tom-blackburn

48 Articles by:

Tom Blackburn

Tom Blackburn is a Tribune columnist. He is a founding editor of New Socialist and lives in Greater Manchester.

These Strikes Don’t End with the Summer

Our current crisis was forty years in the making, and still none of the main parties have any real answers to spiralling inflation, unaffordable bills, or poverty wages. Hot strike summer might be over, but workers’ anger is not.

Labour Versus the Workers

This summer of strikes amid a Tory-created collapse in living standards should be Labour’s moment to make the case for change. Instead, with interventions like David Lammy’s, the party is betraying the workers it’s meant to represent.

A Pageant for the Ruling Class

A celebration of royalty is a celebration of unearned status, intergenerational wealth and undemocratic politics. It is, in other words, doffing the cap to the ruling class – and the society they preside over.

Posturing Is All Keir Starmer Has to Offer

The Labour leader’s Beergate gamble is a thin cover for the fact he has nothing to say on the cost of living crisis – and making personal integrity a central pillar of your politics is a risky strategy when you don’t have any.

Privatisation Is the Real Rip-off

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves recently argued that bringing utilities into public ownership wasn’t ‘good value for money’ – but for millions of people, privatisation has led to higher bills and worse services.

2021: A View from the Left

2021 saw setbacks for the Left across much of the West, but victories in Latin America are a reminder that socialist policies continue to offer an alternative to a system in crisis.

The Regeneration of the Labour Right

Three stalwarts of the Labour right – Margaret Hodge, Barry Sheerman, and Harriet Harman – are stepping down at the next election. But we should be just as worried about who might turn up in their place.

In Search of Victor Grayson

A new book explores the legend surrounding the disappearance of one-time socialist MP Victor Grayson – and offers a stark lesson in the political trajectories of those who leave the Left.

Politics on the Cheap

Labour’s financial crisis was made inevitable by Keir Starmer sacrificing loyal supporters and socialist policies to impress millionaire backers. Unfortunately for Labour’s leader, the super-rich already have a party that serves their interests.

The ‘Kinnock Moment’ Myth

In the run-up to party conference, Labour right-wingers are salivating at the prospect of another public war on the Left – but Neil Kinnock’s actual record as leader demonstrates why that is a dead end.

Keir Starmer’s Patsy Pipeline

Keir Starmer’s Future Candidates Programme promises to bring ‘normal’ people into politics – but in reality, it is designed to produce handpicked MPs with no sense of connection to the party membership.

Labour’s Self-Flagellation Tour

The Labour leadership’s ‘listening tour’ will do little to rebuild relationships with postindustrial communities – but it will provide plenty of opportunities to repeat right-wing attacks on the party’s progressive base.