#290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 1 CHARTIST For democratic socialism #290 January/February 2018 £2 Tories on thin ice

John Palmer Peter Kenyon Brexit follies Mica Nava Sexual abuse Mary Southcott Cat Smith MP Transforming democracy Prem Sikka Industrial strategy Dave Lister Academy failures plus Book & Film reviews

ISSN - 0968 7866 ISSUE

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Contributions and letters deadline for Editorial Policy CHARTIST #291 The editorial policy of CHARTIST is to promote debate amongst people active in 08 February 2018 radical politics about the contemporary Chartist welcomes articles of 800 or 1500 words, and relevance of democratic socialism across letters in electronic format only to: [email protected] the spectrum of politics, economics, science, philosophy, art, interpersonal Receive Chartist’s online newsletter: send your email address to [email protected] relations – in short, the whole realm of social life. Chartist Advert Rates: Our concern is with both democracy and socialism. The history of the last century Inside Full page £200; 1/2 page £125; 1/4 page £75; 1/8 page £40; 1/16 page £25; small box 5x2cm £15 single has made it abundantly clear that the sheet insert £50 mass of the population of the advanced We are also interested in advert swaps with other publications. To place an advert, please email: capitalist countries will have no interest [email protected] in any form of socialism which is not thoroughly democratic in its principles, its practices, its morality and its ideals. Yet the consequences of this deep attach- ment to democracy – one of the greatest advances of our epoch – are seldom reflected in the discussion and debates amongst active socialists. CHARTIST is not a party publication. It brings together people who are interested in socialism, some of whom are active the Labour Party and the trade union move- ment. It is concerned to deepen and extend a dialogue with all other socialists and with activists from other movements involved in the struggle to find democrat- ic alternatives to the oppression, exploita- tion and injustices of capitalism and class society Editorial Board

CHARTIST is published six times a year by the Chartist Collective. This issue was produced by an Editorial Board consisting of Duncan Bowie (Reviews), Andrew Coates, Peter Chalk, Patricia d’Ardenne, Mike Davis (Editor), Nigel Doggett, Don Flynn, Roger Gillham, James Grayson, Hassan Hoque, Peter Kenyon, Dave Lister, Puru Miah, Patrick Mulcahy, Sheila Osmanovic, Marina Prentoulis, Robbie Scott (Website Editor), Mary Southcott, John Sunderland.Margie Newens Production: Ferdousur Rehman

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CONTENTS

FEATURES

TORIES ON THIN ICE John Palmer identifies opportunities for 8 Labour in Brexit follies BREXITOLOGY Peter Kenyon says time for Labour to come off 10 fence HAMMOND F UDGES I NDUSTRIAL STRATEGY Stakeholder representation key to progress 11 says Prem Sikka COUNCILS’ FINANCIAL STRAITJACKET David Davis heads Brexit woes – It’s crunch time for local Labour says Tom Page 8 12 Miller Cover by Lorna Miller WORKER’S VOICE Bryn Jones puts the case for worker 13 directors CHARTIST UNIVERSITIES CHALLENGE FOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM Paul Reynolds on the student squeeze Number 290 January/February 2018 14 REGULARS TORY ACADEMY FIASCO Dave Lister explains how chains are failing OUR HISTORY 76 students 4 Evan Durban -The politics of 15 Democratic Socialism

GENDER & POWER EDITORIAL Mica Nava explores the #metoo fightback 5 Breaking Brexit -preparing for power against misogyny 16 POINTS & CROSSINGS 6 Paul Salveson on going north Jessica Chastian leading celebrity in VOTES FOR WOMEN 100 YEARS ON challenging sexual abuse Page 16 Mary Southcott celebrates women’s suffrage GREENWATCH with a call for a democratic revolution 7 Dave Toke on Tory legacy 18 Jewish Socialist Group on Jerusalem MAKE VOTES MATTER FILM REVIEW For the many not the few says Alena 25 Patrick Mulcahy on Hollywood shame factory 19 Ivanova BOOK REVIEWS SPREADING DEMOCRACY 26 Andrew Coates on Tariq Ali’s Lenin, Rory O’Kelly on benefits, Don Flynn on Shadow minister Cat Smith on Labour’s Holloway, Nigel Doggett on Monbiot, 20 reform programme Mike Davis on Widgery v Miserabilism, A Stewart on Catalonia, Bryn Jones on SAUDI ARABIA NEW BROOM? neoliberalism, Andy Gregg on Stuart Hall Muddasser Ahmed asks how far will changes go with new leader WESTMINSTER VIEW 21 32 Rupa Huq MP on tribulations of a new parliamentarian SOFT LEFT OPTIONS Trevor Fisher on yesterday’s LCC and 100 years ago- Sylvia Pankhurst Momentum today Now emocratic revolution overdue – 22 Page 19 STATE OF THE NATION Frank Lee argues nations still matter 23 January/February 2018 CHARTIST 3 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 4

DEMOCRACY REVIEW

Help Jeremy Corbyn build a country for the many not the few writes Katy Clark

emocratic socialism puts people in charge. more power – over policy, how we campaign, The democracy review Jeremy Corbyn has organise and run our party, just as we want the Dlaunched gives our party the opportunity to people of Britain to be at the heart of deciding how see our principles in action by transforming into our communities, economy and society are organ- a truly democratic and participatory movement, ised. led by its grassroots and capable of winning elec- The review will be wide ranging. We will consid- tions to form a government fit for the 21st century. er how we develop regional and local plans, how Since the 2015 general election, our party has best to work with the whole Labour movement, almost tripled in size, swelling its ranks to well improve the digital skills of our local parties, how over 550,000 members. Our mass membership is regional parties work, the relationship between an incredible asset. councillors and local parties, how our conferences Members are not just an army of canvassers. work, the scope of Young Labour, how we empow- Our membership is a remarkable resource of ideas, er our BAME and LGBT+ members, the role of talents and skills. As a party, we must ensure that women’s conference, socialist societies and friends we do not waste this precious capacity, but enthuse groups – and many other issues. C our members to be as involved as possible in all aspects of our politics and our party. We want our Katy Clark is leading the democracy review and was appointed members to be at the heart of our party – to have political secretary to the leader of the Labour party in November 2015 OUR HISTORY - 76 Evan Durbin The Politics of Democratic Socialism (1940) Evan Durbin studied economics at University empirical evidence…it represented in our day the College, Oxford under Hugh Gaitskell. He was a lectur- series of false religions by which the impulse to cruelty er in economics at the LSE from 1930 to 1945. In 1939 and destruction have been rationalized into a reforming he joined the economic section of the cabinet office, zeal and a love of justice and freedom. The only hope working with Lionel Robbins and Harold Wilson. He for the future appears therefore, to me, to lie in the then became personal assistant to Attlee when deputy preservation, if necessary by force, of the system of prime minister between 1942 and 1945. He was elected political democracy from all assaults upon it.” MP for Edmonton in 1945 (with Douglas Jay taking on “Many things can contribute to the happiness of us his previous job). He was Parliamentary Private all. Wealth can contribute to it. A rising standard of Secretary to Dalton living will increase leisure, reduce the physical fatigue (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and then parliamen- of labour, bring comfort and health to a growing pro- tary secretary to the Minister of Works. He died in portion of our fellow human beings. Wealth, properly 1948 in a drowning accident. He published a number of distributed, can tear down the slums, drive back the books and pamphlets on economic policy, including diseases of malnutrition, open the countryside to our How to Pay for the War (1939) The Politics of people and bring fresh air, sunlight and safety, to those Democratic Socialism (1940) and Problems of Economic who lack these elementary necessities…. Social equali- Planning (published posthumously in 1949). There is ty would certainly increase our joy in living... For this no biography of Durbin, His daughter, Elizabeth end the socialist politician honourably strives.” Durbin published in 1985 New Jerusalems: The Labour “The grip of a class system that frustrates the search Party and the Economics of Democratic Socialism, for comradeship between us wastes a monstrously high which presents a study of her father’s work as well as proportion of our natural talent… Every generation is that of his circle including Cole, Dalton, Gaitskell and in part united, and in part inspired, by some conception Jay. The historian Stephen Brooke published substan- of a better and more just society…We need not be con- tive articles on Durbin in 1991 and 1996. There is also tent with anything less… than a society in which prop- material on Durbin in Jeremy Nuttall’s 2006 book erty as a source of social inequality is made to wither Psychological socialism. Durbin had a significant influ- slowly away, in which the establishment of a rational ence on the thinking of Anthony Crosland. central control has restored expansion and created eco- “From the evidence of modern psychology…the social nomic stability, in which political democracy is pre- life of adult human groups can be largely understood as served and protected as a method of government, and a conflict within their minds between repressed in which children may grow, free from secret fear, into impulse to violence and cruelty on the one hand, and a sociable and happy maturity. This is what I mean by their love for each other, for constructive achievement a more just society. An important, indeed an essential, and for the common good, on the other….The Marxist part of it is the constituent principle of socialism. and Communist defence of the ‘dictatorship of the pro- Within it the common happiness of mankind can be, for letariat’…was based upon faulty logic and inadequate a long season, safely established.”

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EDITORIAL

Sinking Brexit & preparing for power

heresa May’s government ended 2017 overseas territories. Labour needs to call out the with three Cabinet resignations (Priti Tories duplicity on all this. Patel, Michael Fallon and Damian Green) A hollow wish list is how Prem Sikka sees the and a parliamentary defeat. It is a gov - Tories industrial strategy. Continuing the ‘not’ ernment mired in Brexit negotiations taking back control theme he sees the dropping of Twhere the DUP tail wags the government dog as proposals to have workers on company boards as May and her minister for exiting the EU, David symbolic of the Tories failure to re-boot the econo - Davis, desperately fought to save an agreement my. He outlines alternative ideas for worker with the EU that was first done then undone by stakeholders, drawing on German and Arlene Foster’s band of loyalist brothers. Finally Scandinavian models. Bryn Jones expands this wording on ‘full alignment’ of the Six Counties idea further, arguing that drawing on the ideas with Ireland was agreed at the eleventh hour. and expertise of producers and providers must be This is a shambolic government that continues a central element in any strategy for socialist eco - to pursue a broken austerity economics, as evi - nomic development. denced by Hammond’s November budget, while In the wake of the #metoo movement of women workers endure ten years of pay caps, higher infla - against sexual abuse, highlighted particularly by tion, massive personal debt and disappearing pub - the Harvey Weinstein exposures, Mica Nava lic and local services. Presiding over growing examines the politics of gender and power and social inequality and hardship is a leader propped asks why now? The generation of seventies femi - up only by a fear of further Labour advances if an nists did tackle issues of sexual exploitation but election were called. did not attract the media coverage of the later The EU Referendum was one of the most dishon - wave of feminists who are calling out misogynists est campaigns staged in Britain. It is clear from in cultural and political life. Perhaps Trump, their behaviour that the last thing Brexiteers want social media and a more confident celebrity sister - is power to the people either expressed through hood is contributing to challenging the ugly hands parliamentary representatives or in wider society. of male power. ‘Taking back control’ is being revealed as a cynical Patrick Mulcahy surveys the transformation hoodwinking of voters. Against eleven Tory rebels of the Hollywood dream factory into a factory of who voted with a united Labour and other opposi - shame. Mary Southcott celebrates 100 years of tion parties to defeat the government on its failure votes for women and the pioneering work for a to sanction in law a parliamentary vote on any new democracy of our suffragette and suffragist final EU deal, the government has sought to over - antecedents. She further poses the democratic ride parliament. Moreover, David Davis spectacu - questions yet unresolved in our antiquated democ - larly failed to produce any evidence of impact racy. Alena Ivanova highlights the poverty of assessments being undertaken on the conse - our electoral system while Cat Smith MP cham - quences of Brexit on 48 sectors of the British econ - pions a thoroughgoing constitutional review of omy. democratic participation covering voting age, reg - John Palmer analyses the deal to move to the istration, electoral system change and much more. second stage of EU withdrawal negotiations, see - 2018 will be a year of local elections when ing the Tories on very thin ice. A hard Brexit has Labour candidates face the horrendous choices of been temporarily averted. Opportunities arise for what municipal services to maintain in the face of Labour to champion a European renewal pro - further stringent government cutbacks. Tom gramme. Miller re-emphasises the crisis (as Duncan Bowie May agreed a liabilities payment of up to £39 bil - outlined in our last issue) and suggests a concert - lion, an unsatisfactory arrangement for EU nation - ed national campaign is needed for the life and als in the UK and no hard Irish border. These con - soul of local government. 2018 could also be the tradictory arrangements will come to haunt the year of a general election. There is no room for Tories over the next year. complacency. Labour’s Democracy Review, as Labour did not have a vote on Brexit at its Katy Clarke writes, is about getting the party Brighton conference. But its 2016 conference voted onto an effective permanent campaign footing by heavily to support either a general election or a strengthening the sinews of internal democracy referendum on staying in the EU if the deal failed and participation while opening up the party to to meet fundamental criteria for economic and local communities, unions and civil society organi - social security. Peter Kenyon says it is now time sations. for Labour to end constructive ambiguity and call Tory Brexiteers are likely to beat the nationalist unequivocally for continued participation in the drum as they seek to portray the EU as anti- EU, as a minimum the single market and Customs British. They will find few friends in Trump’s Union. ‘America First’ regime. But that won’t stop efforts The Tories are forfeiting any say in future to play the populist blame game. Labour needs to arrangements, accepting EU regulations, rule- keep the pro-Europe internationalist flag flying in making and the jurisdiction of the European Court protecting workers rights and the environment of Justice during a transition period from March whilst developing an economic development and 2019. Ceding control and influence in decision tariff free trade programme framed in a making rather than securing more control: this is European rather than national context. We have the Tory reality. At least the Tories won’t be able more in common with our European partners than to (unsuccessfully) block extending EU moves to that which divides us. crack down on tax havens—including sham UK

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P&C

Will the North rise again? Paul Salveson on going local

he anthem of the (non- that, and less easily existent) Northern lib- definable, was the sur- eration front would be gical removal of a small The Fall’s splendid The town’s heart – the local North Will Rise Again, council. Former town Tpenned back in the 80s by Mark E halls like those in Smith, in a moment of relative Farnworth, Dewsbury sobriety. Its more memorable and Hyde remain part- lyrics include: ly in use by different council services. But I'm Joe Totale they are no longer the The yet unborn son local powerhouses they The North will rise again once were. We need The North will rise again them back, with real Not in 10,000 years Dewsbury’s once iconic arcade lays empty power. Too many people cower to The ‘super councils’ criminals were a product of 1970s And government crap Dewsbury, on t’other side of The thinking and have had their time. The estates stick up like stacks Pennines. This was another once Get rid of them and replace them The North will rise again (x4) fine town with a strong textile with strong sub-regional combined Look where you are base and some substantial build- authorities working with a new Look where you are ings which remain, but in a sad regional tier. Existing town coun- The future death of my father state. The splendid arcade which cils can make a difference. Towns would be regarded as a gem in like Horwich, Colne and – most But that was then. Are things any thriving town, is closed. The obviously – Frome benefit from a better? No, they sodding well grand co-operative building is team of locally elected people who aren’t. Try walking round towns slowly being re-built by Kirklees work together for the benefit of like Farnworth, Accrington, Council, which replaced their communities. They need Batley, Dewsbury. Yes, dear Dewsbury’s own local authority stronger powers but at least they Chartist readers, have a day out exist and do stuff. When I lived in from North London, or even Our vision for local Farnworth we had a strong local Didsbury and Headingley, to visit government should align campaign to get a town council – it these failing Northern towns. was vigorously opposed by the The state they’re in makes me with our larger vision for Labour hierarchy in the Bolton furious. Why aren’t people rioting a socialist society super-council. The reason? It in the streets? Recently I went might have risked giving the back to Farnworth, now part of the same time as Farnworth’s Liberals a political toe-hold. I sus- Bolton Metropolitan Borough, democratic governance was pect that attitude is still alive and where I was brought up as a kid. destroyed. The centralisers say well in much of the Labour Party, Back then it was a lively town that these changes were neces- though there are some signs of with its own council, based in a sary to make better use of change (he says, with a pathetic fine town hall. The mills were resources. It simply isn’t true. display of giddy optimism). still flourishing. The market was Look at the ‘secondary’ towns in Our vision for local government brilliant and I can remember the places like Kirklees, Wakefield, should align with our larger vision children’s swings next to it, close Bolton, Tameside and Blackburn for a socialist society. If you to the public baths. It’s all gone. – e.g. Dewsbury and Batley, This is based on believe in centralisation and dis- What remains provide space for Castleford and Normanton, a piece in The trust the idea of community car repairs or cheap-jack furni- Farnworth, Hyde, Darwen. Are Northern Weekly empowerment, stick with your ture sales. Farnworth Council they thriving examples of local Salvo – see 1970s ‘super councils’. There’s a was swept away by local govern- prosperity, ushered in by benign http://www.pauls ready-made excuse now with aus- ment ‘reform’, based on the super-councils? Anything but. alveson.org.uk/2 terity why they can’t do anything. Redcliffe-Maud Report, in 1974. The causes are not simple and 017/12/15/northe But it’s not true. People can make This was possibly the worst act of you can’t just blame uncaring rn-weekly-salvo- a difference if they have meaning- political vandalism visited on this councillors. The key issue has 248/ ful control. But we need to get country in the 20th century. The been industrial decline, particu- back to a genuinely local scale. fine council estates that larly the collapse of cotton, wool Frome works because it has a com- Farnworth Council built after the and coal. But not enough was bination of dynamic and engaged First World War are now done by anyone to mitigate the people with a local council that can deprived and unhappy. The new impact and create new industries. make a difference. We need to ‘shopping complex’ built in the The absence of a strong regional tempt bright, creative people back 70s is mostly empty, with the pri- tier that could have intervened to the Farnworths, Darwens and vate owners sitting on their ‘asset’ strongly to revive town centres Dewsburys. It’s the people who doing nothing. didn’t exist. Even super councils will make a difference but they A few days after my visit to didn’t have the resources to make need to have the tools to do it. Farnworth I spent a bit of time in much of a difference. Alongside Small, energised local councils. C

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GREENWATCH

Legacy of failure

ichael Gove has not only charmed green gurus such as George Monbiot but he has also bucked the trend of many past environment secretaries by appearing to sup- Mport, rather than junk, green priorities. Looking at the environment (DEFRA) secretaries of state under the Conservatives since 2010 it is not diffi- cult to see why. Caroline Spelman (2010-12) cooked her goose when she decided to launch a Dave Toke sell-off of publicly owned woodlands, only to be forced into a humiliating retreat afterwards. Then came Owen Paterson, the avowedly keen on Gove’s badger culler and pro-fox hunter who described a Michael Gove at the Green Alliance summer reception smart set of anti-GMO campaigners as ‘wicked’. He was reshuffled away after just under two years. Just tated that these social science geogers types with career after he left office he was busy ingratiating him- their beards and penchants for field trips. Far too self with the climate sceptical Global Warming wet! But the plan was abandoned anyway. move Policy Foundation. Elizabeth Truss didn’t exactly Climate change is still taught in Geography enamour herself with her green interest groups, lessons. But they still don’t teach people that in David Toke is and was effectively demoted after another two winter the temperature in Aberdeen isn’t worse Reader in Energy years. Then came Andrea Leadsom whose most than lots of places in England. It’s just that the Politics at the noted contribution was delaying a report on pollu- summers are lousy! University of tion caused by diesel vehicles until after the 2017 Greenpeace and other environmental groups Aberdeen General Election. She was probably saved from are pressing Gove to organise the introduction of oblivion by the fact that she wasn’t in office for a deposit scheme for plastic bottles. The Toke quite long enough to blow herself up. plan is simply to ration the stuff rather like is So now Michael Gove has apparently learned done with the carbon emissions trading scheme. the way to being a successful environment minis- Maybe with plastics it can be done better, with a ter; - give the impression that you are protecting cap on plastics sales being steadily reduced each the environment! Gove hasn’t had much of a year. chance to expose his green credentials before, Meanwhile (according to Labour’s Environment although when Education Secretary things didn’t Campaign, SERA) Haringey Council is blazing a seem to augur well for his future role as it was trail that Michael Gove will follow with a ‘zero rumoured he wanted tone down education about carbon’ by 2050 plan. This includes cutting car- climate change. Apparently the original aim was bon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. Councillors to stop climate change being taught in geography Clare Bull and Joe Goldberg are praised for their and have it shifted to science. I suppose efforts in carbon reduction. So there, I’m not just Conservatives, remembering their public school going on about some Tories. C days, may feel that scientists are a little less agi- Jewish Socialists’ Group statement on Trump’s announced move of the US embassy to Jerusalem

Donald Trump’s order to move the American Embassy in Israel from We support the right of the Palestinians, whether under military Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, claiming that “Jerusalem has been and occupation in the West Bank, under blockade in Gaza, facing ethnic always will be the eternal capital” of Israel, is an attempt to humiliate cleansing in East Jerusalem or facing oppression and discrimination the entire Palestinian people, Muslim, Christian and those of no in Israel, to resist this process. We believe that Trump’s move will faith. It will also strengthen the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and further undermine the position of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens. provoke violent conflict. As Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinians’ UK The President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan representative, has said, this amounts “to declaring war in the Arkush – one of the first to congratulate Donald Trump on his presi- Middle East”. dency – has, predictably, come out strongly in favour of Trump’s Jerusalem is of great religious significance to all the Abrahamic provocative move. But we support those Jews, both in the diaspora faiths, but this aggressive move is not about religion. Trump and his and in Israel, who oppose the racism, occupation and annexation allies try to distort the politics of the Middle East, and reduce it to a being perpetrated by Netanyahu and Trump. As Jews who believe in conflict between Jews and Muslims. It is not. This is all about coexistence and equality, we reject any attempts to set Jews and expanding American and Israeli military and economic power and Muslims against each other. People of all faiths and none, within control in the region, regardless of the cost in human suffering and and beyond the region, urgently need to find ways to reject and chal- lives damaged and lost. lenge this agenda so we can fight together for an end to the occupa- Trump’s announcement is an attempt to demoralise the opposition – tion of Palestine, and for social justice and human rights for the to normalise and legitimise the illegal annexation of Jerusalem, Palestinian people. which has been ongoing for several years, and, by “creating facts”, to undermine resistance by and support for the Palestinian people. http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/news/item/jsg-statement-on- trumps-announced-move-of-the-us-embassy

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BREXIT

BREXIT – TORIES SKATE ON EVER THINNER ICE John Palmer on a deal that buys time for divided Tories but a formula that cannot be delivered. Labour should ready itself for a new European deal and revocation of Brexit

Juncker and May- last miniute smiles won’t last long he 11th hour agree- the meantime no one, on any ment with the wing of the government, can real- than they buy from the UK. BUT European Union allow- ly explain how Belfast and Dublin the dependence of the 27 on ing negotiations to can be guaranteed no return to a exports to Britain are a small finally begin on the ‘hard’ Irish border without the fraction of the UK on its exports longT term relationship between UK as a whole replicating virtu- to the EU. It is virtually impossi- the UK and the EU only high- ally unchanged the terms of exist- ble to know who will win the low lights the extraordinary precarity ing membership of the Customs level civil war between hard and of the May government’s Brexit Union and the Single Market. soft Brexiteers in the cabinet and project. In a fudge designed to The one possible fudge – having a Tory party. The commitments buy May a little more time, it is customs border between the May agreed to in the first prelim- simultaneously being sold as north of Ireland and mainland inary phase of the negotiations preparation for a complete break Britain – was seen off by the hard (continuing to pay into the EU with the EU and a deal which line DUP. The EU institutions budget for years to come, observ- locks Britain into almost all the and member states have told ing all EU laws during the so- obligations of membership but London not to be under any illu- called “transition phase” to 2021 with no voice or vote in law mak- sion that it can ‘cherry pick’ the and the continuing obligation to ing. It is a formula which cannot vital advantages of being in the observe European Court of and will not be delivered. Both CU and the SM while ignoring John Palmer is a Justice rulings for a further eight the Euro-sceptic right and the the obligations which go with former European years) are very difficult for the ‘soft Brexit’ Tory factions know that. The UK will not be able to Editor of the Tory Leavers to swallow. But this. Both are manoeuvring to get negotiate trade deals with Guardian and they seem to be gambling on the a tactical advantage ahead of Trump or China or whoever by chair of very real possibility that the talks what all agree will be an eventu- slashing health, environment or Greenwich on a final deal fail and the UK al, unavoidable and full scale cri- labour standards and retain Momentum might still be able to launch itself sis. There must be a serious access to the EU market. Right over the cliff without any agree- prospect that when the likely wing Brexiteer MPs comfort ment except minimal WTO terms terms of the long term Brexit themselves with the belief that of trade. That is what scares wit- agreement do emerge, May will the EU needs a long term trade less big British capital (and big be toast and the Tory party might agreement as much as the UK. foreign capital invested in the face a split on the scale of the That is true only up to a point. UK). The likes of the Chancellor 19th century free trade crisis. In The EU 27 do sell much more to, of the Exchequer, Phillip

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EDITORIAL

Hammond, and the so-called ‘realists’ know this perfectly well. Some of them seem to be counting on a Parliamentary vote designed to pass final judgement on the eventual agreement blocking any jump-over-the-cliff. They have some grounds for believing this. Quite apart from those MPs who have already declared their inten- tion of blocking a hard Brexit, the Labour Party leadership is now clearly moving to the demand that the UK – in effect – remains part of the single market and cus- toms union. Presumably worried that any overt commitment to retaining full EU membership might anger the tiny minority of pro-Leave Labour MPs (and an indeterminate minority of pro- Leave Labour voters) this is as far as the leadership is ready go at present. But that is to ignore (Credit: Martin Rowson) Arguing over the bill the increasing attention which Jeremy Corbyn and John is not to underplay the potential ernment should be clear (indeed MacDonnell are paying now to risks involved with centre right Jeremy Corbyn has already hint- the wider debate within the EU and centre left politicians cling- ed at it). In effect we should want about the need for a new direc- ing together in a desperate to talk to the EU about a far tion for economic, social and envi- attempt to keep the extreme right wider programme of cooperation ronmental reform. In recent at bay. In the period ahead it and reform on common areas of speeches in Brussels and in would be good to hear more about concern and one which - if suc- Geneva, Corbyn stressed how Labour wants to work in and cessful – could lead to a decision with the EU to block some of the to revoke Brexit. It is quite possi- terrifying plans of the Brexit ble that this scenario could arise Whatever the final right to destroy social, labour, much sooner than we think. The outcome of the Brexit environmental and other stan- political situation domestically dards in the cause of a Trump- and world-wide is increasingly negotiations; this style trade strategy. BUT howev- crisis prone and unpredictable. er soft an eventual Brexit might With a deranged Trump presid- government looks to be be, an agreement leaving the UK ing in Washington and authori- in terminal decline (assuming it does not break up tarian but unstable regimes before long) with virtually all the installed from Russia, through obligations of membership but Turkey to China and beyond, this Labour’s continuing commitment none of the democratic rights is is not the time to sever the links to solidarity with workers’ not acceptable. Leaving the of solidarity and shared basic demands for radical policy British people as law takers and democratic values with so many changes at EU level. One exam- not law makers must be rejected. (if not all) EU states. On one ple of these trends is the outline This need not be the choice. thing we can be sure. The ludi- support for a strengthened EU Whatever the final outcome of the crous proposals for a LEXIT (Left pillar of social rights and in par- Brexit negotiations – and they Brexit) are dead and buried. It ticular the creation of a new will take much longer than any- failed to connect with reality at European Labour Authority. This one in Whitehall is yet ready to almost any point. It is disavowed body is – for example - seen as an admit – this government looks to by the left in almost every part of instrument to reform the EU be in terminal decline. It is even the European Union - even in Posted Workers’ Directive whose possible that Jeremy Corbyn will France where the leftist La abuse by employers has led to the lead Labour into a new general France Insoumise which scored erosion of workers’ pay and condi- election well before the final an impressive voter support in tions. Meanwhile pressure is shape of Brexit is agreed. the recent French Presidential growing on the government in Certainly the polls point to the election has abandoned talk of Berlin to abandon its crazy aus- probability of an overall majority ‘leaving the EU’ or even abandon- terity economic strategy (which for Labour from any election. ing the Euro. was used to crucify the Greek This is hardly surprising given It is time for the European left people). This is coming not only the near collapse of the NHS and to think through in some detail from avowedly left wing govern- many other public services, what concrete demands should be ments like the Portuguese coali- falling living standards and grow- prioritised for a more democratic tion but even from the Macron ing popular anger about and social Europe. Of course, centre right government in Paris. grotesque inequality and hard- Europe is not the end of the road If Chancellor Merkel is obliged to ship. If the worst Tory Brexit can for socialists. It is, however, an form a coalition with German be blocked by Parliament over the essential staging post for the social democrats, Berlin may next year or two the question will development of an emancipatory have to adjust more to the new arise: what now? The answer strategy for a democratic, social- mood than it would wish. Which from a newly elected Labour gov- ist global order. C

January/February 2018 CHARTIST 9 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 10

BREXIT

Brexitology – a challenge for voters and Corbyn Peter Kenyon explores the mysteries of Britain's application to leave the European Union as the Tories prepare for the next round of talks

y formative years British nationals' rights in the during the 'Cold EU and EU nationals’ rights in War' were steeped the UK are not being properly in Kremlinology. A protected. The financial settle- lack of reliable ment of between £35 and £39 bil- Minformation about the USSR lion to meet UK liabilities to the (Union of Soviet Socialist EU-27 (not a divorce bill) repre- Republics forced us according to sents surrender on the part of the Wikipedia to "read between the likes of Boris Johnson, and I lines" and to use the tiniest tid- quote “Brussels can go whistle”. bits, such as the removal of por- As for the NI border issue, that is traits, the rearranging of chairs, fudge made of the finest cream positions at the reviewing stand the Irish dairy industry can pro- for parades in Red Square, the duce. arrangement of articles on the It is a crock of shite. Brussels pages of the party newspaper was never going to let the EU-27 Pravda and other indirect signs be cast as the 'enemy' preventing to try to understand what was trade talks. Worryingly, happening in internal Soviet poli- Conservative electoral support tics. and May’s political standing are Understanding what Britain's on the up again (a bit). two leading political parties’ posi- What the Labour leadership tions regarding Brexit are must ponder is whether or not to requires similar approaches. engage in some forensic Unfortunately, the British elec- David Davis fluffs Brexit impact assesments Brexitology and share their find- torate is way behind the curve in ings with the electorate sooner understanding the extent to pursuit of phantom trade deals rather than later or twiddle their which the Brexiteers are still with third parties, while Brussels thumbs for the next twelve seeking to confound and confuse has just been signing them. And months until it is too late. in their efforts to pretend there is her Foreign Secretary Boris As matters stand the UK has a better future for the UK outside Johnson continues to excel at already lost two valuable EU the EU. making the UK a laughing stock institutions – the European There is not. But the people Medicines Agency and the have decided. European Banking Agency. They From an anecdotal point of There is no escaping the are irretrievable lost. British vot- view, I have heard more stories ers will not be electing represen- about people voting to leave the conclusion NOW that the tatives to the European EU to kick Cameron's Conservatives are Parliament in June 2019. The Conservative government than only trade deals likely to be con- actually leave the EU. But that is surrendering UK sidered by the EU-27 – Norway or beside the point now. More Canada - will require the UK to important is what have we sovereignty be rule-takers i.e. we will have learned, or what should we have NO say in making future EU learned from the Phase 1 negotia- laws. tions? in the world. There is no escaping the con- British Prime Minister Theresa On Friday 8 December May clusion NOW that the May decided at the start of term made a pre-dawn flight to Conservatives are surrendering to take the outcome of the EU Brussels much to the annoyance UK sovereignty, squandering Referendum at face value. Egged of EC Commission President urgently needed tax revenues for on by the Brexiteers she perpetu- Jean-Claude Junkers to set out public services on an illusory ated the myths: in short a crock Britain's 'offer' in response to the 'crock of gold' to leave the EU, of gold at the end of the rainbow. EU's three preconditions for sacrificing the human rights of Her chosen Secretary of State for negotiating future trade rela- millions of people, risking peace Exiting from the European Union tions. The manoeuvre was herald- in Northern Ireland, pursuing David Davis boasted breezily ed in the Evening Standard as phantom trade deals with third about deals to be done in Brussels the 'Deal at Dawn'. My take was countries. and Paris circumventing 'Fudge at Five'. I was not alone in Is that what 17 million Britons Brussels. Her Secretary of State taking a somewhat more sceptical voted for on 23 June 2016? for International Trade Liam Fox view of what was actually offered Welcome to the world of has been clocking up Airmiles in by HM Government. Brexitology. C

10 CHARTIST January/February 2018 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 11

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Stakeholder Boards are the key to industrial renaissance Prem Sikka finds Hammond’s industrial strategy an empty wish list

he UK economy contin - companies. Andrew Haldane, the made some cosmetic noises. The ues to suffer from low Bank of England’s chief latest draft of the revised Code of productivity, low economist has noted that in 1970, Corporate Governance, published investment, short-ter - UK companies paid out about £10 by the Financial Reporting mism, light-touch regu - out of each £100 of profits in divi - Council with government back - lTation, a weakening of its indus - dends, but by 2015 the amount ing, rules out direct employee trial base and low wages accom - was between £60 and £70, often representation on company panied by unprecedented fat-cat - accompanied by a squeeze on boards. Instead, it offers three tery at the top. This requires a labour and investment. He added possibilities: assign a non-execu - radical overhaul of economy poli - that “Among UK companies, tive director to represent employ - cy, state intervention and gover - share buybacks have consistently ees; create an employee advisory nance of companies. Rather than exceeded share issuance over the council or nominate a director addressing deep-seated problems, past decade”. Short-termism has from the workforce. This the government’s White Paper incubated economic failures. tokenism cannot prioritise the ‘Industrial Strategy: Building a The European Commission’s long-term. Britain fit for the future 1’ is more analysis of the 2007-2008 bank - of a wish list rather than a con - ing crash concluded that “the certed effort to meet the chal - majority of shareholders are pas - Diluting shareholder lenges. sive and are often only focused on control is a key The expression ‘industrial short-term profits”. 2 In 2013, strategy’ conjures up an image of UK’s Banking Standards requirement for a substantial manufacturing sec - Commission concluded that rejuvenation of the tor. Yet the government offers no “shareholders failed to control means of securing it. This is risk-taking in banks, and indeed economy because of its hatred of public were criticising some for exces - investment. Historically, the UK sive conservatism” 3. It urged the Within the European Union economy has been built by a mix - government to “consult on a pro - countries, there are two broad ture of private investment and posal to amend Section 172 of the models of governance: the single- direct state intervention. All too Companies Act 2006 to remove tier system combining executive often, the private sector has shareholder primacy in respect of and non-executive functions in shown little appetite for long- banks, requiring directors of one ‘unitary board’; and the two- term risks and the state had to banks to ensure the financial tier system distinguishing build airlines, telecommunica - safety and soundness of the com - between an ‘Executive Board’ and tions, engineering, biotechnology, pany ahead of the interests of its a ‘Supervisory Board’ which must nuclear and computer industries. members” 4. There have been no oversee the executives and con - It also reinvigorated railways, reforms. Prem Sikka is firm the decisions of executives water, gas, electricity, shipbuild - Diluting shareholder control is Professor of on major issues. The two-tier ing and many others. The same a key requirement for rejuvena - Accounting and supervisory board system pre - will be necessary again not only tion of the economy. One possibil - Finance, dominates in almost half of EU to renew infrastructure but also ity is to introduce a minimum University of member states, such as Germany, to invest in new technologies, qualifying period (e.g. twelve or Sheffield Austria, the Czech Republic, green industries, artificial intelli - six months) for shareholding & Emeritus Hungary and Slovakia. The gence and much more. before any shareholder can vote. Professor of supervisory board has represen - This would prevent speculators Accounting, tatives of employees and share - Don’t Leave it to from exerting pressure on direc - University of holders. Shareholders tors to indulge in share buybacks, Essex The single-tier system with payment of excessive dividends places for employee representa - A focus on the long-term is a and divestment programmes. tives as non-executives is estab - key ingredient for any industrial lished in France (companies are renaissance, but is neglected by Stakeholders on Boards allowed to choose either the two- the government’s White Paper. tier or the unitary board), The UK’s shareholder-centric The above alone won’t change Norway, Sweden and many other model of corporate governance the internal culture of corpora - states. Where there is a very high has been dogged by short-ter - tions. This necessarily means density of trade union member - mism as shareholders push for changing the composition of com - ship, as in Sweden, employee rep - quick returns. Shareholders pro - pany boards and give rights and resentatives are usually trade vide a small fraction of total capi - powers to those with a long-term union representatives appointed tal, at banks it is less than 10%, interest, including employees, in or elected by trade union mem - but enjoy 100% of the controlling the wellbeing of companies. The rights. They have hollowed-out Conservative government has CONTINUED ON PAGE 12>>

January/February 2018 CHARTIST 11 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 12

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

>>C ONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 more than 2000 employees, the ity companies, as well banks can Chairman of the Supervisory easily be identified. They can act bers in a company. Elsewhere Board, who, for all practical pur - as a constituency and elect direc - they are employees elected by the poses, is a representative of the tors to represent their concerns at entire workforce often in separate shareholders, has the casting vote Supervisory Boards. sectional votes. In some compa - in the case of split resolutions. Despite the banking crash, fail - nies, worker directors are The two-tier system emphasis - ures of the gig economy and scan - appointed on a voluntary basis. es the need for co-operation dals at BHS and Sports Direct, The unitary board system has amongst stakeholders to generate the UK is yet to have a serious serious drawbacks. Unless and share wealth. It separates discussion about reforming corpo - employees and other stakeholders the executive and supervisory rate governance to build a sus - occupy a substantial proportion of roles. The Executive Board makes tainable economy. The the board, they risk being day-to-day decisions within a Conservatives are not keen on marginalised and will almost strategic context established by employee and consumer elected always lose all votes. On such the Supervisory Board. The directors. Labour party and trade boards, there is no easy way of Supervisory Board makes longer- unions have been surprisingly differentiating between those term strategic decisions, notably absent from the debate. Perhaps, decisions that are essentially the allocation of resources after the electoral performance in about day-to-day management between dividends and invest - the 2017 election, Labour would and those that affect the longer ment, take-overs and mergers, be buoyed to call for radical term strategy or future of the divestment, executive remunera - reforms. C company. tion packages and much more. 1 The two-tier system is com - Trade unions continue to pursue https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/syst monly associated with Germany. collective bargaining within the em/uploads/attachment_data/file/664563/indu strial-strategy-white-paper-web-ready- This was formally adopted in statutory framework. version.pdf 1976 and confirmed by the Expert The system permits the 2 European Commission, Green Paper - Commission reports in 2006 and replacement of the current sys - The EU corporate governance framework 2014 5 to have contributed to the tem for appointing supposedly (COM(2011) 164 final), Brussels: EU, 2011 (http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/company maintenance of a national manu - independent non-executive direc - /docs/modern/com2011-164_en.pdf). facturing base, high investment tors, often friends of executives, 3 UK Parliamentary Commission on and value-added economy. In with fairly elected representa - Banking Standards, Changing banking for Germany, enterprises having tives of all stakeholders, includ - good (Vols. I - VIII), London: The Stationery more than 500 or 2000 employees ing shareholders. The member - Office, 2013. are represented in the ship of the Supervisory Board can 4 UK Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, 2013, page 344. Supervisory Board, which is com - be extended to include other 5 http://www.dpdhl.com/content/dam/dpdhl posed of employee representa - stakeholders. For example, the /Investors/Corporate_Governance/Declaratio tives to one-third or to one-half names and addresses of cus - n_of_Conformity/DPDHL_CG_Code_June_2 respectively. For enterprises with tomers at water, gas and electric - 014.pdf Councils need coordinated national campaign Tom Miller on holes in the dented shield ocal government is stability despite cuts, as contrast - workers to push for a better pay looking increasingly ed to an ͚illegal budgets ͛tactic and deal, such as the #paypinch cam - threadbare in the face Tory confiscation of the cheque paign led by GMB. More ͚invest- of austerity. The trend book – with resulting job losses. to-save ͛ optimism would mean adopted by ͚ localist ͛ But now we have a legacy of dif - that local government can save CLonservatives has been to cut ferent problems. The dented money for the public sector as a and cut again. Far less resource shield now has nasty holes whole by integrating social care is going into services which are punched through it. Councils with the NHS locally - getting run locally, with local govern - which were pledged to ͚innovate people out of hospital beds, inter - ment having been cut by over and protect ͛ have found them - vening early on mental health. 40%. Labour councils have found selves in a situation in which cut - Finally, another way in which themselves disproportionately cut ting children ͛s centres or intro - councils can deal with budget up to 55% in a Tory attempt to ducing shorter social care visits reductions is by making sure that punish poorer residents for voting becomes unavoidable. The obvi - more is delivered ͚in house ͛. In Labour. This has not been helped ous challenge is one which the Tom Miller is a Brent we brought housing man - by ultra-left activists in several labour movement and party has Brent councillor agement back into public owner - local anti-cuts campaigns falling failed to grasp, which is that of a ship and control, and will use this for the bait of targeting Labour political campaign. Labour has to control contract costs and save councils rather than the people failed to bring together any coor - on duplications such as expensive who hold power over the purse dinated anti-austerity campaign HR. Local government may be strings at the highest levels of push from its councils. We des - reaching a tipping point. We need state. Given the present legal sit - perately need this coordinated to be organised far better with uation of council budgets, which national budgets campaign, our comrades nationally to fight allows far less leeway than the which could perhaps be led austerity. But we need to make circumstances of the mid-1980s, between unions and the party, sure locally that we will not com - most Labour councils have adopt - involving TULO. It is also clear promise on conditions for workers ed a ͚dented shield ͛ approach that councils need to outline posi - or on basic services and better aimed at keeping services run - tive socialist principles to take us outcomes for our residents. It will ning to a decent quality and job forward. Councils need to join be tough, but we have to fight. C

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WORKERS’ VOICE

All aboard for social accountability? As Tories ditch steps to workplace democracy Bryn Jones proposes options

re the conditions right veiling check that is wider than to relaunch the long ‘single channel’ representation of dormant case for employees’ interests. Not least worker or trade union because employees’ boardroom representation on representatives could become iso- Acompany boards? Labour has had lated and ineffective or ‘incorpo- a longer interest than Theresa rated’ into business mind sets. May’s brief flirtation but its aims In the much-lauded ‘Rhenish’ are not much clearer. The 2015 system in Germany and other election manifesto included a ten- Workers at Lucas Aerospace-pioneers of workplace north European countries, worker tative step towards corporate democracy representation in large business- level influence. Even though it es succeeds because it nests in a only pledged worker representa- influence into political exile. ‘two-tier’ governance structure. tives on the remuneration com- The Labour left supported this Workers’ delegates form up to mittees that decide boardroom worker representation model as 50% of the membership of a pay. The 2017 manifesto proposed did some centrist political and supervisory board, alongside rep- instead a special levy on exces- business opinion. Many on the resentatives of other economic sive executive rewards and legis- left saw Bullock as but one neces- interests. This board oversees the lation to limit a company’s high- sary, if timid step towards ‘work- policies of the management board est to lowest pay ratios to a twen- ers’ control’: a campaign buoyed through which executives run the ty to one maximum. The 2017 by the powerful shop stewards business. Adopting this system in Manifesto’s approach to corporate movement of grass roots union the UK would encounter three governance in general was representatives and the Bennite problems. Firstly, the UK has rel- vaguer, but potentially more com- crusade for redistributing class atively few, large unionised com- prehensive. It promised to change power. More pragmatic and main- panies - the 50% rule applies only ‘company law so that directors stream opinion saw industrial to firms with 3,000 or more owe a duty directly not only democracy as a solution to the employees. Secondly, union dele- shareholders, but to employees, pervasive ‘problem’ of union mili- gates may collude with investor customers, the environment and tancy then capable of disrupting representatives to their mutual the wider public’. To have any coal, newspaper and energy pro- advantage but to the detriment of practical force, such new duties duction, and public services. the rest of civil society, as with would need mechanisms of Some advocates believed board- product safety or environmental accountability to a firm’s ‘stake- level representation of workers pollution. Thirdly, UK replication holder’ groups. However, this could channel this militancy into of the German/’Rhenish’ system ‘multi-stakeholder’ accountability more constructive influences on would require a complex and could be more feasible than the business decisions. Now, of politically demanding overhaul of TUC’s long-standing case for course, these forces and condi- company law to replace unitary worker-directors. To understand tions have faded. In the absence boards with a two-tier system. why we need to compare their dif- of union strength, would Bullock- However, a less drastic type of ferent historical contexts. style representation be sufficient reform could empower labour and Jim Callaghan’s minority to curb 21st century corporations’ Bryn Jones is the a wider range of civil society Labour government provided the greatly expanded powers? author of interests. Adoption of shareholder major push for union-backed In continuing struggles against Corporate Power and stakeholder ‘nominations employees on company boards. irresponsible corporations, unions and Responsible committees’ - to appoint the man- Labour set up a commission on have sometimes found new Capitalism? agement executives - could work ‘industrial democracy’, under strategies and new allies. UK through the present unitary Lord Bullock. A majority of workers are no longer the main board structure. As in Sweden Bullock’s panel proposed equal victims of business excess. where these committees help proportions of shareholder and Causes such as overseas workers’ shape executives’ behaviour by employee board representatives rights, environmental abuses and controlling their appointment and plus another, third group of co- housing deprivation have activat- contract renewals. The necessary opted independents, for bigger ed consumers, communities and democratic reinforcement would companies. The proposals fal- other civil society interests to be inclusion of representatives of tered: partly because some unions challenge individual corporations. small shareholders, were hostile, fearing union direc- Alliances of NGOs and citizens’ unions/employees and accredited tors’ need to respect boardroom groups have campaigned publicly civil society interests alongside decisions would undermine their and sometimes successfully with responsible institutional traditional bargaining powers. their union counterparts. One investors on the nominations Partly because employers’ bodies significant strategy has been to committees. Such a system would were, predictably, hostile. Yet buy token shares in a firm to counter allegations of a single- before Parliament could even con- facilitate critical AGM motions interest trade union lobby. It sider any legislation Callaghan’s and protests at companies’ gener- would also make corporations’ government fell in 1979. The long al meetings, and to shame boards often excessive and anti-social night of Thatcherism put indus- with negative publicity. Here are powers genuinely more account- trial democracy and trade union the seeds of a different counter- able to the wider society. C

January/February 2018 CHARTIST 13 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 14

EDUCATION

Going radical for life long learning Paul Reynolds on new ideas for Labour’s post-compulsory education policy

ducation was signifi- It should promise a universal cant in the 2017 education ‘passport’ that guaran- Manifesto, with its tees resourcing for entry to all promise of a compre- three features of post-compulsory hensive National education – apprenticeship, fur- EducationE Service. The promise ther education qualification or to abolish student fees and rein- undergraduate degree. The troduce maintenance grants resourcing need not be equal for appealed to the youth vote and the different choices that are has encouraged the mobilisation made, but should enable to indi- of youth behind Corbyn. Recent vidual to fulfil their educational concerns about Vice Chancellor’s aspirations to a level of skills and pay have underlined the ques- competence that gives them trac- tioning of the corporate direction tion in the labour market or in of universities. However, that where they wish to achieve. was all that the manifesto said At an advanced level, where about universities there might be some personal The post-compulsory education contribution to costs, it should sections focused on skills, with initiate a system of subsidies and promises to introduce free lifelong Glynis Breakwell stands down over excessive pay 0% interest loans from a national education in a well-staffed and funding agency in part guaran- well-resourced further education ter an appreciation for industrial teed by government and the regu- sector. It promised to: equalise and vocational work (as it does in latory institutions of post-compul- funding between sixth forms and Germany, promoting industrial sory education so that the institu- colleges in 16-18-year-old Key strategy) whilst appreciating the tions themselves are encouraged Stage 4 education; restore educa- value of intellectual and cultural to offer bursaries, discounts and tion maintenance allowances and qualifications. This would also balance expansion of provision replace fees with direct funding; offset the rabid rhetoric of a crude with a responsibility for its cost. and develop quality teaching ‘vocationality’ that is ineffectively It should operationalise life- across the private and public sec- being pressed in the university long learning by making the pass- tor. sector. port a lifelong provision, so that The third major plank to The Commission would licence even if it is spent in gaining qual- Labour’s proposals was the post-compulsory educational ifications early in life it can be resourcing and improvement in institutions, setting parameters credited with years of contribu- quality of apprenticeship pro- on remuneration, legitimate edu- tions to taxation, employers’ con- grammes from large and cational functions and commit- tributions, by credits tied to age small/medium size employers, ments to minimise fees and max- thresholds (recrediting at 40/45 with trade union representation imise public engagement and and on retirement) or by a record in the governance structures for benefit from services to the stake- of community/voluntary engage- apprenticeships and a specific holders and communities. Each ment, so there is a transparency commitment to inclusion for institution would identify its mis- about what lifelong learning women, BAME, LGBT and dis- sion and priorities under these means. abled people. Only at the end of parameters. It should initiate a scheme the skills section is the establish- It should disentangle funding where funding on post-compulso- ment of a lifelong learning com- and esteem from some damaging ry courses is tied to a contractual mission ‘tasked with integrating metrics, for example the tying of commitment to work in the non- further and higher education’. quality measurement to uptakes governmental sector with Labour can and should be more of ‘graduate-level’ jobs for univer- licenced social, cultural and envi- radical in its approach to post-16 sities, which ignore the vagaries ronmental organisations that pro- policy, both to attract support of employment markets and vide care, support and enabling to and to make a persuasive case for devalue other choices individuals communities. This could augment a constructive but not singular might make post-qualification. the equalities and welfare agen- link between education and econ- Meaningful metrics that empha- das. So, an undergraduate com- omy. How could it enhance its sise quality would be developed Paul Reynolds is pleting a 3-year degree will com- proposals? with – not imposed on - students a lecturer at mit to a 2 year ‘contract’. This Forming a Post-Compulsory and academic/technical staff and Edge Hill could offset part of the financial Education Commission should be should ensure accountability. University contributions to such organisa- a priority. It should promote the Labour should show that fund- tions. value of all three routes to meet- ing post-compulsory education This could ground an approach ing ambitions, emphasising a par- can be offset by employer contri- to life-long learning that is coher- ity of esteem where all forms of butions for the skills they con- ent, transparently affordable education (including training) are sume, central funding that is effi- with a clear sense of where finan- valued for their fitness for pur- ciently distributed and targeted cial liabilities lie, and geared pose and not their status (some- at the point of service delivery towards a genuine sense of people thing that currently skews uni- and not senior management choosing their education trajecto- versities from further education salaries, with a principle of some ries, whilst enriching the econo- colleges). This could directly fos- return by public service (below). my, cultural and social life. C

14 CHARTIST January/February 2018 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 15

GOVE’S ROTTEN LEGACY Dave Lister on why the Academy project is floundering

he Tories’ reverses in take over any new schools. At sec - 141% in one extreme case. Yet the this year’s general elec - ondary level two thirds of chains staff they employ have had their tion spelt an end to are performing below national salaries pegged at 1% over the their plans for whole - averages at Progress 8, the rela - last seven years which represents sale academisation, at tively new way of assessing a real term pay cut at the same Tleast for the time being. progress across a range of GCSE time as they have faced increas - Nevertheless, measures remain subjects and 51% are performing ing workload pressures. on the statute book to allow for significantly below national aver - We also need to consider ques - further academisation, particu - ages. The House of Commons tionable (even if legal) practices larly for schools that fail their Select Committee reported last by some chains. There are cases Ofsted inspection. However, there February that there is no real evi - of schools purchasing services is a problem for the Government dence that academies perform provided by their sponsor and of in that chains or multi-academy better than maintained schools. staff being employed who are trusts (MATs) do not necessarily Yet that is what the duffers in the closely related to senior figures in want to take over schools that are DfE continue to assert. the chain. Even though these failing academically, financially Why are a significant number practices may be totally above or both. of academies failing to deliver? board, they are clearly open to Looking further into the chains The answer surely lies in the abuse in a situation in which themselves a varied picture Government’s desperation to academies receive far less scruti - emerges. Some MATs academise as widely and as quick - ny than maintained schools. are high performing, like ly as possible. This has led it to How then can we expect an Harris and ARK, in terms of the encourage academy chains to incoming Labour Government to Government’s criteria for achieve - expand quicker than they have address these issues? Angela ment, but equally there are a sig - the capacity to do, sometimes over Rayner said at the last Labour nificant number that are poor or wide geographical areas. It has very poor. The most recent exam - also accepted bids from potential ple is the Wakefield City academy sponsors with little or no Why are a significant due diligence. In the words of Professor Hutchings: “The record number of academies There have been huge of the Government in accepting failing to deliver? The new sponsors…has been that salary hikes for some most have been accepted. There answer surely lies in the CEOs over the past year - does not seem to have been a very vigorous vetting process…” Government’s up to 141% in one There are other issues too, such desperation to extreme case. Yet the as a lack of accountability. Although Local Authority (LA) academise as widely and staff they employ have services have been cut, LAs still as quickly as possible keep a watchful eye on their had their salaries pegged maintained schools. However at 1% over the last seven academies and academy chains Party conference that a Labour are ultimately responsible to one Government “would ensure that years person alone - the Secretary of every school in receipt of public State. Powers are delegated to money is genuinely democratical - eight Regional Schools ly accountable to the people it Academy Trust, which has Commissioners to deal with serves” but she did not exactly foundered, announcing on 8th academies in their area but they pledge to return all academies to September that it was seeking only have small teams and as the Dave Lister is is a LA control. It would surely not be alternative sponsors to run its 21 number of academies grows, their Chartist EB sensible to de-academise success - schools. The trust admitted that ability to monitor and intervene member ful, popular schools. But many it did not have “the capacity to reduces. This has prompted sug - academies cannot be described in facilitate the rapid improvement gestions that the Government will this way. Legal changes would be our academies need and our stu - end up creating a new middle tier required and should be imple - dents deserve”. to take on this responsibility. I mented to allow academies to Yet not long ago the have news for them: this tier return to the LA fold. Government was praising it as “a already exists in the form of LAs. Michael Gove and his succes - potential flag-bearer for its There are also concerns about sors have inflicted significant academies …across the north of how chains are run. Many CEOs damage on our education system. England”. Another example is E- of MATs are on large salaries. We have too many different types ACT which had ten schools taken Dan Moynihan of Harris was on of school. Inappropriate courses, away from it because of poor per - £420,000 in 2015-16 and most of tests and examinations have been formance. Further, in January them earn more than the Prime foisted on them. Over time 2017 School Week reported that Minister, even those just running Labour in power will need to be as many as 57 sponsors had been one primary school. There have really radical in reshaping, with placed on the Government’s been huge salary hikes for some the profession, much of what is ‘pause list’ and instructed not to CEOs over the past year - up to now taking place in our schools. C

January/February 2018 CHARTIST 15 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 16

#METOO Sexual Harassment, #M Mica Nava on why women are saying no more loudly and widely n

s no Chartist reader self-promoting – and as yet can fail to have unpunished — serial sexual noticed, the last weeks assaults on women in public of 2017 saw an erup- places and an extension of the tion of condemnation protest demonstrations in which andA protest against sexual preda- an estimated five million women tors in the work place. Although around the world participated fol- it started in the US, this has lowing his inauguration. So the become a global movement. The Weinstein revelations, although MeToo hashtag has trended in the trigger for the #MeToo retali- one version or another in a hun- ation, are in fact part of a longer dred countries and been posted process of growing insurrection many millions of times. Indeed, against the misogyny and bully- as I write, Time magazine has ing that many women are subject- named the ‘silence breakers’ of ed to on a daily basis in the work the #MeToo movement its ‘Person places of the modern world. of the Year’1 and the Hollywood But are things worse now or Golden Globe awards have are women just less inclined to bypassed movies associated with endure the indignities and Weinstein productions. inequalities of everyday life? A bit There is nothing new about of both probably. Although sexual harassment. As a way of women are still not paid the same controlling women and demon- as men for work of equal value, strating male power it has been over the last decades they have around for centuries and has nevertheless made great strides been focused on by feminists of in terms of their economic and the second wave since the early social status. So although sexual 1980s (although 19th century harassment can be understood in feminists were also concerned part as an exercise of embedded about the issues). What is differ- power by men – they do it because ent, and what the current shock they can, because they always The faces of five women, including celebrities Taylor wave has exposed, often in graph- have — it can also be interpreted, Swift and Ashley Judd, appear on TIME’s 2017 Person of ic detail, is the widespread and at least in part, as an attempt to the Year cover, representing “The Silence Breakers” often shameless nature of this hang on to increasingly precari- exercise of power which is wield- ous and diminishing male privi- to communicate with each other, ed across the full range of work to recognise and define the pro- places, from parliament to the There is nothing new cesses of oppression and to fight hospitality industry and schools, back against bullying. Together usually by relatively established about sexual these antagonistic aspects of men over younger less-estab- harassment. As a way social media have contributed to lished women. These acts, the growing recognition by extending from the monumental- of controlling women women, especially younger ‘mil- ly crude, as in the case of Harvey lennial’ women, of structural Weinstein, to the micro subtle and demonstrating inequality and what is increas- impositions designed to humiliate male power it has ingly referred to as ‘the patri- and confuse, have not only turned archy’. out to be more commonplace than been around for Feminists of my generation, most people were aware but have centuries particularly socialist feminists, also generated, in the space of a wrestled with this concept during few months, an unprecedented, lege. the 1970s and ‘80s and, in part visceral, world-wide resistance A second factor contributing to because of our roots on the left, and fight back. the situation today is the expo- tried to work out the relationship So why has this protest nential growth of internet activi- of patriarchy to capitalism. The emerged now? What is different ty, of sexual trolling and online usual assumption was that capi- socially and politically about the pornography in which the pliabili- talism was the determining force, current context? How does it fit ty and degradation of women is and that because capitalist rela- with second wave feminism? normalised, and which is con- tions of production benefitted Should it be given an uncritical sumed mainly by men, often over from women’s cheap and mal- welcome? the course of the working day. leable labour, strategies were It is not new to suggest that The internet has however also developed to maintain the status the #MeToo campaign is part of provided the networking infras- quo. Others (I was among them) an ongoing revolt against the tructure for the resistance move- argued that capitalism was indif- election of Trump and his brazen, ment – the opportunity for women ferent to the gender of its labour

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#MeToo and Feminism dely now and the long wave of attrition against male sexual abuse

power and that it was patriarchal made us fairly robust in the ment and in knowing how to structures, i.e. men as men, that face of unwanted advances. respond are unresolved. We kept women in their place. And I It is no coincidence that should not be lulled by the excite - think that is borne out in the cur - older feminists have been ment of battle into making dodgy rent scenario. The patriarchy we notably overrepresented accusations and bypassing due are witnessing today, in which among those who have said process. As Ruth Levine has put men harass to assert and display ‘we learned to cope, to be it, we should avoid ‘yielding to power — sometimes simply tough, to slap down wander - the desire for retribution, which because they have been brought ing hands’ etc. Danger and only perpetuates brutality’ and up to do so, because of pervasive risk were all part of the pub - instead work for ‘restorative jus - ideas about masculinity, and lic world we had felt exclud - tice, which holds the potential for sometimes as part of a struggle to ed from, so we put up with genuine accountability and last - defend their ascendency in the what is now called ‘inappro - ing change 2 modern public world — is a rear- priate’ behaviour (see for So how to move forward? The guard attempt to keep women in instance most recently solution should surely be to their place. Glenda Jackson in Stage). focus, where possible, on change So, in their invocation of ‘patri - Therefore, although femi - and education, not vengeance. archy’ I think the #MeTooers nists of my generation are And we must absolutely keep in have got it right. The feminism of mind that not all men fit the young women today is not the What we are left #MeToo characterisations of same as ours. For a start, in part predatory masculinity, that because of the high profile of with is a deeply men’s behaviour has changed Trump and Weinstein, it’s now a complex picture. enormously in the last fifty years mass movement – as Time maga - and will continue to do so. zine has shown us. Last summer There are no easy Moreover, women can also be an ICM survey of teenage girls liars and bullies and quite often reported that the majority identi - answers collude in the harassment of fied as feminists. immensely sympathetic to other women (most recently What we are now witnessing is the #MeToo campaign they Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of a surge of mainstream, populist, are also a bit bemused about the extreme right-wing group assertive feminism quite different the gravity attributed to Britain First, has been accused from the left-wing radical and what sometimes seems to us by a fellow member in her organ - marginal versions of the 1970s. rather light-weight routine isation of attempting to silence a The current wave is less con - come-ons. I include myself woman who made harassment cerned with conceptual equivoca - here. But I have shifted in claims 3). tion and, interestingly, seems the course of writing this What we are left with is a rather less libertarian in its atti - piece and talking to younger Mica Nava is deeply complex picture. There tudes to sexuality than was ours. women. I have become more Emeritus are no easy answers. So, in con - This too has had a bearing on the sensitive to the indignity of Professor of clusion, my message to my responses of older feminists to minor infractions and Cultural Studies teenage granddaughters is: take the present crisis. increasingly respect the at the University care, be brave, organise, chal - One of the key demands of the courage and risk involved in of East London. lenge and take action if neces - Women’s Liberation Movement in taking a stand and making Since the 1980s sary. But remember that it’s the late 1960s and 1970s was for public accusations. The fight her work has important to keep things in pro - sexual freedom on equal terms back is definitely to be cele - been widely portion, that masculinity is con - with men. This was a reaction brated. This will be a long cited and stantly in flux and most men are against conservative ideas about war of attrition but progress reprinted and OK, and that online fraudsters femininity and the constraints is being made. Men are tak - has contributed and trolls are likely to be more imposed on women and girls’ sex - ing note. All that is very to the expansion dangerous than your average uality in 1950s and ‘60s which good news. of cultural male teacher, school mate or operated even in the countercul - But significant questions studies in UK and boss. Whether or not the advice tures of political and social remain. Where to draw the abroad. Her of their grandmother will be protest. Although the emphasis line? What should be done? most recent book rated, I don’t know. C in feminist thought shifted some - The tricky issues of defini - is Visceral what over the course of the 1980s tion, proportionality and Cosmopolitanism 1 as sexual abuse was increasingly natural justice are hardly : Gender, Culture http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year- registered, this initial focus on addressed by the #MeToo and the 2017-silence-breakers 2 liberation and pleasure made a protesters or their advo - Normalisation of http://bostonreview.net/gender- significant contribution to the for - cates. Legal principles seem Difference sexuality/judith-levine-will-feminisms-past-mis - (Bloomsbury) takes-haunt-metoo#.WivnZ_X8xNd.email mation of ideas about sexual to have been suspended. 3 behaviour for a generation of Significant problems in the . https://www.theguardian.com/uk- news/2017/dec/03/jayda-fransen-tried-to-stop- women. identification of the scale sex-assault-complaint It is this context that also and harm of sexual harass -

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DEMOCRACY

2018: a year for celebrating and changing our Democracy? On the 100th anniversary of female (limited) suffrage Mary Southcott surveys the advances and limits of democracy in Britain wo words we should love and cherish, though they are rather clunky, are enfran- chisement and sub- Tsidiarity. The former as in Bob Marley’s redemption song, “emancipate yourself”. So embrace citizenship, espe- cially the right to vote, to set free, to liberate championed by Martin Luther King killed 50 years ago in 1968. Subsidiarity, inherited from the Roman Catholic church, is linked with sphere sovereignty, as in devolution where decisions are made at the most appropriate place nearest to the people and issues they affect. Some of us It has been 100 since Sylvia Pankhurst and the Suffragettes won the right to vote for women have never really worked out what pooled sovereignty is and John at Runnymede was 800 toral reform until the 1970s. live in a binary, zero sum world before publication, by Graham The 14 December 1918 general which negates cooperation and Allen and the Political and election was not just the first consensus seeking.” Constitutional Reform where women voted, but all men We need to add citizenship Committee, of A New Magna over 21 were enfranchised. It is education, a crucial ingredient so Carta? salutary to think that this was people know how to access and It was the Great Reform Act, before Ireland was partitioned influence decisions made in their The Representation of the People given the soft or hard borders dis- name. All these are at the heart Act 1832, that inspired the cussion in Brexit negotiations. of our democracy. This year, Chartists in 1838. Their People’s Some things do not change. Sinn 2018, the anniversary of the cru- Charter demands have, except Fenn’s Constance Markievicz, did cial decision to allow women, over annual parliaments, all been con- not take up her seat because of 30 at least, to vote, we have a rea- ceded. They did not even think of the policy still existing of absten- son to look back, to celebrate reversing the way the Reform Act tion from Westminster. The DUP these stepping stones in democra- had disenfranchised women. agreement on confidence and sup- cy through the Great Reform Act, Before this women, without male ply means that all voters in the Chartists and Suffragettes to relatives, could vote because Northern Ireland are represented the current debate where some property rather than gender in the government rather than legislation seems designed to dis- defined the franchise. Voters having any party working with enfranchise. We need also to pro- were by definition men and the the opposition under other voting ject forward to the sort of society Chartists for all their positive systems. And first past the post we wish to live in which reflects contribution did not challenge is supported to avoid minority our values and vision of equality this. government. and ending poverty. Ironically this led to the Gender parity at 21 had to wait We have key moments we draw Suffragettes and Suffragists who ten more years, 1928. But now no on to take us forward, starting in with their supporters achieved distinction is made, on gender ancient Athens, remembering one century ago votes for women, grounds at least. There was an that it was only men that met at at least those aged 30. Looking overlap between people who the agora to make decisions with back 100 years seems a short called for the vote for women and their stone, psephos, the root of time in history, it is a very long those arguing at that time for pro- our word psephology. People who time in politics. Things have not portional representation. The decided not to join in were indi- just changed, they have changed Representation of the People’s Act viduals, idiotes, which became utterly. But the persistence of in 1948 got rid of University seats our word, idiots. Letting others the 19th century voting system and plural voting but not before decide our lives without our hav- we use to elect MPs, the first past Barbara Castle had been chosen ing a say is just idiotic. the post, and the centralised gov- the second Labour candidate in Thirty years ago Charter 88 ernance, in England at least, Blackburn. picked up on the Glorious stands out. The emancipation of By 1968, the year that changed Revolution in 1688, and the working class men moved the everything, another key anniver- Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia. Labour Party into second place sary, it was realised that setting Unlock Democracy continues replacing the Liberals and also the voting age at 21 meant that their work. The signing by King changed their attitude to elec- some people did not have their

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PR

first vote until they were 25 or zens who live in the UK. EU changing the voting system. 26. Votes at 18 was incorporated member countries outside the So 2018 needs to be another into the Representative of the UK, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus emancipating moment. The People Act the following year. could lose their right to vote in magic 8 has resounded down the Now we are arguing for votes at local elections, for elected mayors, Mary Southcott is centuries. We need to be grateful 16, not because the age is magical in European parliamentary elec- secretary of to those who worked to let people but because usually 16 year olds tions which come to an end with Labour Campaign decide by voting in the past and are at home and at school, where Brexit. Their vote might have for Electoral let that galvanise us to change ideally they can get registered, affected the result in the 2016 EU Reform and a our broken voting system. It discuss politics and learn citizen - referendum. The result produces member of polarises and divides, magnifies ship rights. The Scottish the sort of crisis that might let us Chartist EB difference and undermines our Independence Referendum look at our unwritten constitu- ability to see our communality showed that 16 year olds are tion. Labour is offering a consti- and ability to work together. The great voters but many attainers, tutional convention. The class of political culture needs to change. those approaching 18, do not even 2015 and 2017 MPs are more and Equality and democracy are our get on the register, thanks to more in favour of reforming our values and vision. We need to individual registration. Should voting system. Constituencies change the centre of gravity of we be asking for automatic regis - which have always assumed to be our politics. As Robin Cook said tration? There are countries safe, where most of the MPs sup- we can no longer support a sys - which give their citizens one porting first past the post are, are tem which allows us once in every number which gives them access waking up to the idea that they two decades to seize power with to health care, national insur - can be taken for granted. It is minority support. “Our objective, ance, income tax and voting. We the reason housing has taken so our slogan, should be to achieve need to look out for disenfran - long to appear on the agenda. We an electoral system which puts chisement, boundaries, registra - are witnessing the Bootle effect our democracy in the hands of the tion and pilots on identification where people are engaging in the many voters, not the few voters when voting. conversation we need to have who happen to be key in marginal There is equality of franchise before Labour agrees that we will seats.” C for Irish and Commonwealth citi - go into government committed to Making all votes count

While 76% alking to a comrade recently about the thy and mistrust people feel towards the political ‘dark ages’ for elections in 2000s, he system - often people in the demographics that of Labour admitted to voting Lib Dem in 2010. Labour is polling best in. This is not your typical bright-eyed stu - It goes on to present evidence that PR countries voters dent fooled by Nick Cleggs’ dubious have achieved better gender and BAME represen - Tcharm. We are talking about a staunchly left tation in government, as well as lower income support PR working-class young person who surveyed the inequality, better environmental controls, less Alena dire prospects of all parties’ political programmes appetite for engaging with armed conflicts and and decided on the Lib Dems because of their higher social expenditure. Ivanova commitment to electoral reform and Proportional Consistently, the report draws on existing Representation (PR). research and modelling of previous election asks The second edition of the report* published by results to make the compelling argument that Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform and Make under Proportional Representation, there would whether Votes Matter (the cross-party campaign to intro - be no areas in the country taken for granted, and members duce PR to the House of Commons) makes the voters in each seat will be represented in parlia - case for PR in light of the surprise strong result ment. That in itself should be reason enough for are willing for Labour under Corbyn and the unique position Labour to wholeheartedly support an electoral the party has found itself in under May’s unstable reform that makes all votes count. to back a government. The publication argues that the However, the question that left-wing activists manifesto’s commitment to a Constitutional within Labour would then need to answer for progressive Convention is significant but does not go far themselves is what would the effects of more enough and, more importantly, is not reflective of coalition governments with Labour as the key Labour-led the new mood to rebuild the party as a grass - party would mean for the project we are finally coalition roots-led, truly members’ organisation. making headway with, namely shifting the politi - The report outlines the basic arguments cal consensus back to the left of genuinely demo - Alena Ivanova is a against the current First Past the Post system - cratic socialism. For example, discussing the member of Tower that it is archaic, that it rarely delivers a govern - effects of FPTP during the Thatcher era, the Hamlets Labour ment that has actually won the widest support, authors clearly state: Party and that it polarises the political discourse and at the ‘The point here is not that a Labour-Liberal Momentum same time devalues political ideas, putting pres - coalition would be exactly the same as a Labour sure on candidates to focus on short-term easy majority government, but that it would be incom - *The Many, Not the Few fixes for marginal localities, rather than big pic - parably better and more representative of British Proportional ture strategic change for the whole country. voters than the actual outcome, nearly two Representation & Labour Perhaps most significantly, the existing electoral decades of Thatcherism.’ Are Labour supporters in the 21st Century system has delivered a majority of conservative- prepared to stand by their preference for PR (76% Published by Labour led governments when the country consistently of Labour voters believe the party should commit Campaign for Electoral returns a majority of more progressive votes. The to PR), if it means a progressive coalition that is Reform and Make Votes effects of this erosion of democracy are felt by all not necessarily aligned to the current Labour Matter of us, not only in terms of the continuing austeri - vision that is finally offering a true alternative? C ty and dismantling of public services, but the apa -

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DEMOCRACY

Closing the democratic deficit Cat Smith welcomes the 30th October Westminster Hall discussion on proportional representation and calls for real change by government

he debate was delayed be part of a wider package of con- by the June general stitutional reform to address the election and I am sure growing democratic deficit across that we all welcome the Britain. This is about where huge increase we saw power and sovereignty lie—in inT political participation. Two politics, the economy, the justice million young people registered to system and our communities. vote after the election was called, A recent study by Demos found leading to the highest youth that only 37% of young adults feel turnout since 1992. We must con- that British politics reflects the tinue to build on this level of issues that matter to them. What engagement, in which the peti- are the Government doing to tion process (which triggered the increase democratic engagement October debate) plays a powerful and ensure that voters have their role. Young voters in a record turnout in the 2017 general say on decision making, both dur- The debate focused on our vot- election ing and outside election time? As ing system and, particularly pro- we approach 100 years since the portional representation. Labour than the current system. start of women’s suffrage, it is is committed to taking radical However, the UK voted over- important to reflect on the ways steps to ensure that all eligible whelmingly to reject changing the in which more people can partici- voters are registered and can use system, with just 32 per cent of pate in our democracy. Reducing their vote, and we welcome the voters supporting AV. Yet public the voting age to 16 would make opportunity to discuss wider elec- opinion may have changed since our constitution clearer across toral reform. 2011. Supporters of PR highlight the whole UK. Currently 16 and All voting systems have recent ICM poll findings that 67% 17-year-olds can vote in local strengths and weaknesses. believe that seats should match elections in Scotland (and Wales Although the election did not pro- votes, while 61% support replac- is considering following suit) but duce a strong majority ing FPTP with PR. It is therefore they are not entitled to vote in a Government, some argue for first important to consider different general election. What is the past the post (FPTP) based on its voting systems. However, chang- Government’s position on votes at history of returning single-party 16? Governments and because it It is also important that people retains the constituency link, a It is important that are entitled and registered to vital aspect of British political people are entitled and vote, which is a particular chal- life. As MP for Lancaster and lenge for private tenants, stu- Fleetwood, I represent the people registered to vote, which dents and young people who often of my local area and am directly is a challenge for private move house. What are the accountable to them. However, Government doing to ensure that moving to a proportional system tenants, students and such mobile and transient groups does not necessarily rule that out. do not fall off the electoral regis- At the election the young people who often ter every year? It is hard for peo- Conservative party and the move house ple to check whether they are on Democratic Unionist party the electoral roll but the London received just 43 per cent of the Borough of Hackney is the first votes between them but gained a ing the voting system alone will Cat Smith MP is council to enable people can check majority of seats. In Scotland, not fix the disconnect between the Voter online. Would the Government Labour and the Conservatives some voters and politics. We need Engagement and consider rolling that out national- received similar vote shares, on wide-ranging transformation of Youth Affairs ly? 27 per cent and 28 per cent our political structures to help Minister in the Finally, there is no point mak- respectively, but the Tories won build a vibrant, active democracy Shadow Cabinet. ing radical changes to our elec- twice as many seats as Labour. and reduce the power of vested toral system if we lack staff to Supporters of PR argue that seats interests and big money. manage them. Electoral services in Parliament should reflect votes Labour’s 2017 manifesto com- are generally administered by and that a PR system will give mitted to establishing a constitu- small, often relatively junior people the opportunity to vote for tional convention to examine and teams. What are the Government what they believe in, instead of advise on reforming how Britain doing to ensure that elections are voting tactically. works at a fundamental level. properly staffed, and what will What the British public wants The convention would have the they do to protect the mental is unclear. Much has been said option to consider different voting health and wellbeing of electoral about the 2011 AV (Alternative systems and would consider administrators? Vote) referendum. Ed Miliband extending democracy locally, We should review voting sys- as Labour leader supported the regionally and nationally, start- tems as part of a wider package yes campaign because he believed ing by ending the hereditary of constitutional and electoral that it was good for democracy principle and reducing the size of reform to address the growing and accountability, and fairer the House of Lords. That should democratic deficit across Britain.C 20 CHARTIST January/February 2018 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 21

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia: mayhem or democracy? Muddasser Ahmed asks whether the young leader is ushering in a Saudi Arab Spring

his is the Saudi Arab as blind social liberalism on the Spring” said a well-con- part of bin Salman. He simply nected Riyadh socialite appears more worried about to me last December in young Saudis’ livelihoods than a private Twitter their dress codes. He is as con- exchange.T His message, as well as cerned about Saudi girls being his chosen medium, speaks vol- able to drive as he is about them umes about the new Saudi Arabia having jobs to drive to. unleashed by Mohammed bin All Saudis – with the exception Salman (known as MbS). perhaps of the very old, conserva- I've worked as a communica- tive and very rich – are excited by tions consultant in Saudi Arabia headline-grabbing projects like for 10 years. Recent events show the $500 billion NEOM city in the that Saudi Arabia is finally facing Real change for Saudi Arabia? desert, the Vision 2030 economic up to its deep-rooted economic, diversification programme and social and foreign policy chal- the potential for reform driven by lenges. younger than 25, and this demo- Nazaha (the new anti-corruption Its economy is in dire need of graphic bulge could almost double commission that led arrests to diversification. Its foreign policy the size of the labour market by arrests in mid December). must be made more ambitious 2030. Many of those young people This excitement is equaled only and nuanced. And its society are foreign educated, thanks to by worry – how will the newly must become fairer. Bin Salman the late King Abdullah’s policy of disenfranchised elite react? Will has proven that he has the politi- providing a global education in an the revolutionaries become the cal capital and the diplomatic attempt at sustainable economic new conservatives the morning muscle to face up to the enormity development. after the revolution? And most of of the problems he has inherited Those who stayed at home for all, will these high-level changes – and perhaps begin to solve. university have grown up in a trickle down to more equality It’s difficult for outsiders to social media-saturated environ- across society, (even in ‘the other really understand Saudi Arabia – ment few of us in the UK can Saudi Arabia’ in the Eastern I’m still struggling. And my imagine: Saudi Arabia tops both province)? Saudi friends each have their Twitter and Snapchat usage This is on the home front, but own take. worldwide. foreign policy is a different mat- The familiar vocabulary being Bin Salman instinctively ter. Yemen is looking more and used by outside analysts doesn’t understands this – he is, after all, more like Saudi Arabia’s Vietnam do justice to the complexity and 32 years old. He has the potential – with the key difference that significance of bin Salman’s to be a millennial head of state, Yemen’s Vietcong are armed with actions. "Purge" and "putsch", with all the possibilities and fears missiles that can reach Riyadh, "coup" and "crackdown" have that brings. His appetite for risk as one such missile did in been thrown around. Wild con- and apparent comfort with seis- November. And the situation in spiracy theories (even by the mic shifts are seen by many as a Lebanon is unpredictable at best, already hallucinogenic standards trait not specifically of his nation Muddassar particularly after Prime Minister of the Middle East) about bombed or his class, but ultimately of his Ahmed is chair of Hariri resigned – from Riyadh. helicopters and yachts containing generation. Forum for Bin Salman has joined the new $1 billion have circulated The fear among the old guard, Change, a British generation of young leaders tak- unthinkingly. including many of those connect- think tank ing huge risks and potentially More than anything, the Saudi ed to individuals detained by bin working on making transformational leaps street is frustrated at being cari- Salman’s new anti-corruption issues of because they stare down genera- catured – by the global commen- unit, is that those risks will not inclusion and tional challenges and don’t blink: tariat, and by parts of its own rul- pay off. diversity, and a Trudeau in Canada, Macron in ing elite. Important constituencies in the former British France, and Kurz in Austria. Without question, parts of religious establishment are government If this is the Saudi Arab Saudi Arabia are a pampered pet- already feeling marginalized. adviser Spring, Mohammed bin Salman rostate. But beneath the surface, Brotherhood sympathisers are will have to work overtime if it is the Saudi Middle Class – who aggrieved by recent Saudi policy to be the one instance where the rarely make international head- against Brotherhood-supporting Arab Spring delivered on its lines – have been squeezed for Qatar, while the Wahhabi estab- promise, rather than being years. It is those Saudis who are lishment are shocked that the hijacked by mayhem and destruc- riveted by bin Salman’s talk of religious police (informally called tion. If anyone in the Saudi rul- anti-corruption and a return to the Hai’a by Saudi youth) has ing class is up to the challenge, it moderate, open Islam. been all but shut down. is him. C Nearly half of Saudis are It would be unfair to view this January/February 2018 CHARTIST 21 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 22

SOFT LEFT

Miliband as new flag bearer? Trevor Fisher reflects on the Labour Co-ordinating Committee and possible successors

he 2015 election marked the death knell of the old Right of the Labour Party and its close relation the New TLabour tendency - the main old Right grouping known as Labour First still continues and was name checked by Roy Hattersley in the Observer on December 3rd. Progress, the New Labour vehicle started by Derek Draper contin- ues as a marginal presence and its standard bearer Liz Kendall gained only 4.5% of the members vote in that year's leadership elec- tion. The Old Left won that elec- tion not because it was in the ascendant - Corbyn was put on the ballot paper to take votes off Burnham - but the majority of the Party membership were soft left and revolted against the three main candidates. Was this the moment for a soft left revival? Clearly this has not happened and while there is still a remnant old Right, the Soft Left is largely invisible. Momentum will contin- ue to rise, and is likely to take the extra three NEC seats created by Open Labour declares itself a whose membership rejected the 2017 Party Conference. The membership organisation, but Miliband in 2015 can have any soft left cannot mobilise, though there are no membership cards influence on events. Angela Rayner has come out as and voting was by holding up an This is still more so for Soft Left and others in the PLP Open Labour pin badge. The Compass. It has been promoting a have similar views. But to what event was dominated by speeches, ‘Progressive Alliance’ which now effect? limiting movers of motions to one seems to bemorphing into a In 2018 will see the 20th minute per proposal. Following ‘Common Platform’. But there is a anniversary of the folding of the this a second conference was held hole in its strategy. Compass has most successful Soft Left group in post the election in Manchester never taken a position on the EU. Party history, the Labour Co-ordi- but with few decisions open to Trevor Fisher was Promises of a debate have yet to nating Committee. What succes- membership participation. a member of the materialise. No other tendency sors exist? There are really only The elections for the committee Labour has opted out of the Brexit two, Compass and Open Labour. were by postal ballot and the Coordinating debate. It was notable that early However Compass is no longer results were notified, but little Committee in its career Momentum surveyed Labour oriented, so what is the else has been formally notified to executive 1987- its members showing they were state of Open Labour which float- members. Rumour is that there is 90 and secretary opposed to Brexit by a big majori- ed at the end of 2015? an active social media debate. of the Labour ty. This puts Momentum in a Having been one of the 50 or so Certainly the website is active, Reform Group strong position to build member- signatories to the press letter that and has been revamped. But the 1995- 2007. He ship and influence the Party started its career, two years ago, most prominent feature on the was a member of development. This is not so for and attending the positive dis- home page is a picture of Ed the Compass Open Labour and Compass, both cussion sessions in the Midlands Miliband. The only sign at the Executive 2007- failing to come out strongly in and the North which followed , I time of writing in Mid December 2009 favour of Remain. was suprised when a fringe at the members have a role is a call While 2018 may or may not see Labour Conference was addressed for applications for sponsorship a Labour government, it is cer- by ex-leader Ed Miliband. from members - and supporters - tainly going to be dominated by Politics Review in November 2016 in selection contests in Labour the struggle over Brexit. It is described Open Labour as marginals.. clear that organisations that sit Milbandite, suprisingly confirmed Although Labour launched an on the fence particularly if they when Miliband addressed its for- election for the three extra NEC favour Ed Miliband's form of tri- mal launch at a London seats at the end of November, angulation are unlikely to have Conference in spring 2017. Open Labour is not supporting any influence. Two decades after The conference approved a long any of the candidates. It is diffi- the LCC closed down, there is policy document which was rooted cult to see how a Miliband sup- nothing remotely as effective as in the Miliband era, and while porting organisation in a party that organisation was C

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GLOBALISATION

Globalist left have it back to front Frank Lee argues the death of the nation state has been somewhat exaggerated

ransnational Companies can be com- pared to a tree: they have extensive branch- es everywhere, but theirT roots are firmly based at National HQ. One of the contemporary clichés in the current discussion of global political economy is the rather dubious concept of the end of the nation state and the subse- quent breaking of the shackles which had hitherto tied Transnational Corporations (TNCs) to specific geographical and legal locations. It is argued that these organizations have moved beyond the control of the states who can no longer exercise effective jurisdiction over their activities. Global corps like Apple have nation state homes This ‘state-denial’ has been articulated by the influential and continues to be the most sig- policy making in their interests.’’ hyper-globalist faction ensconced nificant force in shaping and (M. Gritsch – Review of in the financial press, academic guiding national economic devel- International Political Economy economics departments and polit- opment, including globalization 12: 1-25) ical parties. In a borderless world itself. Consider that an increased Moreover, nation-states pro- the state apparently no longer capability to overcome geographi- tect, subsidize, manipulate cur- matters; economic power has cal distance made possible by rencies, impose quotas, sanctions, shifted from sovereign states to technological innovations in give tax breaks and exemptions global markets. Markets were transport and communication to export industries, R&D, and once fitted into states; now states technologies is of little use if grant patents, and intellectual are fitted into markets. This there are political barriers to property rights to their indige- change has apparently been such movements. Thus, policies of nous corporations to both protect brought about by the revolution- liberalization, deregulation and their home markets and help ary technologies in transport and privatisation were necessary to them penetrate overseas mar- communications. overcome non-technical barriers kets. This is laughingly described Since the 2008 crisis, however, to the free flow of labour, capital as ‘free trade’. States and corpo- this view is more difficult to justi- and commodities. Thus, the rations are not antipodes they are fy. It was after all the allegedly enabling force of globalization twins, and arguably the state is redundant state (or states) which (i.e. neo-liberalism writ large) the senior partner in this pulled capitalism’s chestnuts out was the state. In fact, the bigger arrangement. of the fire with the bail-out of and more powerful states have For example, in 1934 the insolvent banks. During the meet- used globalization as a means of Roosevelt administration passed ing between Obama and the Wall increasing their power and inter- the Glass-Steagall Act. This Street elite at the height of the ests. involved a forced separation of crisis the President apparently ‘’States actively construct glob- Investment banking from com- remarked that it was only himself alization and use it as soft geo- mercial banking which stopped who stood between the assembled politics and to acquire greater banks speculating with deposi- financial movers and shakers of power over, and autonomy from, tors’ monies. In 1999, however Wall Street and ‘the pitchforks’. their national economies and Bill Clinton signed the Financial The US government also ponied societies respectively. For exam- Services Modernization Act, com- up some US$50 billion to bail out ple the US and G7s other domi- monly known as Gramm-Leach- distressed auto manufacturers nant members design and estab- Bliley, repealing the key compo- General Motors and Ford who lish the international trade nents of Glass-Steagall whose were based in ‘Motor City’ agreements, organizations, and articles became largely toothless. Detroit. Detroit itself was also legislation that support and gov- This was what Wall Street had bankrupt but the Federal govern- ern trans-border investments, been angling for and which gave ment was unable to find an addi- production networks, and market an additional push to the eventu- tional US$13 billion to bail out penetration constitutive of con- al debacle in 2008. the city itself. Maybe – just a temporary globalization. The state giveth, and the state thought - because the population Advanced capitalist states, par- taketh away. of Motor City was largely African- ticularly, use these political Thus, the notion that powerful American. instruments to shape internation- trends of internationalization and In fact, the state always has al economic decision making and CONTINUED ON PAGE 24>>

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GLOBALISATION

>>CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 between national investment integrated further. It seems to rates and national saving rates. make more sense to work from interdependence have ended Capital flows between rich and the national to the supra-nation- national sovereignty is vastly poor nations fall considerably al level than the other way overstated. States remain in short of what theoretical models around - particularly given that charge of the essential part of predict. There are still severe most states in the EU are gov- their national sovereignty: mone- restrictions to the international erned by centre right coalitions tary policy, (except in the mobility of labour. The truth is with social-democrats in tow and Eurozone of course) law-making, that we do not live in a complete- centre left parties (PS, Syriza, macroeconomic policy, finance ly globalised world, far from it. PSOE, PASOK, SPD) acting like and taxation, environment, edu- Ergo, nation-states can pursue centre right liberals. Moreover, cation, labour markets, industrial their own policies.’’ the transfer of local democracy – relations, pensions, health and Corbyn’s policies of peoples’ which we are told is now obsolete welfare, social policy, science and QE, renationalisation of the – to supranational democracy technology and so forth. Arguably Railways, taking into public own- contributes to a weakening of no supra-national entity has yet ership the energy and water popular control. This leapfrog- been designed to replace what industries together with the ging of national democracy to has been an effective system of Royal Mail are not beyond the supranational democracy perforce national government. Unimpeded scope of the UK qua sovereign requires a supranational elec- global flows of capital in search of and democratic state. A sovereign torate. This is problematic how- lucrative investment opportuni- country that issues its own cur- ever since ‘’for the great majority ties, are hardly conducive for rency and formulates its own fis- of ordinary European citizens lin- countries wishing to plan and cal policy, and if necessary can guistic barriers and cultural dif- stabilize their future free from impose restrictions on the neo- ferences impair the opportunity the disruptive effects of mobile liberal package of free movement for political participation at a global capital flows (often ‘hot of labour, capital and commodi- supra-national level.’’ money’). ties, as well as the drive to dereg- A more detailed examination of Which brings us to the EU. ulate labour markets constitutional issues arising from The state-declinist thesis seems (euphemistically, flexibilization) Brexit and the EU will have to to have gained a considerable is perfectly capable of a policy for wait for another issue. C traction with the Remainer left. growth rather than for continued No less a personage than Yanis austerity which has become the Varoufakis - the initiator of hallmark of the EU area. DiEM2025 (Democracy in But there’s the rub. How is it Europe) - has been reading the possible to square that orienta- last rites of state democracy and tion with membership of the EU, sovereignty in Europe. a structurally, neo-liberal capital- Apparently, the model of politics ist institution. The Euro has sim- based on the nation state is ‘fin- ply been designed to ensure that ished’. The sovereignty of nation- Germany runs a permanent trade al parliaments has been dis- surplus whilst the southern solved. Today, national electoral periphery runs continuing trade mandates are impossible to fulfil. deficits – a simple accounting Hence, reform of the European identity. It is also noticeable that institutions (specifically the EP), Germany seems to be harbouring is the only remaining option. increasingly regional hegemonic Essentially this is the latest ambitions regarding the rest of version of the TINA ‘argument’, Europe. Socialism or even tepid (there is no alternative), pio- social democracy can never truly neered by Mrs T and rolled out thrive within such a hostile envi- with monotonous regularity ever ronment. since by every cornered establish- The position of the globalist ment politician, both left and left as outlined in the DiEM2025 right. As has been noted else- manifesto, however, seems like a where. ‘’Tell the population that back-to-front attempt to by-pass the nation-state is ‘finished,’ that national institutions and to it is unable to guarantee full attempt through a supra-national employment (or to work towards democracy’ to make fundamental it) and you free yourself of the reforms, through a democratised responsibility of even trying.’’ and strengthened EU. Even The same goes for austerity or Varoufakis regards this as being anything else. If the nation state ‘utopian.’ But, he continues, it is is ‘kaput’ it is futile to oppose it. ‘a lot more realistic than trying to Globalization, however, is far maintain the system as it is’ or from being the all-powerful and ‘trying to leave.’ (The all-encompassing behemoth pos- Independent). tulated by the declinists. ‘’There More realistic, really? But this are major cultural and linguistic begs the obvious question of why differences that preclude a full such an entity is going to be any mobilisation of resources across different from the present dispen- national borders. There is ‘home sation. Is it going to be any less bias’ in investment portfolios. neo-liberal and undemocratic if it There is a high correlation is given greater powers and is

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2017 IN FILM

Hollywood shame factory fter nominating him- self for Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year 2017’, US President Donald ATrump must have shrugged his shoulder pads when he learned that the iconic American maga- zine chose instead the many women who came forward to accuse those in power in the entertainment industry and beyond of sexual abuse. The #MeToo campaign took hold as victims of predatory sexual behaviour undertaken in the workplace spoke out against their attackers. Film producer, Harvey Weinstein, whose alleged sexual Patrick abuse was aggressive and as widespread as his Oscar cam- Mulcahy paigns, checked himself into Battle of the Sexes, summed up how out of touch Hollywood is rehab. A Republican Senatorial on losing candidate, Roy Moore, whose for the protectionist concept of pathos didn’t resonate. The film campaign prompted reporters of ‘America First’. certainly suffered from neither a sense of abuse to come forward, lost his What passed for entertainment star being a convincing tennis party a safe seat. Without even in 2016 didn’t find favour in 2017. player; tennis is harder to fake humour waiting for an accuser, documen- Although the live action remake than boxing, hence the success of tary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock of Beauty and the Beast and the latter genre. fessed up. The Dream Factory of superhero movies Wonder For me, the only zeitgeist-stok- Hollywood is now the Shame Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy ing American film of 2017 was It, Factory. Volume 2 and Spiderman: a horror film adapted from a But what does this mean for Homecoming did solid business Stephen King doorstop about a the film industry in 2018? Will (to use Hollywood parlance) every killer clown. In spite of the gener- there be a shift towards more major studio released films that al consensus that It was not women in positions in power in either underperformed (The scary, the film managed to gross Hollywood? Or rather will there Mummy remake, War for the $694.2 million worldwide against be a dart towards conservative Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner a $35 million budget. behaviour. We have seen credits 2049) or proved an outright flop But what of 2018? Production at the end of films affirming eco- (King Arthur: Legend of the schedules being what they are, logical practices (‘Green is Sword, Monster Trucks, Valerian there won’t be a swift reflection of Universal’) and declaring that no and the City of a Thousand the #MeToo phenomenon. money was taken for the endorse- Planets). Depressingly, only four big budget ment of tobacco products. Will The ‘Awards bait’ drama, studio productions – The Spy Who there be a caption: no woman was Battle of the Sexes, summed up Dumped Me, Blockers, A Wrinkle paid less than a man for doing how out of touch Hollywood is. in Time and The Darkest Minds – the same job in the production of This drama retold the story of the are directed by women; two come- this movie? tennis match between fifty-one dies and two young adult fan- Pay parity was raised by year old ex-champion Bobby tasies based on successful novels Patricia Arquette when she col- Riggs (Steve Carell) and respectively. Compare it to 2017 lected the Best Supporting Wimbledon Women’s Champion releases The Beguiled, Actress award for Boyhood in Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) Underworld: Blood Wars, Detroit, 2015. However, Hollywood is on September 20, 1973. It Everything Everything, undergoing a seismic shift that addressed the prize money point, Unforgettable, The Zookeeper’s was unanticipated in 2016: popu- with King and a group of women’s Wife, Rough Night, Home Again lar entertainment is out of step players forming an alternative and Wonder Woman and the list with populism. league, sponsored by the tobacco is shockingly short and lacking in It is safe to say that the giant Virginia Slims, in order to diverse subject matter. As far as Hollywood elite predicted a earn sums closer to those earned mainstream American cinema is Hillary Clinton victory in the by men. The league story is more concerned, 2018 will see a re-eval- race for the White House. It did interesting than the eventual uation of what passes for popular not imagine that the majority of match. King simply outlasted the entertainment. If The 15:17 to states would opt for a sexist, puffing middle-aged Riggs on Paris, a fact-based thriller star- racist bully with no regard for the court. Audiences watched the film ring a trio of real life American rules-based international system. without a sense of elation or of heroes, Anthony Sadler, Alek Instead of containing its rivals, justice being served; the big-pic- Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, America in 2017 started to imi- ture ‘Battle of the Sexes’ (between playing themselves is a hit, then tate them, throwing away Trump and Clinton) had already the star system could implode decades of competitive advantage been lost and Riggs’ deluded altogether.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Terrorism and Love

The Dilemmas of Lenin, Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution demic issue. The strategy meant extraordinarily devoid of self- Tariq Ali ignoring election results and seeking, an embodied theory. The (Verso £16.99 ) replacing a struggle for hegemony materialist conception of history, through consent with the power one feels, is his life-blood. He of soviets based on a restricted, resembles a professor in his s the anniversary year of frequently manipulated, fran- desire to have the theory under- the October Revolution chise. stood and in his fury with those Aends, why read another This active citizenship domi- who misunderstand or disagree, book on Lenin? Tariq Ali begins nated by Lenin’s party stood not as also in his love of expounding, The Dilemmas of Lenin by scor- just against the “former people” I got the impression that he ing the need to “absorb the of the Tsarist regime. Beginning despises a great many people and lessons, both negative and posi- not just in the armed conflicts of is an intellectual aristocrat.” tive” that the Bolshevik conquest the civil war but domestically, Reporting on his investigations of power offers. Claiming to spurn terror was a key political instru- on the ground, Russell described the ‘Lenin cult’ he offers a “con- the repression that went textualisation” of the “history and with scorn for those who prehistory” of this current. differed, “Opposition is Having “consciously used crushed without mercy, events” to win power out of and without shrinking from Russian failures in the First the methods of the Tsarist World War, the difficulties he police, many of whom are faced, in maintaining the revolu- still employed at their old tionary dictatorship, are abstract- work.” ed from the repression that gov- Knowledge of this casts a Andrew ernment inflicted on all opposi- shadow over perhaps the tion, right and left. We do learn best chapters in The Coates early on, nevertheless, that Lenin Dilemmas of Lenin that are and the Bolsheviks had to win devoted to the ‘Octobrist freezes on majorities in the soviets, “basing women’, the new state’s himself exclusively on the work- efforts to promote women’s Tariq Ali ers” to launch an insurrection, equality. Clara Zetkin’s following “the instructions of the work in the hard task of on Lenin founding elders of the movement, helping women emancipate Marx and Engels.” Whether themselves is highlighted. these commands were behind the Sexuality, Alexandra dissolution of the elected Kollontai advocated, should Constituent Assembly, in which be “regulated only individu- they had no majority, is less al needs.” Difficulties arose clear. when ‘free love’ became The Dilemmas of Lenin con- “free-for-all male-dominat- tains full descriptions of the radi- ed fornication.” Lenin’s own cal Russian environment Lenin love affair with Inessa came from: The background, Armaud is not avoided, Narodniks, Nechaev’s Nihilist though not every reader, Catechism, Chernyshevsky’s ment: arbitrary executions, and who is aware of the terror that didactic novel, What is to be putting large numbers of recalci- Lenin was prepared to use, will Done?, Peter Kropotkin – there is trant workers and opponents enjoy the references to their a long list. After a chapter on from all quarters, including mutual “tenderness”. Terrorism versus Absolution Lenin’s former comrades from the The Dilemmas of Lenin hopes there is a portrait of Lenin’s older Mensheviks, in prison or exile. that some of Lenin’s ideas, “on brother Alexander Ulyanov, Ali cites Bertrand Russell’s the primacy of politics, imperial- hanged in 1887 for a conspiracy judgement that Lenin was “forced ism, self-determination and the by the People’s Will. into dictatorship by being the commune state” are revived. The In his equally lengthy discus- only competent man of affairs in Epilogue, On Climbing a High sion of Lenin’s involvement in a popular movement.” Russell, Mountain by V.I. Lenin, takes us Russian social democracy Ali sympathetic to workers’ self-man- to the sublime emotions of the never explores Lars T. Lih’s agement, issued a short report on “difficulties and dangers” ascend- Lenin Rediscovered (2005). Lih’s a famous British labour move- ing a summit of “unprecedented writings are at the centre of con- ment visit to Russia (The Practice height”. Perhaps Ali wants us to temporary debate on the charac- and Theory conclude that the Bolshevik lead- ter of Bolshevism. They include of Bolshevism, 1920). He is bet- er intended to storm the heavens, discussion of the April Theses, ter known for less complimentary and that we, stuck in the foothills “Lenin’s thunderbolt” which comments in this work on the of compromising politics, should advocated a “proletarian govern- Bolshevik Leader: “He laughs a admire him for abandoning mod- ment based on the soviets.” great deal; at first his laugh eration and caution. Looking at Whether or not Lenin “broke” seems merely friendly and jolly, the corpses in the ravines below, I from Marxist orthodoxy by jump- but gradually I came to feel it for one am left more than cold: I ing over “stages” to a socialist rather grim. He is dictatorial, freeze at the analogy. government, is far from an aca- calm, and incapable of fear,

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Who gains and who loses?

Broken Benefits taken. National Insurance contributors Sam Royston (Policy Press £14) Children are the main losers. and many other topics is equally The freezing of child benefit, the acute and equally depressing. riters about Social two-child limit on tax credits and, The book really does need to be Security generally fall above all, the benefit cap are read. Winto three groups: practi- directed against children. It is Its only real weakness is a lack tioners, who provide practical hard to avoid the conclusion that of historical depth. Like most guidance but little analysis, aca- increasing child poverty has been recent works on Social Security it demics, who obsess about con- a conscious policy objective for starts with a quick canter from cepts like ‘work incentives’ but Governments since 2010; possibly the Elizabethan Poor Law to have no sense of welfare policy as the only one they have actually Beveridge and then moves political strategy and campaign- achieved. Royston also touches on straight on to the present. It does ers, intoning endlessly but vague- knock on effects such as incen- not propose any fundamental Rory ly about ‘massive cuts’. Royston is tives to family breakdown and alternative to the means-tested a rare exception; a practitioner promotion of homelessness which morass in which we now live, O’Kelly who uses a detailed knowledge of will disproportionately damage though it suggests many valuable the system to explain the princi- children. ameliorations. It is notable that on social ples behind Government policy Conversely pensioners are the great legislative reforms of and identify its exact effects. His often seen as the main beneficia- 1975 which set about the revival security conclusions are more powerful by ries. The amount of extra money of the contributory principle have emerging in an understated way going to them even exceeds the been not only obliterated, by col- direct from the evidence. amount taken from children and lusion between Conservative and Analysis is made harder by working age adults. Matters are New Labour Governments, but systematic obfuscation. Laws not so simple however. For mid- deleted from the collective memo- have been passed to define ill peo- dle class people, with their ry. ple as no longer ill and old people greater life expectancy, the bene- The book is rarely directly as no longer fits of increasing state pensions political in a Party sense but old. The dis- easily exceed the losses from readers cannot emerge with much t i n c t i o n increasing pension ages, and with respect for the Labour Party, or b e t w e e n additional private pensions they at least its official spokespeople. employment, will gain from increases in per- When Yvette Cooper stood for the self-employ- sonal tax allowances. For poorer leadership her platform included ment and people, reliant on means-tested the elimination of child poverty. u n e m p l o y - benefits, the value of the contrib- At the same time, however she ment is disap- utory pension is less and the post- supported the benefit cap, which pearing as ponement of pension credit age is designed to increase child Government from 60 to 65 and beyond is dev- poverty. Perhaps the logic is that policy gener- astating. if one believes that the Labour ates an amor- People who left school at 16 Party should always offer people phous mass of and have worked in unhealthy what they want it follows that people doing and dangerous environments for when people want mutually casual, low 40+ years often need to pack it in incompatible things the Party paid, unpro- at 60 and if they have been pay- should respond by developing ductive work ing National Insurance contribu- self-contradictory policies. from time to tions throughout it is hard to A perhaps more serious exam- time and all argue with this. The right to do it ple is the group of Labour MPs claiming the has been taken away. The victims who champion the interests of new one-size- lose from the time-limiting of con- older, poorer working-class voters fits-all benefit, tributory benefits for sickness, whom they see as particularly Universal Credit. they lose from having to claim marginalised and oppressed. This As the practical distinction ESA or JSA (or now Universal is in fact true, for reasons out- between workers and others is Credit) instead of Pension Credit lined above. Instead however of eroded, however, the rhetorical and they lose from these benefits addressing the problems which distinction between ‘strivers’ and being made continuously harder their constituents actually have, ‘skivers’ is made ever sharper, in to get and easier to lose, and as a result of Government policy, defiance of personal experience. worth less when you get them. these MPs prefer to waffle on in Royston cites people receiving the They even lose disproportionately semi-racist language about cul- bulk of their income from state from the bedroom tax. For many ture and community and end up benefits who still do not define working- class families there is a supporting Brexit. themselves as ‘claimants’ and gap between adult children leav- Arguments about Social who agree with cutting benefits, ing home and official retirement Security are often conducted at a for everyone else. Against this it age and for the Conservatives symbolic level. The main lesson is a rare enterprise to present this is a window of opportunity to from this book is to look at the things as they actually are. The force people out of their homes. facts instead. In looking at any strength of Royston’s book is its These are only examples. The proposal do not ask how it fits precise identification of winners author’s analysis of the treatment into your picture of how society and losers. It is hard to do justice of disabled people, particularly should be. Ask instead who exact- to the detail and clarity of its disabled workers, of the system- ly will gain and who will lose, and analysis but two examples can be atic fraud committed against by how much.

January/February 2018 CHARTIST 27 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 28

BOOK REVIEWS

‘Dignified rage’ and the banishment of demons In, Against, and Beyond Capitalism – gifted with the remarkable fore- central to this perspective, then the San Francisco Lectures sight which allowed them to see it more could be said about the Don Flynn John Holloway would push doors open for capi- social-democratic tradition and its (Kairos/PM , £13.99) talism, red in tooth and claw, to efforts to bring human communi- on enter the lives of their people, ties into existence in the ugly, poi- ohn Holloway is the sort of with all that entailed in the way sonous sprawls of the early indus- revolutionary Marxist you turn to if you of corrupt government, transna- trial cities. The creation of free Jthink that revolutionary tional business operations, and health services, social housing romantcism strategies based on the seizure of the commodification of daily exis- and social security systems – the governmental power in a single tence. The outrage to their digni- crowing achievements of country haven’t worked out well ty across all these issues formed European social democracy – all for ambitions to change the world. the basis of the ongoing Zapatista figure in the scheme of things as He offers an alternative vision: a Revolution. efforts to limit and push back at piece-by-piece revolt that aims to Holloway sees the significance the role of the market in shaping deprive capitalism of the power to of this movement in its refusal to all aspects of human welfare. reproduce itself in the interstices take power in the common under- It is not enough to condemn of our lives, whether it be at standing of the term – to estab- these efforts for their ultimate work, in our neighbourhoods, lish an institutionalised system of fate in being infiltrated by capi- family life, and what goes on power that simply mirrors the talism and transformed into the inside our skulls. power of the thing against which social market welfare states that Holloway proclaims the revolu- it is opposed. Instead the are under construction today. tionary subject taking on the Zapatista endure by their refusal The surest thing to predict is that challenge of changing the world is to give up their way of cultivating capitalism will push back at nothing other than ‘we’ – an land, educating children, and whatever forms of resistance to essence that exists prior to capi- organising their communal lives. its rule are thrown up by ‘we’, and talism and which is fated to rage He argues that this is an unless the revolution has more against the indignity of seeing approach that is available to us potential to push back and dis- itself reduced to the status of a all, even if we don’t have the able further encroachments, it commodity in the great pile of backdrop of the Monte Azules to will flounder and fail. Holloway’s commodities that constitutes cap- inspire our resistance. response, that we deal with this italist wealth. He offers up a simple, romantic by continuing to build gardens His revolutionary action is the sort of message which is worth and weave blankets, has more of digna rabia – dignified rage – of thinking about, but then imposes the Gandhi about it than the the Mexican Zapatistas. This on it a series of jarring refusals of Marx. His capitalism is ultimate- Mayan people, from their home- courses of action which, in the ly nothing more than a phantasm lands in the Mexican south-east – context of highly-developed, that can be banished by an act of was able to see capitalism arrive urbanised countries, we are enti- collective will, mobilised by out- on their doorstep back in the mid- tled to think are consistent with rage at the damage done to its 1990s as a consequence of the the spirit of the Zapatista. If the dignity. If only it were so. NAFTA deal. Their leaders were refusal of commodification is so

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Green, democratic and Socialist Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics concept ‘Doughnut Economics’, them, with concomitant risks of for an age of crisis everyone has enough to live on losing democratic control, malign George Monbiot (Verso £14.99 (the inside rim) without exceeding capture and corruption. planetary limits (the outside rim). There is an interesting account eorge Monbiot has long American ecologist Garrett of the Big Organising concept been a trenchant critic of Hardin coined the phrase ‘the used by Bernie Saunders’ primary Gthe political establish- tragedy of the commons’ in 1968, campaign. Though this was ment, ranging from major contri- claiming that common lands will derived from the US Tea Party, it butions on the environmental and be destroyed by over-exploitation. uses large numbers of inspired climate crisis to politics and This was misused as justification activists, which gives an edge to rewilding. His 2016 book, How to commodify and privatise the progressive left over the geri- did we get into this mess? com- forests and natural resources. atric Tory and UKIP right. prised articles previously pub- Whatever its accuracy in gold- Monbiot mentions the recent elec- lished in The Guardian. He now rush and pioneering America, toral advances of Labour under attempts a new synthesis. His Monbiot rightly says Hardin mis- Corbyn but doesn’t cover how polemical edge remains understood how commons such methods contributed. Both undimmed, which makes for a endured in communities, bringing Momentum and the Compass- Nigel lively and inspirational read to my mind English common sponsored Progressive Alliance teeming with ideas, though cover- lands and numerous indigenous applied them effectively to the Doggett ing such diversity in a short vol- peoples nurturing and coexisting Labour campaign and Tory ume sometimes feels rushed defeats. on a tour and lacking rigour. A particularly appealing sec- Key themes are the need for tion describes the entrenched guide a new story to displace neolib- culture of demonstrations and eralism, which itself benefitted marches, with endless speak- from a powerful narrative to ers allocated by negotiation supplant Keynesianism, the between sponsor groups, and a importance of ‘the commons’ lack of strategic approach or and Bernie Saunders cam- clear aims – to me painfully paign methods. The case for a familiar. He proposes moving cogent narrative was prompted beyond oppositional rhetoric by climate change communica- and support for an alternative tions specialist George to speeches focussed on next Marshall. steps, gathering of participants The neoliberal creed details and appeals for commit- replaced the failing Keynesian ment. I saw similar influences consensus since the 1970s not at a Progressive Alliance elec- because it was appealing but tion meeting in Lewes. because its narrative was suc- Inspired by the Saunders cam- cessfully propagated with the paign, the organisers (some help of powerful interests. new to politics) encouraged Hitherto accepted values and contributions from the floor virtues (still fundamental to us and asked everyone to commit as humans) like cooperation, to a specific action for the elec- public service, community and tion. It felt refreshingly free of fairness were attacked by self- the usual rhetoric and clichés ishness, private ownership and we know and love/hate. gross inequality; this in turn Is there anything really new feeds back towards even more here? Much will be familiar to individualism. with nature in America and Chartist readers: the need for Despite Keynesianism’s suc- Africa over the centuries. What democratic movements allied with cess between 1945 and ‘75, upset this balance, by enclosure electoral work at all levels to Monbiot ascribes its recent weak- and land grabs, was incipient and overcome the opposition of ness to three factors: its age (81 then dominant capitalism. finance capital and privilege. Years since Keynes’ General Monbiot extols the virtues of the Maybe each generation must Theory, though neoliberalism commons in various realms where relearn these lessons. Where dates from Hayek in 1938), they are being lost: academic pub- could this lead in future? Not a changes in the global economy lishing, (open source) software, narrow tribal Labour approach and its reliance on economic social media data and co-opera- focussed solely on electoral victo- growth. tives as well as our oceans, land ry, but a social alliance of Labour The limits to economic growth and atmosphere. He over-neatly plus radical Lib-Dems, Greens, argument has been well divides property holding into feminists, anti-racists, trade rehearsed since the 1970s. state, market, commons and unions, environmentalists and However much socio-technical households, a hard distinction to other civil society groups, a recon- change and resource efficiency justify. Some state control is stituted ‘rainbow alliance’ with a achieve decoupling of growth accountable to local people and clearer campaigning vision. from pollution and resources, the resembles common ownership and All in all, a tour guide to a new pursuit of exponential growth is larger units up to global scale, politics that Chartist shares: ultimately unsustainable. need institutions to administer green, democratic and socialist. Monbiot takes up Kate Raworth’s January/February 2018 CHARTIST 29 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 30

BOOK REVIEWS

Rich compendium Mike Against Miserabilism Writings 1968- Marx, the sex psychologist of the area, fighting hospital clo- 1992 Wilhelm Reich, the communist sures and health cuts remain top- Davis David Widgery Christopher Caudwell and the ical. His tribute to suffragette (Vagabond Voices £14.95) American thinker Norman and revolutionary socialist Sylvia on a O’Brown. He also recognised the Pankhurst is magisterial while avid Widgery was a revolu- weakness of the left’s sexual poli- his review of anarchist Jewish gifted tionary socialist and prac- tics. His ‘The Other Love’ in Gay historian Bill Fishman’s East Dticing East End GP. He Left magazine (1974) is a defiant End 1888 is similarly perceptive. socialist was also a prolific writer of great challenge to his fellow revolution- ‘Enter Stage Left’ an encomium verve, wit and prescience. He died aries and their fetishism of class. to the reopened Hackney Empire prematurely young but in his The range of the publications and the Muldoons who secured it busy life, captured here in this he wrote for illustrates his plural- once more as a people’s variety collection of writings (edited by ist concerns. From the under- theatre is a classic. his widow Juliet Ash, Nigel ground magazines Oz and Ink to A libertarian streak, sitting Fountain and Dave Renton) we Time Out through Socialist uneasily in the SWP, runs thor- rediscover the man and his mis- Worker to New Society and ough his writings, exemplified by sion to make the world a better Radical America he dissected the pieces on Victor Serge, Peter place. politics of the time enlisting his Sedgwick, William Blake and the His range of interests was heroes and heroines past and pre- sexpol writings. prodigious. He writes persuasive- sent to shed light. In his piece on the poet ly on popular music, on racism Some of the most powerful Mayakovsky and elsewhere refer- and Black politics, on sexual poli- writing is about Black politics ences to the Russian revolution tics and feminism, strikes, trade with the essay on James Baldwin and Bolshevism, a certain unionism and Labour, on health containing searching insights into Leninist romanticism glints care and the arts. Although a the subtleties of US race politics. through. Nonetheless these arti- loyal but critical member of the He finds Baldwin’s depth far cles reveal a truly gifted socialist International Socialists, later the superior to the machismo of writer who tempered his Socialist Workers Party, he was Eldridge Cleaver. Widgery’s Marxism with an enlightened not sectarian or blinkered about a polemic against the misogynistic humanism and leavened his polit- politics that embraced personal Norman Mailer and his pugilistic ical analysis of Britain under life, feminism and culture. diatribes is a searingly topical cri- Labour and Thatcher govern- As Sheila Rowbotham points tique in these days when sexual ments of the 1970s and 80s with out in the introduction to the sec- abuse is more exposed. coruscating humour. tion on ‘Personal Politics’ he was Much of the writing is inspired This is a rich compendium that inspired by many sources: the by London’s East End where he reads as fresh and absorbing now surrealists, especially Andrew worked as a GP. His descriptions as when the articles were first Breton, William Blake, Karl of treating patients, the poverty written. Rebel politics in Spain

The struggle for Catalonia Catalonia, back to the Renaixença vide an engaging explanation of Raphael Minder (Hurst £15.99) through pivotal moments such as the legal and political system that the 1981 territorial division of has fostered the crisis we are now Only three months ago, our Spain in a ‘one size fits all’ model, witnessing, he manages to weave television screens were filled with the 2006 Catalan statute for in many other aspects that make distressing images: old ladies on autonomy and its subsequent dis- up our identity. For example that their way to the polling stations missal by the Constitutional the Catalan sense of humour is Alice being manhandled and brutalised Courts, right up to early 2017. actually much closer to our Stewart by the very people charged with Whilst Minder is able to pro- British sense of humour than that upholding peace. The streets of of the rest of Spain. Comparing it on a Barcelona, normally viewed as with the Scottish case makes for full of fun were suddenly terrify- an interesting account. Food, lit- European ing. And the story got ever more erature and language all play a dramatic by the day: leaders flee- part. crisis ing to Brussels and the imposition We see Catalonia in the context of direct rule from Madrid. of a wider Spain, one that was not This book can help us try to so long ago in the grip of a dicta- make sense of the climate in both torship, and that has a violent Barcelona and Madrid. Ideas of association with independence – independence are notoriously although normally found in its complex and nebulous, wrapped more radical Basque country. up as they are in identity, culture, Minder concludes with a call for and the economy. It can be puz- mutual understanding and an zling what to make of an illegal open dialogue. In light of the referendum. more recent developments of this Minder charts the roots of the case it seems ever more urgent, independence movement in though increasingly unlikely.

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New left visionary Andy Gregg Stuart Hall Selected Political to our understanding of the shift number of the articles in this col- Writings: The Great Moving Right to the right in the last 20 years of lection were first published in on a Show and other Essays the 20th Century and the first Marxism Today which sought to Ed. Sally Davison & David few years of the 21st. They will be develop more democratic forms of champion Featherstone quite as important in how we socialism then the ‘actually exist- (Lawrence & Wishart £14.00) analyse and deploy the array of ing socialism’ of the Soviet and of cultural cultural forces and the intersec- other Eastern bloc states. When Stuart Hall was one of the first tionality of anti-racism, femi- Marxism Today folded in 1991 he politics people to analyse and chronicle nism, environmentalism and continued to write for Soundings the emergence of Thatcherism other oppositional forces that will and his analysis of neo-liberalism (indeed it has been suggested that be at the forefront of any new eco- continued to interrogate the con- he was the first to coin the term). nomic, cultural and political ditions necessary for the over- His essays portray a political and paradigm. One that now seems to throw of its hegemony. cultural analysis of the great be emerging and which has In the last piece in this collec- move to the right with the break- reached its conflicted and contra- tion entitled the “Neoliberal down of the social democratic post dictory beginnings following the Revolution” (2011) he describes war settlement into the neo-liber- financial crash of 2008. hegemony as “a process, not a al world of which we may only Simultaneously he was a lead- state of being. No victories are now be seeing the beginnings of ing commentator on the tradition- permanent or final. Hegemony the end. Stuart Hall brought a al political realm and the often has constantly to be ‘worked on’, wider understanding of politics as embryonic “New Left” political maintained, renewed, revised. including and indeed often hap- forces that arose against this new Excluded social forces, whose con- pening primarily in the realms of world order, that he identified as sent have not been won, whose culture and identity rather than the forces of radical populism. His interests have not been taken being located solely in the ortho- understanding of race and the into account, form the basis of dox world of political parties and argument that any adequate counter-movements, resistance, parliament. understanding of social life would alternative strategies and He built on Gramsci’s notion of have to recognise the centrality of visions.” There could be few bet- hegemony to enlarge the concep- difference and the salience of pop- ter summaries of the state we are tion of politics and class to ular and youth culture have had currently in. include issues of race, gender and a huge influence on contemporary culture. His writings were crucial political thought and practice. A Financial Armageddon and Brexit The struggle for Catalonia neoliberalism? Global environ- products to keep businesses in the Can Neoliberalism be saved from mental degradation and massive black. A credit-debt spiral that Bryn Jones itself? (Social Europe €6.99) inequalities in markets is a dev- would eventually threaten the astating price to pay for business deregulated financial system’s on Colin Crouch has published freedoms. More usefully, Crouch solvency. The other outcome is an several analyses of the persis- distinguishes between the two accommodation with xenophobic Crouch’s tence of neoliberalism’s all-perva- parallel forms of neoliberalism. nationalism’s opposition to neolib- sive power and ideology. Its crises One is the policy template for eral globalisation. In the Brexit internationalist come and go but the regime of deregulated, competitive markets campaigns, for example, smaller unfettered markets, privatisation encouraged and policed by intel- businesses and hedge fund inter- recipe and public austerity still domi- lectual advocates and tech- ests mobilised popular support nates. Worse, like a cancer, it nocrats. The other is the real against EU ’over-regulation’ to metastasises into new forms and world of ‘corrupted neoliberalism’ preserve and enhance speculative locations. Celebration of Tony and anti-market practices of giant international finance business. Blair’s apparent dispatch of the corporations - to which neoliber- Crouch’s only alternative, pro- Thatcherite dragon failed to als have willingly ceded control of gressive solution against these recognise that this was but the international trade. Neither of doomsday outcomes is to political brain of a multi-headed these forms can resolve the social democratise and strengthen inter- hydra. New Labour’s compromis- and economic crises that they national institutions . To my es with the hydra’s other heads generate: the destructive competi- mind, this involves a premature contributed, ultimately to its tion of financial markets, exem- discounting of the potency of demise in the wake of the 2008 plified in the 2008 crash, and the national, progressive politics. financial crash. social backlash from those disad- Successful, national programmes Crouch starts with a somewhat vantaged by business elites’ for democratised and accountable over-generous balance sheet of expropriation of the gains from economic organisations could pro- neoliberalism’s pros and cons. expanded markets. vide springboards for reforms to Neoliberalism’s fiscal rigour and Crouch identifies two main international economic gover- market internationalism may long-term outcomes. One is an nance. A determinedly anti- have curbed ineffective state irresolvable financial neoliberal Labour government spending and overly restrictive Armageddon as worker-con- could set an example for other trading relations; but have such sumers, on ever-reducing nations and a basis for alliances gains been more important than incomes, rack up unsustainable to transform the international the immense ‘externality’ costs of debt to buy enough corporate economy.

January/February 2018 CHARTIST 31 #290 working_01 cover 27/12/2017 01:09 Page 32

WESTMINSTER VIEW Mail reporters looking for prey

Rupa Huq on the trials and tribulations of being a new British born Bangladeshi MP

Rupa Huq is ith the long hours, connected to the right Whatsapp paper that questioned Ed Labour MP for public-facing groups nobody was able to warn Miliband’s loyalty to the UK and Ealing Central & nature of the job me in time. Indeed since then sided with Hitler. I have been Acton where everything many have sought to make what done over by the Mail on Sunday is scrutinised, was a small media incident two weeks in a row even. adventW of online abuse and con- career-defining for me http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ stant need to keep several plates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rup article-3567503/Blue-Peter-star- spinning, MPs can sometimes a_Huq, despite the fact that I’ve Konnie-Huq-s-MP-sister-tells- lose their rag. Like many, I was a been involved in campaigns since Labour-colleagues-not-worry- bit taken aback to see the tele- that have even brought about Corbyn-s-not-young-man-gone- vised skirmish on Channel 4 government action – most recent- soon.html Rupa Huq news recently where my friend ly on public safety and family Their political reporter skulks challenges local Tulip Siddiq did just that. It was planning. around the Commons looking for anti-abortion an unedifying spectacle. She too https://www.theguardian.com/ prey. I told him at the height of protest recognises that and has apolo- world/2017/nov/26/abortion-clin- my appearances there that surely gised. But I can understand the ics-uk-mulls-tougher-laws-to-pro- I deserved my own page or at exchange too. tect-women least a column seeing as I was As an MP you’re expected to be For any MP life is a juggling turning into such a regular. It’d expert on everything. Old and act. There is no clarity as to save him the bother of the correc- new media voraciously seek whom or where your accountabili- tions that always have to follow stand-out content particularly ty lies. There are the demands of for the inaccuracies in his copy, I with omnipresent 24 hour news your constituents and party that argued. channels and we all remember may not always be in perfect There are genuine issues with slip-ups like the Mrs Duffy inci- alignment not to mention lobby- the functioning of democracy in dent. The fact that that clanger ists bending your ear. Add to that Bangladesh. I am more acutely was leaked footage from after the the dimension of your roots aware of them than ever having interview had ended is a caution- including religion and nationhood been there on a Parliamentary ary tale of how one should never then things get even more tan- delegation earlier this year. From be off guard. The spilling of the gled. my own circle I know of other peo- beans by GQ’s editor on Jeremy Like Tulip I’m a British born ple languishing in jail, claiming Corbyn’s interview serves as a MP of Bangladeshi origin repre- it’s just for being from the opposi- reminder that top politicians senting a seat where that group is tion. I have raised concerns in our employ media handlers - he a small minority but the expecta- Parliament of secular bloggers apparently vetoed Alistair tions upon me are of the entire getting hacked to death and dissi- Campbell as interlocutor and Bangladeshi diaspora – no pres- dents finding themselves disap- Seumus Milne turned up to the sure there then. The last avail- peared but only in a small way. photo shoot. Those of the lower able figures show that there were Otherwise I can imagine getting orders don’t often have that luxu- 218 people born in Bangladesh sucked further and further in ry. living in Ealing Central and when like any London MP I face a In my first year in the job I Acton of 119,419 in total – 0.2%. high volume of constituent case- went on the Today Programme to The EDL’s Tommy Robinson has work: 20,000th recorded enquiries Subscribe totalk CHARTIST about the perils at of social chosen to tweet linking me to and rising. Recently there’s been media but the interview was money distributed to Bangladeshi a spate of urgent evictions and tagged to a twitterstorm over Jihadis (I didn’t totally under- deportations and when Universal www.chartist.org.ukIsrael. Only later I learned that stand the point but then he’s not Credit hits this Spring locally, every other Labour Muslim big on factchecking). https://twit- advice surgery queues are due to MP had rejected the request ter.com/TRobinsonNewEra/sta- lengthen inexorably. as a huge potential trap tus/936191790356553728 Human rights issues in for whoever the lucky Making Channel 4 look tame in Bangladesh are a big extra item winner was to be the extreme is the wrath of the of AOB for anyone’s agenda. It’s dogged with accu- Daily Mail whose column on the Boris really and the Foreign sations of anti- subject was pure hatred. Office though who ought to be semitism for- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ addressing these issues through ever more. article-5130993/Where-Tulips-loy- the correct channels. I’m a rela- Because alties-really-lie-asks-ANDREW- tively new MP but as far as I I was- PIERCE.html know international negotiations n ’ t The very title of the piece are complex and delicate matters recalls Thatcher lieutenant that cannot simply be resolved on Norman Tebbit’s notorious racist the hoof via trial by media. Just 1980s ‘cricket test’. This is the ask Priti Patel. C