The drive to exorcise the left does have a theory of change behind it. It is imagined that bringing left wing dissenters to the square where they're publicly roasted, pelted with rotten fruit, and bull whipped in full public view is nothing but a vote winner. Therefore, expelling four tiny, irrelevant sects, being beastly about Jeremy Corbyn on every occasion, and distancing Labour from anything resembling left wing politics can only but dazzle the punters. They, after all, hate the left. And especially so the working class who voted Tory in droves in 2019.
You don't need me to tell you it's rubbish. Polls often report that Labour is not seen ready for government because, among other things, it's too disunited and at war with itself. Choosing to fix selections and disrespecting the former leader gives off vibes alright. Just not the ones the Labour right thinks it does. The trouble is as a fundamentally conservative strata in the party, they lack anything beyond anti-leftism as a unifying characteristic because they are invested in things as they stand. Right wing Labour MPs like being right wing Labour MPs, because most of them would never get such a cushy gig anywhere else. Those with a bit about themselves don't want to rock the boat too much because they wouldn't want to imperil future earnings outside of politics. As the examples of Michael Dugher, Tom Watson, Luciana Berger, Chuka Umunna, and Chris Leslie show, those positions are waiting. Party officialdom, once they get past the overworked junior stage, have an opening into head office jobs, Westminster jobs, think tank jobs, union jobs, spad jobs, and perhaps even a seat to work toward. And by far the most conservative wing of the party, the majority of Labour councillors, jealously guard their positions of influence, their allowances, and their stitched up state of affairs in the local constituency party. To think how much the democratic transformation of the party was stymied by long-established networks of cronies defending their £2,500/year borough council allowance and Big I Am personas at party meetings is frightfully sobering.
The anti-leftism then is about defending their fiefdoms, and from top to bottom the Labour right will trash everything, whether it's the party's electoral chances and/or Labour's reputation to keep hold of them. It also means anything on top, the vision they sell to voters and the positions they take are fairly eclectic as long as nothing fundamentally changes. Brownites and Blairites, the centre ground, "Labour values", Fabianism, whatever they propose that sounds good on paper they have to be pushed towards. And as the Blair years in government show, they have no such reticence about introducing regressive legislation.
Fundamentally, the constant carping on about Corbyn and the left comes from a place of fear. His election and then the unexpected advance of 2017 drove a stake of ice cold fear through their hearts. They thought they knew the world, they thought they were the master diviners of matters political, and the two Corbyn insurgencies caught them out. They still haven't got an explanation for what happened, and so it's passed over in silence. But they know despite the 2019 loss that things have fundamentally changed. The left is much stronger than before the Corbyn interlude, including within the Labour Party - despite their best efforts at driving them out and others finding alternative projects to spend their time on. On the industrial front the election of Sharon Graham presents them with something novel - a leader of a major trade union more focused on building workplace organisation and power than any of her immediate predecessors, while not having an emotional attachment to the party - and the danger of resurgent organising, which has been happening for years, and with notable victories, on the small scales the Labour right barely pay attention to. Socialist ideas are mainstream again, including those tinged with revolutionary hues. And they also know life is tough out there for tens of millions. The social is a combustible mix not seen since the foment of the Poll Tax struggle, and is awaiting a spark. Going on about Jeremy Corbyn is their coping mechanism, an imaginary anchor that steadies their boats ahead of the choppy seas and the titanic waves they feel are on their way.
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9 comments:
I feel the same. There's a different atmosphere now in the Labour party – indeed in the country. We know what they're up to now, we can see what they're trying to do. They are in the open and the spotlights are on them now more than ever before. And although we might be ignored by the MSM we have a new way of disseminating truths now: social media – and I bet that really annoys them.
“He made them look into their own souls and realise there was nothing there, and that made them crazy.” Alexei Sayle
Re Phil's correct comment about the utter inability of the Labour Right , and indeed its , largely mythical, supposed 'Centre', and 'Soft Left' , to even comprehend the huge attraction of the mild social democratic Leftism of the 2015 to 2019 'Corbyn insurgency', and particularly the huge national popularity of the 2017 Manifesto . I vividly recall attending a multi CLP meeting in Shrewsbury in 2016, with the supposedly 'Soft Left' Anne Black as the speaker. It was sobering just how openly this supposed 'soft Leftie' (whose continued place on the NEC was supported by Momentum and the rest of the Left factions), could state her utter confusion and incomprehension of the attraction of the 2017 Manifesto and the entire 'Corbyn Insurgency . This open dismissal of the then Left shift of Labour was of course well received by a significant cohort of the old guard of the local party present - also all at sea at the 'Corbyn wave', and the influx of so many new (or returning in my case) old and young Lefties to disturb their cronyist Blairite tranquility .
And as Phil also correctly states, the basic roots of the Right's hostility to the Left is really not about any deep profound political or philosophical differences, but is about their general personal and group corruption and claque-based (often multi-generational, family claques) arrogance , a belief that Labour Party 'politics' is just a convenient vehicle for their often petty personal enrichment and self aggrandisement - as true of local councillors as Parliamentarians. A Party in such a deeply internally rotten state has gone well beyond the point of possible reform or rebirth - as the utter failure of the 'Corbyn Insurgency', clearly demonstrated - to those with eyes to see.
«their general personal and group corruption and claque-based (often multi-generational, family claques) arrogance , a belief that Labour Party 'politics' is just a convenient vehicle for their often petty personal enrichment and self aggrandisement - as true of local councillors as Parliamentarians.»
But their claim is that puts them more in touch with the "aspirational" middle class electorate, which is corrupt, even more so than the political class; and the main vehicle of that corruption has been for New Labour, Conservative, LibDem insiders and voters the same, what Aditya Chakrabortty called "housing heroin", not just councillor etc. sinecures and benefices. My usual quote from a previous commenter: “I raised the problematic policy on my CLP Facebook group. I was stunned by the support for the policy from the countless landlords who were Party members! "I can't afford to give my tenants a rent holiday" "This is my pension, I'll go bust" etc etc. Absolutely stunning. I had no idea how many private landlords there were in the Party. Kinda explains a lot...”.
That is the usual big political problem: how the "left" can deal *politically* with mass rentierism, when the rentier classes are no longer just the 0.1% of people with top hats and Rolls-Royces, but rentierism based upward redistribution goes to the top 20-30% of the electorate.
«As the examples of Michael Dugher, Tom Watson, Luciana Berger, Chuka Umunna, and Chris Leslie show»
Let's not forget David Miliband (on $600,000/year at a non-profit), Tristram Hunt (head of V&A jumping ahead of many professional museum people to get £300,000 a year), Owen Smith (from Pfizer to Bristol Myers Squibb), among others. Good on them for having splendid post-politics careers of course.
oops , a typo, I of course attended that Ann Black speaker CLP meeting in Shrewsbury in late 2017, not 2016, when the by then electorally evident popularity of the mildly Left 2017 Manifesto was causing The Right , and the MSM, so much dismay.
«bringing left wing dissenters to the square where they're publicly roasted, pelted with rotten fruit, and bull whipped in full public view is nothing but a vote winner»
More precisely is is considered not a vote winner in general, but a tory-vote winner, and New, New Labour etc. regard "trot" and non-thatcherite voters as illegitimate, so trying to win them over is invalid.
But another impression is that thatcherite politicians seem obsessed with proving that they are *anti-communists*: Johnson with proving that he is fighting back the foreign "communist" threat, the EUSSR, SNP, Putin, China, and Starmer that he is fighting back the domestic "communist" threat, Corbyn, Momentum etc., to reassure their core tory voters that their property and finance redistribution will not be confiscated or shrunk by the EUSSR or "scroungers" (see the quote about "how many private landlords there were in the Party" above).
To think how much the democratic transformation of the party was stymied by long-established networks of cronies defending their £2,500/year borough council allowance and Big I Am personas at party meetings is frightfully sobering.
Yep.
In my branch we spent 2015-17 going from
"how can we get more people along to meetings?"
to
"membership figures are encouraging"
to
"future meetings will take place in a larger venue"
to
"isn't it best if experienced members are there to channel the enthusiasm of new members?"*
and the next three years going all the way back down to
"how can we get more people along to meetings?"
You could weep - but the people in charge probably think they've done a bang-up job. They've certainly done all right (the branch secretary who staunchly held the door against the Corbynite horde is now a councillor, in what is of course a safe seat).
*actual line delivered as part of the 'Treasurer's Statement' at a 2017 AGM; the treasurer was duly re-elected, you'll be relieved to hear
As a (small) private landlord who is also in the Labour Party, can I point out that the sort of society I would like to bring about, and the sort of society I live in are very different.
When we have a socialist society I won't need to be a private landlord (and there won't be much need for private landlords due to people all being able to access decent housing). While I live in a capitalist society and can choose between being a landlord and being extremely hard up, it ill behoves anyone to criticise me for my choice.
It was not Karl Marx who advised one of his followers to sell everything he had and give it to the poor: that was someone else. it is not the least bit hypocritical to hang on to wealth as a buffer against an unfair and harsh society, but genuinely support the creation of a fairer system.
What is hypocritical is wanting to redistribute other people's wealth but hang on to your own. People at all levels of wealth, as well as people who imagine they are poor (but can get water out of a TAP in their house ffs, and waste gallons of perfectly drinkable water having a shower) are guilty of that hypocrisy: it is not confined to people who make income from property.
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