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A new coalition of trade unions and other groups is taking up the fight for socialism in the Labour Party. Set against the backdrop of Keir Starmers ongoing purge of the left, the group is looking to build the resistance. And on Saturday 18 September, Unite the Union assistant general secretary Howard Beckett will take the lead in launching the groups manifesto.

Labour Left for Socialism (LL4S) formally launched in August 2021. Its a coalition of trade unions and other groups. LL4S came out of the Dont Leave, Organise movement. Its aims are broad. They include:

The groups supporting LL4S include:

LL4S said in its August statement that Labour is not effectively opposing the Tories. In fact, it said that on some issues the party has echoed the government. LL4S also called out the ongoing purge. It said:

the democracy of our own party is under threat. A growing number of local parties have been taken over by unelected officials; the Forde inquiry report has not been published; many members who have spoken out have been suspended or expelled; proscriptions have been introduced against socialist groups; Jeremy Corbyn remains without the Labour whip. As a result, over one hundred thousand members have resigned from the party over the last year.

We will not stand idly by and allow this to continue. We are, therefore, coming together in solidarity not only with the people who are being so gravely disadvantaged by this government but against the purge of the left, which is key for the Leadership to achieve its aim of reversing the socialist policies brought in under Corbyn and to make the Party a safe place for capitalism.

Now, LL4S is taking things a step further.

Read on...

On 18 September, LL4S will hold a virtual meeting. Called Building the Resistance, it will take place on Zoom from 11am. You can register here. LL4S said in a press release that its:

launching a manifesto setting out an agenda of unified defiance on major issues affecting all sectors of the labour movement. It is also backing calls for delegates at party conference in Brighton later this month to reject Keir Starmers ally David Evans as general secretary.

LL4S continued:

speakers at the online launch on September 18 will include Andrew Scattergood (FBU) on workers rights, Ekua Bayunu (Labour Black Socialists) on the fight against racism, Chris Saltmarsh (Labour for a Green New Deal) on the climate crisis and Matt Wrack (FBU General Secretary on Public Services.

Barry Gardiner MP will also speak about the campaign for his private members bill to outlaw fire and rehire, which has its second reading in parliament on 22 September.

Beckett will chair the event. LL4S noted that this is in a personal capacity.

Beckett said in a press release:

This is the start of something for the whole of our movement, the result of months of work by members of left groups and unions working together to confront attacks from the Tory government and also from Labours right wing.

With the ferocious ratcheting up of suspensions and expulsions in recent weeks, its clear that delegates to Labour Party conference in Brighton next week need to follow the lead of Unite the Union and vote down Evans as party general secretary.

The right have got away with a full-scale assault on the left of the party, to rid it of socialism, to become a party of the establishment, because the left has not been united. Now we are putting down a marker that we are united and we are not going anywhere. We are calling on all socialists in the party to come together around common goals and join us in setting in motion the process of left mobilisation.

Whats also interesting about LL4S is that the Labour Party has proscribed (i.e. banned) one of its signatories. It outlawed membership or support of Socialist Appeal back in July. At the time, Dylan Cope from the group told The Canary:

Were certainly going to fight this purge. I think the whole left needs to come together and resist this by all means

This is now what appears to be happening. But with Socialist Appeal involved with LL4S, whats unclear is whether or not being a member of LL4S will incur disciplinary action from Labour. The party has form on this. Recently, it threatened to expel prominent member and activist Graham Bash. This was for signing an open letter from a proscribed group, Labour Against the Witchhunt. Labours action against Bash was despite him signing the letter around 18 months prior to the partys banning of the group.

It appears LL4S has thought of this, though. Because it says on its website that:

Signatories demonstrate their support for the principles in the statement, not each others organisations.

But whether this is good enough for Labour not to try and expel people associated with LL4S remains to be seen.

The new group seems to be picking up where Corbyn left off. It also represents another attempt to operate an organised fightback against Starmer and Evans ongoing purge. The left-wing of the Labour Party will surely be watching closely to see where this group goes next.

Featured image via Labour Left for Socialism and Going Underground YouTube

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Howard Beckett is now helping lead the socialist fightback in Labour - The Canary

In his Sept. 1 column, James Edwards beats the socialist drum when describing our Democratic presidents agenda.

He even now goes so far as to infer that socialism is another way of saying communism. The usual hard right arguments he uses to somehow support this claim are:

Open borders spreading COVID, stopping the pipeline, defunding the police, the federal government taking control of elections, etc.

There is no evidence that COVID is spreading from the border, yet Republican governors in some states are doing everything they can to fight mask and vaccine mandates.

The defunding the police rally cry by Republicans is basically noise and simply untrue.

The Keystone pipeline, with only 8% being completed, would carry heavy tar sands oil that would be an environmental disaster and is not a factor in current oil prices.

Most importantly, Edwards attempt to assert that Democrats are trying to gain control of our once-free elections is ridiculous. Many red-state legislatures have been working overtime to successfully pass voter suppression bills directed at Democratic voters.

His argument is that this will lead to stacking of the Supreme Court. Just last week, the Republican-stacked Supreme Court failed to act against the absurd Texas abortion bill, which is restricting womens reproductive rights in that state.

This type of bill will soon move toother states.

All of this is summed up as a choice between big government or freedom.

Edwards should attempt to explain his views about freedom to the women of our country.

Tom Stewart

Windber

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Letter to the editor | Beating the socialist drum | Readers Forum | tribdem.com - TribDem.com

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday that Republicans cant afford to blow a once-in-a-generation campaign opportunity to tag all congressional Democrats as big government socialists by supporting President Bidens $3.5 trillion social welfare spending package.

To have an issue of this size involving $3 trillion in spending and about $3 trillion in taxes, and to have every single Democrat having voted lockstep in favor of it, gives you a weight of argument unlike anything Ive seen in recent years, Mr. Gingrich said in an interview with The Washington Times.

Polling conducted for the conservative American Majority project is clear and devastating for Democrats if Republicans define them as big-government socialists, he said.

Republican pollster John McLaughlin has found that Americans generally favor free market capitalism over big-government socialism by a margin of 59% to 16%. Among swing voters, that margin increases to 82% to 18%.

A strong majority of those swing voters already believe that Democrats $3.5 trillion spending bill defines the party as big-government socialists, the polling showed.

Given that view, Mr. Gingrich said, Republicans need to develop a new way of talking about the issue. He said Republicans cant allow some Democrats who voted for the package in August to portray themselves as moderates.

Every single Democrat in the House and Senate voted for what is literally Bernie Sanders bill, he said. Bernie Sanders, for Petes sake, is an open and avowed socialist. Its not slandering him to say that hes a socialist. So youre in a position where you can literally pin every single Democrat running for reelection against that reality.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee criticized Democrats on Wednesday for barreling through an additional $3.5 trillion (more like $5.5 trillion) in reckless spending in order to completely remake the U.S. economy into a socialist utopia.

Will Senate Democrats like Maggie Hassan [of New Hampshire], Mark Kelly [of Arizona], Raphael Warnock [of Georgia], Catherine Cortez Masto [of Nevada] and Michael Bennet [of Colorado] finally speak out against their partys inflation-inducing spending, or will they continue to turn a blind eye to the negative impacts their far-Left policies have on American families? the NRSC said.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said the spending proposals in the package are popular.

Democrats will deliver on highly popular, once-in-a-generation investments in infrastructure, access to child care and health care, and energy independence for the American people, said DCCC spokesman Chris Taylor.

Americans agree: The uber-wealthy and corporations should pay their fair share to support these investments in Americas future.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are stuck shifting from one half-baked message to the next because [House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy and his extremist circus have zero ideas and even less moral integrity to campaign on, he said.

In August, all House and Senate Democrats supported moving ahead with the framework of the spending package. The House is heading toward a final vote after several days of a Ways and Means Committee markup this week.

Never has our government wasted so much to kill so many American jobs, drive prices even higher and hook a whole new generation of the poor on government dependency, Rep. Kevin Brady, Texas Republican, said during the committees sessions.

Coming out of a pandemic, the last thing Americans need are higher prices, fewer jobs and the largest expansion of our welfare state in our lifetimes, he said.

Mr. Biden met Wednesday with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who are resisting the total price tag.

Some Democrats also have expressed concern that the massive spending plan would make some incumbents vulnerable.

Democratic consultant Douglas Schoen has said pursuing the $3.5 trillion proposal will end up being a lose-lose situation for Democrats in the 2022 midterms.

Writing in The Hill, Mr. Schoen compared the situation to the 1994 and 2010 midterms, when Democrats lost heavily because of voters perceptions that they had overreached.

The conservative Club for Growth announced Monday that it would run TV ads in 10 House districts, including that of Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Illinois Republican, focusing on out-of-control spending, inflation, and the $3 trillion tax increase proposed by Biden and the Democrats.

The ads will run for one week starting Thursday, the first phase of a $2 million campaign opposing the Democrats plan.

The Club for Growth said the ads will run in nine districts held by persuadable Democrats and by Mr. Kinzinger, citing his numerous occasions of supporting Mr. Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, on spending.

Washington is out of touch with America, said Club for Growth President David McIntosh. Democrats and even some Republicans need to realize that their constituents will roundly reject the out-of-control spending and $3 trillion increase in taxes.

The Democrats targeted in the ad are Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia, Jared Golden of Maine, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Susie Lee of Nevada, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, and Vicente Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar and Filemon Vela, all of Texas.

Mr. Gingrich said the $3.5 trillion package is a gold mine of campaign ammunition for Republicans in 2022.

The next phase is just having to sit down and work through all of the things in the bill that prove that its a dramatic expansion of government into your life, he said. You begin to have sort of a cradle-to-grave government power over your life.

Democrats votes for the package have given Republicans the opportunity of a lifetime to brand the Democratic Party so it becomes a minority for a generation or more, Mr. Gingrich wrote in a separate commentary at Gingrich360.com.

The test is now on the Republican side and in the conservative movement to see if they can rise to the opportunity, he said.

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Newt Gingrich: GOP will win in 2022 by targeting Democrats as 'big government socialists' - Washington Times

Failed Republican candidate Kimberly Klacik has refused to share the remaining funds from the $8 million she raised during her campaigns with other GOP contenders and said such calls were "socialism."

In a video uploaded onto Twitter on Sunday, Klacik, 39, said she would not share any of the money she raised with other Republican candidates who she said "didn't work as hard."

Speaking inside a car, Klacik said in the 28-second clip: "So, those of you that are mad that I made $8 million in my campaign, well I worked really hard and that's how we made that money.

"There are other candidates that didn't make that money because they didn't work as hard. But, I know you want me - for some reason - to redistribute that wealth from my campaign to other candidates that have more of a winnable district."

She continued: "Well, guess what, that's called socialism. I have more news for you, you are not a Republican. Stay out of my mentions."

The video has since been viewed more than 178,900 times as of Monday morning.

Hundreds of commenters shared their opinion about Klacik's statement under the video, with many agreeing with the former Republican candidate.

There were many others, however, who disagreed with Klacik's comments with fellow Republican candidate Beatrice Cardenas hitting out at the businesswoman.

In a reply-tweet, the former Congressional candidate for California's 27th district said: "This candidate-turned-celebrity culture is really taking a twisted turn. Keep your heads down and keep working if you didn't win. The people want serious candidates, not reality stars."

While Klacik won Maryland's 7th Congressional District Republican primary by a landslide, she was convincingly beaten by Democratic incumbent Kweisi Mfume, who secured 71.6 percent of the vote. Klacik came second with 92,825 votes, or 28.0 percent.

According to the non-profit OpenSecrets, which tracks money in U.S. politics, Klacik raised a total of $8,296,845 and spent $7,499,454 on the campaign.

Klacik's campaign has an estimated 803,568 cash on hand to spend in upcoming political contests. Klacik doesn't mention in the video that most of the $8 million has been spent.

Newsweek has contacted Klacik for comment.

Earlier this year, Klacik responded to claims from fellow conservative commentator Candace Owens that she used to work as a stripper and hired a Democratic operative for her election campaign.

The feud started on June 18 after Owens said that President Joe Biden making Juneteenth a federal holiday was the Democrats trying to "repackage segregation."

Klacik responded in a now-deleted tweet: "Believe it or not, many in 'Black America' are very aware the fight is classism rather [than] racism.

"Unfortunately, the loudest mouths with the largest platforms represent the majority. This might come to a shock to you because of your lack of engagement with black people."

It led Owens to release a 44-minute video where she made sensational claims about Klacik.

Klacik has since filed a defamation lawsuit against Owens, where she has sought $20 million in damages.

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Kimberly Klacik Says It Is 'Socialism' to Share Remaining Cash From $8M Campaign With Fellow Republicans - Newsweek

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As Afghanistan is burning withAmerican citizens left behind theenemy lines by Joe Biden, at the mercy of themurderous Taliban Washingtons socialists dont sleep.

Having sunk $2.2trillion of yourmoney into yet another failed nation-building project, the leftists,headed up by Confiscator in Chief Bernie Sanders, are conjuringupadditional schemes of how to leech another $3.5 trillion fromhard-workingAmericans. Sanders is dead set on delivering on hisgoal stated in August 2020,"We must first elect Biden, then keeppushing country further left."As an immigrant to America froma socialist country, I am distressedabout the monumental shift of my adoptedhomeland toward socialism. Iam compelled to warn my fellow Americans whatsocialism is reallyabout.

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: AMERICAN WORKERS VS. SOCIALIST STATE HOW LONG CAN WE EXPECT THEM TO CARRY THE LOAD?

Let me put in context what the promises of freestuff andequality for all, by elitists like Sanders, really mean.Socialism is an evil system, incompatiblewith freedom anddemocracy. It doesnt work because it is based on unrealistictheoriesthat ignore human nature. It has failed everywhere. And it could alsodestroy America.

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Socialism idealisticallylooks for government to create completeequality in society and to endsufferinga noble-sounding idea. Toachieve this goal, the government promisesto give everyone lifesnecessities, regardless of peoples merit for pay ordesire to work.However, it must find the money for all these necessities.Historically, socialist governments have confiscated wealth andincome to payfor them. Ultimately, the government runs everything.

Lessons I learned as a childare worth repeating to youngerAmericans today. The first problem withsocialism is not only thatsocialists eventually run out of other peoplesmoney, as MargaretThatcher once famously said, it is also that socialistsocieties stopproducing wealth altogether. If individuals cannot keep thewealththey create, they stop creating it. Most people make the rationaldecision: do mediocre work, because the same amount is paidregardless how hardthey work.

Once the state kills entrepreneurship,the society will stopinnovating. Do you know why Americans have a potatopeeler,garlic crusher and apple cutter in their kitchens, for example, whileRussians use a knife for everything? Because there was no financialincentivefor Soviet citizens to create them. The same logic,tragically, applies tocreating blood pressure medicine and cures forcancer.The second problem withsocialism is that, as scarcity of goodsgrows, those in charge of wealthredistribution start taking care oftheir needs first, rationing goods andservices for everyone exceptthemselves. There comes a point when the societysimply doesntproduce enough necessities, forcing ordinary people not part ofthestate apparatus to cheat and steal to survive. Two distinct classes ofpeople form: those who are part of the system (the privileged) andeveryoneelse (the oppressed).

In the Soviet Union, theCommunist Party elites (we called themapparatchiki,because they werepart of the stateapparatus) had everything, and everyone else struggled. Welacked such basics as toothpaste, pantyhose, toilet paper andsanitaryproducts. Party members, who were less than 10% of the Soviet adultpopulation, shopped at differentgrocery stores, were treated at differentmedical facilities, andhad other privileges. Everyone, for example, had "free"medical care, but you only saw a doctor if there was anemergency.Socialism is inhumane, forcingpeople to do unethical things out ofdesperation. My mother was stealing meatfrom the food factorywhere she worked to feed our family. Our family was notparticularly poor by Soviet standards, but there was nothing to buy.There weresimply not enough goods and services for everyone,although they were alltechnically "free."

During the past few years, Ihave increasingly felt like socialism isresurfacing in America.

A third problem withsocialism is the states complete control overindividuals. In fact, beingcalled an "individualist" has a derogatoryconnotation in Russian. Undersocialism, since the state "takes care"of its people by providing everything"for free," it plays thedominant role in all spheres of life. It tells youwhat to do, where tolive, what to wear, what to say and what to think. Itcensorseverything.

There are laws and rules for everything. There is no freepress, literature or cinematography. No religion. No presumption ofinnocence.No rights. No property. Suppression of dissent is routineand brutal.Eventually, people start to self-censor to avoidpersecution. You speak andappear to think "correctly."

Socialism creates a societyof "one-percenters" and "ninety-nine-percenters," except the one-percenters arethe ones who redistributewealth, not the ones who create it. Having lived in acountry whereeverything was "free" but nothing was available, I am terrifiedwhenI hear proposals for a single-payer medical system, "Medicare-for-all," or"free college for all."

During the past few years, Ihave increasingly felt like socialism isresurfacing in America. The rise ofpervasive political correctness,growing intolerance toward religious people,and alienation of andeven attacks on people whose views dont conform to themainstream orthodoxy remind me of my youth in the USSR. I findmyself repeatingthe same admonitions to my children that mymother frequently gave my sisterand me: "Dont believe everythingyou hear on TV, think for yourself, and keepyour and your familysviews private.

Ironically, just like myparents tried to shield me from untruths andbrainwashing by Soviet schools byexplaining at our dinner table thetruth behind Soviet indoctrination, Ivefound myself pulling mychildren from public schools and placing them intoreligious schoolsin order to avoid heavy and biased government-sponsoredindoctrination.

It was painful for me to watch my little ones cominghome andspouting how oppressive America is when I knowfirsthand what oppression reallymeans. I also could not bearwatching my kids coming home sad and confusedbecause they weresimply not old enough to be bombarded with all thesex-relatedgarbage that the school pushed on them under the rubric of "familyeducation." Family education, in my view, truly belongs within thefamily.

Big Tech and the mainstreammedias taking on the roles of thegovernments mouthpieces and agents ofinfluence is frightening.Silencing those who express "incorrect" opinions byde-platformingthem on social media, banning their books, and blacklisting themtoensure they cannot make a livingsimply because they have strayedfrom the"party line"is the method of totalitarian states to suppressdissent andensure total control.

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I sincerely hope more andmore of our citizens wake up andrecognize these markers of a Sovietization ofAmerica so that we canregain the freedom of the America that my mother sent meto at ayoung age. I hope Americans keep the right to express unpopularviewswithout fear of being ostracized by fellow citizens or losingtheir jobs,continue to enjoy presumption of innocence and dueprocess, and be free fromunlawful government surveillance forhaving "incorrect" politics.Socialism inevitably resultsin stagnation and tyranny. If we dontwant our nation to join the ranks offailed and oppressive socialistcountries, we must fight socialism in America withall weve got.

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Rebekah Koffler: Socialism in America a warning to my adopted homeland about the evils of this system - Fox News