Lee-Anne Bates
Latest articles by Lee-Anne Bates
CGSD makes its mark
Scotland’s referendum
What sort of crisis?
Lee-Anne Bates challenges Phil Hearse over the content of the left’s ‘crisis of expectations’
Unite against Blair’s austerity
After the election can the working class chart its own independent course?
Battle for democracy
Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Ian Driver, the Socialist Labour Party candidate for Vauxhall in South London. He is supported by the Vauxhall branch, though all its members have been expelled by Arthur Scargill. He is championing their appeal and the campaign for democracy in the SLP
Socialist Party: ‘Faith in working people’
In Peckham, south London both the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labour Party are standing against Labour’s Harriet Harman. We tried to talk to SLP candidate Angela Ruddock but Peckham branch secretary Ann Goss told us her branch would not speak to us. Lee-Anne Bates therefore spoke to SP candidate Joan Barker about the campaign
Red flag raised against Blair
Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Brian Gibson, who is the SLP candidate in Sedgefield, County Durham, standing against Tony Blair. He is a long-standing trade unionist, a member of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in the area and was a Labour Party member until expelled in 1988
Class not gender
Doreen McNally is a founder member of Women of the Waterfront, set up to organise women in support of the Liverpool dockers. Her husband, Charlie, has worked on the docks for 29 years. Lee-Anne Bates spoke to her about their struggle and how working class women can be organised to fight back
Anti-communist witch hunts continue
Lee-Anne Bates reviews Arthur Miller's The crucible (directed by Nicholas Hytner)
Move politics onto our ground
The Socialist Labour Party is contesting the Kidbrooke by-election in South London. Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Peter Pierce, the SLP candidate
A vision beyond capitalism
As the Liverpool dockers prepared for an international day of action on Monday January 20, Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Jimmy Nolan, chair of the Liverpool Dockers Shops Stewards’ Committee and Socialist Labour Party member, about the need for working class political organisation
Federal republic and class struggle
Mary Ward is the SSA candidate for Dundee West and a member of the CPGB. Lee-Anne Bates spoke to her about this weekend’s ‘civic event’ in Scotland and the future of the democratic struggle
WRP’s second wish
SLP Branch reports
Political Coventry
Rebuilding in Manchester
SLP branch reports
Condemned to the margins
Blairism creates its opposition
Labour's shift to the right opens up tremendous possibilities for the SLP
Need for organisation
Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Jimmy Nolan, one of the leaders of the Liverpool dockers, about his reasons for joining the SLP
Rapprochement debate crystallises
At the Communist University ‘96 rapprochement was on the top of the agenda. But there was no diplomatic truce and key areas of disagreement were fought out throughout the school in the context of many different areas of discussion
Class solidarity for tube strikes
No big surprises as Labour shuns striking underground workers
Socialist United
After Militant Labour’s successful by-election campaign in Hillingdon, Lee-Anne Bates spoke to ML’s Gary Harbord about how the left together can raise the banner of the revolutionary alternative to Labour
Winning our comrades
SLP youth get organised
Party to be won for revolution
The Socialist Labour Party founding conference marked a bold move away from the Labour Party and towards the independent working class organisation we need. So what sort of party is the SLP?
SLP moves to break Labour stranglehold
Gordon Brown has unambiguously announced Labour’s intention to continue the Tories’ attack on workers with a promised squeeze on public spending. Yet after the local elections Blair’s Labour Party looks set to win a huge anti-Tory vote, taking it to victory in the next general election. Can the Socialist Labour Party turn the tide on the Labour-Tory rightwing consensus?
SLP clique ignores members
International support there to be won
The seven-month Liverpool dockers’ dispute has gained strength from international solidarity action. This week they are awaiting news from workers in the US, who are putting pressure on ACL, the biggest company that uses the port, to pull out. This would be a major breakthrough for the dockers. Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Terry Teague, one of the dockers’ shop stewards, about how this international solidarity can be built on and generalised for the workers’ movement as a whole
The struggle for socialism: Reform or revolution?
Lee-Anne Bates reports on discussions developing within the Socialist Labour Party
Debating the SLP
Clean break with Labour
Phil Felstead is one of the ex-miners in Hemsworth who worked throughout the SLP campaign. He worked at South Kirkby colliery until it closed in 1988 and was then forced into redundancy as a result of his militant record. Lee-Anne Bates spoke to him about the SLP
Hemsworth - talking to the activists
SLP campaigners spoke to Lee-Anne Bates
Genuine socialist alternative
Lee-Anne Bates spoke to John Nicholson, ex-deputy leader of Manchester City Council, who set up the campaign to defend clause four with Arthur Scargill
Genie out of the bottle
Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Tommy Sheridan
Rapprochement paper
Historic opportunity demands widest possible debate
Debate continues after aggregate
CPGB aggregate meeting passes Perspectives for 1996
Left gives SLP initiative the cold shoulder
For the Party
A CPGB meeting to celebrate the Great October Revolution debated among different organisations and trends the tasks of the day and, centrally, the necessity to forge working class organisation as its weapon for liberation. Lee-Anne Bates reports
Communist rapprochement 75 years on
Reforging the CPGB is not an exclusive task but the job of all revolutionaries
Breaking barriers
As part of the CPGB’s process of rapprochement and discussions with other organisations, we have been talking with the Revolutionary Democratic Group (faction of the SWP). In this issue we present a joint open letter to the Socialist Workers Party, an historic move toward unity of two different traditions. Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Dave Craig, editor of the RDG’s bulletin, Workers Republic
Our voice and organiser
Communist unity
Weapons of class war
On Sunday June 4 at a meeting in London the Communist Party’s 12th Summer Offensive - our annual fund-raising drive - was launched with a speech by John Bridge on Building the revolutionary alternative
Reforging the Party
Vote communist on April 6
Workers in Scotland go to the polls this week to elect the new ‘shadow’ councils. But it is clear that - Labour, SNP or Tory - the new councils will still be ‘cutting councils’. So use your vote positively - vote communist and join us in fighting back
Workers’ campaign in Scotland
Communist candidates say ‘no cuts, no closures’
Class fighters!
On April 6 in Scotland SNP, Labour and Tory will be vying for working class votes in the ‘shadow’ council elections. But none of them are offering anything for workers in Scotland. There is an alternative - Vote Communist and join the fightback
Russian leftists desert Chechens
The Chechen war needs revolutionary answers not hand-wringing liberalism
Making the leap
Lee-Anne Bates spoke to Steve David, a new Communist Party supporter from East London who saw the need to go beyond trade union politics after being active as a signal technician during the recent signal workers’ dispute