very funny and accurate and I never forgot the expression. Maybe The Labour Party is the expression of liberal-thinkers who suppress their disagreements in the interest of occasionally forming a UK government, but their current incarnation is giving dangerous concessions to violent Zionists and UK fascists. Some of us have not given up hope and seek to learn from the mistakes of the past with respect to the formation of a new Left party. The speakers listed on the poster were, I thought, intelligent and eloquent. One was determined, for instance, actually to organise people to confront the racists attacking asylum seekers in Epping and elsewhere. Another informed us about TfL seeking to change the rules to allow the expulsion of about 70 tube staff from the UK for visa-renewal reasons and that she and others are taking action to prevent that happening. Practical interventions in the real world when The Right is on the rise, emboldened by Reform and its desperate manifesto. Another emphasised the crucial importance of ecological awareness in policy-making, although alliances with the Green Party were a matter of debate. A youthful presence (the majority present were, like me, grey-haired) was the contributions by members of the latest incarnation of the 'Revolutionary Communist Party'. One by one they did what that party does: stand up and say 'yes we support the apparent aims of 'Your Party' but really the only solution is revolution' (they mean Bolshevik/French style). This met with little applause, I think because most people present know that that is not going to happen here unless things get an awful lot worse. Realistically a reformist Socialist government is the furthest Left the current British population could ever countenance in my opinion. So yes; if we let in-fighting be caused by groups who really just wish to push their manifestos at leftie forums we won't even be in a position to 'split The Left' in the way Sephiroth suggests. I have been a union member for 22 years, helped organise a unique strike of Lambeth College Unison workers in 2016, voted twice for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader, and canvassed for him in 2024 in Islington North. Yes; mostly I've lived under Tory governments and seen the welfare state eroded, but I will always resist cynicism and defeatism. Last night's meeting reminded me that there are decent people out there willing to try to improve society, rather than accept this Labour government as 'the best we can do'. Peace and love.
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