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On 11.05.10 02:37, Ron Cohen wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > > In what way those are organic connections? membership? representation in > party conferences? participation in branches activities? there are > almost none of those. membership dropped to record low, branches are > empty, conferences are PR events with very little, if at all, working > class participation. the only "organic" connection, if you may call it > that, are TU donations, which are also bitterly opposed by the members - > e.g. the royal mail members of the CWU. > Just to clarify: The affiliated trade unions have 50% (i.e., half) of the delegates at Labour Party Conferences. How these are selected varies from union to union, but most British trade unions do have some semblance of democracy. On a local level affiliated trade unions are represented on the General Management Committees that run the constituency parties. This structure does mean that there are differences between the British Labour Party and the US Democratic Party - even if the ideology adopted by the party leaderships has similarities. Recognising the links between the Labour party and the unions isn't to say that entering the Labour Party is the way forward for the British Left - indeed the experience of recent decades is that when revolutionaries join the Labour Party the Labour Party changes them far more than they change the Labour Party. Einde O'Callaghan ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
