Towards peace and justice

 

Last week Jeremy Corbyn, supported by a stellar cast that included Noam Chomsky, Zarah Sultana and Len McCluskey, launched the Peace and Justice project. The online rally on Sunday afternoon attracted over 100,000 viewers, and inspired many with its central message of hope and unity.

Despite the large numbers involved and despite the fact that it was led by a former leader of the Labour Party, the mainstream media gave it virtually no coverage at all. The BBC had zero coverage on its website, The Guardian buried the story in the politics section of their website and even that only waited until the fifth paragraph to remind us that “Corbyn was readmitted to the Labour party in November, after being suspended over remarks he made when the Equality and Human Rights Commission published its critical report on the party’s handling of antisemitism.”

No wonder then that on Corbyn’s to do list was reform of the media. As he said at the rally:”We want a powerful and influential media but one that puts power and influence in the hands of the majority not in the hands of the few. A truly free media would expose truth and challenge the powerful. But right now much of the media isn’t free at all. The influence of billionaires and their interests is huge.“

Inspired or disappointed? 

During the rally I tweeted a question to ask people whether they were inspired, disappointed or reserving judgement. According to Twitter this was seen by nearly 30,000 people (please don’t ask me how they calculate that because I’ve no idea). More importantly, it received 227 replies. When I put the tweet up, just before Jeremy Corbyn spoke I had picked up a few tweets from people who seemed slightly ‘underwhelmed’ by the whole thing and I was sitting there thinking “the speakers are great but what do they want me to do?”. Despite what a couple of people thought I was not being negative but wanting to know where this rally and this initiative were leading in terms of picking up the fight against the right, both inside and outside the Labour Party. 

The vast majority of the Twitter replies (probably upwards of 95%) replied with the simple “inspired”. But questions were being asked. QueenAntifa (possibly not her real name) said: “I've signed up, but think a more focused plan of attack on the right would have been a bit more inspiring.” Whilst Leeshx was “looking for it to turn into a electoral party”. Jackie Hilton entirely bucked the trend and found it “Disappointed, I nodded off at one point.....”  Those questioning the direction were answered by an enthusiastic Daphne Parkin, amongst others, who said: “To build the Left starting at the local level, get together with like-minded people on local, national or global issues, supported by the project, grow and expand, become a force for peace and justice.” 

The general feeling was something akin to ‘Jeremy’s back and we’re still with him’. Whilst the launch and the website are big on inspirational words they are, perhaps predictably, lighter on detail. So I certainly understand why some people were if not disappointed not entirely sure how they should feel.  If I was feeling less than inspired that was swept away when I listed to Project Coup’s excellent summary of the rally which if you haven’t listened to I wholeheartedly recommend. (You can also hear some thoughts on a new podcast I’m involved in, The Socialist Hour.)

Careerist snakes

Since the right-wing coup that ousted Jeremy and heralded this disastrous Tory government it is undoubtedly true that not only have the left been under a sustained attack, but have been looking for something they could unite around. Black Lives Matter provided a sense of movement but as disappointment in Labour has intensified, so has a feeling that we need an alternative home. Rachael Swindon had written a blog post prior to the rally in which she argued: “Jeremy Corbyn is absolutely right to launch this project, because the Labour Party should be the natural home for peace and justice, rather than the temporary accommodation for the neoliberals, the warmongers, the racists, the smearers, the schemers and the utterly loathsome lying careerist snakes. ” That’s the problem with Rachael she never really says what she thinks!

Whilst I share her disgust at the ‘new leadership’ I think this project has revealed an ambiguous relationship with the Labour Party. All the main British speakers are members of the party many people were hoping that Corbyn would offer an alternative to. He is probably right to resist calls to lead a breakaway because apart from the wonderful Zarah Sultana who ruined any chances of a successful parliamentary career by saying “We don’t just need a more competent, more forensic government we need a socialist government”, it is not clear who in the PLP would follow him.

This strikes me as one of the issues that the left have to work out and I am far from convinced that the Peace and Justice project will be able to do so. Put simply it is this: can the left win back the Labour Party? Clearly many on the left still think that their strength in the constituencies means that this is a possibility. When I suggested during a recent WhatsApp conversation with the left in my own constituency that staying in the Labour Party “is entirely futile” the response was predictable. They are not leaving the party because a) “it’s my party and I’m not handing it over” and b) “it’s a vehicle for making advances for the working classes”. Unfortunately, I don’t share either of those illusions, as I think they are based on myths that too many people subscribe to without any evidence of their truth.

Taking back Labour

People conveniently forget that the party was never established as a mass membership party, but rather as a party to provide the trade union movement with parliamentary representation. For those who think that is incorrect I would advise you to read either Ralph Miliband’s Parliamentary Socialism or Henry Pelling’s The Origins of the Labour Party. You could also try this blog which I wrote some time back. The point however is that the main focus of the party, from its inception, was the Parliamentary Labour Party. What this means in practice is that members power is largely illusory, and can never override a united PLP, a fact that was only too obvious as his parliamentary colleagues turned on Jeremy Corbyn following his 2015 leadership victory.

I am not seeking to rerun arguments I made here and here. It’s not that the matter is entirely settled, it’s just that I’ve really nothing new to add. In the current context though it means that by definition the left in the U.K. is inexorably split between those who want to spend time fighting for “their party” through interminable party meetings and those who have already decided that the party offers no way forward for those interested in promoting socialism. So, does the Peace and Justice project offer a way of bringing these two groups together?

One thing Jeremy said was that if you sign up the project would put you in touch with other people in your locality (just hoping it’s not the local Labour left who all hate me now!) and this could clearly be a good thing. What is not so clear is what these like minded souls are supposed to do. Helping food banks and trade unions was mentioned, but that is only a start. A start of what exactly is a bigger question and one which will, no doubt, become clearer as the organisation develops. Jeremy’s instincts on this, as so many things, are right. Politics always starts at the local and often with what may appear, the mundane. Everybody comes to the struggle in their own way. For some it is highly personal. Being oppressed on the grounds of totally arbitrary characteristics: gender, skin colour, sexual orientation. For others it is the experience of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and other deprivations. For others it is through trade union struggles for better pay and conditions. And, for others, it is simply a recognition that no matter how comfortable their own life may seem, life could be better for everybody if we tackled the systematic inequalities in wealth, income and opportunities.

Political education

Joining together in solidarity and unity is important and represents a clear strategy. But, political campaigns, particularly local ones, tend to be narrowly focused. The role of socialists is to take those sectional local campaigns and help those involved to generalise their specific issue to the wider struggle for global equality. Jeremy knows this. I’ve heard him speak about it in the past. I was a little surprised therefore that neither the rally nor the website made much about the need to educate both ourselves and others. Perhaps an oversight, or perhaps he feels that in building a mass movement political education is a taken-for-granted.

Rachael Swindon makes a similar point in her post-launch blog: “ Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We all know someone who has got so much to give, but find themselves held back, and I hope this is something Jeremy’s project will address, because change will begin to happen when you empower the people.”

Much was made about progressive policies: the green new deal, media reform, vaccine equality and economic justice. To be honest it was a reassertion of the 2019 manifesto. As Len McCluskey said: “We need the radical alternative policies developed under the leadership of Jeremy and John McDonnell...They took on the economic orthodoxy that had dominated the World for over 40 years and showed that there was an alternative.” The problem is that it is unlikely most of the policies will survive until 2024, a fair few have already been ditched.

So, if the idea is to develop policies what happens to them? Knowing Jeremy Corbyn as we do it cannot be his intention to simply tell us what we should be campaigning on. That means there has to be some sort of democratic forum where the members can influence the direction of the organisation. Although this was never stated it’s hard to think how these policies are to see the light of day otherwise. But there is another possibility. The Peace and Justice project will be a pressure group trying to influence the direction of the Labour Party. If that were to be the case it sets up a confrontation with SirKeith and his right wing cronies. I can’t think anybody on the left would not like to tackle the current crop of Blairites, but all the talk of policies sounded as if Jeremy still had a major say in the party. The reality is that he has never been more marginalised. That he is having to take legal action simply to have the whip restored should tell us everything we need to know about his, or our, chances of changing Labour from within.

Horizontalism

Somebody on my WhatsApp meeting said that the goal of Labour currently was to drive members out of the party. I don’t think that has ever been the goal. They know that members are incredibly useful for putting leaflets through doors and getting out the vote. I have always thought the goal was not to expel the left but to bludgeon it into submission. Some of you may have heard of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon. This was a prison designed in such a way that the prisoners never know whether they are being watched, but given the potential of the guards to see them they modify their behaviour on the basis that they are under surveillance. The right are doing something similar to the left. Selective suspensions and expulsions are making people incredibly reluctant to raise issues that the party bureaucracy have deemed ultra vires. 

As I was considering some of these issues I came across a blog by HT4EcoSocialism who laid out some ground rules for a new democratic socialist party:

“1. Horizontalism - no one is more important than anyone else. All members are equal. There are no leaders.

2. The party must be member-led - this follows from horizontalism. All decisions on actions, policies, and programmes are made by the membership.

3. Consensus - this is how the party will make all its decisions. There will be no majority group and no minority group.”

This idea of no leaders feeds into a belief that there are no representatives but delegates. Although on the face of it most people on the left will see the appeal of these ideas, what became clear from comments I received on Twitter about the Peace and Justice project is that for many, if not most, people on the left it is a question of replacing the current leader with a better one, not abandoning the idea of leaders altogether. 

Top heavy?

Perhaps this is an over-harsh judgement but it is entirely plausible to argue that the Peace and Justice project, as currently constituted is top heavy. The ideas and policies are being handed down, but with very little detail. We can all agree that there should be economic justice and that this should extend across borders, but what do we do to take this idea forward? My fear with the Peace and Justice project is that as it stands there is no mechanism for doing what Jeremy said “linking the local, national and international”.

I am not the only one with misgivings about the project. Watching the launch Twitter user Lorraine Locke said she was “underwhelmed” and although she wasn’t attacked as such, it was clear that for some people any suggestion of shortcomings was tantamount to treason. Okay treason is probably a bit harsh but you know what I mean. To raise questions about the project is not the same as wanting it to fail. Steve Topple’s thoughtful piece in The Canary raised many of the same issues I’m discussing here. As he concluded: “I am genuinely concerned that the project is going to be yet another top-down vehicle for middle class people whose hearts are in the right place. There’s no denying that everyone at the launch cares about the world, is egalitarian in their approach and wants better lives for everyone on the planet. But when that manifests as people in positions of socioeconomic comfort helping and supporting those of us at the bottom – it is on their explicit terms.”

Having been involved in working class politics for a number of years I might be deemed as one of those middle class do-gooders Mr Topple is pointing the finger at. I was lucky enough to get from my council estate to university and a home in an area that is decidedly middle class. However, I think it is wrong to see the issues with the project in these terms. Working class people, for very good reasons, can be incredibly difficult to organise and often lack the skills of organisation that are needed to create mass movements. But when motivated they are certainly capable of taking on the ruling classes. See my article on the NUWM for a historic example. But, anybody who was involved in the miners strike will know just how articulate the miners (and their wives) were. But whilst miners were certainly prepared to fight, and whilst middle class people always thought they knew better, the fact was it was an alliance that made that strike so formidable, and in the end it was the failure of political leadership in both the trade unions and the Labour Party that could not bring themselves to support Scargill that doomed it to defeat.

None of this should be taken as meaning I am not enthusiastic about this project. That is certainly not true, but it seems to have been designed, to some extent, in the shadow of Labour and almost as two fingers to those who have sought in Lisa Nandy’s comradely phrase to destroy Jeremy Corbyn as a man. The hope that has been raised by the project, and which has no interest for most of our media, could spark a movement of real significance that changes the political landscape in the U.K. forever. It might not. But it is early days and we shall not know how all this will pan out without getting involved and doing what we can to push it in whatever direction we would like it to go. Which is bound to involve a fair amount of compromise along the way. As Rachael Swindon concluded: “Now is the time for the Peace and Justice 

Project to pick up the baton of socialism, and carry us forward as one movement.” 

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Can I encourage you to listen to The Socialist Hour podcast. Episode 1 is on Mixcloud now: Just click here

And for a great listen, I recommend Project Coups regular shows on Mixcloud: The latest one is here

You can sign up for the Peace and Justice Project headed by Jeremy Corbyn here 

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