by Bryn Griffiths
Are you desperate to kick out the Tories in 2024 and get behind every trade union dispute that declares Enough is Enough?… BUT despite your anger do you despair daily at Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour Party and his outright hostility to the socialist wing of our party? Are you angry about Labour’s lack of support for those such as refugees and the LGBTQ+ community who most need our support? If you share our anger and despair, you are in the right place you will be listening to the new Labour Left Podcast produced in association with Labour Hub.
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8/29/2023
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April 10, 2025
<p>Since the 1980s, the Labour left has been divided by a split between its hard and soft wings. In the light of the Labour right’s new and brutal ascendancy, is it time for the two sides to think the unthinkable and at least have a conversation? <strong>Bryn Griffiths</strong>, the presenter of the Labour Left Podcast sits down with <strong>Neal Lawson</strong>, of Compass, to ask: has the time come to try and heal some of the old wounds and work together?</p><p>In 1981 the Labour left split asunder when Neil Kinnock abstained during Tony Benn’s bid for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party and delivered a wafer-thin victory to Dennis Healey, an Atlanticist of the Labour right. As a result, the Tribune Group split between the Bennite Socialist Campaign Group and leadership loyalists. The fighting got worse when the local government left split over the need for councillors to join the miners, at the time of their historic, year-long strike, and open up a second front over ratecapping to defeat Margaret Thatcher, the neoliberal Conservative Prime Minister.</p><p>Our conversation got off to a wobbly start when we discovered that we both played prominent roles in Labour Students in the early 1980s where the left in-fighting was at its bloodiest. But, surprisingly, what comes over throughout the podcast is a clear-headed determination to get over our old wounds and focus on the struggle today to save the very essence of the Labour Party.</p><p>We discussed how the ‘playground bullies’ in Labour HQ had tried to expel Neal. It certainly felt at this point of the discussion that our enemies’ enemy might possibly become a nice new friend. Have a listen and see what you think. </p><p>During the course of the podcast, we discuss the political culture which Keir Starmer and his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney have established within Labour and ask is it a culture fit for Government? We are both enthusiastic advocates of proportional representation so we had a robust debate about how we secure the prize and what role Liberal Democrats might play. Looking in our rear-view mirror, we discussed what Labour should learn from Corbynism and the 2017 General Election campaign. We of course discuss Gaza and the Labour Right’s Atlanticism.</p><p>As the interview unfolded, we found lots to agree about so we discussed what organisational form a pluralist Labour Left might take and what we need to do to get there.</p><p>Regardless of whether you’re reading this article as someone who comes from the soft left or the hard left of the Labour Party, I think you might be pleasantly surprised about how the discussion unfolds. If you feel delighted or provoked from either side of the historic divide, the pages of Labour Hub are open to you to explain why.</p><p>If you’re on the right of the Labour Party the podcast might make you uncomfortable. Your behaviour over Gaza, the capping of third child benefits, the winter fuel allowance and now disability benefits cuts are breaking up your internal Labour Party alliances and we’re beginning to see new ones form. The podcast demonstrates the opportunities before us and we’re serious.</p><p>We trust that you will find the latest Labour Left Podcast an invaluable resource. If you do, please help us get the episode to more people by sharing, following, liking, rating and commenting on it wherever you see it.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can get the podcast on YouTube, Substack, Apple Podcasts and Audible. In fact, you can listen to it on all good podcast sites just search for the Labour Left Podcast. </p><p><strong>Bryn Griffiths </strong>is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. Bryn<strong> </strong>hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast. </p><p><br /></p>
March 9, 2025
<p>It is more important than ever, for the Labour Left, to have a route map to navigate the issue of antisemitism. Bryn Griffiths, the presenter of the Labour Left Podcast sat down with Rachel Shabi to consider the truth about antisemitism. </p><p>Some readers might be desperate to move on from antisemitism, the issue that bedevilled the Labour Left during the Corbyn period, but they would be very wrong. It can never be right to back away from antisemitism and abandon our Jewish siblings, and Israel’s actions in Gaza make it more important than ever for us to get this issue right. So, discuss the matter of antisemitism we must, and Rachel Shabi is the ideal person to explain what antisemitism is and how the left should go about fighting it.</p><p>Rachel Shabi has just published a new book - Off White the Truth About Antisemitism. She’s a journalist, broadcaster and pundit who appears in papers such as the Guardian, the New York Times, Independent and the New York Review of Books. During the Left’s ascendancy in the Labour Party, she was an important ally. In her book, which is more than anything a guide to action, she offers an urgent analysis of one of the most divisive issues of our time.</p><p>In the podcast, Rachel Shabi, addresses the truth about antisemitism. She considers an Arab Jewish perspective; the contingency of whiteness; how the extreme right has managed to camp out on our anti-racist territory; how antisemitism so often derails the left; and, finally considers what a socialist antiracist approach to fighting antisemitism must look like.</p><p>Rachel rises to the challenge set by +972 Magazine, a publication run by a group of Israeli </p><p>and Palestinian journalists, that:</p><p>“We need a serious, honest commitment to fighting antisemitism, in a leftist fashion, from a left perspective, both internally when we find it in our own ranks and also doubling down in fighting it on the right and not allowing the Israeli laundry machine to whitewash antisemitism on the right”.</p><p>If you’re new to the Labour Left Podcast, please take a look at our back catalogue. Previous episodes have included Bernard Regan from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Executive; Prof Harvey J Kaye on the legacy of the Communist Historians; Prof Corinne Fowler, talking about her book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain; Andrew Fisher telling the story behind For the Many Not the Few Labour’s 2017 manifesto; Jeremy Gilbert, a Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, a champion of Gramsci, talking about Thatcherism; episodes with Mish Rahman, Rachel Godfrey Wood and Hilary Schan on the contemporary Labour Left; Mike Phipps, author of Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, taking a longer term look at the Labour Left; Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, on the Great 1984-85 Miners’ Strike; political activist Liz Davies telling her story as the dissenter within Blair’s New Labour; Rachel Garnham, a current co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy looking back at the history of the fight for democracy in the British Labour Party; and finally myself telling the story of Brighton Labour Briefing, a local Bennite magazine of the 1980s.</p><p>If you are enjoying the show please subscribe on YouTube or your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a future episode. If you like what the Labour Left Podcast is trying to achieve, please help us to get the podcast in front of as many people as possible by sharing, following, liking, rating and commenting on every episode you watch.</p><p>You can get the podcast on YouTube, Substack, Apple Podcasts and Audible. In fact, you can listen to it on all good podcast sites just search for the ‘Labour Left Podcast’. </p><p><strong>Bryn Griffiths </strong>is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. Bryn<strong> </strong>hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast. </p><p><br></p>
January 22, 2025
<p>The first episode of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6OoOmRsNNbCsHy_vtJ-Dl4KuHLIoOpI1">Labour Left Podcast</a>, in 2025, takes a deep dive into the subject of Gaza with Bernard Regan of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. We ask the big question: how do we build the broadest possible solidarity with the Palestinian people in 2025? We could not be asking the question at a better time as the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign AGM takes place on Saturday 1st February.</p> <p>As we publish this episode it is good news to learn that, at last, we have a ceasefire in Gaza. Donald Trump is seeking to make the ceasefire about himself and is claiming all the credit. However, Trump is already telling us that he’s not confident that the ceasefire will hold! We will find out the truth in the coming weeks. What is absolutely certain is that in 2025 we must continue our support for the Palestinian people and to do that we need to deepen our understanding of their struggle. We must also redouble our solidarity activities in 2025. That is the subject matter of this podcast. Listen to it and use it. </p> <p>Our guest on the <a href="https://labourhub.org.uk/">Labour Hub</a> podcast spin off, to consider the tasks ahead, is Bernard Regan a leading member of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. Bernard served for twenty-five years on the National Executive Committee of the National Education Union (NEU) where he received the Steve Sinnott Award in recognition of his contribution to international solidarity. In 2006 he was instrumental in a teachers’ union pro-Palestinian motion which carried the TUC.</p> <p>Since the last episode the Labour Left Podcast has had some generous coverage in the Morning Star. The newspaper published a feature on the show by the journalist Solomon Hughes under the hilarious title <a href="https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/sea-centrist-dross-try-labour-left-podcast">In a sea of centrist dross, try the Labour Left Podcast</a>. Solomon went on to say “… it’s a podcast which manages to combine the grit of the grassroots with the surprising, entertaining and informative”. Thanks to Solomon.</p> <p>If you’re new to the Labour Left Podcast, please take a look at our back catalogue. Previous episodes have included Prof Harvey J Kaye on the legacy of the Communist Historians; Prof Corinne Fowler, talking about her book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain; Andrew Fisher telling the story behind For the Many Not the Few Labour’s 2017 manifesto; Jeremy Gilbert, a Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, a champion of Gramsci, talking about Thatcherism; episodes with Mish Rahman, Rachel Godfrey Wood and Hilary Schan on the contemporary Labour Left; Mike Phipps, author of Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, taking a long term look at the Labour Left; Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, on the Great 1984-85 Miners’ Strike; political activist Liz Davies telling her story as the dissenter within Blair’s New Labour; Rachel Garnham, a current co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy looking back at the history of the fight for democracy in the British Labour Party; and finally myself telling the story of Brighton Labour Briefing, a local Bennite magazine of the 1980s.</p> <p>If you are enjoying the podcast please subscribe on YouTube or your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a future episode. If you like what the Labour Left Podcast is trying to achieve, please help us to get the podcast in front of more people by sharing, following, liking, rating and commenting on every episode you watch.</p> <p>You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/labour-left-podcast/id1710229282">here</a>, Audible <a href="https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Labour-Left-Podcast-Podcast/B0CK2NFT65?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp">here</a> and listen to it on Spotify <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5RvCZlxhoYh45PUJjavAEY?si=56588ccee83e421a">here</a> If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast. </p> <p><strong>Bryn Griffiths </strong>is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. </p>
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