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Working-class alternatives to capitalist media more vital than ever, Star's fringe hears

BUILDING working-class alternatives to capitalist monopoly media are more vital than ever before, the Morning Star’s Labour Party conference fringe event heard today.

Socialist Labour MPs, trade unionists and campaigners told the meeting in Liverpool that they are proud to support the paper as it is “telling the inspiring stories about the fightback” against the cost-of-living crisis and the latest Tory attacks on union rights.

Leeds East MP Richard Burgon warned that the “most successful class-conscious political party in British history is the Conservative Party: they know what to do for their class and when.”

He contrasted government attacks on the right to vote and protest as well as of unions to organise with the labour movement’s commitment to civil liberties and economic justice.

“[Former Labour minister] Tony Benn once said that socialism is the flame of anger against injustice and the flame of hope that you can build a better world,” Mr Burgon said.

“The Morning Star helps to keep that flame burning, but we need to expand that flame as millions of people in the sixth-richest economy in the world are facing tough times through no fault of their own.”

Gail Cartmail, executive head of operations at the Unite union, said: “We’re a movement, we’re all on the same page, fighting for jobs, pay and conditions for a better future and we know the Morning Star is going to be with us every step of the way.”

The former TUC president thanked the paper for covering the swathe of dispute victories recorded by her union since Sharon Graham was elected general secretary in August 2021.

Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said that there is no need for Labour to desert its socialist principles to chase praise from the mainstream media, which seeks to distract from the real issues facing working people.

The Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign’s Christine Peace slammed the biggest media outlets as “capitalist outfits which are conducting an assault on democracy,” an argument backed by Young Labour’s Aisha Malik-Smith, who noted that there was no space for dissent or reflection in coverage of the Queen’s death.

The Star’s co-operative set-up was highlighted by the paper’s editor Ben Chacko, who said it has a key role to play in building alternatives to monopoly media.

The meeting, chaired by Carolyn Jones, vice-chair of the Star’s management committee, was also addressed by Scottish MSP Katy Clark and New Internationalist co-editor Conrad Landin.

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