After the Coup, Where Next for the Labour Party in Scotland?
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After the Coup, Where Next for the Labour Party in Scotland? As we look back on a second successful Jeremy Corbyn leadership election campaign in just over 12 months, and prepare for a possible snap General Election and the unifying moment it must surely provide, we should recall the circumstances which led to the emergence of a left leadership in the first instance only 13 months ago. As he is at pains to point out, Jeremy did not singlehandedly give life to what now constitutes an authentic, but still evolving mass Labour Party in the UK. Nor can he claim exclusive personal credit for the re-emergence of socialism as a viable, oft-discussed and ‘live’ political creed capable of attracting fresh adherents and interest. He may have provided the catalyst for the various historic, economic and political variables swirling around UK and global life, but to target Corbyn’s character, politics or approach out with a context where millions of ordinary people are looking for alternatives to the tired and discredited shibboleths of the unregulated economy and its political cheerleaders is to fail to grasp the variables which give rise to movements and provide traction for previously marginalized ideas. His re-election, achieved with an even more emphatic mandate, should give pause to those both inside and outside our movement for whom socialist ideas are always by default a vote loser. However, if we are to engender the kind of enthusiasm his tenure has already spread across the Party, our celebrations should be tempered by an acknowledgement that broadening the appeal of transformative ideas beyond our numbers will necessitate the development of not 1 only policy and principle but a compelling narrative capable of entrenching itself in the public consciousness. Socialists do not come in to politics to make virtuous noise from the side lines. Our ambitions are not limited to the merits of sound policy. Ideas remain arid, irrelevant to the lives of working people if they are not deployed by politicians in office. A vigilant mass movement can foster the ground upon which radical ideas become self-evident and widely accepted. It can offer permission for radical politicians to legislate radical programmes. But a Party must first convince a wide and varied section of the population that it is capable of an effective implementation of its manifesto. Now Corbyn’s tenure – for now – is once again democratically secured, CFS, Momentum and all unaffiliated members and supporters who support the general thrust of redistributive policy must roll up their sleeves, integrate into and transform the life of their CLPs, union branches and communities. Only then can we provide the animated base of support that can propel a leadership in full command of their message into government. It is the failure to place Corbyn’s victory within a specific set of historical circumstances that perhaps more than their obsolete politics exposes our dwindling but still powerful opponents in the movement to censure. Their preoccupation with models of Presidential leadership, of spin, dissembling and manipulation of the public mood, of parliamentary trickery and media schmoozing leaves them vulnerable to being left behind by a sweep of history they barely register, never mind grasp. In contrast, the left must reach out not only beyond its traditional 2 constituencies (though without winning back the confidence of working people and those elements of the progressive middle classes anxious to see radical governance, our hopes of achieving power will remain unrealised), but do so in ways which are not content with being right, but with winning purchase amongst the population. There are many trenches in the war of ideas. The more we occupy, the more deeply our political offensive resonates with the lived experience of the people. We must reach out also to those supporters of Owen Smith who are of decent intent, who genuinely support the more radical elements of his platform. Only by resisting the rear-guard manoeuvers of Progress/Saving Labour et al will they see any of their policy hopes realised. Funded from Sainsbury’s millions and other corporate sources, the rump of the Old Right no doubt saw Owen as a useful patsy, a stop gap until further destabilisation becomes possible. If we can unite around a programme which acknowledges the progressive aspects of Owen Smith’s campaign, we can formulate the kind of unity essential if we are to take the fight to a Tory administration utterly consumed with ideological fervour. Those Labour MPs whose perspectives remain detained within the corridors of Westminster cannot feign surprise if, as they have demanded of Corbyn, their own CLPs now hold them to account should they fail to acknowledge the result of a democratic contest they themselves demanded. The narcissism demonstrated by some elements of the PLP stands in sharp contrast to the patient work of Labour Party socialists over the decades who, despite everything, stayed with our movement, fought our corner and organised on the basis of ideas and policy. The Party needs more, not less democracy. The trawling of social media in search of perceived infractions is seen by a bewildered and connected generation of young people as akin to the state rooting around for dissenting bloggers. A newly elected NEC must confirm democratic policy making, freedom of comradely expression and the accountability of the Shadow Cabinet to members as priorities. In Scotland, if we are to effectively expose the Emperor’s clothes now concealing the government’s record of failure, Kezia too must register 3 that a sea change is in progress, a shift that will continue with or without her support. The SLP can either embrace the possibilities offered by a mass Party desperate to move on and confront poverty, inequalities and nationalism in all its guises, or, in a hapless attempt to impose control, deny and squander energies which might otherwise be harnessed to transform our fortunes. As members, supporters and affiliates once again confirm Jeremey Corbyn as the Leader of our Party, a binary choice confronts us all. Embrace the prospects for electoral success a mass Party offers, or indulge an internecine rancour that can only let the Tories and the SNP off the hook. A mandate has been confirmed. It is up to those who opposed Corbyn – sometimes on the basis of genuine principle, but too often by echoing the narratives of the right wing press – to accept that the Party is changing, has changed, and will continue to evolve as events outside reverberate through its structures. If that is not possible, if a version of ‘loyalty’ continues to circulate which prioritises behind the scenes machinations over honest and transparent debate, only the Tories and SNP will benefit. We have a world to win, let’s get to work. For access to the London School of Economics report into systematic media bias against Jeremey Corbyn and his supporters, please see: http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/Mainstream-Media-Representations-of-Jeremy- Corbyn.aspx; http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/pdf/JeremyCorbyn/Cobyn-Report- FINAL.pdf To contact the Media Response Unit, launched at the 2016 LP Conference and currently looking for skilled volunteers, ideas and contributions, see: www.mru.org.uk If you would like to find out more about Campaign forfor Socialism please contactcontact:::: info@campaignforsocialism,, or if you would like to join CfS please visit: wwwwww.campaignforsocialism.org.uk/join.php Currently, 5.3 million people receive less than the living wage and 700,000 people are on zero hours contracts. The UK state pension, at less than 30% of the average income, is almost the lowest in western industrialised nations. The poorest 10% of the households pay 47% of income in direct/indirect taxes, compared to 35% for the richest 10%. The increase in personal allowances from £10,600 in 2014-5 to £10,800 in 2015-6 and inflation- busting rise in the threshold at which the higher marginal rate begins will not change any the above. Tax exemption for the first £1,000 interest on savings does not amount to redistribution and will not help those struggling to make ends meet. The government claims that it will raise £3.1bn from a clampdown on tax avoidance, but £34bn of tax revenues are going astray.’ Professor Prem Sikka (writing in 2015) is co-author of HMRC: Making it fit for the 21 st Century. 4 Faustian Alliances and the SNP Dale Street, Glasgow Momentum In late May Compass Chairperson Neal Lawson penned an open letter to the SNP calling for a “progressive alliance” with the Labour Party. Other candidates for his “progressive alliance” are the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. Anxious to press all the right buttons, Lawson wrote his letter “as a Londoner” (you can still smell the sackcloth and ashes as he typed that phrase) and referred admiringly to “your country” (even though, as confirmed by the 2014 referendum, Lawson inhabits the same country as the SNP). Adopting the language of the “progressive” (sic) SNP, Lawson denounced the unholy trinity of “English Tory rule, the Daily Mail and the City of London”. As chair of an “influential left-wing think tank”, he probably found it too vulgar to go the whole hog and inveigh against “Westmonster” rule. Lawson was “jealous of the political conversation you had as a nation over independence”. But, he continued, it was time to move on and to go beyond “tribalism”: The SNP should join “the progressive alliance conversation” with Labour and other parties. “As ever,” concluded Lawson, “you must be bold and take the lead in forging a new politics.