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Author: Allistair Lomax

  • ‘Petey’ met his match in 1995 debating Clause IV with Arthur Scargill

    ‘Petey’ met his match in 1995 debating Clause IV with Arthur Scargill

    The events of yesterday, with the arrest of Peter Mandelson, draws to an end a chequered career of a politician, who will no doubt go down in history as the icon of everything this is corrupt and sleazy about the Labour Party.

    As Mandelson perp-walks to infamy, it’s worth reminding ourselves that his loathing for genuine socialism extended to the Socialist Labour Party, which came to a head when he debated the issue of Clause IV with our Comrade Arthur Scargill in Hartlepool in 1995, a debate organised by Tribune, and attended by current members of the Party

    Scargill - Mandelson debate

    Arthur recalls that he won the debate hands down, and that, once he saw that he was losing the argument, Mandelson asked the chairperson to forego a vote on the outcome of the debate, playing his usual Machiavellian tricks.

    Arthur insisted it went ahead and won the vote 10 to 1!!
    Tribune later sent a photo to Arthur, with he and Mandelson debating, which read “-“Bobby” Looking to the heavens for deliverance”. It was obvious to Mandelson, that at that point, he had lost the debate.

    Note attached to photograph from Tribune
    The note attached to the photo of Arthur Scargill debating Peter Mandelson, which reads, ” – “Bobby” looking to the heavens for deliverance”.

    Five years later, in 2001, Arthur Scargill described Labour’s policies and Mandelson:

    “The government’s policies on the NHS, education and housing were “disastrous” and Mr Mandelson was an “unmitigated disaster”.

    He added that job cuts at steel company Corus would help highlight his fight against the market forces Mr Mandelson and New Labour had embraced.

    “The mass destruction of the British coal industry is testament to the fact that I got it right and they got it wrong,”

    Given the current unpopularity of the Labour Government, and of Keir Starmer in particular, it seems that the prediction that Mandelson was an “unmitigated disaster” was prescient.

    As the Gorton and Denton by-election, nears it is worth remembering that Peter Mandelson was one of the architects of New Labour, and has been instrumental in bringing the Labour Party to its current, parlous state; mistrusted, corrupt and wedded to Thatcherite ideology.

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  • Want to stand as a Candidate for the SLP in the Local Elections?

    Want to stand as a Candidate for the SLP in the Local Elections?

    Last September (2026, our Election Nominations Officer, Chris Butler made the following announcement:

    Dear Comrades,

    The Socialist Labour Party is hoping to stand as many candidates as possible in the elections in Scotland,Wales and England next year (2026).

    If you would like to be considered as a candidate, could you let me know, please, so we can try to coordinate the campaigns.

    As a candidate your views must align with the SLP constitution and position, as outlined in the party’s Manifesto.

    And, of course, you must be a fully paid-up member of the party.

    If you wish to be considered, please give me your name, region and contact details so that we can all work together.

    The Socialist Labour Party has a lot to offer to achieve a just, socialist alternative to the disaster the other parties are making.

    Solidarity,

    Chris Butler,

    Elections Nomination Officer, Socialist Labour Party

    If you are interested then contact the party at:

    generalsecretary@socialistlabourparty.org.uk

    Or via our contact form

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  • 54th Anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate

    54th Anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate

    This week sees 54th anniversary of the Battle of Saltley Gate, 10th February 1972. The battle went on through the entire week and workers across Birmingham came out in support. 15-20,000 marched on Saltley and ensure that the gates to the coking plant were closed.

    The police had advised the government that they had everything under control, but as a result of the extent of solidarity from working people: men and women from diverse cultures, the police ordered the gates to be closed. The Prime Minister, Edward Heath, lost the following election after asking who ran the country. We, the people told him. 

    This was the time when an unknown Yorkshire miner, Arthur Scargill, became known in Britain and as leader of the 1984 – 5 Miners Strike, universally. The struggle continues. Saltley was a clear victory. A further confrontation at Orgreave mirrored Saltley. A demand for a public enquiry continues. 

    Birmingham Trade Council organised the 40th anniversary celebration in 2012 when Arthur Scargill, Ken Capstick, Deputy Leader of the Yorkshire miners during the strike and Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT were speaker. Banner Theatre performed music, including sings from their production telling the story of the Battle of Saltley Gate. Teacher and Troops Out activist Mary Pearson was M.C. 

    The SLP at the Saltley Gate Memorial Meeting

    You can watch a video of Ken Capstick speaking at the 40 anniversary.

    Here is the BBC report from 2012 on the anniversary:

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  • Meeting the MP for South Derbyshire

    Meeting the MP for South Derbyshire

    Our comrade, Paul Liversuch recently attended a coffee morning with MP Samantha Niblett, MP for South Derbyshire, an event to which he was invited. There were about thirty people in attendance, and Paul took the opportunity to question her on a number of issues.

    The issue of a recent statement by the Trades Union, Unison, was raised on care homes which revealed that care is dearer when privatised.

    Paul raised the issue of the proposed abolition of trial by jury, which he argued was an attack on democracy, particularly in relation to the government’s strategy to use terrorist legislation to label demonstrators as terrorists.

    The response from Samantha Niblett was that the cost of trails by jury cannot be afforded, but our comrade pointed out that the war in Ukraine is costing the country £billions, which should be spent on our economy. Samantha Niblett replied that as she is on Armed Forces Select Committee, in Parliament, she would vote for war, but our comrade repeated his view that it should be spent on this country. Niblett retorted that he would say that because he’s a socialist. Our comrade Paul, responded “you bet!”.  A revealing comment from a Labour MP, who clearly doesn’t identify as a socialist.

    Paul continued to press his argument that trial by jury was a fundamental human right, and that it was important to defend human rights. He reminded the MP that these policies of this Labour government are eroding our human rights.

    The next issue raised by our comrade related to the Birmingham Bin strike, Samantha Niblett was asked whether she would be prepared to take a drop of £8000 per year in salary? Angela Rayners comments relating to the strike were also raised and Paul expressed his view that Angela Rayner is a sell-out. Samantha Niblett denied this.

    Lastly opportunity was taken to raise the SLP’s policy relating to Proportional Representation and the need to reform England’s electoral system.

    Our comrade Paul felt that this was a good opportunity to raise important issues with his elected representative, to put them on the sport as well as raising the Socialist Labour Party’s profile locally.

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  • Official Statement from the Socialist Labour Party on the Government of Delcy Rodríguez

    Official Statement from the Socialist Labour Party on the Government of Delcy Rodríguez

    The Socialist Labour Party wishes to express its support for the government of Venezuela, led by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez. We recognise the legitimacy of her government, supported by the institutions, trade unions and the people of Venezuela.
    We unequivocally support the right of the Venezuelan people to govern themselves and determine their own futures, as well as their right to defend themselves against the imperialist behaviour of the United States.

    We call upon the British government to recognise the legitimacy of the government of Venezuela and call for the cessation of all hostile acts by the United States.

    We condemn utterly the aggression and barbarism of the United States in the illegal abduction of President Nicolás Maduro to United States territory in open and flagrant disregard of the international law. Such actions make a mockery of the United States claim to represent the so-called ‘rules-based order’ and threatens to destabilise global security.

    Socialist Labour Party
    5th of January, 2026

    Declaración oficial del Partido Laborista Socialista sobre la situación en Venezuela

    El Partido Laborista Socialista desea expresar su apoya al gobierno de Venezuela, liberado por la presidenta en funciones, Delcy Rodríguez. Reconocemos la legitimidad de su gobierno, apoyado por las instituciones, los sindicatos y el pueblo de Venezuela.
    Apoyamos inequívocamente el derecho del pueblo venezolano a gobernarse a sí mismo y determinar su propio futuro, así como su derecho a defenderse de la conducta imperialista de los Estados Unidos.

    Hacemos un llamamiento al gobierno Británico para que reconozca la legitimidad del gobierno de Venezuela y exija el cese de todos los actos hostiles de Estados Unidos.

    Condenamos rotundamente la agresión y la barbarie de Estados Unidos al secuestrar ilegalmente al presidente Nicolás Maduro en territorio estadounidense, en abierto y flagrante desacato al derecho internacional. Estas acciones desvirtúan la pretensión estadounidense de representar el llamado “orden basado en reglas” y amenazan con desestabilizar la seguridad global.

    El Partido Laborista Socialista (Reino Unido)

    5 de enero de 2026

    You can download the statement in PDF format in both English and Spanish.

    EnglishDownload
    EspañolDownload
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  • Trumps Attack on Venezuela

    Trumps Attack on Venezuela

    The Socialist Labour Party were shocked yesterday by the events in Venezuela, which included the abduction of the elected President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

    This is a flagrant violation of International Law by the gangster state led by Donald Trump.

    The official statement from the SLP is shown below:

    SLP official statement on the attack on Venezuela
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  • The Situation in Venezuela

    The Situation in Venezuela

    President Trump is openly threating war on the sovereign country of Venezuela and its people.

    Recent developments demonstrate that Trump and his government in the US has little regard for democracy and international law. The illegal destruction of small boats in the international waters near Venezuela, without any recourse to international law, including horrific secondary bombing runs to murder survivors. And also, the very recent seizure of a Venezuelan oil tankers directly in Venezuelan waters, are nothing more than acts of international piracy.

    The US pursues, under the Trump administration, its imperialistic agenda of aggression while on the one hand using ‘the war against drugs’ as a pretext, yet openly admitting that behind those acts is nothing more than a grab for the oil resources of Venezuela, which are some of the largest in the world.

    The US has a history of strangling Latin American countries through the use of sanctions and the subversion of democratically-elected governments that have attempted to improve the lives of their people, by initiating illegal regime changes. These sanctions in Venezuela, has meant that investment in Venezuela has been stunted, which has prevented the country from developing its own resources and caused widespread suffering to the people of Venezuela, particularly, the poor, the sick and the elderly.

    In the past, the European Union and UK government has shamefully aided the US government in the application of these sanctions, the UK in particular has frozen and holds approximately £2billion worth of gold reserves which rightfully belong to the people of Venezuela.

    The Socialist Labour Party GB condemns without reserve these naked acts of imperialism by the US, and furthermore, it fully supports the government of President Nicolás Maduro and the people of Venezuela in their pursuit of the Bolivarian Revolution that seeks to establish socialism and improve the living conditions of the people of Venezuela.

    Socialist Labour Party
    14th of December 2025

    (Español)
    La situación en Venezuela

    El presidente Trump ha declarado la guerra abiertamente al Estado soberano de Venezuela.

    Los acontecimientos recientes demuestran que Trump y su gobierno en los Estados Unidos muestran un claro desprecio por el derecho internacional y la democracia. La destrucción ilegal de pequeñas embarcaciones en aguas internacionales cercanas a Venezuela, sin recurrir al derecho internacional, incluidos horribles bombardeos secundarios para asesinar a los supervivientes, así como la muy reciente incautación de petroleros venezolanos directamente en aguas venezolanas, no son más que actos de piratería internacional.

    Los Estados Unidos, bajo la administración Trump, continúan con su agenda imperialista de agresión mientras, por un lado, utilizan como pretexto “la guerra contra las drogas”, pero admiten abiertamente que detrás de esos actos no hay nada más que el acaparamiento de los recursos petroleros de Venezuela, que se cuentan entre los más grandes del mundo.

    Los Estados Unidos tienen un historial de estrangular a los países latinoamericanos mediante el uso de sanciones y la subversión de gobiernos elegidos democráticamente que han intentado mejorar la vida de sus ciudadanos a través de cambios de régimen ilegales. Estas sanciones en Venezuela han frenado la inversión en el país, impidiendo que desarrolle sus propios recursos y causando un sufrimiento generalizado al pueblo venezolano, en particular a los pobres, los enfermos y los ancianos.

    En el pasado, la Unión Europea y el gobierno del Reino Unido han ayudado vergonzosamente al gobierno de los Estados Unidos en la aplicación de estas sanciones; el Reino Unido, en particular, ha congelado y retiene aproximadamente 2.000 millones de libras esterlinas en reservas de oro que legítimamente pertenecen al pueblo de Venezuela.

    El Partido Laborista Socialista del Reino Unido (Socialist Labour Party UK) condena sin reservas estos actos flagrantes de imperialismo por parte de los Estados Unidos y, además, apoya plenamente al gobierno del presidente Nicolás Maduro y al pueblo de Venezuela en su búsqueda de la Revolución Bolivariana, que aspira a establecer el socialismo y mejorar las condiciones de vida del pueblo venezolano.

    El Partido Laborista Socialista del Reino Unido
    14 de diciembre de 2025

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  • The Formation of Your Party By Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana

    The Formation of Your Party By Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana

    Some reflections on the formation of Your Party by Socialist Labour Party member, Kevin O’Connor

    On the weekend of the 29th and 30th of November the Socialist Your Party was founded in Liverpool by Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana. This party has fifty seven thousand paid up members so clearly it will now be a significant political force in Britain.

    As I have said before this party was founded as Socialists can no longer exist inside the British ‘Labour’ party due to witch hunts and also the ideological gap between genuine socialists and the overwhelmingly now right wing reactionary ‘Labour’ members of parliament is far to wide.

    Personally I will not be joining Your Party I will remain a member of the Socialist Labour party. A party with a clear programme of public ownership and opposition to NATO and the European Union.

    However Your Party, despite its troubles in the period leading up to the founding conference in Liverpool, will probably gain a significant amount of support in the next few years as the world wide capitalist crisis intensifies. We shall also have to wait and see if Your Party takes the correct genuine Socialist policy of total opposition to the corporate fascist EU.

    In conclusion whilst the formation of Your Party is a positive development. There is still a major role for other socialist partys to play in the next few years as the crisis of international capitalism rapidly grows. The Socialist Labour Party which I am a member of a party with a clear socialist programme will play a key role in the fight for socialism in the next few years.

    Best wishes to all for the future.

    Kevin O’Connor

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  • The Scandal of the projected rises in Defence spending

    The Scandal of the projected rises in Defence spending

    The UK Labour government under Kier Starmer has committed itself to increasing defence spending up to the end of the current parliamentary period in 2029

    Chart of rising defence spending in the UK

    Last year, the UK government was spending £53.9 billion on defence which equates to 4.4% of the total government expenditure in the UK.

    By 2029, it is set to rise to £73.5 billion, which represents 6.0% of UK government expenditure.

    Senior Labour Party figures often describe the Labour Party as the “party of tough choices”. Only last year, Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves stripped winter fuel payments from 10 million pensioners.

    In March of this year, the Child Poverty Action Group released some shocking statistics regarding the increase in child poverty in the UK.

    • 44% of all children living in poverty are living in a household where someone is disabled
    • 72% of poor children live in working families
    • 44% of children in families with 3 or more children are in poverty, far higher than families with 1 child (21%) or 2 children (25%)
    • Poor families have fallen deeper into poverty. There are 3.1 million children in deep poverty compared to 2.9 million children last year (i.e. with a household income below 50% of after-housing-costs equivalised median income)
    • 48% of all children in poverty were in families with a youngest child aged under five
    • 49% of children in Asian and British Asian families are in poverty, 49% of children in Black/ African/ Caribbean and Black British families, and 24% of children in white families
    • 43% of children in lone parent families were in poverty, higher than the couples rate of 26%
    • More children in poverty are growing up in privately rented homes – 1.7 million, a record high, up from 1.1 million in 2010/11
    • The three-year average poverty rate has fallen in Scotland from 24% to 23% (one-year from 26% to 22%) and has risen in England from 30% to 31%, in Northern Ireland from 23% to 24%, and in Wales from 29% to 31%

      (See https://cpag.org.uk/news/child-poverty-statistics-new-record-high-and-further-breakdowns)

    Yet, this Labour government prefers to direct our country’s resources to armaments, to spend money that results in death and destruction rather than direct it to those in our society who most need it. This is all despite Rachel Reeves promise at the Labour Party Conference in 2024 to “invest in Britain’s renewal”.

    The Socialist Labour Party utterly rejects this approach.
    Our manifesto states:

    The full human cost of child poverty is impossible to estimate. Nobody can measure
    adequately the cost in physical or emotional suffering of growing up in a damp or overcrowded
    home, of having a parent who relies on charity to put food on the table or of going to school in
    shabby second-hand clothes.

    Every child has a right to live in peace and comfort with decent education, housing, free health
    care and caring adults to provide a safe, nurturing and loving environment.

    The Socialist Labour is committed to creating a fairer society where the well-being of people is placed before weapons, a place where child poverty would only be a memory.

    If you share our vision, join us today!

    Allistair Lomax

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  • Gang of Heroes Rescue Arthur Scargill

    Gang of Heroes Rescue Arthur Scargill

    A story appeared in today’s Sheffield Star concerning our comrade Arthur’s Scargill’s roadside rescue.

    “A gang of caring heroes rushed to the aid of one of the best known faces of the 1980s after a drama on a remote Sheffield road.

    Arthur Scargill, one of the most famous personalities of the 1980s, when he led the miners strike from 1984 to 1985, had battled to control his car after suffering a blowout on the way home from an event at Sheffield University.

    Former NUM leader Arthur Scargill, pictured at the 40th Anniversary of the Miners’ Strike commemoration in Stainforth Doncaster, suffered a blowout as he drove through Sheffield

    But after fighting to bring the car under control and getting it onto a side street, he was followed by other cars – full of young men.

    The car drama happened just outside the Battlekart attraction, on Downgate Drive – a venue which features video-game style car battles.

    When the young men got out of the cars, they sprung to Mr Scargill’s aid, and spent two hours helping him, with no idea they were assisting one of the biggest names in British union history.

    Now Mr Scargill has contacted The Star to tell the story of the Good Samaritans who went out of their way to help him – an 87-year-old man in trouble – and his wife.

    He said his car had swerved off the main road and into a side road, Downgate Drive, near Brightside.

    Arthur Scargill suffered a blowout and managed to get his car onto Downgate Drive, near Brightside.

    He said: “There was a terrific bang and my first thought was that we had hit something in the road – all I knew was the front wheel had gone.”

    He added: “These young men witnessed the incident, and followed us in their cars down Downgate Drive to see if we needed help.

    “They assisted me in ensuring that my car was parked by the side of the road, helped me get the spare wheel out, and stood by while I contacted my breakdown service.

    “When my breakdown service informed me that It could only come out if my spare wheel was fully inflated, one of these young men went to the nearest garage with the spare to ensure that was done. Only when the four of them knew that my service was on its way did they take their leave.

    “We are in our eighties, and so grateful. We want to thank these kind young men of Sheffield.”

    He said they had refused to take anything to say thank you, and he did not know who they were or their names.

    He said he could not thank them enough and added: “It is not every day that you encounter people like this and Sheffield should be proud of them. They are a credit to the city.”

    During the 80s, and in the 90s, Mr Scargill was a familiar face on television news and in the newspapers as the National Union of Mineworkers, which was based in Sheffield, took on the Government over plans to close collieries.”

    You can read the original story here

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