Kmflett's Blog

In June The New Statesman published another list of what it sees as the 50 most influential figures on the left. In recent times its probably fair to see the NS as a magazine of the centre rather than the left but of course that broadly fits Starmer’s perspective.

Starmer has dropped from first to second place with his hirsute enforcer Morgan McSweeney top of the NS pops. Another (now-ex) enforcer Sue Gray is third and Angela Rayner is fourth.

McSweeney who is now Chief of Staff at 10 Downing St has, according to the detail of media reports, been engaged in purging people who don’t fit his perspective. Sue Gray and Louise Haig being likely victims (there are others)

It might be gathered that the list is mostly about Parliamentary politics. Some who feature are not really on the left such as the (now also ex) Archbishop of Canterbury. He was good on refugees and was not loved by the right which really just means he could have been worse.

Of the mass movement outside of Parliament around Palestine there is little reflection. Jeremy Corbyn remains on the list as does Owen Jones who writes in the Guardian and on-line on the issue. George Galloway is certainly an anti-imperialist (at least for some of the globe) but as the NS notes he is a ‘social conservative’. Galloway may run the Workers Party but I’m not sure he’d say he was on the left as historically understood.

Of the organisers of numerous, often huge, Gaza marches, protests and camps there is nothing which is surely where the left is at in 2024 if its anywhere.

I’m writing a piece for Culture Matters about beer and the election. Its focus is on politics not beer although you can find plenty about beer on the blog.

Farage launched his election campaign for Clacton on Tuesday. Attention was focused on his interface with a banana milkshake. That happened as he was leaving the Moon and Starfish the local Wetherspoons.

Most things about Farage are fake. He is an ex=public school boy and stockbroker not a man of the people. Likewise while he is sometimes pictured drinking a pint of beer (see above) he is in fact a drinker of fine wines. Its an image thing as much as Harold Wilson smoked a pipe in public for strategic reasons but enjoyed cigars in private.

The really interesting thing about the picture is the row of photographers taking Farage’s picture. They are on the serving side of the bar. Try doing that in your local… The conclusion that can be drawn is that Wetherspoons were happy enough to host the Farage launch. Farage has used Spoons for his GBNews efforts in the past and Tim Martin is a well known Brexiteer. Well known in fact to be Sir Tim these days

From eggs to milkshakes a great British tradition of protest from the London crowd of the 1790s to Clacton & Barnsley in 2024

A long tradition in political protest

Nigel Farage engaged with a banana milkshake after leaving Wetherspoons in Clacton. As Farage is a great defender of British traditions he will no doubt recognise this as one. Eggs and milkshakes create a cleaning bill and perhaps damage pride but they do not cause injury. He also had a stone thrown at him in Barnsley(it missed). There was also an unrelated protest against his racism that veteran liar Farage tried to blame.

Politicians condemning the milkshaking were in the main the usual authoritarian suspects(aka Starmerites) and like many such actions historically its unclear who exactly was behind. Perhaps it was an anti-Faragist campaigner, perhaps it was a Farage stunt. No matter these things are part of the democratic election tradition when politicians have to actually meet the crowd and sometimes the mob too.

In 2023 a person who pleaded not guilty to throwing an egg at King Charles in York (it missed) was found guilty of threatening behaviour with the judge describing the egg throwing as ‘unlawful violence’. It’s a reminder that judges cannot be counted to uphold historic democratic methods of registering a protest, albeit the reasons for the protest on this occasion were not particularly progressive. Again that is also a feature of history

E.P Thompson in the Making of the English Working Class records that when a perjurer was placed in the pillory in the 1790s the London crowd pelted him with eggs. Yet when a political radical suffered the same fate a few days later the crowd brought him glasses of wine to drink, which Farage would certainly have preferred.

In more recent times egg throwing has been officially recognised as a legitimate protest. An anti-fascist arrested for throwing a(traditional rotten) egg at a National Front march in Wood Green in 1977, known as the ‘Battle of Wood Green’, was acquitted as the judge noted that it was indeed a traditional form of political protest.

John Prescott, who also egged on the campaign trail, didn’t agree (he whacked the egg thrower) but ultimately a point is made and no harm is done beyond making the person egged look silly and a dry cleaning bill.

Of course in the era of more authoritarian Governments egg throwers are invariably arrested. That doesn’t alter the reality that be it eggs or milkshakes such protests are part of an historic British democratic tradition

John Heartfeld 1932

The final socialist history seminar of the academic year at the Institute of Historical Research took place on June 3rd. Organised by the London Socialist Historians Group the seminar will return in the autumn for the 2024/25 academic year, the 30th anniversary.

It has been a momentous year for bad and good reasons. The Israeli genocide in Gaza and the global movement in solidarity with Palestinians that has grown. History is being made even as the seminar series looked at previous histories

Chartism in London in 1848 Catherine Howe Monday 9th October Time: 5.30pm

Rugby: William Webb Ellis, his role in the class struggle Tony Collins Monday 23rd October 5.30pm

The Spark That Lit the Flame. Lenin in London Robert Henderson Monday 6th November 5.30pm. Free on Zoom. Postponed

The Making of the English Working Class at 60. Roundtable discussion  Logie Barrow, Keith Flett  Monday 20th November

Doctor Who and the Communist: the work and politics of Malcolm Hulke TV scriptwriter Michael Herbert Date: Mon 22 January Start time: 1730 

‘Hen Chartists’ and ‘Vulgar Viragos’: Rethinking the role of women in the Chartist Movement Judy Cox Date: Monday 5th February Start time: 5.30pm

Transnational Perspectives on French Anarchism(1880-1918), Biography, Networks and Print Culture Constance Bantman Date: Monday 4th March

The Great Defiance. How the World Took On The British Empire David Veevers(Bangor) Date: Monday 18th March Start time: 5.30pm

Monday May 20th 5.30pm on Zoom

Benjamin Schoendorff The Socialist Alternatives experiment: an 1980s attempt to search for a new revolutionary subject

Monday June 3rd 5.30pm

Colm Murphy. The forgotten rival of Marxism Today: The British Labour Party’s New Socialist and the business of political culture in the late Twentieth Century

Most political parties have a democratic structure of some sort, even the Tory Party. The Brexit Party however is a limited company. Nigel Farage owns 8 out of 15 shares. He has now announced that he will be the leader.

The media has an apparently limitless appetite for Farage’s BS and bluster. Whether the voters of Clacton have a similar view we shall see

Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik has a to the point piece (3rd June) on why Labour’s Great Moving Right Show means that numbers no longer feel obliged to vote Labour at the Election. One impact which the bourgeois media is already noticing (Times Editorial 3rd June) is the potential for a low turnout.

There are of course still reasons for voting Labour. Firstly because in a First Past the Post electoral system its the only way to eject the Tories from Office. The moment of change can lead in unanticipated directions. Secondly because despite the best efforts of the Starmerites there remain some decent Labour candidates on the ballot. Thirdly because Labour offers something the Tories never will which is more rights in the workplace. Of course as in 1997 what this ends up looking like will be modest, but even small differences matter to those at the bottom of society.

Beyond that there will be a range of left independent candidates in a limited number of Constituencies including my own of Tottenham. A focus rightly so is Labour’s disgraceful position on Gaza and Palestine.

There is another perspective. While using the vote to get the Tories out remains important,until 1928 not everone had the vote. It was extended incrementally over almost a century from 1832. What did radicals and the left do then? They looked at pressure from without. Namely electing not the lesser of two evils but one or other party, the Liberals (after 1859) or the Tories. Which Party in Government could be pushed by protest to carry measures helpful to those without the vote.

Actually quite a few measures were passed in the second half of the nineteenth century which made a difference for the better for the voteless. This was achieved not by altruism but by organised protest. It was also unpredictable. Helpful change was as likely to come from a Tory as a Liberal Government. It depended on the precise context of the moment and of those wanting change grasping how to exploit it.

So on July 4th vote certainly to get the Tories out, but focus on the task ahead. Building organisation to make the new Government do something useful for the many not the few

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/03/keir-starmer-labour-left-rishi-sunak-tories

June 3rd

Beard Liberation Front

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, is preparing its Election Manifesto and considering its Election strategies.

This guide to facial hair from the Daily Mirror in 1909 is not BLF approved but provides perspective

Liz Truss has a majority of 26,000 in her South West Norfolk seat. She has said (Sunday Times 2nd June) that she is focused on winning the seat at the Election on local issues and has no ambition to return to Downing St. That doesnt quite fit with the extensive publicity her political memoir has received where she styles herself as the saviour of Western civilisation.

There are two other right-wing candidates James Bagge a former Tory standing on an anti-Truss platform, who usually describes himself as the ‘Turnip Taliban’ and Toby McKenzie for Reform.

With the potential for a split vote on the right there could be a, very welcome, Labour surprise here.The candidate Terry Jermy has a beard.

The final large scale Survation MRP poll released on 2nd July shows the following

Labour 34.7%

Tory 30.0%

Reform 15.1%

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