Driving Change - The Left Lane's March Update
Before taking a few days off for some rest and relaxation, here's a brief update about the launch of The Left Lane (TLL).
1. We are pleased with how it has gone so far. After seven editions, we now have 207 subscribers. At least 500 people are now reading every TLL Substack. After the Guardian columnist George Monbiot featured one of our George Galloway investigation posts on his Twitter account, we had almost 1500 readers. (Monbiot knows how Galloway operates. About 20 years ago, he was one of the co-founders of the RESPECT party, which Galloway went on to lead.) TLL is not intended to be a money spinner, but we do have certain costs to bear, and we want to especially thank our handful of paid subscribers.
2. Speaking of costs, we have recently contracted with a professional photographer to be in charge of “the look” of TLL. We think the last three TLLs have looked very good. We are still very keen to hire someone to be in charge of building our social media profile. Know anyone? [Get in touch: theleftlanepolitics@gmail.com]
3. And speaking of George Galloway, we did face some hostile comments about our three-part investigative series on Galloway prior to the Rochdale by-election. Some commentators are suggesting that we are on the cusp of a great leap forward for the British left as a result of Galloway’s landslide victory. In an article entitled “The Lion Roars Again,” one leftie wrote:
“Rochdale now has the chance to make history, spurning the robe-wearing catamites of the establishment and embracing real radical change. In Galloway, they have a champion whose fiery principles and towering integrity can shake Westminster to its foundations. The hour has come to rally to the standard of George Galloway! There’s no knocking this new Workers Party.”
We are huge optimists — mind you, not foolish ones we hope — but we beg to differ. Sharply!
No mainstream or leftist media have actually investigated how this tiny hero-worshipping party operates. We have. We don’t think that serious socialists should be endorsing a party that thinks, as we reported, that “environmentalism as a thing is anti-working class,” or which works hand in glove with reactionaries such as Nigel Farage or calls far-right conspiracy theorists it collaborates with “interesting people”.
4. A mass socialist party is now badly needed in the UK. But such a party will simply flop if it does not understand why so many previous attempts to build such a party have, well, flopped.
For the past three months, a group of about ten of us have been researching and discussing such past parties and their trajectories. Stay tuned as in about two weeks, we will be publishing here in TLL the first of several papers on what happened to them. The first paper, purely by coincidence, will be on RESPECT. We want to open up the debate about how such a socialist party should function if it is to have even a chance of being at least a little bit successful.
That’s about it for now. Do write to us. We have a range of guest posts of different types being worked on by a range of people.
One final word: To make sure TLL does NOT end up in “promotions” or your junk folder, think about adding theleftlane2024@substack.com to your contacts list.
Stay tuned,
Alan Story