As epected and intended, the Copeland and Stoke by-elections were severe setbacks for Labour and for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Whatever the particular reasons for the defeat in the two seats, the campaign and the result shows that an army of activists is no use if you haven’t got a clear altnernative. That Labour, not the […]

The lack of imagination at the top of the Labour Party was on display for all to see last week. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday 12 February, Deputy Party Leader Tom Watson announced that Labour was considering a regional immigration policy: “I think you can actually say London requires more liberal […]

By Chris Taylor UNISON RECENTLY announced that striking Glasgow City Council IT workers have accepted an offer from the council and returned to work. Having secured guarantees that they will continue to be council-linked employees and suffer no redundancies or relocation, the strike has been called off. This brings to an end a dispute which […]

Brexit will have enormous political and economic ramifications on both Northern Ireland and the Republic. Since the EU referendum, for example, Irish food and drink exports to the UK have fallen by €570 million, according to the Republic of Ireland’s Bord Bia. Food and drink account for 41% of Ireland’s exports to the UK, while […]

UNITE GENERAL Secretary Len McCluskey has triggered an early election campaign for the position he currently holds. The three candidates, McCluskey, Gerard Coyne and Ian Allinson, have until 17 February to gain an undemocratically high 50 branch nominations to get on the ballot paper. Members then have from 27 March to 19 April to vote. […]

JEREMY CORBYN has imposed a three-line whip on Labour MPs to vote for Theresa May’s Bill to start the Brexit process. We believe this is a seriously wrong position. Leaving the European Union will be as disastrous for the working class, here, in Europe and around the world, as it was when Labour opposed it […]

THERESA MAY’S visit to Washington has turned into a major embarrassment. Her “partnership” with Donald Trump which meant she refused to condemn his ‘Muslim Ban’ has sparked a wave of enormous demonstrations across the UK. May’s pathetic boasts about the “special relationship” between British and US imperialism are a stale ritual for UK prime ministers. […]

ON 10 JANUARY Jon Lansman and a majority of the Steering Committee launched a coup. This subcommittee of the NC at an email “meeting” voted to overrule the December 5 decision of the sovereign National Committee to convene a conference of delegates from the local branches. For good measure it abolished the NC itself by […]

JEREMY CORBYN kicked off 2017 by announcing that Labour was not committed “in principle” to defending freedom of movement for workers within the European Union. This major retreat represents an attempt to reposition Labour as a pro-Brexit party, despite the fact that 65 per cent of Labour voters and an overwhelming majority of members oppose […]

By Chris Taylor In the 18 months since Jeremy Corbyn first secured a place on the leadership ballot, hundreds of thousands have joined Labour. By population, Scottish Labour should have seen a gain in the tens of thousands. In fact, fewer than 5,000 have joined the party. Unlike in the rest of Britain, there has […]

2016 was a year of momentous events. In Syria, the European Union, South America, the USA, these were not positive ones for the struggles of the working class and progressive forces fighting for democratic rights. Rather the opposite. In Syria, the year ended with the fall of Aleppo to Assad’s brutal regime and and the […]

MOST PEOPLE imagine that their fuel comes from oil platforms far out at sea, or wells in the desert, far away places removed from daily life. Energy companies go to great lengths to paint this picture. But increasingly this is not the case. Many unfortunate enough to live around the controversial fracking sites know that […]

By Mike Black WORKERS AT the factory that makes Humbug sweets are striking against their Scrooge employer. GMB members at the Tangerine Confectionery site in York are in dispute with their bosses, who have been eroding conditions and making cuts to pension contributions. The 2016 pay offer was a measly 1 per cent increase backdated […]

RAIL UNION Aslef has announced that 87 per cent of its drivers at Southern Rail voted to strike. These strikes will take place in December and January, alongside an immediate and indefinite overtime ban. This is in addition to RMT strikes, on different dates, as guards continue their industrial action. Both unions are protesting the […]

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS at the Crossrail site in Tottenham Court Road took two days of unofficial strike action on 30 November and 1 December to defend Unite steward Terry Wilson. Employers Laing O’Rourke insisted Terry be transferred to another job while refusing to recognise him as a union negotiator. A further protest on 2 December was […]

THE PROJECT to develop “our own progressive patriotism”, as Owen Jones puts it, is seriously misplaced, indeed a fool’s errand since all the positive points he cites for inclusion are not national at all, but international, indeed universal, values. Another of the left’s most popular speakers, Clive Lewis, has also fallen for the idea that […]

THE PAPERS, TV and radio say Britain is under siege from immigrants. They blame them for higher taxes, crime, housing shortages, hospital waiting lists, cheap labour and terrorism. During the Brexit campaign, and since, this has reached fever pitch. There are two possible reasons for this. Only one of them can be true. The first is […]

PAUL NUTTALL’S threat to “replace the Labour Party and make Ukip the voice of patriotic Britain” seems to have thrown some Labour MPs into a panic. Dan Jarvis MP, for example, thinks that, “the Ukip fox is in the Labour henhouse and we have got to make a decision about what we want to do […]

MOMENTUM’S DECEMBER National Committee voted to hold a delegate-based conference in February 2017, and to launch campaigns in defence of migrants’ rights and against the expulsions and suspensions of Jeremy Corbyn supporters in the Labour Party. The Steering Committee and office staff remain unchanged. With the dark clouds of Brexit looming, and the transformation of […]

Trying to reclaim Brexit for the left is a distraction from opposing the Tory plans THERESA MAY and her three Brexiteers, David Davies, Boris Johnson and Liam Fox, are preparing for a devastating withdrawal from the European Union. Her “red, white and blue” Brexit will deny the UK full access to the single market, leading […]

SECRET COST-CUTTING plans could force hospitals, Accident & Emergency departments and wards to close, as stretched health workers struggle to cope. The Guardian and campaign group 38 Degrees reveal that NHS Trusts face a shortfall of £22 billion by 2020-21. Each of NHS England’s 44 “footprint” areas have been asked to submit a “sustainability and […]

By Rebecca A, Yorkshire and Humber delegate (personal capacity) Last weekend’s meeting of the National Committee, the first since April, agreed a series of proposals that provide a framework for growing and strengthening the organisation through a process of democratic debate and campaigning. The run up to the meeting had seen a certain amount of […]

By KD Tait The decision to conduct a series of elections to Momentum’s National Committee through an online One Member One Vote (OMOV) process has proved controversial. The elections came as a surprise to most members. It seems that the Steering Committee agreed to conduct them, although there are no minutes. Members were also concerned […]

The December National Committee has to make decisions that will shape how the organisation develops over the next period. The central debates are over how Momentum’s conference should be organised and proposals about our democratic structures. This will be the first time the NC has met for seven months, and unfortunately it takes place in […]

By KD Tait This Saturday, Momentum’s long-delayed National Committee will meet for the first time in seven months to discuss arrangements for Momentum’s first national conference, democratic processes, motions from regional committees, and various organisational matters. Momentum’s first year was dominated by the successful campaign to preserve Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. In […]

The London Regional Committee met on Saturday 19th November. It passed the following motion 27-1 with 2 abstentions. “The London Momentum Regional Committee agrees to send the following motion to the National Committee: The National Committee agrees that: Local groups are the basic unit of Momentum. All members of Momentum should be encouraged to join […]

ON 8 OCTOBER, two bombs dropped by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen hit a funeral hall in the capital Sana’a while it was packed with mourners, killing more than 140 people and wounding about 500 more. Saudi officials at first denied that the airstrike ever took place, only later accepting responsibility while claiming it was […]

THE MOVEMENT that twice elected Jeremy Corbyn to Labour leader is defined by its opposition to austerity. But local government cuts mean Labour councils in many of the party’s heartlands have spent six years as the face of brutal cuts to the social fabric of our communities. Unless it is overcome, this contradiction will torpedo […]

Red Flag spoke to Naomi Wimbourne-Idrissi of the website ‘Free Speech on Israel’ about the continued charges of antisemitism levelled against the left in general and supporters of Corbyn in particular RED FLAG: First, who set up Free Speech on Israel and why? NAOMI WIMBOURNE-IDRISSI: It was earlier this year, that a number of us from […]

JEREMY CORBYN told the Labour Party Conference, “It isn’t migrants that drive down wages, it’s exploitative employers and the politicians who deregulate the labour market and rip up trade union rights. It isn’t migrants who put a strain on our NHS; it only keeps going because of the migrant nurses and doctors who come here […]