New Worker Banner

The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Lead story

Starmer’s not the one for Labour

by New Worker correspondent

LABOUR PARTY conference closed with Keir Starmer’s call for confidence in Labour, a party “you can trust”, and blaming the fuel crisis and rising prices on the Tory government. Stage-managed standing ovations peppered the Labour leader’s maudlin speech to drown out the heckling from Corbynistas on the floor and maintain a pretence of unity after a gruelling few days that saw the Starmer team rocked by the resignation of the last remaining Corbynista in the Shadow Cabinet and the loss of some key Blairite motions on the conference floor.

Read the full story here >> Starmer’s not the one for Labour

Against the cuts in Euston

by New Worker correspondent

DISABLED People Against Cuts (DPAC) campaigners took to the streets of London this week to protest against the government’s removal of the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and to demand a fundamental overhaul of the social security system.

Read the full story here >> Against the cuts in Euston

A new take on an old tale

Review by Ben Soton

SOME STORIES have lasted the test of time. One such example is the Iliad, believed to have been written by the Greek poet Homer in the ninth century BC. Who hasn’t heard of the Trojan horse or the face that launched a thousand ships?

Read the full story here >> A new take on an old tale

Editorial

Brighton rocks…

...but clearly not for everyone at Labour Party conference this week. Maybe not the factional blood-bath predicted in the Tory media but nevertheless still a battleground between the Blairite bureaucracy and what’s left of the Corbynistas.

The Starmer clique used every trick in the book, including last minute suspensions of delegates, to smooth the passage of their most contentious rule changes at the Labour conference. But they didn’t get their own way on everything and on the key issue of individual voting in the leadership elections they were forced by the unions to back down.

This was meant to be a defining moment for Sir Keir Starmer at his first sit-down Labour conference since he was elected leader in April 2020. His minions told the press that this week Starmer would lay to rest the ghost of Corbynism and revitalise the Labour Party in the run-up to the next general election. But Jeremy Corbyn was still there, rallying his troops at fringe meetings far livelier than the old ennui that permeates the Brighton Centre when a Blairite takes the mike, whilst Starmer’s followers had to make do with a mediocre pamphlet that no-one will read and a maudlin speech that few will remember by the end of the week.

Now Blairite MPs, who sadly make up the overwhelming majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party, can sleep safely in their beds following de-selection rule-changes that will strengthen their grip over their constituencies and make it near-impossible for another Corbyn-style leadership challenge in the immediate future.

Read the full story here >> Brighton rocks…