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THINK PIECE #91

With victory in sight, how can the gain hegemony?

Anthony Barnett

October 2017

ABOUT THE AUTHOR THINK PIECE #91 Anthony Barnett is the co-founder and was the first Editor of openDemocracy and writes regularly for

it. His most recent book is The Lure of Greatness. England’s Brexit and America’s Trump (published by Unbound). He is a veteran of the democratic

struggle in the UK and co-ordinated Charter 88 from 1988-95 when it influenced the Labour Party s adoption of human rights and constitutional ’ reform under John Smith and then .

The author would like to offer special thanks to

Neal Lawson, Jamie McKay, and Hilary Wainwright.

ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This is an extended version of Anthony Barnett’s contribution to ’ session at at the in

Brighton in September 2017 with MP, MP, Hilary Wainwright and Jeremy Gilbert, on Hegemony versus one more heave. It

forms part of Compass’ thinking on progressive political strategy.

We are keen to keep exploring these key issues and would welcome any comments or ideas about how.

Compass Think Pieces are shorter, sharper and more immediate responses to key issues. The ideas and the thoughts are always those of the author, not

Compass. They can cover any topic that helps us Published October 2017 by Compass understand better what a good society should by Anthony Barnett or could look like and how we might get there. We

© Compass welcome suggestions for future publications, All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the especially from women and any groups or people in purpose of criticism or review, no part of this publication may be society who are under-represented in the field of reproduced, stored in a retrievable system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, political thought and action. recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Compass. Please contact [email protected] in Compass 81a Endell Street the first instance. London WC2H 9DX [email protected] www.compassonline.org.uk

Compass is a home for those who want to build and be a part of a Good Society; one where equality, sustainability and democracy are not mere aspirations, but a living reality.

We are founded on the belief that no single issue, organisation or political party can make a Good Society a reality by themselves, so we have to work together to make it happen. Compass is a place where people come together to create the visions, alliances and actions to be the change we wish to see in the world.

Introduction The Broken Hegemony of Neoliberalism

We are in a quite extraordinary situation, of The opportunity to forge a new hegemony immense promise for . The Brexit arises because the current hegemony, that of referendum became an expression of massive neoliberalism, has been shattered. Ironically, multi-layered desire for change. by the Brexit vote even though this came from put herself at the head of all this, promising a the right. Brexit Britain that would aid the poor and end profiteering. Then she sabotaged herself. By By the ‘hegemony of neoliberalism’ I do not calling for voters to back the ‘Strong and mean its policies of austerity, competition, Stable’ in her snap election, she switched to privatisation and the hollowing out of the state the status quo. This opened the way for Labour and public sector. I mean the acceptance of under . Its manifesto, overseen them as something so natural that it is futile to by John McDonnell, set out a clear challenge them: for example, the beliefs that commitment to alter the balance of power for competition is the sole source of value, that the many not the few. The mandate of heaven there is ‘no alternative’, that we – government – in this case the mandate of change – passed and voter alike – are powerless before the to the Opposition. It is now on the cusp of domination of the market. The hegemony of office. neoliberalism was not the sum of its policies, it was the intangible but determining set of If things stay as they are, all Labour needs to beliefs that put them beyond challenge by do is hold its breath, as the government anyone ‘sensible’. Its hegemony was not what disintegrates. It hardly needs to ‘heave’. If, it did, but the way it defined what could be that is, for the next five years the done. Conservatives retain today’s unhappy cabinet with its divided assemblage of transactional It achieved this because neoliberalism is an Remainers, bigoted Europhobes and show-the- ideology with a peculiar characteristic - it world-our-willy globalists, led by May, the denies it is an ideology and instead pretends to country will be Labour’s. For the present be an expression of human nature. Its government is un-re-electable and Downing hegemonic power resided in its ability to Street is certain to become the address of the persuade people it was indeed natural and current leaders of the Labour party. therefore not open to being questioned. An example: Tony Blair telling the Labour But they want more than residence. They want conference in 2005 there was no point in to use the opportunity of a lifetime to debating globalisation, the then code word for transform economic policy in an egalitarian neoliberalism, because “You might as well direction. To achieve this, Labour must now debate whether autumn should follow prepare itself in a more far-reaching fashion summer”. than its 2017 manifesto sets out, even after incorporating its important, linked call for Decades of repudiation of such grotesque Alternative Models of Ownership which claims from eloquent writers across the left proposes ways to democratise the economy. In failed to shift their commanding influence. his speech to conference, Jeremy Corbyn Nor did the fact that neoliberal policies were looked forward to Labour replacing never popular. Nor did the financial crash of neoliberalism. To achieve this demands a 2008 and the abysmal policies that followed. hegemonic approach that redefines the nature On the contrary, ’s six-year of the country’s politics, as well as economic chancellorship was only possible because policy. neoliberalism maintained its hegemony even when it was no longer delivering growth. What First, I’ll sketch why a Labour government broke its hegemonic spell was the Brexit needs a hegemonic politics after it has won the referendum with its endorsement of the call to election. Then, I’ll show why it must develop ‘Take Back Control’. This refusal of it well before the election to be sure of beating powerlessness wiped away the smirks of a possibly renewed, post-Brexit Tory party. entitlement that once transited the faces of the Remain campaign’s neoliberal managers, such

3 With victory in sight, how can the British left gain hegemony? as George Osborne, and Peter A fresh Labour government can build on this Mandelson. in a positive way if it offers voters practical and honest agency. It must tackle the rage and It may seem surprising that a right-wing humiliation of helplessness. It must show that campaign achieved such an outcome. This was the way in which it will deliver its policies will not the intention of the Brexit ultras who are be driven by better de-centralised democracy, maximalist neoliberals. For them, even the with the integrity to deliver more meaningful regulated space of the European Union is too control. If it succeeds in this, it will become much like government. But they mobilised hegemonic. For it will then frame the terms support against UK membership by appealing within which its policies are implemented. to the sense of loss and powerlessness that a majority of the English experience. They Jeremy Corbyn currently personifies the hope managed, deceitfully, to convince them that of realising this. Across the neoliberal decades, the EU was to blame. he was seen as a leftist irrelevance from the Blairite perspective. His manifest There is a lot that is bad about Brussels, but humanitarianism – the fact that he put people the failures and frustrations that haunt England first, before money-making - made him and the terrible, over-centralised way the UK prehistoric for those who thought the triumph is governed originate in Westminster. Fear of of the market was the culmination of evolution uncontrollable ‘free movement’ however, itself. Today, the wilful consistency of his became the signifier of the EU’s domination. It resistance – his decades of stubbornness - was tagged as the source of the humiliation means he now embodies defiance of millions felt. ‘Take Back Control’ became the neoliberalism’s inhumanity. Such defiance mantra of the opposition to such helplessness. was also the appeal of ‘take back control’ - At one and the same time patriotic, democratic which is why Jeremy Corbyn now represents, and even psychotic, ‘Take Back Control’ was in its positive sense, the Brexit storm. also an understandable and welcome demand for self-government and therefore for the But here is the problem for Labour. Leaving domination of the political over the economic Europe does not give us control. It is only – the very opposite of neoliberalism. good for hedge funds and speculators. The EU has a capitalist legal framework and pro- Can Labour Bring Back Control? corporate underpinning that is more formal but in fact less powerful than Whitehall’s ruthless The tension this generates now lies at the heart flexibility. Membership of the EU does not of the immediate crisis the Tories are prevent the kind of national economic undergoing. It may also ambush Labour, development Labour envisages or its whose chance to implement its alternative, democratisation (an argument I set out in the egalitarian approach stems from its greater ). Instead, Brexit will make the capacity to deliver on the fundamental cry of country poorer, weaker and if anything more Brexit to ‘take back control’. Immigration, dependent on markets we cannot govern, the racism, the European Union, political desire, indeed, of the ultra-Brexiteers. Yet correctness – yes, all these were issues – what continent-wide issues, from climate change to decided their influence was the desire they migration, must be managed through shared encode: to be human, to have a say over one’s policies based on solidarity. life, to be an agent, not to be helpless. What, then, stands in the way of democratic It was because Brexit meant this to so many control if it is not the EU? The answer is voters that a majority supported its Westminster and Whitehall: the currently implementation, and why so many still do. existing British state. The vehicle that presents They feel that whether it was right or wrong, itself as the means for us to gain voice and they made a call. To deny this really would representation and influence, through many turn us into serfs of an economic order that good MPs, is in fact the prison of such could not be questioned. aspirations.

4 With victory in sight, how can the British left gain hegemony? Calling for a fair electoral system is a good tropes such as regional devolution, way to challenge the Westminster and consultation and decentralisation. Whitehall regime. But they have an incredible capacity to absorb any policy. What the had a case when it scorned the Labour movement and need to old routines of elite, paternalistic policy- achieve is something that the parliamentary making, which old Labour imbibed. The party alone can never do: to demystify and failure was to replace them with a competitive displace Westminster’s winner-takes-all culture, rather than a creative and republican culture. It is this which vibrates and echoes one. Whether the next Labour government’s through the command and control systems of approach becomes hegemonic depends on its Whitehall and the neoliberal market – and ability to refuse to default back to pre- strips us of everyday influence. ‘Winner takes Thatcherite routines of ‘Whitehall knows all’ takes power from us all, as it is best’. Instead, it needs a new political monopolised by the winner. Compass can be settlement that ensures that the way we carry congratulated for long advocating electoral out policies is as popular as the policies reform as an expression of pluralism and the themselves. Which is why Jeremy Gilbert is need for a different political culture to replace right to hyper-drive his argument for electoral that of the UK’s Empire State (see Jeremy pluralism with a call for ‘Acid Corbynism’ Gilbert’s recent The , writing, “Does anyone think that we can save Why Labour Needs It). the planet without radically changing our attitude to how we consume and how we think Westminster’s twin, Whitehall, is the organiser of ourselves?” (my italics, print edition of New of administration and government that Statesman 26 October 2017). The provocation accompanies legislation. Here, neoliberalism is deliberate because shock is necessary to sought to replace the ‘public service mandate’ shake free the upside of sixties collectivism of the civil service with mandarins who saw from its consumerist individualism. Perhaps their role as replacing government with ‘acid citizenship’ is a way to describe this ‘market choice’. This was never just about welcome call for living against capitalism. privatisation. A key aspect was the idea that ‘consumer choice’ always produces the best Brexit, Nationalism, and the Intangible possible outcomes. It led New Labour to put huge effort into trying to mimic market choice Which brings us to why, if Corbyn-Labour is in the public realm, with Downing Street to launch a hegemonic replacement of trying to impose the mantra of 'diversity, neoliberalism, it is imperative it sets its face choice, contestability' on all public services. against Brexit. Brexit is not just a policy; it is a The reason this is important is that it form of nationalism. It makes claims about the diminishes the idea that there are other forms UK’s position in the world and its people. At of decision-making: public policy, democracy, the heart of Brexit is the claim that we can performance standards and good accountable become a sovereign ‘Global Britain’. This management, which can be more valid than expresses a renewed if desperate desire to consumer choice alone. A networked society preserve the Empire state and its “precious will only be egalitarian if people are citizens as union”. To achieve this, Brexit demands a well as consumers, that is to say citizens for populist Britishness: claiming there is only one life not just during elections. true people and the rest are saboteurs. It uses the cry of ‘control’ to define ‘who speaks for A government that wishes to replace us’, and ‘who we are’. The constitutional neoliberalism, must offer voters an castration of real democracy by the institutions emboldened form of citizenship that of our present democracy has its origins in the meaningfully enhances their influence. If imperial form of the British state that Brexit voters are told, as they will be in the most now seeks to replenish. hysterical fashion, by the press and the Tories, that Labour wants to replace their consumer Never permit your justified scorn for the choice with ‘centralised bureaucracy’, voters wretched opportunism of such populism to will prefer ‘choice’. To counter this, Labour underestimate its capacity to succeed. Which will need to propose much more than flaccid brings me to a difficult but vital part of the

5 With victory in sight, how can the British left gain hegemony? argument. In a brilliant talk, last year, at the If the hope is to create a left-wing first World Transformed gathering in administration equal to that of 1945, we are , Ann Pettifor congratulated Labour now at our ‘May 1940’. I’m not saying Brexit under Corbyn for breaking the consensus on is a Dunkirk, I’m suggesting that Labour needs the need for austerity, as a historic to stand for our liberty. For Attlee, this was achievement. But she warned that, in order to linked to another great issue that united the succeed, as well as challenging the blatant, left: the cause of anti-colonialism. Attlee tangible injustices of inequality and debt, delivered the keystone of this by insisting on Labour has to also tackle the intangible forces the independence of India. The horrific human that create them, such as derivatives, financial costs of partition never registered in the UK as flows and global finance. While apparently part of what British rule meant because they abstract, they define the terrain and shape the were associated with its relinquishment. What economy. To these intangibles, we must add mattered was what can be described as a democratic issues, which include the national process which transformed an Empire that questions of the UK as well as its broken declared war in 1939 into a country. This constitution. Only if the left can address these country was Great Britain. The Labour in a way that sets the agenda, will a new era of government was as committed to the first word more equal and dynamic economic and social ‘Great’, as the second. The creation of NATO, policies be ours. the secret development of nuclear weapons, Any attempt to replace neoliberalism with the long wars against anti-colonial something better leads in the direction of insurgencies, the hostility to the first moves national as well as political pluralism. The towards a European sharing of sovereignty, the intangible and the hegemonic have a clear costs of sending troops to fight in the Korean relation to what we can call the national- war, the raising of charges on dentures and patriotic. glasses to help pay these costs that split the government, with resigning, This can be demonstrated by looking at that lead to Labour’s defeat in 1951, were all previous turning points when a new economic part of a contested struggle to renew British hegemony was established. There is talk of greatness, which threaded through the post-45 Corbyn and McDonnell repeating the settlement. achievement of the Attlee government of 1945. Then, Labour’s radicalism was prepared. Today, what is the equivalent to this national- The Beveridge Report, which set out the patriotic scenario? Perhaps a more relevant principle objectives of the , was comparison is in fact post-79 not post-45. For published in 1942 and became a war-aim for Attlee took power after the crisis of war but many across the services and at home. The also with the advantages of victory, at the head principles of full-employment orchestrated by of a state that had proved itself capable of total a state that took responsibility for the good mobilisation. By contrast, Thatcher emerged government of the economy were set out by from the collapse of the Keynesian order and Keynes and tested in the mobilisation of the the drawn-out crisis of the 1970s. If Jeremy domestic war-effort. This was overseen by Corbyn gains office between now and 2021, Attlee as Deputy Prime Minister and Ernest his inheritance will be much closer to hers, Bevin, the ex-leader of the Transport and emerging from a far-reaching implosion of the General Workers Union, as Minister of society and economy. Labour. Both Beveridge and Keynes were liberals not socialists, a sign of the breadth of Thatcher’s settlement is now seen as socio- the transformation that took place before the economic. But her international policy co- pivotal election that ousted Churchill in 1945. created the conditions for it. Within the global Indeed the 1945 settlement began five years framework of the Cold War, she made an before, when Attlee called on Labour to enter alliance with Reagan’s Washington the UK’s the wartime coalition in 1940 with the words, primary attachment, rather than an alliance “Life without liberty is not worth living. Let us with Europe. Then, with the Falklands victory, go forward and win”. she appropriated Churchillism whilst destroying its all-party nature in which the trade unions had played a crucial role. Without

6 With victory in sight, how can the British left gain hegemony? the Falklands War she would have been ousted While Brexit broke the spirit of by 1983, before the miners’ strike. Instead, neoliberalism’s claim that we are powerless, it baptised by the fire of military triumph, her did not replace it. A contest to define the new national-patriotic success meant she could give hegemony is beginning in which the right is birth to Anglo-neoliberalism. Blair and Brown also a seeking to replace the airless relativism accepted its terms to give it a post-Cold War of neoliberal globalisation, now that it sees this human face, with higher social spending and has lost consent and makes it vulnerable to an trademark triangulation. But Blair understood anti-capitalist left. Brexit is a Moby Dick of an that the market followed the sword. He issue: huge, thrashing, capable of upturning all doubled-down on Thatcher’s Washington- boats. centred military triumphalism when he backed President Bush’s invasion and occupation of In his conference speech, Jeremy Corbyn . Today, we can see that their strategic began to recognise this, but then drew back, as failure began the loss of trust that fed into the if it is all over and the whale has been revolts of Brexit and Trump. beached. There is no bigger test in politics right My point in making these comparisons is to now than Brexit, an incredibly demonstrate that when a new economic important and complex process, that hegemony is established it always demands a cannot be reduced to repeating fairy reconfiguration of the ‘national-patriot’ – of stories from the side of a bus or who we are and our place in the world. waiting 15 months to state the obvious. As democratic socialists, we The Brexit Scenario accept and respect the referendum result… This connection is exactly what the Brexiteers well understand. At present the cabinet is a What matters in the Brexit boil waiting to burst. Nothing is for sure in negotiations is to achieve a settlement such a situation. An implosion might mean that delivers jobs, rights and decent Corbyn could find himself in No 10 within a living standards… a Labour Brexit year, responsible for implementing Brexit! that puts jobs first, a Brexit for the More hopefully, any breakdown will lead to a many, one that guarantees unimpeded second referendum. It is easy to foresee a Tory access to the single market and disaster. But in politics, it is necessary to establishes a new co-operative prepare yourself for your opponent becoming relationship with the EU. as strong as they can be. Only then can you take full advantage of their weaknesses. Such an approach may work for now, not least by parking Labour’s divisions. The danger is A worst-case scenario for Labour would be a that it defines Brexit in terms of the tangible – Tory leader who replaces May blaming the of jobs, and rights and trade – and fails to see country’s troubles on Europe’s beastliness and the intangible energies which it has released, calling on ‘the people’ to make the sacrifices which boosted Labour’s leader to his current necessary for patriotic independence and a position. ‘Global Britain’. A leader, in other words, who pivots on the national-patriotic, facing down For the Tories, the way to resolve the disaster opposition in Scotland and Ireland, to unite a they are making of Brexit is evident. They will majority of voters around a hard-Brexit project a Dyson & Wetherspoon vision, economy. The aim would be a Falklands-style domestically self-governing and renewed definition of Britishness and the final internationally competitive, positive about triumph of Rupert Murdoch. One that will controlled immigration, profoundly hostile to appear to make the Tories the agents of change Europe and lauding the UK’s role in security. ‘for all’, whilst at the same time enforcing a Yes, they may collapse under the forces of regime of prurience, central authority and fear their incompetence and Brexit’s immediate of invasion. economic consequences. Whether they do or not, Labour will need an equally totalising narrative. Simply saying ‘we can deliver a

7 With victory in sight, how can the British left gain hegemony? better Brexit’ hands the flag of change to the of its thousands of members and blue side. And if Labour suddenly finds itself supporters, the more it will be ready to in office trying to reverse a hard Brexit with an take power when this divided Tory EU whose heads of state, satraps and government finally falls. bureaucrats do not take kindly to being called comrade, it will need a democratic vision all Such innovation and experimentation needs to the more. develop two things. First, a democratic, networked, 21st century economic strategy Momentum’s Moment capable of governing platform capitalism. One that gives people not ‘control’ – a demagogic This is where the massive increase in Labour and populist formulation - but a clear say over membership, combined with Momentum, can what happens to them and their communities, be a game-changer with respect to the debate along with a democratic constitution that over what kind of country we want to be. belongs to them and an educational and social Simply put, Labour was trapped in the logic of culture that supports creativity. Second, a Westminster and parliamentary Labourism, parallel, national-patriotic response to the whatever its intentions. Now it can become a question of ‘what kind of country we want to social movement. The increase in members to be’, in terms of Britain’s place in the world, over 500,000, huge though that is, would not that reinforces such an internal release of be enough. They could still be sucked into energy. constituency routines. The creation of a 30,000-strong Momentum that crosses If only thanks to President Trump, the constituencies, impressive though this is, American alliance has ceased to command the would not be sufficient to pull an old party like political imperative. Freed from wartime Labour away from its Westminster culture. nostalgia, the way is open for us to abandon But the combination of a massive the obsession with greatness and embark on membership connected to an open, horizontal the normalisation of the nations of the UK, network is democratic dynamite for whether separately or in a genuinely con- parliamentary Labourism. federal constitution. This inner Europeanisation is essential for the UK to Labour as a social movement that takes its replace neoliberalism. It is also the energy from its pluralism, engagement with precondition for taking us back to the EU, ideas, and concern for connectedness across whether together or as separate nations. And communities, has the potential to become the this is in turn essential because our continent source for the kind of democratic politics than will define our nature. If Europe goes populist can finally replace Britain’s Empire State, in a and neo-fascist, the UK will too. If the EU is way that the parliamentary party never could. transformed into a democratic project, the UK As Elizabeth Hayden, who is on the will be democratic as well. For Europe, now as Momentum National Coordinating Group in 1940, life without liberty is indivisible. The observes, core of any progressive foreign policy must be participation in and the chance to shape Movement building is a holistic European democracy. process, and includes putting down roots and organising in communities If you say to me, as some have, that there is no all year round, developing and evidence of Momentum or Labour under training members and allowing them Corbyn showing any interest in these issues, to find their niche, building an whether the specificity of England, the inclusive social environment and reinvention of Britain, alliance with the creating spaces to discuss ideas. Greens, the conditions for a democratic Above all, it’s about recognising that Europe, or all the constitutional and activists can and should be allowed to institutional inventiveness that our time now mould and shape the party’s political demands, all I can say is we are just beginning. culture… The more Labour continues An ideas-driven Labour movement has a to innovate and experiment, opening transformative potential in a way the itself up to the ideas and experiences

8 With victory in sight, how can the British left gain hegemony? parliamentary party never had. A hegemonic potential, no less.

The opportunity can be betrayed. Labour could declare democratic reform ‘boring’, like the right-wing Labour apparatchiks of old. It could embrace a hopeless, residual policy of going it alone without Europe that voters will not take long to reject. If so, the party will wither on the vine of the Empire state. Time and again - to be precise, four times out of four, in 1945, 1964, 1974 and 1997 - Labour has had the opportunity to democratise the Westminster regime. If Momentum confines itself to renewing Labour ‘as a party of government’, rather than seeking a country that is governed differently, it can make it five out of five. But it has the energy and potential to move beyond the old British system which throttles , let alone socialism. The initiatives being developed, for example by Jon Trickett MP, point in the direction of real democracy and against the old entitlement. This alone is amazing and welcome.

9 With victory in sight, how can the British left gain hegemony?