Centrism on the Streets?

A hundred thousand pounding pavements in London and you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a political earthquake. At least if you pay attention to the likes of Andrew Adonis and Alastair Campbell. Strangely, these estimates of significance get nowhere as near a wider circulation when trade unionists and community campaigner trudge through the capital in greater numbers. And, of course, for Campbell such measures of magnitude counted for nothing when two million people marched against the invasion of Iraq. Why should the latter be set aside and the former be taken seriously?

There are nevertheless a couple of interesting features regarding yesterday's pro-EU march. Firstly, the politics. True to the annoying character of the EU's outriders on social media, what was most frequently shared in my timeline were political observations so naive and cringe it makes the Sally Army's Young Soldier read like Class War, and the now notorious chanting of 'Where's Jeremy Corbyn?'. That this was from a small section of the march comprised by organised contingents of Liberal Democrats should be enough to provide all the context you need. But this was, officially, a march for an additional referendum on the Brexit deal itself, though whether a No there would mean staying in the EU, renegotiating the deal, or crashing out the EU and getting the no-deal Brexit hard remain most fear is a point this "movement" isn't terribly clear on. For some, it offers a means of defying the referendum result ("it was only advisory!") and staying in the EU by the backdoor, if such a thing is possible. The truth is there were different people there for different reasons, some of whom were certainly Labour folks and those we need to win to the new left.

For this reason, I don't think taking a sneering tone is particularly helpful. Rightly, the participation of elites, like his eminence, Chris Leslie deserve a good mocking. And treating LibDems with scorn is the correct approach any right-minded person should take, but beyond that there are serious grievances and concerns that have got tangled up with the pro-EU banner.

Recap time. Labour was founded as a proletarian party, an organisation set up to represent everyone who had to work for a living, be it by hand or by brain and in return for a wage or a salary. Low paid or well paid, all were represented through the affiliation of socialist societies and trade unions, and is the structure that remains to this day (whether 'representation' is adequate is for another time). The immaterial recomposition of class relationships that is doggedly and persistently changing the character of work and social life is transforming politics, indeed, it is helping power Corbynism, but it is also contributing to the generalised anxiety and unease abroad in Western countries. Economic uncertainties are built into the daily lives of millions of people, including middle class people. Heavy workloads, constant restructures, the permeable barrier between home and work, the prospect of redundancy, the demands of servicing debt, making ends meet despite ostensibly good salaries, and providing for the future is the terrain from which many middle class people perceive political turmoil.

Why does this matter to pro-EU politics, especially when the EU is an elite project and, therefore, fundamentally unaccountable? It comes down to the absence of political collectivity. With the decline of the labour movement and the associational life that used to nourish the Tory party, markers for stability, the institutions that worked as political anchors are fewer. How the NHS is popularly cherished is a symptom of this absence, as is renewed enthusiasm for the royal family and 'the nation', variously appealed to by sundry populists. For the section of the British middle class who are socially liberal and keenly feel the anxieties heaped upon them by everyday life, and granted the liberal internationalism that is its official ideology, the EU is spontaneously endowed with a 'progressive' character. From the late 1980s onwards it has been (consciously) sold to the liberal-minded British audiences as a vaguely social democratic institution, and one that is a bulwark against the worst excesses of the Tory party. In so doing, an identity was drawn between a not insignificant social milieu and this distant and sclerotic outfit. It was a buttress, a backstop for (small s) social security, of a feeling at home. The EU is a consolation, an ontological security blanket. Hence the anger at a Brexit vote delivered on the basis of lies and false promises, and a genuine fear the costs of leaving the EU means further hits to everything they care about, including themselves. The uncertainty is ramped up and they could be among its casualties.

Hence the protests. It is borne of a frustration with a government taking the most cavalier and reckless approach to talks with the EU, and a Labour Party that - rightly - refuses to set aside the referendum result. The remain ship has sailed and politics is now largely a matter of adopting the least worst, least disruptive, and least damaging exit from the EU. Winning over people who were on or supportive of the march and don't have an anti-Corbyn axe to grind means we don't write off their concerns, because their worries are our worries, their concerns are class concerns shared by many millions of others. If we hope to win the next election, if we hope to transform economy and society and reset the balance of power permanently, we cannot afford to abandon this constituency to the LibDems and the Greens, especially as polarisation is a fact of political life and the next election is going to be a matter of who can turn out the most.