A new forum for Labour Party members to discuss alternatives to austerity and build support for the People’s Assembly movement will hold its first meeting in London on Saturday 9 November....
Can the Left Think Differently?
The humanitarian impact of the economic crisis puts Europe’s social and economic stability at risk, says KEN CURRAN....
Workfare Won’t Work
Chancellor George Osborne announced yet another back-to-work scheme at the Conservative Party conference this week. ERNIE JACQUES has seen it all before and knows where it will end: in misery for some, in riches for others, but with few new jobs. ...
Public Sector Job Cuts Reach 10 Per Cent
More than 600,000 jobs have been cut from the public sector since the Con Dem coalition came to power at the 2010 general election according to the GMB union's analysis of official figures from the Office of National Statistics....
Balls to Call for a Co-operative Economy
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls will outline his vision of an economy based on co-operative values when he speaks at the Co-operative Party conference next weekend....
The Need for Engagement
Merely denouncing ‘One Nation Labour’ as more of the same is a political cul-de-sac, argues MATTHEW BROWN. We need to recognise some genuine attempts to rethink the left’s project and engage with the best of their ideas....
The Challenge of a Generation
Growing poverty and inequality in Europe prove that the market alone cannot deliver. It’s time to change the narrative, says JUDITH KIRTON-DARLING, Confederal Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). Here, she sets out the terms of a new European social contract. Austerity and poverty in Europe are blighting our continent. Both are having...
A Labour Movement Alternative
As the Scottish independence debate heats up, PAULINE BRYAN argues that the status quo, devo max, devo plus and the SNP version of independence are each built on a neo-liberal model of economics. In their own ways, she says, they prevent even a classical social democratic approach to fiscal policy and the stimulation of economic...
Is a better capitalism possible?
Will Hutton has been delivering a series of well-attended lectures on developing a ‘good capitalism’ out of the crisis of ‘bad capitalism’. BARRY WINTER summarises a lecture Hutton gave in Manchester, and comments on what Hutton is saying....
The crisis, Europe and the left
Successes for left parties in France and Greece are welcome signs of resistance to the right’s austerity measures. But the legacies of the economic crisis mean there are no easy choices for Europe’s social democrats, argues WILL BROWN. Electoral advances for the left in Europe are long overdue coming after a succession of defeats and...
The mess we’re in
Soundings’ ebook, Britain’s Broken Economy – and how to fix it, is an essential read for anyone interested in a left alternative to UK capitalism, says BEN TURLEY. For political reasons, Britain’s Broken Economy does not touch on the structuraldeficit or engage with arguments about the sustainability of public expenditure. This is because the...
Why Inequality Matters
Why Inequality Matters A lecture by Professor Richard Wilkinson, author of The Spirit Level, in memory of Richard Brown (Dept of Sociology, Durham University 1966-1993). Monday 8th November 2010, St John’s College (http://goo.gl/maps/wnDg) , South Bailey, Durham, 6:30pm – FREE Drinks and nibbles will be provided. The Spirit Level: Why equality is better for everyone, by Richard Wilkinson...