And so, the end has come…

 

It is almost exactly 5 years to the day since I started this blog. Clearly a lot has happened in that five years including two U.K. General Elections, a Presidential election in USA, wars in Syria and Yemen, a global pandemic, and a worsening climate emergency. It’s hard to suggest that they have been a great five years.

This is my 124th post since I started which means I have probably written upwards of a quarter million words. In that time, according to my stats page, I’ve had almost 70,000 views, ranging from 19 to a record high of 2,546. 

I’ve covered a variety of topics from the Labour Party, the media, opinion polls, Brexit, Covid, morality, healthcare, poverty, trade unions, racism and many points in between. Since 2019 I’ve published a blog every week with the exception of the week I was undergoing heart surgery. 

The Last Post

This, however, is my final post in this format. As of next week this blog page will exist only as an archive whilst my new writing will appear under a new banner: Critical Mass.

One of the interesting things to come out of the Covid crisis and the lockdowns has been the use of Zoom to allow people to come together online. In February when I asked if anybody fancied meeting up to discuss politics I had no idea what I was starting. It turned into Creating Socialism, at first just a place for socialists disillusioned with Labour to come together and lick our wounds.

There have been a number of attempts to start new parties to the left of Labour, and I still think that many of those who joined the party when Jeremy Corbyn became leader are waiting for his announcement that he is ready to lead an alternative left-wing party. It is my honest opinion that even if he were to do so, which it is unlikely he will, that such a party would inevitably fail. If we learned anything at all from the experience of 2019 it is that there are no lengths the establishment will not go to in order to prevent a socialist ever getting into Number Ten.

Creating Socialism

So, when we started Creating Socialism it was definitely never the intention to become a party. Although that was the correct position, in my opinion, it also meant that since the start we have struggled to work out exactly what it was we were building. There is little doubt that the group of people who have coalesced around Creating Socialism have created a warm, inviting environment where socialists could gather. But, at the same time it lacked an identity of its own.

During this same period I initiated the Socialist Hour podcast with the intention of bringing grassroots activists stories to a wider audience. I have always believed that in many ways ordinary people are far more interesting than the egos that we usually hear from. People such as Julie Harrington, Tom Widdicombe, Ann Marcial, Tony Broomfield, Robert diBlasio, Shippo, Siobhan Aston, Relish Hendy, Mike Stanton, Jo Buchanan, Howard Thorp, Luke Andreski and so many others have more interesting stories to tell partly because we have not heard them a hundred times before. Most of these people have remained as Twitter friends, and some are now involved with Critical Mass which, like Socialist Hour, is a vehicle for the grassroots activists in all their various and wonderful guises.

Through these various creative endeavours I have been fortunate, at a time when I’ve barely been able to get outside my own home due to the pandemic, to meet so many activists. Some are working in local campaigns, some working in political parties, some kind of mulling around wondering what they can possibly do faced with the overwhelmingly negative odds stacked against us. I try to remain positive, even in the face of defeat, but what keeps me positive is not this or that leader, but the ordinary people fighting so hard for justice and refusing to be broken by a system that seems set up to do precisely that.

Labour and democracy

Politically the demise of Labour, the expulsion of Ken Loach being the latest example of their anti-Palestinian mania, has left many people in the U.K. politically homeless. Many are waiting for another party to emerge so that they can throw themselves, yet again, into an election campaign with little chance of real success. Over the past five years my position has changed. From being agnostic about Labour to supporting the party to leaving the party and eventually coming to the conclusion that it is the very nature of representative democracy that is the problem. Many have accompanied me on this journey, although many people still see electoral politics as the ultimate expression of the popular will, and got off the train at the station named PR, which for those still on the journey is barely worth looking up from our papers for.

Whilst I no longer believe that socialism can be obtained through a ballot box within a social system whose main, and some might say only, function is commodity production and consumption, I respect those who are still trying to prove me wrong. This, the nature of democracy and the ability to use capitalist forms of democracy for socialist aims, seems to me a debate worth having. The last word has clearly not been written on this topic.

As I cast my critical eye around I see fires in Sicily where the air is so humid it is unbreathable, I see religious fundamentalism in Afghanistan (and that just from the departing American forces), I see the continued persecution of Palestinians armed only with sling shots up against a well resourced army sponsored by most Western governments but mainly America, and I see a pandemic being allowed to run amok by politicians who lack the courage to take the hard decisions that would protect us all. It is obvious that whether most people realise it or not, the World needs socialism more now than at any time in its history. Rosa Luxemburg may well have misquoted Engels when she remarked we stand on the verge of socialism or barbarism, but as we survey the damage wreaked by industrial capitalism it is hard not to think that she is as right now as she was then.

Petty feuds

Despite this obvious truth what I also see is people on the left spending so much time and energy on petty feuds rather than building the movements they know we need. On Twitter socialists who certainly should know better are engaging in bullying behaviour to other socialists, often on the flimsiest pretext. At a time when the World is literally dying we need to see beyond petty vindictiveness and “he said she said” politics to ensure that future generations actually have a planet on which they can do all the things most of us now take for granted. In 20 years time when the World is unliveable do you want to look back and say I spent a good part of 2021 on social media calling people names or do you want to say I did what I could to save the World?

This is where Critical Mass comes into the picture. I’ve long argued that there is an incredible amount of talent out there that is rarely heard. Critical Mass will be a place where talent can grow. It is an online magazine and like the best magazines will contain a range of voices saying interesting things. The thing is that is where you come in. If you’ve read this far then you are probably a socialist. Quite likely you’ve got a blog somewhere and if you haven’t you’ve considered that as a real possibility. I hope you’ll follow me to Critical Mass and read my articles. But I also hope you’ll say “I’ve been reading you, how about you reading me for a change.”

I can’t promise that Critical Mass will change the World, hopefully it will change a few minds. It’s a bold venture, but one that somehow feels like the natural culmination of the past 5 years. Those who have followed me will know that as well as writing my own thoughts and sharing them I have always sought to share the words of others. Critical Mass takes that to its logical conclusion, it is aimed at being a place where writers who adhere to an eco-socialist philosophy can come together to support one another and encourage others, particularly those from groups who are under-represented in our culture.

Critical Mass

Critical Mass is not setting itself up as a rival to any existing outlets, neither is it saying “we know better”. It is going to be a contribution to the debates that need to take place. It has only a broad over-arching philosophy and no editorial line beyond our broad agreement on certain political positions. We won’t, for example, be aligned closely to any political party but will engage with parties on the left in as much as they will engage with us. We will be supporting the Palestinian cause, all the writers who have joined us so far see that as a line that cannot be crossed. We will not offer a platform to those whose views on Covid are informed by various anti-science stances. We will not provide a platform for homophobia, transphobia, disablism, or for racism in any of its forms.

Critical Mass will be aligned only to Creating Socialism from where it emerged. And Creating Socialism is a collective of non-aligned (or partially aligned in some cases) socialists. We hope that you will sign up to Critical Mass when we actually work out how to get the sign up form working. We have built the website in a very short period of time so we are still having one or two irritating technical problems which will be sorted by Friday, which is our official launch day. Signing up will get you a weekly email reminding you of what is in that week’s edition. But Critical Mass is not just something for you to read. We want you to get involved. If you can write, write. If you can draw, draw. If you can take photos submit them. And, whilst Critical Mass is definitely “of the left” we think a good magazine should stimulate more than just your political conscience. We welcome writers on the arts, sport, travel, and anything else that takes your interest.

It has been an interesting experience writing this blog, and whilst it may well be a Chinese curse, these certainly have been interesting times. I have valued the many friends who have stuck with me and I feel that as I have worked through so many issues I feel you looking over my shoulder invoking me to find the evidence to support my assertions, and to find better ways of expressing some of the more complicated ideas that I’ve presented. I hope I’ve succeeded and that rather than seeing this as an end you regard it as a friend moving from one home to another but whose invitation to visit at any time you will take up. As Marx so correctly said, we have a World to win. If we can actually develop that Critical Mass perhaps we can win it together.