Picture the scene. You’re at your local Labour Party ward meeting and you start reading the agenda: apologies, minutes, minutes of the minutes, officers’ reports, Councillors’ reports, report on ‘the curse of dog shit’, AOB. You put up your hand to say that you’re a bit concerned about what you‘ve been hearing about people on the left being expelled from the party and hostility to Momentum supporters...
A. Very, very sorry but there is no time to discuss that right now. Put it forward for a future meeting after the elections, after the “anti-dog shit” drive, the leaflet drop, after the post-election leaflet drop — and then after the holidays. Anyway we need people whose first loyalty is to the mainstream, common sense Labour Party and not to some other shady Trot outfit full of nutters.
B. Loyalty is about ideas in our heads and how they fit into our understanding of society right now. The leading ideas in the Labour Party change over time. The style of party organisation changes over time.
In 1945, as a mainstream loyal party member, you would have supported policies like nationalisation of key industries, the creation of free healthcare, the creation of welfare security for all, eventual comprehensive education, an ambitious programme of extended leisure provision and a programme of mass public house building during a period of very high debt because it was the right thing to do. That took priority over the interest of private capital. It was party members who formed these policies in the 30s and 40s.
So our ideas of what is possible changes with the social context of the time. Today’s radical proposals to end austerity are similar, common sense necessities. That’s all people like me are saying.
A. That’s a load of cr*p, mate. Those people who go to all those bloody meetings have no interest in the Labour Party. They’re all revolutionaries. Our party doesn’t need them.
B. Some might be, I suppose, but the Labour Party has always had Marxists in it right from its foundation. Tony Benn used to say that the Labour Party was never purely socialist but there are some Christians in the Church.
A. Surely the MPs know best as they’re in Parliament? And another thing, these secretive groups will damage our electoral chances. They’ll scare people off. They’re just a bit of a rabble!
B. Well New Labour from 2005 onwards managed to scare off millions of voters! We’ve lost millions of core supporters with these consensus policies. Voters say we’re all the same.
A. We can’t go against what people think — and what the media thinks they think.
B. In our market dominated society the media will always be against us however moderate our proposals are. They invented ‘Red Ed’ and we invented the ‘Ed Stone’ as a response and look where that got us! If we only focus on winning elections, we end up doing anything the pollsters say and ignore the possibilities of campaigning for mass protest against the Tories and their system. If we only focus on elections with Tory-lite policies, we ultimately betray the most vulnerable in our society because our policies will not be up to the job of ending poverty and so on. We’ve got to end austerity.
A. Austerity isn’t affecting everyone — we mustn’t exaggerate otherwise we don’t look credible. Sounds like you don’t care whether we win the election or not. It’s the election that matters, you know.
B. Austerity is part of the politics of fear which is being used in this country like martial law. It keeps people in line because they are fearful of losing their jobs, being unable to pay the rent or credit card debts. To win the election we need to give people hope. Winning elections and mass protest or civil disobedience are two wings of the same goal to change society for the better.
A. Middle England doesn’t go in for mass protest you know! That’s another thing you Trotheads had better forget. Join the real world!
B. When we tack to the right to attract Daily Mail voters, we put millions of others off and we make all politicians appear to be the same. There are no floating voters. Let me explain. There are people who, when they think about politics at all, do so from within a personal and emotional framework which sees ‘the economy’ and the whole of society as a sort of caring, egalitarian family set up who look after each other. Our idea of an ideal family set-up is projected onto politics.
The other view is of a strict authoritarian, male-dominated family set up where you just look after your own interests, where an authority figure disciplines us and where rules and toughness is key. These ideas are projected into political positions. Many people have both sets of ideas in their heads. Our job is to relate our ideas to the progressive, humanitarian instincts that many share. That’s just what Jeremy is doing. That’s why he’s connecting and is seen as authentic. That’s why some fake MPs don’t like him.
A. That was a long answer. So how do you win over the media, if you’re so bloody smart?
B. You don’t — because you never will. Don’t mimic the Tories — if you do, people will vote for the real thing. So, you ignore the media and create a mass protest movement inside and alongside the Labour Party that can win some victories and start to shift opinion. Winning changes the debate. Then the media have to respond to our agenda. With a shift in the agenda, that’s where radical ideas and a clear alternative vision come in.
A. All people care about nowadays is getting a bigger flat screen TV.
B. They care deeply about the NHS. Large majorities support the end of all privatisation of the NHS and proper funding. The NHS is about human solidarity. Let’s put human solidarity at the centre of our campaigning. Let’s suggest we run society on the model of the NHS as a good, caring family is run, taking care of everyone’s needs and allowing them to fully participate in developing themselves in all kinds of ways.
A. Where’s the money coming from?
B. That’s exactly the kind of discussion we need to be having in the Labour Party. We need an economically educated membership that has the confidence to agitate for radical change. That’s the purpose of Momentum and what the socialists inside it and alongside it want to contribute. That’s what people said after the war. If they could invest to rebuild the, we can do so now. All we lack is confidence in ourselves.
