Author Archives: Steve Freeman
Hong Kong
I thought Corbyn did well against ‘All Mouth and No Trousers’ in the Great Debate. He had the best one liner about suffering nine years under the Tory ‘Coalitions of Chaos’. We nearly went ‘all constitutional’ when Johnson said the … Continue reading
Grenfell Election
The Tories want this to be the “Brexit election” and in one sense it will be. But it must also be the Grenfell election. It is the first general election since the tragedy on the 14 June 2017. Seventy two … Continue reading
Election at last
In Weekly Worker back in July (1) I argued that “The election of Johnson as Prime Minister is a time to reflect on the dangers the working class movement now faces. Johnson can win as long as he avoids imposing … Continue reading
No Surrender – a republican case against British Exit
Ireland and Tory Brexit Steve Freeman and Phil Vellender consider the importance of Irish republicanism in the fight against Tory Brexit and how we should answer Tory populist slogans about ‘parliament versus the people’. The Tories had set the coming … Continue reading
Crossing the Rubi-con
Jack Conrad makes many useful insights and observations on the crisis faced by Corbyn and the socialist movement. (Weekly Worker 3 October 2019). But he ruins it with his central theory that “Communists reject referendum. These are a con – … Continue reading
Corbyn’s victory
Today (24 September 2019) two major Brexit battles came to a head. The first was the vote at the Labour Party conference won by Corbyn and his allies. The second is the verdict at the Supreme Court that the Crown’s … Continue reading
Johnson’s victory
he election of Johnson as Prime Minister is a time to reflect on the dangers the working class movement now faces. Johnson can win as long as he avoids imposing a no-deal Brexit and avoids a general election before the … Continue reading
Corbyn switches
The 2016 referendum marked a significant change in the UK’s constitutional practice. It shifted the democratic centre of British politics. England and Wales voted to leave the EU and Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain. Nobody voted to leave … Continue reading
Remain-Democrat: Labour’s Brexit option
Steve Freeman and Phil Vellender offer critical support for Labour’s Remain-Democrat position on Brexit, but argue Corbyn needs to lead by making the democratic case more powerfully. General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) Dave Ward (New Statesman, 7 … Continue reading
Studied Ambiguity
Carla Roberts (Weekly Worker 1255 13 June 2019) reports on the Peterborough election which highlighted the crisis in the Labour Party over the Brexit referendum, anti-Semitism and trigger ballots to recall Labour MPs. She describes Corbyn’s policy on the referendum … Continue reading