Transform Newsletter 25th September 2024

 30th November 2024

Welcome to issue eleven of the Transform newsletter. This is a Party Conference special edition, as we take a close look at Labour who’ve been having their conference in Liverpool this week, and look forward to our own annual conference next month.

First up, Transform’s EC have an important message.

Community Forums/Action Groups

STATEMENT BY TRANSFORM’S EXEC COMMITTEE

During the General Election, in many areas, the campaigns for independent candidates brought together alliances of activists, campaigners and community organisations that foreshadow the local basis for a new party.

For example, in Tottenham, the independent campaign which was built through a community assembly process has decided to continue, to campaign on issues that were central to the campaign (eg divestment of Council pension funds from investments supporting arms production and sale, social housing) and working towards the standing of candidates in the local elections (which in London are not until 2026).

The Executive Committee believes that we should increase the focus of our activity towards building community forums/action groups with others for joint action and discussion. This work is valuable on its own account in bringing Transform members into contact with the wider community and to build alliances and centres of community power and accountability within which we can further socialist, class-based demands.

It is Transform’s view that the basis for a new left party at a national level already exists, is urgently necessary, and we are working to bring that into existence. But the credibility of any new party will depend on its support in the localities and constituencies. The two go hand in hand, and we can begin now creating the local structures that will give any new party life.

We are urging branches and members to prioritise getting involved in community forums and action groups where they exist, and to work to build them where they do not yet. The form that these will take will vary according to local circumstances. We ask members to send us reports of what they are doing in this regard and, over the coming month, we will share experiences and examples of this in practice so that we can learn from each other.

Transform Conference, Saturday 19th October

In Transform, we do party conferences differently.

We don’t go there to applaud a leader. (In fact, we’ve chosen not to have a party leader.) And we don’t have factions handing out booklets telling everyone how to vote. We are all there as equals. We’re building something that’s new, and we can only do it by working together, sharing our thoughts and our doubts, and reaching for consensus.

We want you there with us on 19th October, not so that we can take your money or your applause, rather so that we can all learn from one another and build something that’s real.

Conference registration is free. To register, please go to the event page – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transform-conference-tickets-1006617047687?aff=oddtdtcreator

The event page contains information about the venue, times, food and drink etc. If there’s anything else that you need to know, please email us at TransformConferenceTeam@gmail.com. We’ll be sending out a Zoom link by email to everyone who’s registered, and you’ll have the option of taking part online.

POLICY SESSIONS

You voted in our Policy Poll to have sessions on Poverty & inequality, and Climate Crisis & Green Transition. Our Policy Officer Hugo Garvey is organising these sessions and will shortly be writing to you about how they will work.

FUTURE OF THE LEFT SESSION

One of Transform’s central aims is the forging of new, better relationships on the left and working towards left unity. It’s really encouraging that progressive groups have been coming together in a spirit of partnership in meetings hosted by Collective. In this context, we’re delighted to welcome to Conference Pamela Fitzpatrick, a Director of the Peace and Justice Project and a leading figure within Collective. Also on the platform will be Audrey White of Merseyside Pensioners Association (who spoke at Saturday’s March for Palestine), and our own amazing speakers Solma Ahmed and Jackson Caines. There’ll be plenty of time for discussion from the floor.

No return to austerity ?

Sue Gray should get the sack. Not because of her £170,000 salary, obscene though that is, but because she’s guiding Labour on a course to political oblivion. It’s her job to make sure that the Party’s strategy and messaging are on track. But about the only thing she seems to be doing well is concentrating more power in the hands of a tight group around the Labour leadership.

The Labour Conference tagline this year is “Change begins”. Rachel Reeves promises us “No return to austerity”. The problem is, outside the conference hall no one’s buying their promises.

POVERTY & INEQUALITY

“Growth” got 49 mentions in the 130-page Labour manifesto, while the word “inequality” only appeared once. You would think that after 14 years of Tory rule which had seen a vast increase in inequality and child poverty, a Labour government would be laser focused on reversing some of this.

Good news is that the government have set up a Child Poverty Unit, which has started engaging with the charity sector. Bad news is that it’s led by Bridget Phillipson, and that it’s not due to formulate its strategy until spring 2025. This is symptomatic of a government that believes in tackling poverty by waiting for growth to trickle down. Well that didn’t work in the 1980s, at a time when the economy was stronger than it is now.

Last week an array of union leaders and academics wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister demanding that he “tackle food insecurity and end food bank Britain”.

If this government was serious about battling poverty and inequality, they’d move heaven and earth to remove the two child benefit cap. They’d be taking emergency action to help families using foodbanks. And they certainly wouldn’t be withdrawing winter fuel payments from struggling pensioners.

To make matters worse, Cabinet Ministers woodenly defend all these decisions while showing little understanding or empathy as to why people are so upset by them.

NHS

Lord Darzi’s report lays bare the scale of the current crisis in the NHS – “Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have found during this investigation.” Conveniently though for the Government, it doesn’t lay out any immediate steps needed to improve patient care. So we can expect that for the next four years Ministers will repeat that they need more time to repair the mess inherited from the Tories.

What should alarm all of us who rely on the NHS is that the Government seem fixated on the idea that “reform” can magically provide a fix to years of underinvestment. Recent analysis found that NHS spending would need to grow by around 3.8% a year in real terms over the next decade – much higher than current projected spending – to achieve the sustained improvements that Labour says it wants.

Add to this the fact that the Health Secretary has received large amounts of funding from donors with links to private healthcare, and has been very open about his willingness to expand the involvement of the private sector within the NHS, and the NHS is definitely not safe in Labour’s hands.

GB ENERGY

The Labour Manifesto promised that the new GB Energy company would “save £93 billion for UK households” and reduce energy bills. Every Labour candidate repeated the claim that it would help families save £300 a year from their energy bills.

This was all made-up nonsense. GB Energy is an investment company seeking to attract further investment into renewable projects. Which is a positive thing as far as it goes, but it won’t stop profiteering by big energy companies, and it can’t directly affect household bills.

Moving towards renewables is good news for consumers. It will make us less vulnerable to wild fluctuations in energy prices, and make it easier for governments to deliver lower energy bills in the future.

That £300 figure though ? It came from a report by Ember, an energy think tank, which looked at the savings from decarbonising the electricity grid at different speeds. The report projected lower household energy bills in 2030 if all existing government renewable commitments are delivered. The problem is, there’s so many assumptions built into their model, that for politicians to promise that they can deliver the saving is just deceitful.

Unfortunately Labour has done both itself and the credibility of the campaign for zero carbon no favours by making promises that it can’t keep, and then sitting back and watching while fuel prices go up this winter.

Taking the fight to Labour

Saturday’s March for Palestine was big and vibrant, with thousands marching through the city of Liverpool, but not on the scale of the largest London marches.

On Monday spirited pensioners with placards and umbrellas stood for hours in the rain letting conference delegates know how they felt about cuts to winter fuel payments. Inside conference, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham was venting her anger and frustration that conference organisers seemed to be doing everything in their power to block debate of the Unite motion on winter fuel cuts, moving it to the “graveyard slot” at the end of conference.

This shouldn’t have come as any surprise. The previous day, Transform’s Alan Gibbons told an open air rally outside the conference centre how “in Liverpool City Council we put a motion on the winter fuel cuts. Guess what: Labour pushed it to the back of the agenda, talked it out until it fell off the 3 hour limit for debate. We’ve now got to return it in January, and wouldn’t it be a tragedy that when we do return it there will already be pensioners dying.”

We want to hear from you

Are there any events coming up in your area that we should be sharing ? Do you have any reports, photos or questions for us ? Please send them to info@transformpolitics.uk, marking your email for the attention of the Newsletter Team.

In solidarity,

Transform Newsletter Team