“Labour is dead for socialists”,
“Starmer has completely killed off the hopes of Corbyn and it is a waste of time bothering about Labour anymore”
“We should launch a new party to the left of Labour – let’s base it on Enough is Enough or get Jeremy to lead it”
“Look Chris Williamson and Scargill are coming together to build a new party”
“Calling for a general election is just electoralist and demobilises the various strike struggles”
All these comments and similar can be found pinging around on social media. Even platforms like Crispin Flintoff’s, Not the Andrew Mar show, which brings together hundreds of activists, have broadcast these views. Undoubtedly, they are a response to the vicious, systematic witch hunt against the Left in Labour. Newly elected NEC member Naomi Wimbourne-Idressi was suspended. Member for Parliament Sam Tarry, who defied Starmer’s ban on frontbenchers supporting railworkers, has been deselected. Emma Dent Coad was eliminated from the long list in Kensington and Chelsea. Local constituency leaders’ choices were trampled on in Sedgefield… The list could fill this page.
At the same time, the Labour leadership has made it clear that it will not even put some key progressive policies, passed by conference, into the manifesto. For example, bringing the utilities into common ownership or introducing Proportional Representation. The mantra today from Starmer and Reeves is that Labour will not be able to do the “good things” it would like to do as quickly as it would like because of the economic mess the Tories will leave.
Despair
The cries of despair about the direction of Labour today are more understandable if we consider how huge the illusions and hopes were in Jeremy Corbyn’s project. Many of the people who flocked to the Labour party when Corbyn won the leadership did not have long-term political experience. As Michael Chessum recently pointed out in his book This is Only the Beginning, there was a significant gap between this generation and the new left of the 1970s, with its more Marxist, anti-imperialist background and links to newly radicalised worker militants. Some of the new activists were even conned by Starmer’s leadership campaign, which promised continuity with the 2017 manifesto and party unity (the notorious ten pledges). Consequently, when the Labour leader’s true colours were clearly exposed, the depth of disappointment was as great as the earlier illusions. Hence the angry adoption of notions that Labour is just the same as the Tories or that you have to straightaway organise a new party.
That 70s generation, whether they were involved as members of the Labour Party or not, were schooled in the historical evidence that Labour is not anti-capitalist and has not ever argued or organised for a break with capital and its imperialist state. From its very foundation, Labour stood apart and against the revolutionary traditions of Lenin and Luxembourg, who refused to support their own ruling class in the massacre of workers during the First World War. Even the most progressive Labour government, after 1945, with Atlee, while bringing in substantial social reforms, essentially helped rebuild conditions for a new post-war capitalist boom that did not fundamentally redistribute a great deal to working people.
Socialist alternative
So yes, if we are talking about Labour as a vehicle or tool of a socialist alternative, then it is dead for the left, but this is part of its DNA, its original make-up. For this reason, whether socialists work inside or outside the Labour party, they should always be preparing for the strategic need for a different sort of party that can really break with a system that exploits working people and is destroying the planet. There are some inside the Momentum project who are worried that it does not go far enough in preparing for the possibility of a split in the Labour Party and the subsequent foundation of a new party.
While it might be dead in this sense for consistent socialists, it is certainly not dead for the working class as a whole. Working people still vote Labour in far greater numbers than they vote Tory. The key defensive organisations of the working class, the trade unions, at 6 million strong, are still mostly affiliated to the Labour Party. This means, particularly in times of rising strike struggles, their voice is heard and can have an impact on the party and its MPs. It is reported that Labour has recruited 20,000 new members and received increased donations since its conference a few weeks ago. True, the remorseless attacks on the left have meant a loss of maybe 150,000 or more members since 2019, but in the absence of a credible left alternative, it will still attract working people who are desperate to see the end of this disastrous Tory cabal.
Strategy
Understanding the strategic need for a different sort of party to change society does not mean you can just proclaim one and it will emerge. What makes it so much more difficult here is the anti-democratic first past the post electoral system. Incidentally that is why the socialist left should vigorously campaign in support of Proportional Representation. Ideally you need some split or significant disaffection by Labour left MPs and some trade unions to have a realistic chance of building an alternative. It is not impossible to win people away from Labourism even without such splits or any PR system – we have seen this with the Green Party and with the Respect experience where MPs were won to the left of Labour. If Corbyn were to stand against Labour in Islington North he would have a realistic chance of holding the seat. These experiences show that a left of labour current could win support, there is not an innate historical necessity for working people to forever support Labour.
In current conditions, it looks very unlikely that there will be a left-of-labour alternative at the next General Election. In a vote between the Conservatives and the Labour Party, socialists shouldn’t sit it out. Those of us on the left who advocate, realistically, a vote for Labour have been labelled as supporters of “lesser evilism” by some of the sectarians. Well, if it is less evil to vote for a government that will repeal the proposed new Tory anti-union legislation or bring in a fossil-free energy system by 2030, then as socialists we plead guilty. There are policy differences between Tory and Labour governments that we have to recognise and defend. Working people will not listen to the left if we ignore reality. For a railworker, it will make a difference if a minimum service guarantee is brought in or not. It will make a difference to our health and the environment if the zero carbon pledge is implemented or not.
Of course, we know such progressive policies do not go far enough, but we can start from there rather than have to fight much worse Tory policies. We can mobilise the labour movement to force a Labour government to take more radical measures.
Radical outcomes
The best way of creating the conditions for achieving more radical outcomes is the way in which the Tory government falls. It is more important to build support and solidarity for the strike wave than to pass some radical motions inside Labour that will be ignored by the leadership. If the Tory government collapses because “normal society” is no longer functioning due to strike struggles and mass campaigning, then an incoming Labour government will find it more difficult to directly hold back pro-working class measures. As Mick Lynch and others have said, the movement has to hold any Labour government to account. Clearly, the Labour leadership is keen for the transition to be as parliamentary as possible. Starmer has still never openly supported any of the strikers’ demands.
All the left currents should collaborate in building solidarity – such as for the Peoples’ Assembly November 5th national demo, which has broad support, or in developing the Enough is Enough campaign. At the same time, we need to debate the sort of demands that can build on any progressive policies Labour puts forward. We are firmly against limiting the changes we need because of the need to maintain an arbitrarily level of state borrowing or submit tamely to the dictates of ‘godlike’ market forces. Solid measures that show where we get the money from to pay for redistributive policies need to be adopted. Wealth taxes, including on assets, and further windfall taxes, not just on energy companies, are two ways we can show we mean business. A progressive reform of the council tax—still based on 1991 values—could release considerable sums. We disagree with the Labour leadership’s obsessive reluctance to mention raising taxes.
The answer to whether Labour is dead is really both yes and no – depending on what you mean and who you are referring to, whether it is socialists or working people as a whole. Socialists always need to place themselves one step ahead of the movement as a whole. Submerging ourselves and keeping our heads down is just as ineffective as charging head first without any connection to the level of consciousness in society. So, proclaiming that Labour is dead and no longer worth voting for is doing precisely that. It is wishful thinking. The conversation about Labour’s strategic demise is related but has a different target audience.
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Like most aspects of the current crisis in the UK state, the politics of the Labour Party plays out differently in the four territories that constitute that state.
In the north of Ireland occupied by Britain, the Labour Party is irrelevant. That part of the state still remains largely in the EU, much to the annoyance of Brexiteer Tories, and the main opposition to both British rule and, at least verbally, to austerity economics is Sinn Fein – who are expected to be in government both north and south of the border sometime soon. Despite the mistaken efforts of some within UK Labour to want to stand candidates, Starmer’s endorsement of staying within the union, breaking with the careful cloud of ‘neutrality’ created in the Blair period, means that Labour were they to ever stand would be humiliated. The cancellation of the merger between the SDLP and Fianna Fail means that the SDLP will continue to take the more reformist element of votes, though the SDLP’s espousal of eventual Irish unity means that they are an anathema to Starmer and could not be relied on in the event of an extremely close parliament (as was the case in the late 1970s).
In Scotland, Labour is a shadow of its former self. The Corbyn revolt never happened, and what remains of the Labour left is largely trapped in a bizarre stalinist/unionist increasingly irrelevant alternate reality. For most of the late 20th century Labour was overwhelmingly the dominant party in Scotland, replacing the Liberals 100 years ago (the anniversary is coming up next month). Although people say the Tories haven’t won in Scotland since 1955 even that is disputed – the Scottish Unionist Party was an independent party, even though it took the Tory whip, and was actually an amalgam of the minority Tories with the Irish-unionist wing of the once dominant Liberal Party forming the larger part, until their eventual dissolution into the Britain-wide Tory federation in 1965. Labour’s ‘strange decline’ began with arguably their most significant achievement – the creation of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999 – and their unionism since has driven them increasingly into irrelevance particularly since their ‘Better Together’ partnership with the Tories in the 2014 referendum led to wholesale desertion of large parts of their working class electoral base. For some years Labour have been the third party with only one MP at Westminster currently (and he’s someone who agreed to join the cross-party failed Change UK party, so not really Labour at all). Labour in Scotland are increasingly a repository for tactical votes for unionism as Westminster government becomes increasingly an embarassment. Starmer takes heart from the fact that they had a one percent increase in their local government vote in 2022 compared to 2017 and moved out of third place, but that still left them way behind the SNP on just 23%, with the Scottish Greens coming up fast on their left flank under Scotland’s more representative PR system. Newly elected Scottish Labour councillors include amongst their number a former recent “Imperial President” (I kid you not!) of the Orange Order and in several council chambers, including their Edinburgh ‘flagship’, they have done deals with the Tories to take joint minority control (and in once council they share power with the far right “British Unionist Party”!). Labour even voted with the Tories to offer just 3% pay award to council workers in the recent pay dispute against the SNP and other councillors support for 5% (neither were enough but it says buckets that Labour were in league with the Tories to offer workers less!). The latest batch of polls indicates that although Labour is gaining at the expense of the Tories in Scotland, they are barely making a dent in the vote of the SNP (or the combined vote for SNP/SGP depending on how the question is asked and under which electoral system). Labour’s position of support for Brexit at a time when polls indicate 75% of Scottish voters want an immediate return to the EU or single market casts Labour completely adrift. Extrapolations of recent polls indicate that the SNP would still win around 45-55 of the 59 Westminster seats as they are the main challenger in every Tory and LibDem seat. Given the meltdown of the Tories the polls predict the SNP would become the “official opposition” (second party) to an England/Wales Labour government at Westminster. Labour might win a few seats back but their chances of returning to dominance have long gone. The decision of the Supreme Court is expected in the next few months on whether the elected majority in the Scottish Parliament can hold another indyref; either way it creates huge difficulties for Starmer – Labour will have egg on their face and be forced into an even more unionist position if the Court rules for the right to indyref next year, and if it rules against Labour will continue to undemocratically deny the right to a vote if they become the Westminster government cementing their weakness in Scottish elections (the Tories will fallback somewhat from their position as second party in recent years, but there is a hardcore of right wing unionism that even Starmer cannot win all of).
Which brings me to Wales and here I think things are fundamentally different to England in the direction of Labour politics. The shifting balance of constitutional power from Westminster politics to Senedd Cymru has led to the evolution of a different line of march for Welsh Labour. During the pandemic Welsh (and Scottish) voters got rather supportive of the devolution of healthcare, education etc from Westminster and the First Ministers became more significant (and more reassuring) public figures. In the only part of the British state that currently has a Labour government (in power for 22 years), Welsh Labour has now become an energetic party of ‘Home Rule’, pressing constantly for devolution of power and arguing for a different vision to that of Westminster-based politics, that will also be at odds with the centralist/unionist direction of Starmer wrapping himself in the union flag. Polls already show both a majority of Labour voters and a significant minority if not a majority of Labour members in Wales prepared to endorse a move to independence from the UK state. 18-24 year olds in Wales are now also in their majority in favour of Welsh independence. Welsh Labour’s defence of independence being a valid constitutional position in the establishment of the Commission on the future of Wales is in radical contradistinction to the suicidal path taken by the Scottish branch wing of Labour – and that in part also helps explain their continued electoral dominance. Their willingness to do a deal with Plaid Cymru around a moderate left social democratic programme is a further breaking of the link with Starmer (he has never mentioned the Agreement as far as I am aware). The slogan “Make Brexit Work” has a different dimension in Wales, since although there was a referendum majority for Brexit, voters have since discovered that the significant previously devolved EU structural funds have been replaced by a centralist Westminster initiative that undermines the increasingly pro-Home Rule/Devo Max/Indy-curious sentiment and direction of working class politics. There’s no doubt that Scottish independence and Irish unity will increasingly push Wales’ population towards a radical recasting of the state that Starmer simply isn’t willing to entertain.
So we need to be clear that while Dave’s article represents an important contribution to the politics of Labour in England, the dynamics of how this works out over coming months and years will be very different elsewhere in the UK state.
very much agree, I should have made it clearer that I was mainly referring to England
This makes sense to me, the working class in England and Wales still have illusions in Labour, wether we like it or not that’s the reality. As a socialist I wouldn’t be taken seriously in my union branch if I argued Tory and Labour are the same and declared neutrality. On the other hand I’ve never believed that Labour is a socialist party, even during the heady Corbyn years. We have to orient to where consciousness is, not where we would like it to me. The strategy should be to raise transitional demands on a Labour government, anything could happen, including a union led split, those would be better conditions under which to launch a new mass party, not now.
yes I do think the left in the labor part should forum another socialism is dead under sir keir Starmer and should build the socialist alternative