A Crying Shame

A year ago, it would have been possible eral months appeared exuberant, hopeful, to claim that New Labour was walking confident and an expression of political hand in hand with the people to create a promise, a malaise and a discontent has revitalised Britain, a Britain which was con­ begun to settle. We've seen a trend away fident, hopeful and moving towards inte­ from the embrace of participation, away grating emotions into public life and in so from the bottom-up democratisation of A Crying doing democratising and reshaping public public space, away from a partnership discourse. Emotions were no longer only between government and its people and a private matters best kept hidden — even severing of the nascent realignment of pol­ from ourselves. Now we could have feel­ itics and emotions in which politics is ings about public matters and these kinds understood as an expression of deep of feelings could be a partner in the making human feelings about belonging, justice Shame of the new social contract that was being and equality. Instead, the feelings have created in New Britain. It wasn't that emo­ been redirected with the political becoming The public displays of tions had been absent or banished from about control and power and the personal emotion after the general public life before 1997. Certainly war, becoming a symptom of the depoliticisa- racism, deaths of public figures, national­ tion of public life. The moment of a year election and Diana's ism and the monarchy had aroused public ago has been turned on its head. death created the hope for feeling on a mass scale before. What was here in May and Septem­ now emerging was the kind of integration ber the nation's coming a new kind of political of politics and emotions that allowed its cit­ together expressed some­ expression, Susie Orbach izens, its politics and political discourse to thing profound about its encompass not just policy pragmatics but Wsense of itself as a body politic, the coming laments a lost opportunity the kind of reflection and expression that togelhers of the past year have been char­ could bring a different feeling and meaning acterised by what we might term emotion­ to collective action and the remaking of alism. Our interest is now drawn not to the public space. Emotions augmented democ- realisation of our deepest political feelings ratisation. They were an authentic expres­ |ighteen months ago millions of in concrete acts of legislation, nor to novel sion of personal agency and no one per­ people came together to create a ways of participating in the political son's emotions had more or less legitimacy new social contract and a new set process, nor to engaged support for the than any others. of possibilities for Britain. While project of revitalising Britain, but instead to E stories of wrongdoing. Our newspapers decisively voting against a clapped out, There was a mood on May 2 and that deeply controlling, destructive Conserva­ week in September that had something in campaign on the side of the alleged victims tive government, many of the individuals common with the feelings generated by col­ or the alleged perpetrators, plucking at our who cast their votes did so with a weariness lective political action in those great move­ heart strings to engender support where the and a degree of cynicism. They weren't ments for social change three decades ago underlying structural issues are set aside or sure quite what they were voting in. Was which had insisted that the personal was remain unaddressed. Louise Woodward there substance? Could things change? political and the political was personal. But becomes 'Our Girl'. Although the support By the early hours of the morning of there was something new and different too. for her encodes a set of agendas which crys­ May 2 it was obvious that Britain had For while the ideas propelling the black lib­ tallise important issues of our time - child emphatically rejected the Tories. They eration movement, the New Left and the care and parent care, untrained nannies, weren't simply defeated: there was some­ women's liberation movement had marked low wages, child abuse, displaced anti- thing more. The size of the Labour majori­ a generation and had flowed into the envi­ Americanism and provides (along with the ty had transformed the individual act of ronmental movement of recent years, such tv companies' funding of the drinks of her marking X on a ballot slip into an act of ideas and practices preoccupied only a supporters in the pub) the basis for the social participation, a moment of collective minority and were far away from the centre mass interest in the case, public participa­ expression. Gone was the weariness and of the political stage and public space dur­ tion is invited in essentially emotional cynicism. Now there was a feeling of relief, ing a 1980s and 1990s dominated by neo- terms. We are defending or worrying about then of power, then a sense that finally we liberalism and individualism (the personal 'Our Girl' rather than reflecting on and could exhale. We'd done it, we'd got them without the political). indeed feeling or thinking at more than a superficial level about the issues the case out, we could hold our heads high, could ay and September by con­ feel our connections with one another, and raises. It is unclear why the British people trast offered moments of are so behind Louise Woodward except assert that yes, we as individuals and as a mass participation in the life collective were and are a society. that she is the secondary victim; the victim M of the nation. A dynamic of the prosecution. By midday on May 2 the feeling on the and relatively youthful political leadership street, in the newsagents, at work and at the was seen to be reaching out to embrace and So too with the hounding of paedophiles school gates was one of accomplishment. be underpinned by this participation. In a or Mary Bell. The deeply disturbing issues The joy was palpable. We were citizens, no parallel to the political settlement following of cruelty perpetrated towards children and longer enervated or excluded but embrac­ the second world war when public space by children, any analysis of how it is that ing a political, constitutional and emotion­ was enhanced by the presence of an active people come to act in this way, the under­ al moment. We could reshape the political politicised working class, the events of May lying motivation, the relationship between landscape and with it the cultural and social and September involved a significant powerlessness, rage and cruelty, what it practices that had characterised the majority of us, enabling Britain to take a says about our habits of child rearing, the Thatcher and Major years. look at itself afresh and celebrate the question of rehabilitation, the widespread Four months later, with Diana's death, togetherness of purpose amidst a diversity concern about sexual abuse, are all sub­ what the individual felt and how he acted of interests. Democracy and the collective sumed under a screeching of ersatz emo­ again metamorphosed into something larg- were being revitalised by the inclusion of tionalism rather than given the space to let ger and more profound than could be groups of first and second generation immi­ us feel their difficult painful complexities. expected from the singular acts and feelings grants often invisible, by the emotional The issues crucially demanding public of individuals. Diana's death became engagement of its citizens with the political discourse evaporate. We are left with another moment of participation in which and social issues of the day. a sense of participation through superfi­ there was a claiming and reshaping of pub­ But, and it's a painful but, the public cially shared emotional expression rather lic space, an insistence that public discourse space which looked like it was being than a linking of the political, economic, respect the feelings of the people and a claimed, opened up and reformed, quickly social and emotional issues that these cases moment of potential constitutional change. closed down. And into a space that for sev­ pose. Our participation in the public space

61 MARXISM TODAY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1998 look of the government, the purposefulness and seriousness it projects (which many admire) become translated in the public mind not with an invitation to participate 'The but with a sense that there is little place to moment of do so. While the cultural style of Blair has being part of been to be open to all — musicians, busi­ nessmen, youth, international leaders, not articulating simply in a presidential manner but in a something manner which conveys the sense that there new has is room for celebration of who we are - his political leadership speaks another mes­ passed as sage. There we pick up the sense that con­ though it trol is crucial, that criticism is rarely seen as were a constructive, that diverse voices are unwel­ dream' come or even dangerous, that the real alliances are not between people but that the corporate remake of Britain is interest­ ed primarily in other corporations with whom Britain can do business. The Gov­ ernment's representation of itself seems to pose the opposite of an inclusive society. ith Blair's decision to make offerings towards the Royal Family in that first week of September Wand to then reinforce it at the Queen's golden wedding - along with the sense that the national executive of the Labour parly must be controlled - we lost the sense that this was our government. Where we had sensed alliance and engagement we saw, smelled. lasted instead the accommoda­ tions that every Labour government has made to preserve the deference of the sub­ ject rather than promote the rights of the citizen. To be sure this is not the whole story. Blair has made significant and impor­ tant steps towards the kind of constitution­ al reform and political practice that lies in direct contrast to such deference. The reform of the Lords, Scottish and Welsh parliaments, the proposal for a Mayor for London and the institution of citizen juries to assess and think through the implications is downgraded and degraded. We can be Diana's death tore apart the nation emotional as long as it is cut off from deep­ of policy change are extremely welcome. and created a Queen of hearts. They are a step towards citizenship and er social or structural considerations. We But after all that emotion, can be emotional as long as it isn't political. away from the notion of the subject. are we back to politics as usual? Only in the Stephen Lawrence case have But we seem to be faced with a govern­ the personal and the political come to­ ment looking two ways at once. Instead of gether. There the dignity and determina­ and participation. Perhaps my disquiet and an emboldened, entitled government we tion of parents and the inquiry have insist­ dissatisfaction is personal rather than a have a government apparently frightened ed that the institutionalised racism in the commentary on the political and emotion­ by its large majority into believing that it police force which has shielded the perpe­ al health of the nation. But I tend to think must hold on to the Tory vote of Middle trators must be addressed (and at the time not. There are worrying trends that jeopar­ England that it captured without hoping to of writing Paul Condon has refused to dise aspects of Britain's renewal and the bring it along as part of something new too. acknowledge its existence). The emotions hope for this government. A government so unclear about what it can involved, while not disregarding the he sense of possibility, of involve­ do with its huge mandate, that it has settled tragedy, have linked in with deeply fell ment by the many with their dif­ for agreements with multinationals that demands for honesty, accountability and fering ideas that was evident on diminish our democratic flexibility and for justice. Although the press came in as sup­ the streets in May and Septem­ a reliance on the United States to bolster its porters, they did so quite far into the cam­ Tber, has disappeared. The individual sense sense of importance. paign (when the editor of the Daily Mail of agency, of being able to make a differ­ Blair's accommodation with the status discovered a personal connection) and too ence, of having a significance outside of our quo broke what had been a tentative new late to sever the political issues from the own personal lives, has, instead of strength­ relationship with a wanted and a welcomed individual act of murder. ening over the last year, weakened. The new government. It depolilicised the points But perhaps, one might argue, this is the moment of being part of articulating and at which we, as citizens, could participate nature of public life and my complaint is shaping something new has passed as and be heard. We can be left with emotion­ but a whinge. Celebrity, tragedy, triumph, though it were a dream. alism, the human interest story in public life accomplishment, are the pools in which we In place of participation we have politics as an anaemic form of social engagement, pla\ and it is only in rare moments such as not quite as usual (because the Labour gov­ or we can insist that our emotional and May and September 1997 that public space ernment's style is new) but a politics of cor­ political responses link up in ways that is infused with the mix of the head and the poratism in which the few are meant to rep­ empower the political process, the life of the heart in a way that opens up the possibility resent the many without the diverse voices nation and our individual experiences. of a more profound sense of engagement of the many actually participating. The lean © Susie Orbach

62 MARXISM TODAY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1998