Post by rainsborough on Sept 1, 2013 10:22:34 GMT
Since 1906 the Labour Party has harboured the
illusion that it can be reborn, refounded, resurrected, reformed,
rebuilt, resuscitated, rescued and returned to its ‘socialist’ origins.
The periodic repetition of this illusion is its institutional and
ideological purpose. This satisfies and provides a comfort zone for the
radicals within it. The ‘left’ spend their lives seeking to redeem the
party from its decline into the hands of the ‘right’. This is more
entertaining perhaps than dealing with the nasty employer at work or
tackling the absolute domination of our economy by finance capital and
the EU.
When out of parliamentary power the line is not to rock the boat for
fear of spoiling electoral chances. When in government (relatively
rarely since 1906) the line is not to rock the boat for fear of the
Tories getting back in. It is the crass politics of the lowest common
denominator. Better the devil you know. Yet the history of capitalist
ascendancy and domination through all its different phases, has been
consistent since the day the Labour Party was born.
The pro-imperialist actions of Labour are ignored by its activists
because of the dream of a better tomorrow, or by some because they
actually believed in the war against Iraq, the privatisation of
services, the straitjacketing of unions, student loans and the power of
the City of London.
That the Labour Party contains the neoliberal Sainsbury funded group
Progress and their complete opposites in the Labour Representation
Committee and the like is a sign of the weakness of the broad church
approach to party building. The battle between such opposed sides within
the party has always been there in one form or another. Remember Healy
running off for loans from the IMF in return for public service cuts
etc? Remember Cripps and Callaghan on wage restraint? Remember Barbara
Castle and the anti union stance of ‘In Place of Strife’? Remember Brown
signing the neoliberal Lisbon Treaty without a mandate?
Consistently the trade unions provide the largest sources of funding
and person power at election times, yet in and out of power for decades
the Labour Party has delighted in rubbishing the unions or seeking to
run them in its own favour. Appointments in many unions are still based
on whether you have a Labour Party card not rather than your ability to
do a job and democratically represent members.
Indeed the whole timing and organisation of the TUC Congress each
year, held just before Labour Party Conference, is designed to rattle
the cage a bit on the one hand and signal some dire warnings to the
Labour party leadership, but on the other to dampen and constrain any
real opposition to the enduring pro-capitalist agenda of the Labour
Party. However, the majority of trade unions are not Labour Party
affiliated which tend to be the larger general unions, hardly trade
unions at all in the traditional sense, who pay their dues and enjoy the
media knock about knocking the latest Labour leader.
The Labour Party has never been a mass party and is now around the
size of the PCS union in terms of membership. Of course Blair and
Mandelson took the party further from its social democratic purpose and
the removal of the commitment to public ownership in the party’s
constitution and the like did represent a sea change. So too does the
current attempt to remove the collective voice of unions within the
party.
But how can you remove from the party something that it would not be
allowed to achieve in reality anyway? The state would never have allowed
a Labour parliamentary majority to implement Clause 4 without a violent
civil war. The battle for the soul of the Labour Party will never be
won by socialists. Indeed most socialists have given up on this battle.
This institutionalisation of false hope is based on the deeper
illusion that the Parliamentary system and existing state can be
reformed in the interests of workers. Real politics begins when this
illusion is debated and tackled. What we need is a recommitment to the
real socialist tradition in Britain, and the world for that matter, that
recognises the irreconcilability of the interests of labour and capital
and the needs of labour to form a new form of society with a new form
of government based on putting the needs of people first, peace and
international co-operation.
This means a conscious control over the economy, much more difficult
than control through affiliation fees and block votes of a party of
parliamentary and TV pundits. Such a politics is based on the
recognition that workers produce all value and wealth in society.
Alternatively the Labour view sees workers as voters in elections or
poor people to be patronised and ‘helped’. Our difficult path means
arguing for a socialist republic of Britain and enshrining the ages old
aspirations for democracy and social progress in a new constitution. It
means power to the people becoming a reality rather than a cliché and a
new form of people’s assembly to run the country.
Breaking with the illusion of Parliament as a source of progressive
reform and therefore breaking with the notion of a representational
party in that Parliament, remains the perennial challenge within the
working class movement. Perhaps the current last ditch attempt by the
‘left’ within the Labour Party to save it from itself may stretch it to
breaking point. But it is doubtful.
www.theworker.org.uk/blog/
illusion that it can be reborn, refounded, resurrected, reformed,
rebuilt, resuscitated, rescued and returned to its ‘socialist’ origins.
The periodic repetition of this illusion is its institutional and
ideological purpose. This satisfies and provides a comfort zone for the
radicals within it. The ‘left’ spend their lives seeking to redeem the
party from its decline into the hands of the ‘right’. This is more
entertaining perhaps than dealing with the nasty employer at work or
tackling the absolute domination of our economy by finance capital and
the EU.
When out of parliamentary power the line is not to rock the boat for
fear of spoiling electoral chances. When in government (relatively
rarely since 1906) the line is not to rock the boat for fear of the
Tories getting back in. It is the crass politics of the lowest common
denominator. Better the devil you know. Yet the history of capitalist
ascendancy and domination through all its different phases, has been
consistent since the day the Labour Party was born.
The pro-imperialist actions of Labour are ignored by its activists
because of the dream of a better tomorrow, or by some because they
actually believed in the war against Iraq, the privatisation of
services, the straitjacketing of unions, student loans and the power of
the City of London.
That the Labour Party contains the neoliberal Sainsbury funded group
Progress and their complete opposites in the Labour Representation
Committee and the like is a sign of the weakness of the broad church
approach to party building. The battle between such opposed sides within
the party has always been there in one form or another. Remember Healy
running off for loans from the IMF in return for public service cuts
etc? Remember Cripps and Callaghan on wage restraint? Remember Barbara
Castle and the anti union stance of ‘In Place of Strife’? Remember Brown
signing the neoliberal Lisbon Treaty without a mandate?
Consistently the trade unions provide the largest sources of funding
and person power at election times, yet in and out of power for decades
the Labour Party has delighted in rubbishing the unions or seeking to
run them in its own favour. Appointments in many unions are still based
on whether you have a Labour Party card not rather than your ability to
do a job and democratically represent members.
Indeed the whole timing and organisation of the TUC Congress each
year, held just before Labour Party Conference, is designed to rattle
the cage a bit on the one hand and signal some dire warnings to the
Labour party leadership, but on the other to dampen and constrain any
real opposition to the enduring pro-capitalist agenda of the Labour
Party. However, the majority of trade unions are not Labour Party
affiliated which tend to be the larger general unions, hardly trade
unions at all in the traditional sense, who pay their dues and enjoy the
media knock about knocking the latest Labour leader.
The Labour Party has never been a mass party and is now around the
size of the PCS union in terms of membership. Of course Blair and
Mandelson took the party further from its social democratic purpose and
the removal of the commitment to public ownership in the party’s
constitution and the like did represent a sea change. So too does the
current attempt to remove the collective voice of unions within the
party.
But how can you remove from the party something that it would not be
allowed to achieve in reality anyway? The state would never have allowed
a Labour parliamentary majority to implement Clause 4 without a violent
civil war. The battle for the soul of the Labour Party will never be
won by socialists. Indeed most socialists have given up on this battle.
This institutionalisation of false hope is based on the deeper
illusion that the Parliamentary system and existing state can be
reformed in the interests of workers. Real politics begins when this
illusion is debated and tackled. What we need is a recommitment to the
real socialist tradition in Britain, and the world for that matter, that
recognises the irreconcilability of the interests of labour and capital
and the needs of labour to form a new form of society with a new form
of government based on putting the needs of people first, peace and
international co-operation.
This means a conscious control over the economy, much more difficult
than control through affiliation fees and block votes of a party of
parliamentary and TV pundits. Such a politics is based on the
recognition that workers produce all value and wealth in society.
Alternatively the Labour view sees workers as voters in elections or
poor people to be patronised and ‘helped’. Our difficult path means
arguing for a socialist republic of Britain and enshrining the ages old
aspirations for democracy and social progress in a new constitution. It
means power to the people becoming a reality rather than a cliché and a
new form of people’s assembly to run the country.
Breaking with the illusion of Parliament as a source of progressive
reform and therefore breaking with the notion of a representational
party in that Parliament, remains the perennial challenge within the
working class movement. Perhaps the current last ditch attempt by the
‘left’ within the Labour Party to save it from itself may stretch it to
breaking point. But it is doubtful.
www.theworker.org.uk/blog/
