It’s that time of year again when I hand out my “Prestigious Lefty Awards” to those who have served the cause, served the people or generally made the left a healthier and happier place to be. Good Lord we need it.
As ever I’ve barred from entry friends, lovers, relatives and colleagues – otherwise it becomes a nepotistic minefield. Instead I’ve chosen a set of flawed, beautiful people who, in my view, deserve recognition for the work they’ve done this year. The responsibility and credit for these brilliant choices lies with me and me alone.
These awards come with the disclaimer that they are “just a bit of fun” and do not entail parcels of Moscow gold nor free membership to the Illuminati. We’re full. Sorry.
Cutting it up: Francesca Martinez
Martinez (right) has had a good political year. A stalwart of the People’s Assembly, and the fight against austerity her War on Welfare (WOW) petition secured 100,000 supporters securing Parliamentary time on the horrifying cuts to disability benefit.
She joins an ever-growing band of fantastic campaigning women comics like Bridget Christie (whose Radio Four series on feminism was a delight) and Kate Smurthwaite (who is vice-chair of Abortion Rights UK, active in supporting refugee women and constantly in the media, usually on feminist issues, although sometimes denouncing God and all his works).
Local heroes: Lewisham’s People Before Profit.
People Before Profit have been working tirelessly to protect local services. Building a unique political project with actual working class people in the room is never going to be easy, but these innovative campaigners have really made a mark locally with their audacious style of campaigning. They have occupied council homes due to be privatised, set up a food bank and have been central to the incredible campaign to defend the local hospital’s A and E and maternity units. When they came second in the hotly contested Evelyn ward by-election they showed that a) it is possible to build a local group without a national leadership telling you what to do and b) you can stand in elections without getting pulled over by electoralism.
Of course there are many local heroes across the country, like 999 Call for the NHS, the Darlington Mums who got together and have been fighting tooth and nail for the health service, the St Dennis anti-incinerator group in Cornwall, a model of local campaigning or the Barton Moss residents up in arms against fracking, to name but a few.
Best election campaign: The inanimate carbon rod.
At the beginning of the year the National Union of Students elected their president. Among the hopefuls was one small, self-effacing inanimate carbon rod. He/she/it ran a truly inspiring campaign that was genuinely funny and made its point about a union that was not representing its members with elegant force. Watch the election address and enjoy.
Services to the trade union rank and file: Len McCluskey, leader of UNITE.
Our Len (right), as I like to call him, is a former Liverpool docker and ex-supporter of Militant. You will see him in the press being vilified for backing trade union candidates in the Labour Party, pro-actively supporting striking workers, calling for general strikes and generally being an all-round good egg.
He comfortably won his re-election campaign earlier this year and has pushed on with a radical agenda well to the left of the mainstays of the trade union movement, even if tempered with a pragmatism that the hard left find uncomfortable at times. Whether that’s promoting the Unite Community political ginger groups, slugging it out with Ed Miliband while showing he’s able to duck punches as well as deliver them or generally pushing the union forwards under extraordinary pressure from the government, employers and press alike Len’s shown he’s made of the right stuff, committed to building a solid base to the union.
Breathing new life into old arguments: the Radical Independence Convention.
This coming year sees one of the most exciting political opportunities in the United Kingdom, that of the chance to break it up by letting Scotland roam free once again. Where many of the pro-union camp try to paint the referendum as being about Alex Salmond or the SNP, the pro-independence forces are, of course, far more diverse and interesting. The Radical Independence Convention has been crucial to putting a spring in the step of those who want independence because they want to see a fairer, better Scotland, providing a vision that the SNP, with their talk of staying in Nato, keeping the Queen, the pound and all that have failed to offer.
Most unexpected stand of principle: Sarah Teather MP.
When Sarah Teather announced that she would not stand for re-election for the Liberal Democrats in 2015 she was treated with cynicism by many. But the timing of her announcement and the sharpness of her criticisms helped solidify a growing fight back against the toxic tide of anti-immigration rhetoric, giving confidence and profile to those who hold the radical opinion that migrants aren’t that bad.
When she stated that “she no longer feels that Nick Clegg’s party fights sufficiently for social justice and liberal values on immigration” it was from the heart and well said. It’s likely that the immigration debate will be the sharpest and most dangerous political battleground of 2014. We will need every ally it can get if it is to win this all important fight.
Best socialist film: Spirit of ’45.
Ken Loach’s epic documentary about the pioneering reforms of the 1945 Labour government proved a real hit, drawing out of the woodwork many of the older generations of lefties re-inspired by a left vision that meant actually building things rather than resisting things being taken away. If you buy the DVD you’ll find something like 18 hours of extra, sizzling, footage of old dears talking about false teeth. At a time when being old is disparaged and ordinary people are rarely given a voice this is genuinely refreshing. I mean it!
Spirit of ’45 also had the unexpected consequence of giving the nascent Left Unity project a high profile media boost as it sought to create a new party to the left of Labour. It’s not every film that can brag that not only did it revitalise the idea of investment in publicly owned public services but played a central part in launching a political party.
Individual actions: Jack Munroe.
Food blogger Jack Munroe (right) has many award winning qualities I’m sure but it was her Parliamentary petition to debate food hunger which won her a place in the 2013 pantheon. Within, I think, 4 days Jack had gained more that 130,000 signatures on the official Parliamentary petition website securing mass public support, a debate in the Houses of Parliament and many high profile backers for this vital issue.
Services to working class history: Louise Raw
Louise Raw has single handedly been trying to bring the great Match Girls Strike back into the consciousness of the trade union movement. Remembering a time when, often immigrant, girls, some younger than ten, were at the forefront of building the modern trade union movement this is a really worthy thing to do and Raw should be commended for it. Particularly welcome was her Match women festival in July, which I certainly hope will become a regular fixture of the left’s calender for years to come.
While you could take yourself on one of David Rosenberg’s excellent historical East End Walks or visit the delightful Manchester People’s History Museum, we need more of these active, informal opportunities to learn about the past especially when it resonates with what is happening today.
Parliamentarian of the year: Diane Abbott MP.
No matter what you say, no one will ever be able to take away the fact that Diane Abbott was sacked by ‘Red’ Ed Miliband as shadow health secretary for not being “on message” just weeks after she’d laid down a clear public marker on military intervention in Syria.
The Parliamentary vote against yet another Middle East adventure was a political high point in the year and Abbott can take a nice slice of the credit for ensuring Miliband waggled and wavered around enough that the vote went the right way. Now all she needs to do is get him to adopt her stance on immigration.
Keeping it together: Comrade W and Comrade X.
The crisis within the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) has been a painful experience for many activists on the left, regardless of which side they took in the debates. But amidst the tears, the gloating, the vacuous memeing and occasional moments of serious political discussion there were two women who, through no fault of their own, found themselves at the centre of a political storm for something they must have experienced as intensely personal.
It’s difficult enough to weather a personal crisis at any time but to find yourself the subject of literally thousands of discussions by people you’ve never met or who clearly have other axes to grind must be extra-ordinarily difficult to bear. I know that people like David Renton and others have attempted to give what support they could but I think that at the end of the year it’s worth remembering the difficulties that these women have faced through the year and give some recognition that their existence has not been forgotten.
Gone but not forgotten: Hugo Chavez
The one and only international award goes, posthumously, to Hugo Chavez, the late President of Venezuela. For those who’ve not heard of him, think of him like a Latin American Russell Brand, but with the actual power to do stuff.
An enemy of the oligarchs and a friend to the poor Chavez was part of a rising tide of left Presidents in the region, and often the most flamboyant and outrageous. Not without his flaws or failings (who is?) Chavez’s time in office saw a significant redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor.
Add to the roll call of those left heroes gone but not forgotten Nelson Mandela, Iain Banks, and Vo Nguyen Giap. RIP.