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July 14, 2006

John McDonnell MP: Another World Is Possible

John McDonnell has just announced that he'll stand as a candidate for Labour Party leadership (and therefore as a candidate for UK Prime Minister) when Blair resigns. The idea is to offer a left-wing candidate for leadership, to try to change the direction of the party.

It's interesting how MchDonnell's campaign is starting. His blog borrows the 'Another World Is Possible' slogan from the anti-globalisation/global justice movements, and the photo at the top of his blog seems to be taken from one of the big anti-war protests. News of his campaign is being actively spread over the Internet, and McDonnell has launched a blog alongside the start of his campaign. Before hearing about it on the news, I learnt of his announcement through an e-mail discussion group.

In his leadership bid, 'new' means of campaigning are linked with an appeal to the socialist traditions of the Labour Party: McDonnell argues that "New Labour has systematically alienated section after section of our supporters - teachers, health workers, students, pensioners, public service workers, trade unionists and people committed to the environment, civil liberties and peace. Spin and allegations of sleaze are causing decent people to lose trust in our party."

It'll be interesting to see how well this campaigning works. McDonnell argues that "I believe that sceptics are in for a real shock. There is real climate for political debate and policy change." I hope he's right.

Posted by jon_mendel at July 14, 2006 07:56 PM