LLA Open Letter to Left Organisations 

November 2020

From: Labour Left Alliance

To: Momentum, CLPD, LRC, DLO, JVL, Labour CND, CLGA, Labour Assembly Against Austerity, Grassroots Black Left, Welsh Labour Grassroots, Campaign for Socialism, Labour Women Leading, Labour Against the Witchhunt, Socialist Appeal, Socilaist Resistance, Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, Socialist Campaign Group of Labour Councillors, Unite the Union, United Left, FBU, BFAWU, NUM, TSSA, Unison, ASLEF, CWU, USDAW, The Musicians Union.

If you are not on the recipients list, this does not mean you are not invited to participate in this initiative. All groups that wish to work around the same platform are invited to collaborate. We wish to be as inclusive and open as possible. Please get in touch.

Dear comrades,

The sustained attack on the Left in the Labour Party is escalating on a daily basis. The shoe-horning of Starmer’s ally Margaret Beckett into the NEC Chair shows his absolute determination to run the Labour Party as a dictatorship, not a democracy.

Corbyn’s suspension and subsequent exclusion from the Parliamentary Labour Party on Starmer’s personal orders is another indicator of his ruthless pursuit of power.

The left needs to agree a common strategy to oppose Starmer’s conversion of the Labour Party into a worse version of New Labour. We are therefore writing to you in a spirit of comradeship. It is regrettable that we were unable to present a united front in elections for the National Executive Committee, and we are determined to work to overcome any obstacles to future cooperation. The Labour Left Alliance is a broad alliance of socialists from a wide variety of political backgrounds and traditions. It is in this spirit that we seek to build unity in action around a joint platform to campaign within Labour for the following elementary democratic goals:

  • The immediate and unconditional readmission of Jeremy Corbyn to the Parliamentary Labour Party
  • Immediate reinstatement of all members expelled or suspended pending fair appeal hearings by democratically accountable party tribunals
  • The right of Labour Party members, branches and CLPs to discuss all related matters
  • Rejection of the biased and distorted EHRC report and its recommendations, which includes the outsourcing of at least parts of the disciplinary process
  • Open selection for all Labour Party public office holders
  • A new version of Clause Four restoring Labour’s commitment to socialism

We hope you will accept this proposal in the spirit in which it is intended. We suggest meeting, as soon as possible, to prepare the way to campaign together for these objectives. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.

In solidarity,

Steering Committee, Labour Left Alliance

This letter is attached in PDF and also published online HERE