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Understanding Left Reformism

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Understanding Left Reformism Understanding Left Reformism John Molyneux gist, Erik Olin Wright, who analysed the left historically, in terms of three tenden- cies - `ruptural' (revolutionary), `intersti- cial' (anarchist/utopian) and `symbiotic' (reformist) - and called for them all to work together, although he was fairly dismissive of the revolutionary tendency. In Britain, in recent months, Owen Jones (author, broadcaster and Left Labour Member), Nick Wrack (former So- cialist Party, Socialist Alliance,and SWP Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA member)1 and Ken Loach (socialist film director, former Respect, etc.) have all is- sued calls for a new movement/party of the There is something of a vogue for left left. Here is Owen Jones: reformism on the left at the moment. I stress `on the left' because it couldn't yet Britain urgently needs a move- be described as a societal phenomenon, ex- ment uniting all those desper- cept with Syriza in Greece. It doesn't gen- ate for a coherent alternative erally proclaim itself as left reformism pre- to the tragedy of austerity, in- ferring to sail under such flags as `fresh flicted on this country without thinking', `rethinking the left' and `left any proper mandate. unity'. Nevertheless the trend is real and What is missing in British perceptible both in Ireland and interna- politics is a broad network tionally. that unites progressive oppo- In Ireland the TDs, Clare Daly and nents of the Coalition. That Joan Collins, are trying to create a new means those in Labour who political formation called United Left and want a proper alternative to there have just recently been two forums Tory austerity, Greens, inde- of the left in Dublin devoted to this pendent lefties, but also those sort of project: the first, organised by who would not otherwise iden- Daly and Collins, featured former Social- tify as political, but who are fu- ist Party member Roger Silverman who ar- rious and frustrated.2 gued (a familiar theme this) against the way `Leninist/Trotskyist vanguards' work And Ken Loach: in favour of a broad anti- capitalist coali- tion on the model of Marx's First Interna- If the unions said we're go- tional; the second, organised by Look Left, ing to do what we did a cen- was addressed by the American sociolo- tury ago, we're going to found 1For Nick Wracks version see http://wigangreensocialists.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/lets- get-the-party-started/ 2http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/british-politics-urgently-needs-a-new- force--a-movement-on-the-left-to-counter-capitalisms-crisis-8459099.html 22 a party to represent the in- nor the traditional revolution- terests of labour, and we will ary strategy seems adequate. only support candidates who We need, instead, a strategy will support policies of the left that seeks to combine elements then we could start again. But of both. In his book The we need a new movement and Dialectic of Change the Rus- a new party. And it needs sian theorist Boris Kagarlitsky all the people on the left of seeks to elaborate just such the Labour party who've spent an approach. Revolutionary their life complaining about it transformation, he argues, can to get out and start a new only emerge organically and di- one, with the unions. It needs alectically from a process of the unions because they have radical reform set in motion resources. If Unite, Unison, by a socialist government. He GMB, you know, said we've calls this approach \revolution- had enough... But they're like ary reformism". ... It is hard dogs, the more you kick them to see how the left in Europe the more they creep back to can avoid the problem of tak- master. And they actually ing power in a left government need to wake up and say this is if it is serious about changing not going to happen, we're not society.4 going to reclaim the Labour party... The unions have got to Elsewhere in Europe, there are a num- cut the ties, start again, with ber of broadly similar political formations everyone on the left, with all - Melenchon's Front de Gauche in France, the campaigns, the NHS cam- the Danish Red-Green Alliance, the Left paign, the housing campaign, Bloc in Portugal, the United Left in Spain, the community services cam- Die Linke in Germany and, above all of paigns - everybody. And let's course, Syriza in Greece. begin again, and then we could In a sense, the reason for the emer- really move.3 gence of this trend is very straightforward. And Ed Rooksby in Why it's time to We have had five years of deep capitalist realign the left has attempted a theoret- crisis, the painful effects of which are be- ical/strategic articulation of Loach's call. ing felt by working class people more or He writes: less everywhere. During this crisis, right wing and mainstream reformism has either The major difficulty in the openly collaborated with the ruling class traditional revolutionary ap- in making working people pay (as with proach, then, is in its rejection the Labour Party in Ireland and PASOK of the very idea of taking power in Greece) or has been completely ineffec- within the political structures tual in terms of mounting any resistance of capitalism. So neither the (Labour in Britain, the centre-left in Italy traditional reformist approach etc). At the same time the revolutionary 3http://socialistresistance.org/4860/the-british-left-needs-to-start-againwe-need- a-new-party-ken-loach 4http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=12302 23 left has nowhere succeeded in making a suf- cially is attached to various institutional ficient breakthrough to pose a credible al- and personal privileges (political career, ternative to more than a small minority of parliamentary seat, trade union office etc.) workers. In these circumstances a certain which give its bearers a certain vested in- turn to left reformism is anything but sur- terest in the existing system. prising. Historically, the main political expres- sion of reformism has been the Labour, so- Reformism and Left Re- cial democratic and socialist parties orig- inally associated with the Second (or So- formism cialist) International, founded in 1889 and To understand this phenomenon further, dominated by German Social Democracy it is necessary to begin with a few remarks (SPD), and usually closely linked to their about reformism in general. Most of the respective national trade union bureaucra- time under capitalism, the consciousness cies.5 The British Labour Party, the Irish of most working class people is reformist: Labour Party, the French Socialist Party, they object to many of the effects of capi- the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the talism - this cut, this tax, this policy, this Portuguese Socialist Party, and the Span- government etc - without rejecting the sys- ish Socialist Workers Party are all exam- tem as a whole. Alternatively, they dislike ples of this kind of party. the system as a whole but do not believe However, these are by no means the they, i.e. the mass of working people, have only political expressions of reformism6. the ability to change it. In either case, they Next in importance historically are the look to someone else to do the job for them. Communist Parties which started moving Corresponding to this reformist con- towards reformism in the Popular Front sciousness, there are reformist politicians, period of the mid-1930s and completed the parties and organisations who step for- journey in the post-war period and espe- ward with the message that they are the cially with what became known as Euro- ones who will deliver the desired change or communism. But there are many other changes on behalf of the masses. A dis- forms ranging from various reform cam- tinction must, of course, be made between paigns and NGOs, to Green Parties, to workers with reformist consciousness and some left nationalist parties. Sinn Fein leaders or organisations engaged in a re- in Ireland and the Scottish National Party formist political project. With the former both present themselves to the electorate their `reformism' tends to be relatively un- as parties of reform and rest to some extent formed and fluid; it can easily be a bridge on reformist consciousness in the working to action (a campaign, trade union strug- class. gle, etc.) which in turn can lead to the de- Reformism also, by its nature, covers velopment of revolutionary consciousness. a wide political spectrum from right to With the latter, it is usually more coher- left. On its right flank (and usually con- ent, more set against revolution, and cru- fined to its top leaders) there is a wing of 5 For a recent analysis of the reformist role of the trade union bureaucracy see John Molyneux, `Marx- ism and trade unionism, Irish Marxist Review 1. http://www.irishmarxistreview.net/index.php/ imr/article/view/5/ 6It should be noted in passing that the idea, sometimes canvassed on the left, that reformism has ceased or is ceasing to be a problem either because capitalism can no longer grant reforms or because the Social Democratic Parties have become pro- capitalist parties, is thoroughly mistaken. Reformism will be with us as long as we have capitalism. 24 reformism which is closely linked to the tion by means of a series of `strategic' re- ruling class and often accepted by it as forms. Hence the key role in left reformist a recognised ally. These leaders usually thinking of a `Left Government' - to which take some care to maintain a certain ver- I shall return. bal distance between themselves and the main right wing capitalist parties (Tories, Marxism and Left Reformism Christian Democrats etc) but it is a very thin line and, mostly, just for public con- Historically, the main current of left re- sumption.
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