Ten things everyone should know about the Labour Party - Paul Foot

1. Labour, which is linked to organised workers, is better at any time than the Tories, who are linked to organised capital.
    
2. ‘Without struggle there is no progress’: everything worth winning by the workers and the dispossessed has to be fought for.
    
3. The less Labour fights the Tories, the less it is likely to beat them at the polls or anywhere else.
    
4. The more Labour compromises and prevaricates, the more the fighting spirit of the people who vote Labour is dampened.
    
5. The more that fighting spirit is dampened, the stronger and more confident grow employers, racialists and reactionaries of every description.
    
6. The power of the elected parliament is all the time frustrated by the power of the undemocratic banks, corporations, judges and the media.
    
7. The more a Labour government tries to be fair to the banks, corporations, judges or media, the more it becomes their captive.
    
8. The more it becomes their captive, the more it attacks the people who vote Labour, thus ensuring a Labour defeat next time.
    
9. This vicious circle is written into the history of the whole century. Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson couldn’t avoid it. There’s no chance that Blair and Co, further to the right even than Attlee and Wilson, will avoid it either.
    
10. (Conclusion) Vote Labour, but keep up the fight down below to build the resistance into a force which is strong enough to dictate to the undemocratic elite at the top of society – and put an end to their interminable dictatorship.  
Paul Foot, 'Ten things everyone should know about the Labour Party', Socialist Review, 179, (October 1994)
11. 

Stand Up to Trump's Racism - and lets bring down May

Join the mass protests erupting across the UK and internationally in solidarity with the Muslim community internationally, and in solidarity with the inspiring protests in the US - including the demonstrations on Saturday 4 February against Trump's Muslim ban and May's support for Trump.  After this weekend the next demos are likely to be on 20 February as that is when Parliament is debating Trump's possible state visit - and then the TUC backed national Stand Up to Racism demonstration on Saturday 18 March for UN Anti-Racism Day.   A new movement is being born - a bit akin to the 1960s civil rights movement - against Trump - and May's support for Trump is currently the Achilles heel of the Tory government - lets keep up the momentum and stop Trump's state visit and bring down May's government! As Gary Younge rightly says, 'We have to show solidarity with people in the US—but we have to bring it home as well'.