Paul Mason Profile picture
Sep 25, 2020 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
The first half of this is a decent summary of the Labour leadership's current rationale: the back half - "will LOTO even engage with the left policies of 2017/19?" is the wrong question. Thread 1/ (read it first!) newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/…
2/ We are facing a solid voting bloc of people who will vote for the Tories - no matter how incompetent or corrupt - so long as they validate racism. It's a new situation. It needs Labour to a) be a bigger tent b) form new political alliances...
3/ The Labour Together election report outlines the de facto strategy: big change offer on economics combined with an attempt to reconnect on Ainsley's 4x values: "family, fairness, decency and hard work" - see my essay medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
4/ The point for the left is how to intersect with that strategy to a) boost the self-activity of both sections of the working class b) fight fascism c) draw lines across which the neoliberals and warmongers cannot cross...
5/ What's lacking right now is not a bunch of policies - it's a concrete vision: you can't just "see it in your mind's eye" because we are in a battle for the soul of small town Britain, fighting a racist Utopia... this from my column newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
6/ And here's the choice facing the Labour left: "this won't work, we're off to do something else" or to engage with the strategy and the attempt to build on the ground something that can resist authoritarian nationalism with a strong, emotional narrative
7/ Finally, though Ainsley's analysis of class is superficial (based on GBCS) , sub-theoretical nostalgia is no antidote: there is a materialist analysis of the cultural split and - in Gramsci's PN - the basis for a Marxist solution to it ... see here: medium.com/@paulmasonnews…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Paul Mason

Paul Mason Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @paulmasonnews

Mar 22
Four moves just happened in the US-Iran battle: Trump leaks peace conditions; Iran makes extreme counter-demands; Trump threatens to destroy energy plants; Iran threatens to destroy Gulf desalination plants... this is "escalate to de-escalate"... 1/ Image
Image
Image
Image
2/ analysis: First off, Trump is explicitly threatening a war crime; the UK should have no part in that. Iran's threat is also criminal. Second - Israel seems absent from the exchange. Third: Iran's maximalist demands are actually a plea for inclusion in a rules based order - Image
3/ If either escalation threat were carried out we would see an epic refugee and humanitarian crisis: Southern Caucasus, Iraq, Türkiye,Turkmenistan all vulnerable
Read 6 tweets
Mar 2
The British government is not "confused" or unclear - it's been crystal clear it did not take part in the US/Israeli attack on Iran because there is no legal basis to do so; in addition its aims are ill defined... 1/ so Labour MPs need to get real...
2/ We're under political attack from a Tory party that would have willingly breached the UN Charter. We're sticking by the Charter - everything we've done so far is lawful under Article 51...
3/ We're also under attack from the Greens who want to leave NATO, & Plaid and the SNP who want to dismember the United Kingdom. You were elected as social democrats, act like one: get behind the government and deliver a massive majority for strong, lawful conduct during this war
Read 6 tweets
Feb 8
As Morgan McSweeney resigns - here's some basic politics for any member of the Labour Party: 1/ We cannot have a leadership contest now. Why? Because the bond market is a "daily referendum on UK political stability"...the right wing press baying for Keir to resign know this ...
2/ The rat pack of podcasters and YouTubers will have a field day stoking up chaos... a doom loop of bad headlines and soaring bond yields. Therefore Keir Starmer has to remain PM. Let's have a clear report from the ISC - and it should not be difficult to get to the point...
3/ ... did the DV process throw up any problems with Mandelson? Did the security services warn anyone? Once we have that information there is a story to tell about what went wrong ...
Read 8 tweets
Feb 1
In a jaw dropping interview with Channel 4 News, Zack Polanski claims he wants both "to reform NATO from within" and replace it with "an alternative alliance of countries based in Europe… plus Brazil and Mexico and global south countries"... let's unpack... 1/
2/ NATO is an alliance formed by treaty. It is the lynchpin of the rules based global order, together with the UN. All 31 countries are signed up to defend each other. Can you imagine what would happen if we, the 5th biggest economy, left it?
3/ If the UK left NATO it would collapse. There would not be "an alliance of UK with other European countries plus Mexico and Brasil" - there would be the Russian occupation of Estonia, Lithuania, probably Svalbard and likely the collapse of Ukraine...
Read 14 tweets
Jan 18
Zack Polanski's puerile name-calling during an international crisis is testament to a profound lack of seriousness... here's the sum total of the GPEW's response so far... 🧵1/~ Image
Image
2/~ Starmer has not "appeased" Trump. He has conducted tough diplomacy over Ukraine, talking Trump back from a total sell-out; he has banned all relevant arms sales to Israel; and on Greenland he has made defence of Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders self-determination a red line
3/~ But at the last election the GPEW did NOT say "relying on US for nukes is dangerous"... they said give up nuclear weapons unilaterally... here's the manifesto... Image
Read 15 tweets
Dec 17, 2025
Russia's talking point of the day already being echoed by useful idiot savants ... "They can't invade Europe because they couldn't defeat Ukraine" - here's why that's wrong ... 1/ They have 350k troops in Belarus trained to do exactly that ... Image
2/ Russia just carried out an attack exercise in Belarus where it practised only with its strategic forces - showing how it will use lessons learned in Ukraine to menace Europe once there is a frozen conflict in Ukraine Image
3/ Specifically Russia has 3x options - destabilise Moldova, seize Svalbard, attack a Baltic state - in each case it may judge that with Guardianista useful idiots and "actionists" plus far right parties in W Europe - and Trump in power - NATO would not respond... but...
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(