When I was in my 20’s threw myself into conventional political activity, I was a councillor for 6 years - we were very active local running a community newspaper, campaigning on local issues and successfully advocating and supporting the creation of an urban parish council. I was a parliamentary candidate in 1983. I instinctively understood the magnitude of the defeat the left had suffered in 1983 and this was reinforced in the Miners Strike of 1984. We switched our efforts to individual activity and I widened my reading in a quest to understand. I dropped out of the Labour Party in 1996, in despair of its acceptance of neo-liberal economics and lack of a realistic critique. It has been a long, halting journey to the conclusions and proposals made on this site.
Part 3 Consider - What can be done? - What about change?