Progressive London = Left Unity?

This is a guest post by a young labour party activist.

The Left, broadly defined, has become quite fractious and
fissiparous. There are left-wingers in Labour, in the Lib-Dems, in the Greens, in Marxist groups and in no party at all.

The Progressive London Conference aimed to gather together speakers from the capital’s left. As an attendee, I found some of the sessions interesting and some of the speakers good. Others, however, notably Harriet Harman, fell flat. People were not happy with the government’s record and with its rhetoric. As Deputy Leader of the Labour Party she failed to inspire people with confidence in the leadership or with optimism that the government was going to move leftwards.

Although all wanted to see a Conservative defeat, many of those present did not want a Labour victory. The Lib-Dems and Greens present would obviously rather people voted for them rather than Labour. Unless left-wing voters unite behind the strongest anti-Tory candidate in every seat, the Tories will benefit from the splits on the centre-left.

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