Left Unity (UK)
|
Left Unity
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Principal Speakers | Sharon McCourt, Joseph Healy, Nick Jones |
| National Secretary | Felicity Dowling |
| Founded | 30 November 2013 |
| Membership (November 2015) |
 1,500 |
| Ideology |
Socialism Environmentalism Feminism Anti-racism |
| European affiliation | Party of the European Left |
| Colours | Red Green Black |
| Website | |
| http://leftunity.org/ | |
Left Unity is a left-wing political party in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 2013 when film director Ken Loach appealed for a new party to replace the Labour Party (which, he claimed, failed to oppose austerity and had shifted towards neoliberalism).
More than 10,000 people supported Loach's appeal. In 2014, the party had 2,000 members and 70 branches across Britain. The organisation is affiliated at the European Union level with the Party of the European Left.
The party's primary aim is to
... unite the diverse strands of radical and socialist politics in the UK including workers' organisations and trade unions; ordinary people, grass root organisations and co-operatives rooted in our neighbourhoods and communities; individuals and communities facing poverty, discrimination and social oppression because of gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexuality, unemployment or under-employment; environmental and green campaigners; campaigners for freedom and democracy; all those who seek to authentically voice and represent the interests of ordinary working people.
Left Unity was founded by Ken Loach, who believed that there was an "absence of a strong voice on the left" and that "the Greens are alone among the political parties in not standing up for the interests of big business". Loach wanted a "UKIP of the left", "a successful party to the left of Labour as UKIP appears to be a successful party to the right of the Tories".
Left Unity is an anti-capitalist party, firmly opposed to "austerity programmes which make the mass of working people, the old, the young and the sick, pay for a systemic crisis of capitalism", and believes that such measures protect bankers and not ordinary people. According to Loach, "an anti-austerity alliance is good, but the problem with [the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party is that] they're mainly social democratic parties". Nick Eardley wrote for BBC News, "Parties like his are needed to peddle a more radical message".
...
Wikipedia