Marsha-Jane for LRC Vice Chair

MJ is an occasional contributor here, but always a "Stroppy" bird and member of this blog :-) She has posted this on her site, and i'm cross posting here as she is busy today and not about to upload it .

Here is her statement as to why she is standing for Vice Chair:

I am standing down as Chair of the Socialist Youth Network in order to put more time into the Labour Representation Committee, to the National Committee of which I am seeking re-election at Saturday's Conference.

I am also standing for one of the two positions of Vice-Chair. I am not doing this out of personal opposition to either of the incumbents but to advance a political argument about what the Labour Representation Committee should be doing.

The LRC organises those of us on the left with an orientation towards the Labour Party as the party established by our class and sustained by our movement.

That orientation may vary from the heartfelt commitment of those born into the Party and expecting to die in it to the sound pragmatic calculation of those outside the Party (whether by choice or otherwise) who recognise that for the foreseeable future the prospects of constructing a UK wide electoral alternative on the left are even less favourable than the distant prospect of socialist advance within the Party.

The LRC is viable as a coalition of those with these different orientations to the Labour Party because - for the foreseeable future - these various perspectives lead to the same practical conclusions.

The LRC needs to be a vibrant voice for the Labour Left and for our movement - as well as being the distinctive voice of the Labour Left (in the broad sense) within the wider plural left of which we are and will remain an active part.

Therefore we need to be clear about our orientation to the Labour Party - that we are the LABOUR Representation Committee and that we are a voice of and for the Labour Left.

I believe that the welcome innovation of a job share candidacy for LRC Secretary will embody the alliance between those with different perspectives.

My candidacy for Vice Chair is an expression of the unequivocal orientation to the Labour Party and trade unions which I believe anchors the LRC to its wider constituency and gives us the distinctive political voice necessary for us to play a constructive role in the wider left.
MarshaJane
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