Moving on - is there life after Labour?

 

Is there life outside the Labour Party if you are on the left? It’s a question that’s taken on something of an existential quality lately. For those determined to stay within Labour those contemplating life outside are raising questions which they don’t necessarily want to answer. Perhaps my characterisation of remainers as suffering from a form of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ was rather too blunt. But what is not in question is that a once, and briefly, united left is now splintering.

There is no doubt that when Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership in 2015 it energised the left in ways that had not been seen since the miners strike. It was not so much that many of the older generation of lefties who rejoined the party suddenly converted to a belief that the party could become socialist, more that in a period that had seemed unrelentingly bleak, Corbyn became a beacon of hope. It gave the left in and outside the party something to get behind. A common cause that was more concrete than just a vague belief in socialism.

Youthful exuberance

Whilst some people are dismissive of Corbyn’s appearance at Glastonbury in 2017, the spontaneous outpouring of youthful exuberance showed that he had managed to capture the imagination of a generation. A generation, incidentally, that not too long earlier had been dismissed as largely uninterested in politics. For the first time since Militant had controlled the Labour Party Young Socialists young people were flocking into the party, many of them members of Momentum. Some of those young people, such as Lara McNeil, Jess Barnard and Hasan Patel now have positions within the party.

We should not overstate the youthfulness of Momentum. Contrary to popular mythology Momentum was not a youth organisation, many of its members were older, former members, or even those who had endured Blairism. The point was that a socialist grassroots campaign grew almost immediately Corbyn became leader. It was a coalition of young, old and middle aged. A coalition of those who had spent years attempting to force Labour leftward, those who had given up and those new to politics but inspired by Corbyn’s radical vision.

But, as the left united around Corbyn’s ascension so the right-wing fought back. Shocked by the size of his victory they began resigning from frontbench positions they had not even been offered. As we now know the conspiracy against Corbyn was coordinated by Labour staffers who were rewarded for their mendaciousness by SirKeir. The conspiracy ran deep and included Labour MPs, the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Labour Movement, the press (particularly but not exclusively The Guardian), the People’s Vote campaign (in reality a front organisation funded by Blairites and Blair himself to destabilise Corbyn), the broadcast media (honourable mentions here to Laura Kuenssberg, Robert Peston, Newsnight and, of course the star turn Panorama). The reality was that the opposition to the Official Opposition consisted of the entire establishment determined to deliver a Tory Government, but as importantly to stop the left in its tracks. And, of course, they succeeded. This was ideological warfare and they won because although we had more troops they had more effective weapons at their disposal.

The left inside Labour split almost immediately following the General Election defeat of December 2019. As soon as Corbyn announced he was resigning it was clear that no credible alternative existed to take up the mantel. Richard Burgon might have won sufficient support but he decided to throw his weight behind Rebecca Long-Bailey who, lets be honest, had neither the charisma nor the history to energise a left that had just had hope snatched from its grasp.

SirKeir’s victory, in which many former Corbyn supporters fell for the promise of ‘electability’ was the opening salvo in a renewed war against the left. Almost from his first utterance it was clear that what SirKeir was offering was a false unity based on the total surrender of the left. And, there is now no doubt that the party is being restored to where it was in 2010. A centre-right party chasing Conservative voters.

Worth staying?

For the left, particularly those who have joined or rejoined since 2016 this has raised a dilemma. In short, as the right tighten their grip and ditch the policies from the last manifesto, is it worth staying? Much of the rancour directed at leavers is coming from those who joined prior to 2016. This is understandable. They were in the party when it was controlled by the right and they fought, in an extremely hostile environment, for left policies and to get left-wingers into positions within the party. Inevitably, they feel abandoned by those who have come in when things were good and now appear to be deserting the ship the first sign of an iceberg. Again, that is an understandable reaction.

Some are no doubt incapable of seeing the point of any activity which does not include getting a Labour government, any Labour government, elected. Others are floundering. Still hanging on to a belief that Labour can be won back to the left. That all it is necessary to do is to “stay and fight” and that a failure to do that is running away, or leaving the battlefield mid-battle as one comrade told me this week. Lenin, who knew a thing or two about leading successful revolutionary campaigns once wrote: “Before we are completely routed, let us retreat and reorganise everything, but on a firmer basis. “ This was good advice. The path to socialism, whether it includes the Labour Party or not, was never going to be straightforward. A defeated army rushing straight into another battle, because that is what they do, is likely to face even more defeats. With all the tools at their disposal the right will not worry too much about skirmishing with their left flank who they will simply swot away.

Those who don’t want to stay and face defeat after defeat are not deserting, they are accepting the reality of the situation. That is also an understandable reaction. The party is, quite simply, not the party they joined. To be told, as we seem to be regularly, that by leaving we are, in some way, aiding the Tories, is quite ridiculous. Elections are not won or lost on number of members but votes cast. Staying and fighting may seem noble and heroic, but it is also futile. We could, of course, regroup whilst remaining in Labour, but staying will also involve all the activities which constitute being a Labour member, most of which will strengthen the right whilst draining the energy of the left. How many left wingers knocked on doors for Jess Phillips, Margaret Hodge, Ian Austin, Luciana Berger, John Mann, Rosie Duffield on the basis that any Labour MP is better than a Tory?

It is important to recognise a couple of things when considering your political future. For those who are intent on staying and fighting within Labour the chances of success are far less than they were in 2015. The “success” of Jeremy Corbyn was not so much becoming leader but rather getting on the ballot at all. Never again will the right gamble their future in the name of allowing members a choice. The left will be frozen out to neuter them at every level of the party. It should be unimaginable that a former leader would lose the whip, but so determined are the right to purge the left that by changing the rules a Blairite has been made Chair of the NEC in favour of the FBU’s Ian Murray who signed an open letter calling for Jeremy Corbyn’s reinstatement. Such disloyalty to SirKeir will not be tolerated. CLP’s who support Corbyn are being suspended and harassed. There seems little doubt that the left will find the terrain very unpromising in the battle to influence the future direction of the party.

Where to?

The next question is “if you’re leaving where are you going?” I’ve considered this a lot over the past few weeks. Some time back I decided I would neither vote for, nor campaign for candidates who were hostile to the left. Any Labour candidate who has not supported Jeremy Corbyn not just as leader, but in terms of the harassment he is now suffering does not deserve the support of a left that is very often the backbone of the party’s ground troops. But, by the next election I will not be a member anyway, though in Wales we have Welsh Government elections next year and I have already decided that I will not be voting Labour. I have not yet decided who to vote for, but I will only campaign for candidates and parties with whom I fundamentally agree. Which might even mean spoiling my ballot.

I think it’s worth saying that I am not a fly-by-night member who is only interested when things are going well. I first got involved in politics, as a Labour member in 1983. I left the party in 1986 and did not rejoin until 2017. So what did I do in those intervening 31 years? After a brief flirtation with the Socialist Workers Party, I became what can best be described as an independent socialist. For those whose only political activity has been in the Labour Party I can confirm that being outside the party certainly did not mean I was not involved in politics. 

Being outside Labour did not prevent me from being involved in campaigns against poverty, in campaigning against the poll tax, in campaigning in trade unions, or attending marches against racism, the Iraq War, nuclear weapons, attacks on abortion rights, austerity, education cuts and in support of the NHS. I continued to attend political meetings and wrote letters to newspapers (which occasionally got published). Until Jeremy Corbyn became leader it never occurred to me to go back to Labour (despite a very brief fling with Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party when it was founded) or, more importantly, that by not being a member I was helping the Tories to win. Indeed, for half the time I was outside the party we had Labour governments, and for the entire time I have lived in Wales Labour have been in government.

I would not argue against others joining one of the left groups. The Socialist Party (formerly Militant), the Socialist Workers Party, the Communist Party all might offer a home to Labour leavers seeking a party. Chris Williamson has joined forces with ex-Labour MP Dave Nellist in the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, whilst Stop The War’s Lindsay German and John Rees set up Counterfire after breaking with the SWP. But, these are not electoral parties in the way Labour is, so joining is a different type of political experience. For me, I might be tempted into a left organisation but I would need convincing that it was open and democratic with a genuine commitment to its own members and the wider class struggles.

A new organisation?

I’m not over worried about being partyless but I would like an organisation that did not expect me to stand on street corners selling papers or run around trying to get people into parliament. I value the connections I have made on Twitter, Facebook and through this blog (I don’t intend to stop blogging) but I would like a more loose knit coalition of like minded socialists to meet up online with on a regular basis with no particular agenda other than a commitment to discuss socialist ideas and ways of taking them forward. I’m not particularly looking for a leader to follow, but neither am I looking to lead myself. What I don’t want is a repeat of the early days of the Socialist Labour Party which became an interminable sectarian squabble between various groups who turned up with a pre-formed agenda that they then tried to enforce on everybody else. Whether such an organisation is viable I have no idea. If it exists I’m yet to find it. 

I’ve never considered the Labour Party or electoral politics as the be-all-and-end-all of political activity. There are no doubt great struggles to come and almost certainly the Labour Party will have very little part to play in them. The Tories (with their massive majority) and the Labour right (having seized back control from the left) are both triumphalist in their own way. For all that, the external environment is not good for the establishment forces. The pandemic, Brexit, the climate crisis, an economic downturn exacerbated by Covid-19 all point to major problems ahead. The Labour Party has never in its entire history been at the forefront of campaigns to alleviate poverty and inequality, the impetus for reform has always come from outside the party. Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, and trade union action have all provided more effective opposition than Labour in the past year.  Being more efficient or responsible, as Labour propose, may play well with the centrist controlled sections of the media but it will do nothing to end a crisis which is likely to be worse than the 1930’s. There will be campaigns, both small and large, both local, national and international. If socialists take to tearing each other apart because we have different ideas about the way forward that will certainly play into the Tories hands. The strength of the left has always been in our ability to put our factional differences to one side and by creating a coalition founded on solidarity and socialist principles to build a genuine unity capable of taking forward the interests of the most exploited sections of society.  

NB An earlier version of this post had Jeremy Corbyn winning in 2016. It was, of course, September 2015. Thanks to Chris Rogers for pointing this out.