LABOUR MP John McDonnell demanded that the Brown government make "a choice between democracy or oligarchy" at the weekend.

At Saturday's Hands Off Venezuela national conference in London, he condemned new Labour's ongoing hostility towards Venezuela and pledged to make solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution an issue that "no MP would be allowed to dodge."

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack roused the 200 activists present when he attacked the hypocrisy of the British government in accusing Venezuela of corruption last week.

He recalled the recent privatisation of Ministry of Defence research division QinetiQ, which saw senior managers pocketing some 20,000 per cent profit.

Conference approved five motions, including one on the forthcoming constitutional reform, which condemned international media smear campaigns and "economic sabotage" by capitalist states.

Delegates also blasted the recent "biased and misleading" This World programme on BBC2, presented by journalist John Sweeney, which quoted claims by pressure group Transparency International that Venezuela is the second most corrupt country in the Americas.

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John McDonnell:

In the past political parties brought together their supporters to debate, discuss and decide the policies which were then drafted into a manifesto and placed before the electorate. If there was sufficient support for the policies and the party was elected, new ministers would arrive into office with civil servants waiting with advice on how to implement the policy programme. The battle for an incoming Labour government was with the vested interests of the status quo which had largely permeated government and all its departments.

Trade unions need to forget this archaeological exhibit of constitutional theory. The modern reality is that policy may still be debated within the Labour party but this policy debate and even decision making is rarely translated into the manifesto which is drafted internally by the Prime Minister’s closest aides. Once in office ministers responsible for policy implementation are now surrounded by a policy network dominated by advisers drawn from or even directly representing private sector interests. Dominating centralised control means that no policy which contradicts the core ideology of the government is allowed to surface.

The core ideology is shared by both main political parties. That is why Gordon Brown has found it so easy to appoint Tories to be part of his government. Both parties share a neo liberal ideology which believes that the market must be given free reign and as a result will produce the optimum solution in virtually every instance. Consequently both share an evangelical zeal for flexible labour, privatisation, low corporate taxation and corporate driven globalisation.

And a little something for Brown's Stalinisation of the party:

First, trade unions need to ensure that what limited opportunities for influencing policy debate within the Labour party still exist are maintained by rejecting at this year’s Labour Party conference the imposition of the Brown proposals to undermine Labour Party conference policy making powers.

Second we mobilise immediately a new alliance across the unions, constituency Labour Parties, affiliates and linking with supporters within the Parliamentary Labour Party to reassert democracy within the Labour Party at every level.

More of course on John McDonnell's blog. I've also come across something on the Morning Star on this topic, it highlights the matter quite well.

John McDonnell has 27 nominations so far, and requires another 18. I see over at People's Commissar of Enlightenment there's a list of 18 potential MPs who have yet to nominate.

Hopefully we'll reach the 45 by Thursday.

News has just come through a few minutes ago that Michael Meacher will stand down and recommend support for John McDonnell in the Labour leadership election.

The next hurdle is getting on the ballot paper, the deadline for this is Thursday. So if you haven't already written to your Labour MP asking them to nominate John McDonnell, now is the time.

John McDonnell, Labour leadership candidate talking with Peter Tatchell here.

Good stuff, I agree with most of what he says. He covers democracy over the economy, democracy within the Labour Party, corporations not paying £90-£150 billion of tax a year, housing crisis, union rights, air and rail travel, the failure of the market and the environment.

I am disappointed that they have not yet announced who should stand to represent the left within the Labour Party. John McDonnell in my opinion clearly has the upper hand and has worked tireless over the past year to get support. Micheal Meacher should give his full support to McDonnell on this issue, the fact this is still going on is disgraceful, come on Micheal.

John McDonnell touches on privatisation, and public money filling the pockets of the private sector. He also defends democracy from those who think it is a waste of time. Clearly when the bourgeoisie face opposition in an election they quickly lose their democratic credentials.

No real surprise. He'll meet the Queen on June the 27th to hand over his resignation as Prime Minister and will stay on as Labour leader until the Labour Party elects a successor.

For the fools that voted for the Tories at the recent elections, just think how worse off we'd be if the Tories were in power the last 10 years. The public services would be gone; the NHS would have been dismantled instead of having record levels of investment. There would be no minimum wage and the rich would be even richer, and there'd be no peace in Northern Ireland.

So long Mr Blair. Now Michael Meacher needs to back off, so John McDonnell can bring the left of the Labour Party to take the leadership and bury the Tories at the next election.

Below is a 16 minute interview with John McDonnell, who is standing for the leadership of the Labour Party.

John McDonnell has huge support with rank and file Labour Party and Trade Union members, however, he requires 44 nominations from Labour Party MPs to be put on the ballot paper. As you can imagine a lot of Labour Party MPs do feel intimidated by the existing Labour Party leadership to not nominate John McDonnell.

I am therefore asking those people who live in Labour constituencies to write to your MP and ask them to nominate John McDonnell, a template for a petition is also available for download.

As you can imagine a socialist program will never get much attention in the media, at least in anything but a negative way, the Guardian, and the Mirror have at least mentioned John McDonnell a few times, which is more than the media blackout everywhere else, nevertheless, if John McDonnell can get on the ballot paper it will seriously shake up New Labour, and hopefully bring about the end of Blairism and the New Labour project within the Labour Party, allowing it once again to represent its members, the working class as a whole, and no longer the interests of capital.

A brief overview of some of the policies that John McDonnell supports follows:

A real living minimum wage of at least £7 an hour.
The end to privatisation of public services, re-nationalise rail and postal services.
An increase in the Basic State Pension from £84.25 to £114 a week.
Defence of comprehensive education and the abolition of student tuition fees.
The withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.
A green energy policy based on renewable power sources.
The restoration of trade union rights and civil liberties.

For more policies download the Programme for a Real Labour Government produced by the Labour Representation Committee.