122-497: The Skwawkbox is a left-wing news site based in the United Kingdom , founded in 2012 by Steve Walker. The Skwawkbox states that its aim is to "present information and analysis that will rarely make it into the mainstream media ." Founder Steve Walker has said: "The people we're trying to reach are what we call the outer parts of the Venn diagram . Not the real dedicated people on
244-749: A hard Brexit would address voters' concerns regarding sovereignty and migration but would provoke significant economic harm . Streeting appeared in The Sun and tweeted a link to the article saying he would be " tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime ". On immigration, in 2018, Streeting said: "I regularly make the point that we need better education and training for our own people, but we should be honest with our country that we also rely on attracting people from overseas, particularly with our ageing population and shrinking working age population." On health, in December 2021, in response to growing waiting times in
366-438: A lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights charity (for one year and six months), where he led their Education for All campaign to tackle homophobia in schools. He was subsequently a public sector consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which he gave up on election as a councillor, because Redbridge Council was a "current audit client" of the firm; this forced him to choose between keeping his job or forcing
488-451: A mixed economy with an empowered public sector and a thriving private sector . Centre-left policies tend to favour limited state intervention in matters pertaining to the public interest . In several countries, the terms far-left and radical left have been associated with many varieties of anarchism , autonomism and communism . They have been used to describe groups that advocate anti-capitalism and eco-terrorism . In France,
610-461: A "long-time critic" of Jeremy Corbyn , who was leader of the Labour Party from 2015 until 2020. He accused Corbyn of a "flat-footed and lackadaisical attitude" to tackling antisemitism , which was "simply unacceptable". Streeting was among the 70 per cent of Labour MPs who nominated Owen Smith in the 2016 party leadership election . In 2022, Streeting said, "I always thought that Jeremy Corbyn
732-509: A Fry-Up , in June 2023. The book received generally positive reviews. Rachel Cooke of The Observer described the book as "both a little bit boring and unexpectedly fascinating". Jason Cowley of The Sunday Times praised Streeting for telling "his story with emotional intelligence. He is never self-aggrandising, yet part of his appeal is his naked ambition; in a recent interview he was unequivocal about wanting one day to be prime minister. This
854-478: A belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished through radical means that change the nature of the society they are implemented in. According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, supporters of left-wing politics "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated." Within
976-619: A capitalist bourgeois ideology. Marxists were responsible for organizing the first International Working Women's Day events. The women's liberation movement is closely connected to the New Left and other new social movements which openly challenged the orthodoxies of the Old Left. Socialist feminism as exemplified by the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women and Marxist feminism , spearheaded by Selma James , saw themselves as
1098-587: A central feature of political debates on the Left. During the French Revolution, nationalism was a key policy of the Republican Left. The Republican Left advocated for civic nationalism and argued that the nation is a "daily plebiscite" formed by the subjective "will to live together". Related to revanchism , the belligerent will to take revenge against Germany and retake control of Alsace-Lorraine , nationalism
1220-467: A councillor on 3 May 2018. At the 2015 general election , Streeting was elected to Parliament as MP for Ilford North with 43.9% of the vote and a majority of 589. After being elected to Parliament, Streeting was elected Honorary President of the British Youth Council . In April 2016 Streeting criticised the Labour Party for refusing a £30,000 donation from McDonald's . According to Labour,
1342-443: A decreased majority of 5,198. Following Labour's defeat in the general election, Streeting nominated Jess Phillips and Rosena Allin-Khan in the 2020 Labour Party leadership and deputy leadership elections, and, after Allin-Khan did not win, subsequently endorsed Ian Murray for the deputy leadership. After the election of Keir Starmer as Leader of the Labour Party , Streeting was appointed Shadow Exchequer Secretary to
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#17328511576961464-570: A desire for greater economic equality and workers rights with demands for environmental protection. Democratic socialist Bolivian president Evo Morales has traced environmental degradation to capitalist consumerism , stating that "[t]he Earth does not have enough for the North to live better and better, but it does have enough for all of us to live well". James Hansen , Noam Chomsky , Raj Patel , Naomi Klein , The Yes Men and Dennis Kucinich hold similar views. In climate change mitigation ,
1586-720: A distinction is made between the centre-left and the left represented by the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party and the far-left as represented by anarcho-communists , Maoists and Trotskyists . The United States Department of Homeland Security defines "left-wing extremism" as groups that "seek to bring about change through violent revolution, rather than through established political processes". Similar to far-right politics , extremist far-left politics have motivated political violence , radicalization , genocide , terrorism , sabotage and damage to property,
1708-523: A firing squad, and children were deprived of any religious education outside of the home. Today in the Western world , those on the Left generally support secularization and the separation of church and state. However, religious beliefs have also been associated with many left-wing movements such as the progressive movement , the Social Gospel movement, the civil rights movement , the anti-war movement ,
1830-423: A force within left-wing politics. The influential Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , published amidst the wave of revolutions of 1848 across Europe, asserted that all of human history is defined by class struggle . They predicted that a proletarian revolution would eventually overthrow bourgeois capitalism and create a stateless , moneyless and classless communist society . It
1952-549: A left-wing response to The Limits to Growth model that predicted catastrophic resource depletion and spurred environmentalism, postulating that capitalist technologies were the key cause responsible for environmental degradation, as opposed to human population pressures. Environmental degradation can be seen as a class or equity issue, as environmental destruction disproportionately affects poorer communities and countries. Several left-wing or socialist groupings have an overt environmental concern and several green parties contain
2074-522: A member. According to the regulator's 2017/18 annual report, it upheld three complaints against The Skwawkbox in the year up to 31 March 2018, the most of any member over the period. The same number of complaints were dismissed. In November 2018, IMPRESS ruled against The Skwawkbox for breaching standards in its reporting on Labour MP Wes Streeting . The complaint upheld was that the publishers did not take all reasonable steps to ensure accuracy, because Streeting had only been given four hours to respond to
2196-721: A part of the Left by their contemporaries. Feminist pioneer Mary Wollstonecraft was influenced by Thomas Paine . Many notable leftists have been strong supporters of gender equality such as Marxist philosophers and activists Rosa Luxemburg , Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai , anarchist philosophers and activists such as Virginia Bolten , Emma Goldman and Lucía Sánchez Saornil and democratic socialist philosophers and activists such as Helen Keller and Annie Besant . However, Marxists such as Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and Alexandra Kollontai, who are supporters of radical social equality for women and have rejected and opposed liberal feminism because they considered it to be
2318-482: A part of the Left that challenges male-dominated and sexist structures within the Left. The connection between left-wing ideologies and the struggle for LGBTQ rights also has an important history. Prominent socialists who were involved in early struggles for LGBTQ rights include Edward Carpenter , Oscar Wilde , Harry Hay , Bayard Rustin and Daniel Guérin , among others. The New Left is also strongly supportive of LGBTQ rights and liberation, having been instrumental in
2440-469: A phone call from his urologist informing him that tests, initially for kidney stones, revealed he had kidney cancer. He was on a campaign visit at the time. However, because the cancer was noticed early, his prognosis was good even though he needed surgery to remove the kidney. On 27 July 2021, Streeting announced that he had been declared cancer-free, following an operation to remove one of his kidneys . Streeting published his memoir One Boy, Two Bills and
2562-563: A position within the political mainstream that accepts capitalism and a market economy. The terms far-left and ultra-left are used for positions that are more radical , more strongly rejecting capitalism and mainstream representative democracy , instead advocating for a socialist society based on economic democracy and direct democracy , representing economic, political and social democracy. The centre-left includes social democrats , social liberals , progressives and greens . Centre-left supporters accept market allocation of resources in
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#17328511576962684-538: A review of the costs of assisted dying, warning that it would “come at the expense of other choices”. Streeting has also strongly criticised those campaigning against same-sex education in schools. When asked if transgender women can be women on a Talkradio interview show, he was applauded by Julia Hartley-Brewer for his response, stating: "Men have penises, women have vaginas; here ends my biology lesson." In January 2024, he voiced his support for putting transgender hospital patients in their own, separate, ward. In
2806-456: A ruling elite of individuals) while it prepares a population for capitalist exploitation. Within anarchism, this subject has been extensively discussed by Rudolf Rocker in his book titled Nationalism and Culture and by the works of Fredy Perlman such as Against His-Story, Against Leviathan and The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism . The failure of revolutions in Germany and Hungary in
2928-541: A second by-election. In 2010, shortly after leaving PwC, Streeting was appointed as Head of Policy and Strategic Communications for Oona King 's unsuccessful bid to win the Labour Party's nomination to be its candidate in the 2012 London Mayoral election . In a July 2010 by-election , Streeting was elected as a Labour councillor for the Chadwell ward on Redbridge London Borough Council , having stood unsuccessfully for that council's Roding ward two months earlier. He held
3050-708: A similar wording to be published as a standalone correction: A previous version of this article said that Foojit made money from the NHS “by selling its mailing system to the Levenshulme Health Clinic in Manchester”. Mr Walker has contacted us to point out that in fact Foojit’s mailing system software was provided to the Clinic for free. What the Health Clinic pays for is any letters it sends using Foojit’s services. In addition
3172-627: A strong socialist presence. The Green Party of England and Wales features an eco-socialist group, the Green Left , which was founded in June 2005. Its members held several influential positions within the party, including both the former Principal Speakers Siân Berry and Derek Wall , himself an eco-socialist and Marxist academic. In Europe, several green left political parties such as the European United Left–Nordic Green Left combine traditional social-democratic values such as
3294-644: A supporter of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East . In September 2018, he held the last in a series of London-wide consultations to create the Working Definition of Islamophobia . In July 2018, Streeting called for "targeted economic sanctions" against Israeli settlements in the West Bank in response to the Israeli government "grossly infringing on the human rights of Palestinians". In July 2019, Streeting
3416-404: A temporary state between the capitalist state of affairs and a communist society . Marx defined the proletariat as salaried workers, in contrast to the lumpenproletariat , who he defined as the outcasts of society such as beggars, tricksters, entertainers, buskers, criminals and prostitutes. The political relevance of farmers has divided the left. In Das Kapital , Marx scarcely mentioned
3538-614: Is bourgeois nationalism . Some Marxists, together with others on the left, view nationalism , racism (including antisemitism) and religion as divide and conquer tactics used by the ruling classes to prevent the working class from uniting against them in solidarity with one another. Left-wing movements have often taken up anti-imperialist positions. Anarchism has developed a critique of nationalism that focuses on nationalism's role in justifying and consolidating state power and domination. Through its unifying goal, nationalism strives for centralisation (both in specific territories and in
3660-676: Is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party , he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford North since 2015 . Brought up in Stepney , Streeting attended Westminster City School . He read history at the University of Cambridge and was President of the Cambridge Students' Union from 2004 to 2005. He
3782-504: Is a practising Anglican , has said his faith is "about compassion, not walking by on the other side", and that it caused serious problems when it came to his sexuality: "My faith was a really big obstacle to accepting myself ... I spent many years choosing not to be gay." He has been engaged to Joe Dancey since 2013. In May 2021, Streeting revealed he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and would be stepping back from frontline politics while he received treatment for it. He had received
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3904-507: Is opposed to legislation on assisted dying, announcing in October 2024 that he would be voting against Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill . The Labour government gave its MPs a free vote on the legislation, and Streeting said he was concerned the current state of palliative care meant patients could feel 'guilt-tripped' into ending their lives. He attracted criticism from some colleagues including Harriet Harman for ordering
4026-421: Is sometimes used to justify hostility towards supranational organizations. Left-wing nationalism can also refer to any form of nationalism which emphasizes a leftist working-class populist agenda that seeks to overcome exploitation or oppression by other nations. Many Third World anti-colonialist movements have adopted leftist and socialist ideas. Third-Worldism is a tendency within leftist thought that regards
4148-427: Is the self-made East End boy speaking." Robert Colls of Literary Review was more critical, writing that "There are few ideas here that might take us deeper or wider. Streeting is a self-confessed Christian geek who never stopped reading and who wore his school merit badges with pride, but I was left searching for the intellect on which all his achievements were built. Maybe it will be in the next book." Streeting
4270-627: Is used for social and cultural politics. In the United Kingdom during the 1980s, the term hard left was applied to supporters of Tony Benn such as the Campaign Group and those involved in the London Labour Briefing newspaper as well as Trotskyist groups such as Militant and the Alliance for Workers' Liberty . In the same period, the term soft left was applied to supporters of
4392-422: The 2015 general election and resigned as the council's deputy leader before standing down as a councillor in 2018. He was reelected to Parliament in both the 2017 and 2019 general elections. Streeting endorsed Jess Phillips for the 2020 Labour leadership election and Rosena Allin-Khan for the deputy leadership election. However, he later supported Ian Murray for the deputy leadership after Allin-Khan
4514-568: The Bible . In the late 19th century, the Protestant Social Gospel movement arose in the United States which integrated progressive and socialist thought with Christianity through faith-based social activism. Other left-wing religious movements include Buddhist socialism, Jewish socialism and Islamic socialism. There have been alliances between the left and anti-war Muslims , such as
4636-969: The Democratic and Republican parties, or as synonyms for liberalism and conservatism , respectively. Since the Right was populist, both in the Western and the Eastern Bloc , anything viewed as avant-garde art was called leftist across Europe, thus the identification of Picasso's Guernica as "leftist" in Europe and the condemnation of the Russian composer Shostakovich 's opera ( The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District ) in Pravda as follows: "Here we have 'leftist' confusion instead of natural, human music". The spectrum of left-wing politics ranges from centre-left to far-left or ultra-left . The term centre-left describes
4758-641: The National Health Service (NHS), Streeting said the way to reduce waiting times was better pay and conditions, while keeping a check on the six figure salaries of managers and management consultants. Following a visit to Israel in May 2022, Streeting suggested that the UK should embrace new technologies in the health sector that are commonplace in Israel to improve outcomes. In January 2022, Streeting said that he supported
4880-593: The New Labour years. In 2009, while President of the NUS, Streeting posted tweets about wanting to push Daily Mail journalist Jan Moir 'under a train'. Streeting worked for the Labour Party -related organisation Progress for a year. Progress was a pressure group created to support Tony Blair's New Labour in 1996 and continued to promote the thinking of the Blairite-Brownite wing of Labour until 2014. Progress
5002-559: The November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle , Streeting became, following a promotion by Starmer, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care ; a position he remained in until July 2024. After Labour's victory in the general election, Streeting was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the Starmer cabinet . He declared the NHS to be broken and has vowed to resolve
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5124-575: The Profumo affair ). According to Streeting, they "stayed in touch, they became friends". His grandmother was released from prison to give birth to his mother at Whittington Hospital . Streeting's two grandfathers, both named Bill, were key figures in his youth. His maternal grandfather, Bill Crowley, was acquainted with the infamous East End Krays . He was "really well-read and well-informed", and engaged his grandson in lively discussions about religion and politics. Streeting's paternal grandfather served in
5246-581: The Republicans and Eugène Etienne , the president of the Parliamentary Colonial Group. After the antisemitic Dreyfus Affair in which officer Alfred Dreyfus was falsely convicted of sedition and exiled to a penal colony in 1894 before being exonerated in 1906, nationalism in the form of Boulangism increasingly became associated with the far-right. The Marxist social class theory of proletarian internationalism asserts that members of
5368-651: The Respect Party and the Stop the War Coalition in Britain. In France, the left has been divided over moves to ban the hijab from schools, with some leftists supporting a ban based on the separation of church and state in accordance with the principle of laïcité and other leftists opposing the prohibition based on personal and religious freedom. Social progressivism is another common feature of modern leftism, particularly in
5490-747: The Roman Catholic Church and supporting atheism and the separation of church and state , ushering in a policy known as laïcité . Karl Marx asserted that "religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people ". In Soviet Russia, the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin originally embraced an ideological principle which professed that all religion would eventually atrophy and resolved to eradicate organized Christianity and other religious institutions. In 1918, 10 Russian Orthodox hierarchs were summarily executed by
5612-524: The Royal Courts of Justice , Turley won the libel claim against Unite and Walker and was awarded damages of £75,000. An application to appeal was filed, but refused on 7 May 2020. The Skwawkbox subscribes to independent, Leveson-compliant press regulator IMPRESS . In March 2018, Skwawkbox considered cutting ties with IMPRESS following the publication of a controversial 1961 political pamphlet by key IMPRESS supporter Max Mosley ; however, it has remained
5734-543: The Saint-Imier International and later the International Workers' Association (IWA–AIT) . The Second International (1888–1916) became divided over the issue of World War I . Those who opposed the war, among them Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg , saw themselves as further to the left. In the United States, leftists such as social liberals , progressives and trade unionists were influenced by
5856-618: The Second Republic was an attempt by the Left to re-assert itself after the 1848 Revolution , but only a small portion of the population supported this. In the mid-19th century, nationalism , socialism , democracy and anti-clericalism became key features of the French Left. After Napoleon III 's 1851 coup and the subsequent establishment of the Second Empire , Marxism began to rival radical republicanism and utopian socialism as
5978-539: The Second World War in the Royal Navy and later in the merchant navy before becoming a civil engineer . He recalled: "He was the grandad I was closest to. He was a traditional working-class Tory ." Streeting grew up living in a council flat . He recalls Conservative Party politicians, particularly Ann Widdecombe , in the 1990s "denigrating single-parent families like mine, which I took quite personally". He
6100-520: The Third Estate ) generally sat to the left of the presiding member's chair in parliament while the ones in favour of the royal veto privilege sat on its right. That habit began in the original French National Assembly . Throughout the 19th century, the main line dividing Left and Right was between supporters of the French republic and those of the monarchy 's privileges. The June Days uprising during
6222-490: The Western world include strong opposition to the death penalty , torture , mass surveillance , and the war on drugs , and support for abortion rights, cognitive liberty , LGBTQ rights including legal recognition of same-sex marriage , same-sex adoption of children, the right to change one's legal gender , distribution of contraceptives , and public funding of embryonic stem-cell research . The desire for an expansion of social and civil liberties often overlaps that of
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#17328511576966344-516: The centre-left , especially social democrats who adopted the Third Way . Left-wing politics are typically associated with popular or state control of major political and economic institutions. Other leftists believe in Marxian economics , named after the economic theories of Karl Marx . Some distinguish Marx's economic theories from his political philosophy, arguing that Marx's approach to understanding
6466-563: The displacement of Keynesianism and post-war social democracy . One of the first actions of Ed Miliband , the Labour Party leader who succeeded Blair and Brown, was the rejection of the New Labour label and a promise to abandon the Third Way and turn back to the left. However, Labour's voting record in the House of Commons from 2010 to 2015 indicated that the Labour Party under Miliband had maintained
6588-645: The left–right political spectrum , Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution , referring to the seating arrangement in the French National Assembly . Those who sat on the left generally opposed the ancien régime and the Bourbon monarchy and supported the Revolution, the creation of a democratic republic and the secularisation of society while those on the right were supportive of
6710-413: The libertarian movement. Public education was a subject of great interest to groundbreaking social progressives such as Lester Frank Ward and John Dewey , who believed that a democratic society and system of government was practically impossible without a universal and comprehensive nationwide system of education. Various counterculture and anti-war movements in the 1960s and 1970s were associated with
6832-466: The welfare state through industrial democracy and the social market to the nationalization of the economy and central planning , to the anarcho-syndicalist advocacy of a council-based and self-managed anarchist communism . During the Industrial Revolution , leftists supported trade unions . At the beginning of the 20th century, many leftists advocated strong government intervention in
6954-476: The working class should act in solidarity with working people in other countries in pursuit of a common class interest , rather than only focusing on their own countries. Proletarian internationalism is summed up in the slogan: " Workers of the world, unite! ", the last line of The Communist Manifesto . Union members had learned that more members meant more bargaining power. Taken to an international level, leftists argued that workers should act in solidarity with
7076-670: The " proletariat can and must build the socialist society in one country". In April 1925, Nikolai Bukharin elaborated on the issue in his brochure titled Can We Build Socialism in One Country in the Absence of the Victory of the West-European Proletariat? , whose position was adopted as state policy after Stalin's January 1926 article titled On the Issues of Leninism (К вопросам ленинизма)
7198-399: The 1918–1920 years ended Bolshevik hopes for an imminent world revolution and led to the promotion of the doctrine of socialism in one country by Joseph Stalin . In the first edition of his book titled Osnovy Leninizma ( Foundations of Leninism , 1924), Stalin argued that revolution in one country is insufficient. By the end of that year in the second edition of the book, he argued that
7320-537: The 1970s onwards, environmentalism became an increasing concern of the left, with social movements and several unions campaigning on environmental issues and causes. In Australia, the left-wing Builders Labourers Federation , led by the communist Jack Mundy, united with environmentalists to place green bans on environmentally destructive development projects. Several segments of the socialist and Marxist left consciously merged environmentalism and anti-capitalism into an eco-socialist ideology. Barry Commoner articulated
7442-526: The 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, the term left-wing has also been applied to a broad range of culturally liberal social movements, including the civil rights movement , feminist movement , LGBT rights movement , abortion-rights movements , multiculturalism , anti-war movement and environmental movement as well as a wide range of political parties . The following positions are typically associated with left-wing politics. Left-leaning economic beliefs range from Keynesian economics and
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#17328511576967564-437: The 2004–05 academic year, a sabbatical officer role. As president, he campaigned against the proposed closure of Cambridge University's architecture department. As President of the NUS, Streeting was a strong proponent of his predecessor Gemma Tumelty 's proposed reforms to the NUS governance structures, which had been denounced and narrowly defeated by many left-wing groups in NUS as an attack on NUS democracy. His election
7686-469: The British Labour Party who were perceived to be more moderate and closer to the centre, accepting Keynesianism . Under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown , the Labour Party adopted the Third Way and rebranded itself as New Labour in order to promote the notion that it was less left-wing than it had been in the past to accommodate the neoliberal trend arising since the 1970s with
7808-482: The Earth. This principle is reflected in much of the historical left-wing thought and literature that came afterwards, although there were disagreements about what this entailed. Both Karl Marx and the early socialist philosopher and scholar William Morris arguably had a concern for environmental matters. According to Marx, "[e]ven an entire society, a nation, or all simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not
7930-530: The Labour Party. In common with other left-wing alternative media sites , The Skwawkbox' s stance towards the Labour leadership became more critical after Corbyn stepped down and Keir Starmer was elected as Labour leader in 2020 . In June 2017, The Skwawkbox published an article suggesting that the real death toll from the Grenfell Tower fire was being covered up, based on claims from "multiple sources" that
8052-448: The Left is also divided over how to effectively and equitably reduce carbon emissions as the center-left often advocates a reliance on market measures such as emissions trading and a carbon tax while those further to the left support direct government regulation and intervention in the form of a Green New Deal , either alongside or instead of market mechanisms. The question of nationality , imperialism and nationalism has been
8174-485: The New Left. Unlike the earlier leftist focus on labour union activism and a proletarian revolution, the New Left instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism . The New Left in the United States is associated with the hippie movement , mass protest movements on school campuses and a broadening of focus from protesting class -based oppression to include issues such as gender , race and sexual orientation . The British New Left
8296-635: The Treasury . On 16 October 2020, Streeting became Shadow Minister for Schools in succession to Margaret Greenwood , who had resigned the previous day following her opposition to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill . In the May 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle , Streeting was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Child Poverty . He was promoted to
8418-474: The United States, where social progressives played an important role in the abolition of slavery , the enshrinement of women's suffrage in the United States Constitution , and the protection of civil rights , LGBTQ rights , women's rights and multiculturalism . Progressives have both advocated for alcohol prohibition legislation and worked towards its repeal in the mid to late 1920s and early 1930s. Current positions associated with social progressivism in
8540-406: The anti- capital punishment movement and Liberation Theology . Early utopian socialist thinkers such as Robert Owen , Charles Fourier and the Comte de Saint-Simon based their theories of socialism upon Christian principles. Other common leftist concerns such as pacifism , social justice , racial equality , human rights and the rejection of capitalism and excessive wealth can be found in
8662-415: The article as "false" were not misleading and the complaint was not upheld. See 16690-17 Walker v Mail Online . The MailOnline D-Notice story referred to Steve Walker's business dealings with the NHS . This aspect was also covered by The Sun . Both outlets published corrections to their accounts of these dealings. The IPSO ruling noted that MailOnline had offered to append the following footnote, with
8784-514: The article has been amended to say that the Skwawkbox blog posts published by Mr Walker reported on claims made by other sources. We are happy to make this clear. In November 2019, Labour MP Anna Turley sued Unite the Union and Steve Walker, editor of The Skwawkbox , for libel in respect of an article which appeared on The Skwawkbox on 7 April 2017. On 19 December 2019, following a six-day trial at
8906-487: The blog's enquiry. The panel did not make a judgment on the factual accuracy of the article. Left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism , often in opposition to social hierarchy as a whole or certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as
9028-699: The context of the simultaneous victory of several independent candidates against Labour running on platforms critical of the party's response to the conflict. In July 2024, Streeting was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care . He became a member of the Privy Council on 10 July 2024. Declaring the NHS to be broken, Streeting has vowed to resolve the junior doctor strikes and decrease waiting times. In November 2024, Streeting cautioned NHS leaders that consistently failing hospitals will be publicly identified, with managers held accountable, potentially facing removal and restrictions on future employment in
9150-441: The council made a further reduction from April 2017, and made a third reduction from April 2018. Streeting resigned as Deputy Leader in May 2015, shortly after being elected Member of Parliament for Ilford North. Whilst he remained a backbench councillor following his election to Parliament, he chose not to claim his councillor allowance. Streeting did not stand for re-election after being elected to Parliament, and ceased to be
9272-877: The developing world such as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Mexico, the Abahlali baseMjondolo in South Africa and the Naxalites in India have argued that the First World and the Second World Left takes a racist and paternalistic attitude towards liberation movements in the Third World. The original French Left was firmly anti-clerical , strongly opposing the influence of
9394-484: The division between First World and Second World developed countries and Third World developing countries as being of high political importance. This tendency supports decolonization and national liberation movements against imperialism by capitalists. Third-Worldism is closely connected with African socialism , Latin American socialism , Maoism , pan-Africanism and pan-Arabism . Several left-wing groups in
9516-422: The economy is independent of his advocacy of revolutionary socialism or his belief in the inevitability of a proletarian revolution . Marxian economics do not exclusively rely on Marx and draw from a range of Marxist and non-Marxist sources. The dictatorship of the proletariat and workers' state are terms used by some Marxists, particularly Leninists and Marxist–Leninists , to describe what they see as
9638-554: The economy, preferring social ownership and local control in which a nation of decentralized regions is united in a confederation . The global justice movement , also known as the anti-globalisation movement and the alter-globalisation movement, protests against corporate economic globalisation due to its negative consequences for the poor, workers, the environment, and small businesses. Leftists generally believe in innovation in various technological and philosophical fields and disciplines to help causes they support. One of
9760-404: The economy. Leftists continue to criticize the perceived exploitative nature of globalization , the " race to the bottom " and unjust lay-offs and exploitation of workers. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the belief that the government (ruling in accordance with the interests of the people) ought to be directly involved in the day-to-day workings of an economy declined in popularity amongst
9882-451: The election, they would not reduce the level of Council Tax support provided to low-income working-age residents. In May 2014, Labour took control of Redbridge Council for the first time and Streeting was appointed Deputy Leader of the council, with Jas Athwal as Leader. Once elected, the Labour council proceeded to cut the level of council tax support, so as to treble the amount of Council Tax paid by supported residents from April 2016;
10004-600: The final report of the Cass Review , which dealt with gender services for children and young people, in April 2024. He said that the report "must provide a watershed moment for the NHS's gender identity services" and "provide[d] an evidence-led framework to deliver that". In an interview with The Sun , Streeting stated that he no longer considers his stance on trans rights to be "some people are trans, get over it, let's move on." Instead, he reflects that "there are lots of complexities" in
10126-409: The first decade of Soviet rule, before Joseph Stalin attacked ecologists and the science of ecology, purged environmentalists and promoted the pseudoscience of Trofim Lysenko during his rule up until his death in 1953. Similarly, Mao Zedong rejected environmentalism and believed that based on the laws of historical materialism, all of nature must be put into the service of revolution. From
10248-485: The foremost left-wing advocates was Thomas Paine, one of the first individuals since left and right became political terms to describe the collective human ownership of the world which he speaks of in Agrarian Justice. As such, most of left-wing thought and literature regarding environmentalism stems from this duty of ownership and the aforementioned form of cooperative ownership means that humanity must take care of
10370-408: The formation of militant organizations, political repression , conspiracism , xenophobia , and nationalism . In China, the term Chinese New Left denotes those who oppose the economic reforms enacted by Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s and 1990s, favour instead the restoration of Maoist policies and the immediate transition to a socialist economy. In the Western world , the term New Left
10492-542: The founding of the LGBTQ rights movement in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Contemporary leftist activists and socialist countries such as Cuba are actively supportive of LGBTQ+ people and are involved in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and equality. In politics, the term Left derives from the French Revolution as the political groups opposed to the royal veto privilege ( Montagnard and Jacobin deputies from
10614-648: The government had placed a D-Notice on coverage. A correction was published later. There was no such notice, which led MailOnline and The Sun in turn to publish articles accusing the site of spreading "fake news". Walker complained about the MailOnline article to the Independent Press Standards Organisation . IPSO concluded that the MailOnline characterisations of the D-Notice story as "fake news" and of allegations against Theresa May in
10736-422: The international proletariat in order to further increase the power of the working class. Proletarian internationalism saw itself as a deterrent against war and international conflicts, because people with a common interest are less likely to take up arms against one another, instead focusing on fighting the bourgeoisie as the ruling class . According to Marxist theory, the antonym of proletarian internationalism
10858-478: The junior doctor strikes and decrease waiting times. Wesley Streeting was born on 21 January 1983 in Stepney . His parents were teenagers when he was born. He has five brothers, a sister and a stepsister. His maternal grandfather was an armed robber who spent time in prison, and his grandmother became embroiled in his crimes and ended up in Holloway Prison , where she met Christine Keeler (a key figure in
10980-528: The left, but maybe their auntie or their uncle who reads their Facebook page." According to BuzzFeed , The Skwawkbox has published a "regular run of stories that appear to have been briefed by insiders close to the top of the Corbyn project", suggesting that certain senior individuals in the Labour Party use it to get their messages out. It has been involved in rallying online support for pro-Corbyn hashtags on Twitter and emailing and petitioning MPs within
11102-485: The months leading up to the 2024 general election, Streeting also faced criticism from the LGBT community for saying that he regrets once saying that "trans women are women, trans men are men". He has also said it was wrong to claim that gender-critical feminists are "bigoted", and apologised to Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield , who has become known for her gender-critical views. After the 2024 general election, Streeting defended
11224-618: The ongoing debate, while affirming his continued support for transgender rights. At the 2024 general election , Streeting retained his Ilford North constituency by a margin of only 528 votes following a challenge by independent British-Palestinian candidate Leanne Mohamad , who ran in protest against Labour's stance on the Israel-Hamas war and the Gaza humanitarian crisis . While she was not elected, Streeting's unexpectedly narrow margin of victory provoked media and political attention, especially in
11346-519: The owners of the earth. They are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in an improved state to succeeding generations". Following the Russian Revolution, environmental scientists such as revolutionary Alexander Bogdanov and the Proletkult organisation made efforts to incorporate environmentalism into Bolshevism and "integrate production with natural laws and limits" in
11468-476: The placement along the political spectrum in a given time and place. At the end of the 18th century, upon the founding of the first liberal democracies , the term Left was used to describe liberalism in the United States and republicanism in France, supporting a lesser degree of hierarchical decision-making than the right-wing politics of the traditional conservatives and monarchists . In modern politics,
11590-508: The post of Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle . In February 2022, Streeting was re-selected as the Labour candidate for Ilford North at the 2024 general election . Streeting was ranked sixth in the New Statesman's Left Power List of May 2023, described as "one of the most prominent and confident members" of the shadow cabinet. In July 2023, Streeting apologised in response to
11712-479: The previous Conservative Government's ban on private prescriptions of puberty blockers. Streeting lives in Redbridge, London , with Joe Dancey, a communications and public affairs adviser, and in May 2022 they were engaged to be married. In October 2023, Dancey was selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Stockton West at the 2024 general election although was unsuccessful. Streeting, who
11834-521: The refusal was due to the company's poor record on worker's rights and hostile stance towards trade unions. Streeting campaigned in favour of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 EU membership referendum . He later campaigned for a People's Vote , a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union. At
11956-408: The relevant stakeholders to negotiate a new employment rights settlement. Although Streeting is considered to be on the right of the Labour Party, he said in 2022 he objected to being labelled a Blairite : "There's no future for the Labour party if it's locked in a battle between two competing visions of the past. I don't like being pigeonholed." Following his election, Streeting was described as
12078-488: The same distance from the left as it did under Blair. In contrast, the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour Party leader was viewed by scholars and political commentators as Labour turning back toward its more classical socialist roots, rejecting neoliberalism and the Third Way whilst supporting a democratic socialist society and an end to austerity measures. Wes Streeting Wesley Paul William Streeting ( / ˈ s t r iː t ɪ ŋ / ; born 21 January 1983)
12200-673: The seat for Labour by 220 votes, winning with 31.5% of the vote on a 25.5% turnout. The by-election had been triggered by a previously elected candidate subsequently being found to be ineligible to serve on the council. Streeting was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Group in October 2011. Streeting sought re-election in 2014 to represent the Aldborough ward. At a public meeting of the Redbridge Citizens' Assembly on 6 May 2014, Streeting promised on behalf of his group that, if they won
12322-411: The sector. Streeting has said he suggested "working with the best of British business to reform the worst of British capitalism". In 2020, Streeting said he wanted to tax capital gains on the same basis as income and suggested replacing inheritance tax with a lifetime gifts tax. He supports an increase in corporation tax . He has promoted the establishment of a Good Work Commission to bring together
12444-657: The snap 2017 general election , Streeting was re-elected as MP for Ilford North with an increased vote share of 57.8% and an increased majority of 9,639. Streeting is a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism , a co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews and a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel . He is also a co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims and
12566-431: The source for a better kind of social revolution . This view has been criticized by several Marxists , especially Trotskyists , who characterized this approach as "substitutionism" which they described as a misguided and non-Marxist belief that other groups in society could "substitute" for and "replace" the revolutionary agency of the working class. Many early feminists and advocates of women's rights were considered
12688-462: The subject. Mikhail Bakunin thought the lumpenproletariat was a revolutionary class, while Mao Zedong believed that it would be rural peasants, not urban workers, who would bring about the proletarian revolution . Left-libertarians , anarchists and libertarian socialists believe in a decentralized economy run by trade unions , workers' councils , cooperatives , municipalities and communes, opposing both state and private control of
12810-489: The term Left typically applies to ideologies and movements to the left of classical liberalism , supporting some degree of democracy in the economic sphere . Today, ideologies such as social liberalism and social democracy are considered to be centre-left , while the Left is typically reserved for movements more critical of capitalism , including the labour movement , socialism , anarchism , communism , Marxism and syndicalism , each of which rose to prominence in
12932-440: The theory of socialism in one country. European social democrats strongly support Europeanism and supranational integration within the European Union , although there is a minority of nationalists and Eurosceptics on the left. Several scholars have linked this form of left-wing nationalism to the pressure generated by economic integration with other countries, often encouraged by neoliberal free trade agreements. This view
13054-581: The traditional institutions of the Ancien Régime. Usage of the term Left became more prominent after the restoration of the French monarchy in 1815, when it was applied to the Independents . The word wing was first appended to Left and Right in the late 19th century, usually with disparaging intent, and left-wing was applied to those who were unorthodox in their religious or political views. Ideologies considered to be left-wing vary greatly depending on
13176-417: The treatment of Rosie Duffield by Labour for her views opposing gender self-identification and gender recognition reforms – which have been criticised as transphobic – while acknowledging that the two had differing opinions on transgender rights . In January 2024, he supported single-sex wards in hospitals, with the possibility of separate wards for transgender people in the future. Streeting welcomed
13298-490: The use of private providers in the NHS to cut waiting lists. In June 2023, Streeting said that the NHS requires three big shifts: "from an excessive focus on hospital care to more focus on neighbourhood and community services; from an analogue service to one that embraces the technological revolution; and from sickness to prevention." In January 2024, he also defended "nanny state" reforms, saying Labour would not "stand by while children become fatter and unhealthier". Streeting
13420-582: The works of Thomas Paine , who introduced the concept of asset-based egalitarianism which theorises that social equality is possible by a redistribution of resources. After the Reconstruction era in the aftermath of the American Civil War , the phrase "the Left" was used to describe those who supported trade unions, the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement . More recently, left-wing and right-wing have often been used as synonyms for
13542-575: Was also a non-executive director of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE). Shortly after his election as NUS President, Streeting was appointed as a member of the government's Youth Citizenship Commission , chaired by Professor Jonathan Tonge of the University of Liverpool , which published its report in June 2009. Streeting supported university tuition fees as president, consistent with UK government policy during
13664-480: Was an intellectually driven movement which attempted to correct the perceived errors of the Old Left . The New Left opposed prevailing authoritarian structures in society which it designated as " The Establishment " and became known as the "Anti-Establishment". The New Left did not seek to recruit industrial workers en masse, but instead concentrated on a social activist approach to organization, convinced that they could be
13786-546: Was defeated. Following Keir Starmer 's election as Labour Party leader in the leadership election, he joined the frontbench as Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in April 2020. He became the Shadow Minister for Schools in October 2020 after the resignation of Margaret Greenwood before joining the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Child Poverty in the May 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle . In
13908-499: Was educated at Westminster City School , a comprehensive state school in Victoria, London . He went on to study history at Selwyn College, Cambridge graduating in 2004. Streeting briefly left the Labour Party because he opposed its decision to enter the Iraq War . Streeting came out as gay in his second year of university. He was elected President of Cambridge Students' Union for
14030-549: Was funded by David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville and coincided with Blair's announcement that he would abolish the party's Clause IV commitment to old-style public ownership. After completing his term as President of the NUS, Streeting served as Chief Executive of the Helena Kennedy Foundation , an educational charity that promotes access to higher education for students from further education colleges. He went on to serve as head of education at Stonewall ,
14152-465: Was in this period that the word wing was appended to both Left and Right. The International Workingmen's Association (1864–1876), sometimes called the First International, brought together delegates from many different countries, with many different views about how to reach a classless and stateless society. Following a split between supporters of Marx and Mikhail Bakunin , anarchists formed
14274-410: Was published. This idea was opposed by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, who declared the need for an international " permanent revolution " and condemned Stalin for betraying the goals and ideals of the socialist revolution. Various Fourth Internationalist groups around the world who describe themselves as Trotskyist see themselves as standing in this tradition while Maoist China formally supported
14396-557: Was reported by The Guardian as "a move that will lend weight to the fight to modernise the union". As NUS President, Streeting was a non-executive director of the NUS's trading arm, NUS Services Ltd , and of Endsleigh Insurance . He was also a non-executive director of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), as well as the Higher Education academy, having served on their board as Vice President (Education) when he
14518-414: Was reported in the media as using abusive language towards a non-Jewish antisemitism campaigner. Shortly before the 2019 general election , Streeting told a Labour First meeting that the party faced electoral oblivion in any snap poll due to the leadership's poor handling of Brexit and allegations of antisemitism. At the election, Streeting was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 50.5% and
14640-667: Was sometimes opposed to imperialism . In the 1880s, there was a debate between leftists such as the Radical Georges Clemenceau , the Socialist Jean Jaurès and the nationalist Maurice Barrès , who argued that colonialism diverted France from liberating the "blue line of the Vosges ", in reference to Alsace-Lorraine; and the " colonial lobby " such as Jules Ferry of the Moderate Republicans , Léon Gambetta of
14762-542: Was the president of the National Union of Students (NUS) from 2008 to 2010. He also worked for Progress , a Labour Party -related organisation, for a year before working in the public sector . In 2010, he was elected to the Redbridge London Borough Council for the Labour Party and became Deputy Leader of the council in May 2014. Streeting was elected to parliament as MP for Ilford North in
14884-399: Was unelectable and there was a fundamental moral objection to where he was on anti-Semitism." Streeting is pro- devolution , supporting the idea of providing local authorities with greater control over public policy . Streeting campaigned in favour of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union (EU) in the run-up to the 2016 EU membership referendum . In 2018, he stated that
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