Is There a Future for the Labour Party?

 

Just a short few months ago I couldn't grasp the factionalism in the Labour Party. I could not even begin to comprehend that one wing would prefer a Tory government, a Johnsonian, far right one at that, over a Corbyn, socialist, Labour government. Nor could I comprehend the other wing would seemingly prefer said Tory government over, for example, a Watson, Labour government. Suffice to say, it's been quite the journey...

I apologise in advance for the many gaps, but frankly I could write a book & this is long enough as it is… so… during the Leadership Election, although my politics were very much aligned with RLB, I felt she fought a poor campaign & was not media savvy enough. I also felt that the incessant, disgusting & entirely false demomisation of Jeremy & the left meant a predominantly cosmetic, modest change of direction was required. I had felt for many months that I would vote for Starmer, though I had reservations about his lack of charisma & time as the Director of Public Prosecutions. But his campaign & personality was so insipid I ended up voting for Nandy. I felt she was the best media performer by a distance & had the necessary wider electoral appeal following conversations with non-political friends & family, with the caveat the membership would keep our party's socialist policies & values. I say this merely to demonstrate that my actions were not based on any semblance of factionalism, but what I felt was best for the party. Even though the result was always academic, suffice to say I profoundly regret my choice.

Despite reservations about Starmer, I naively believed he would be true to his campaign & was hopeful for the future. I never thought for a moment he was an incompetent, lying charlatan, just boring & uninspiring. But he demonstrably is. The breaking of all 10 of his pledges 10 Broken Pledges - Action Network  unequivocally illustrates this, not to mention the laughable “unity, authority, integrity” slogan.

With my personal background set & to save much time, most of us know what has transpired since, especially those of us that obtain at least some of our information away from the mainstream media. They have been incredibly supportive of Starmer & the Party, not least in not reporting a fraction of the Stalinesque, anti-democratic shenanigans that Starmer & the unelected General Secretary, David Evans, are embarked upon. The purge of the left if you will. Fine, it's "just" us socialists for now, but whatever your political persuasion, you should be very afraid of the precedent it sets.

As demonstrated throughout history, the right of the Labour Party never have, nor ever will, accept the left, even though the party is, or at least was, a socialist, democratic party. We are treated with utter contempt, told to eff off, that we are just racist, antisemitic lunatics, especially those of us who are actually left-wing Jews, our policies, highly popular with the electorate as a demonstrable fact, aren’t popular & we are just a bunch of commies. They say this because socialism puts the interests of the members & the people front & centre, but this is a threat to the Labour rights self-interests & it must be stopped at all cost which I will come back to. Ultimately “they have nowhere else to go anyway” is quite literally their attitude as per Mandelson’s infamous quote.

Well… that attitude of the Labour right has seen a terminal decline in seats, popular vote & vote share since 1997 with only Jeremy in 2017 breaking the trend. In 2015, the Labour right lost 40 of 41 seats in Scotland, probably forever. Wales, where I am, is headed the same way. The “red wall” is fractured beyond repair, exacerbated because of the rights “People’s Vote” façade, though the decline has been in the making for decades & unthinkably, even the working-class are voting Tory in unprecedented numbers. So voters do, will & have found somewhere else to go.

The Labour right, rather than support a socialist, Labour government, literally worked to deliver the most right-wing Tory one instead as documented in the so called Labour Leaks, toxifying the party beyond all salvation in the process. The Labour right are now finding they cannot detoxify the brand & have simply played their part as the useful idiots of the Tories & an establishment, particularly the media, corrupt to its core. But they care not a jot as that corruption will bring them peerages & executive jobs whilst the people they were elected to fight for & the party created to represent use foodbanks, suffer declining living standards & the now inevitable loss of the NHS as we know it. That is the legacy of Labour “centrism.” That’s quite aside from an ideology that is largely indistinguishable from the Tories anyway.

As per my intro, I did not understand this factionalism. I begged for unity & lambasted fellow socialists more than the right for not doing so as holding "your own" to a higher standard is one of our core values. However, now I understand. To the extent, the Labour right are a far bigger enemy than the Tories as to be destroyed by the Tories & their media outriders is one thing, but to be destroyed by your own side is the most heinous & unforgivable crime possible. 

So when the commentariat suggest flippantly Starmer & the Labour right can just “change course” or “make peace” with the left, I’m simply incredulous. For many of us, the damage done by Starmer, the Labour right, Labour Leaks & burying of the Forde Report as it would exonerate Jeremy & the left, can never be undone. That’s quite aside from the treatment of Jeremy himself who has more decency in his little finger than all of his critics combined & multiplied by a billion.

My membership, my activism, my vote (a marginal) & the votes of family & friends have been lost, probably for good. That includes my 74yo Jewish mum who has NEVER not voted Labour. She is heartbroken. That Starmer & the right continue to use mendacious slurs relating to our heritage as a stick with which to beat socialists is what we will ultimately never forgive. Socialists are largely ant-racist to our core so to be accused of racism by racists is utterly perverse & sick.

The wilfulness & glee with which the media & the right systematically conflate ant-Zionism with anti-Semitism incites & does so much harm regards actual anti-Semitism. Indeed, the BBC's The Rise of the Nazi's was utterly chilling in that the rhetoric & tactics employed by the Nazi's in the 1930’s are nigh identical to those used by the right in 2021. They, along with reprehensible organisations such as the Board of Deputies, should beware the monster they create. Yes, I feel anti-Semitism more personally, but I do not find any other form of racism or persecution any less offensive, indeed more so if anything as caring for others above one’s self is a core, socialist value. To quote Marek Edelman "To be a Jew means always being with the oppressed, never with the oppressors." I & indeed all socialists, especially fellow Jewish socialists, will always stand with the oppressed, not least our Palestinian brothers & sisters.

The personal betrayal I feel is acute. I thought more of Labour party members than I did some of my own family so abhorrent are some of their political views. So given what I have documented & frankly so much more, there is absolutely nothing Starmer or the Labour right can ever do to repair the damage they’ve done. I know I am not alone. Whilst it can be argued that those who feel as strongly as me may be a minority, I firmly believe it is a significant minority. That is problem enough for a party that seldom wins elections, it needs every single vote. It also needs the ostracised left who are its core vote, membership & activism base which is the envy of even the Tories.  That is not something that can afford to be lost, but in great numbers it has been, probably forever in many cases.

But perhaps worse still for Labour is irrelevance in the eyes of the many.  When I speak to non-politicised friends, precious few are compelled to vote Labour as the generational custom it once was. Before the hatchet job on Jeremy was complete by 2019 & compounded by Brexit, it was clear there was a strong appetite for socialism in the UK as polling 40% proves, an incredible feat. Why an incredible feat when we lost? Yes, virtually any Labour leader will have the press against them. But not only did Jeremy not have the support of most of the Parliamentary Labour Party & Party machinery, they were actively working against him. Just 2,227 votes short of a government despite all this. Imagine what would have been possible were the right of the Labour Party not working for the Tories instead.

In 2017 & 2019, you could passionately argue a new world was possible under Labour, completely transformational compared to the same old Tories. Now, Labour is largely indistinguishable from the Tories. The contempt with which the Labour right view socialists is ironically a similar contempt with which the electorate view Labour “centrism.” Why have Tory-lite when you can have the real thing?

 

I genuinely foresee the Labour vote collapsing to between 25-30% come General Election time.  If that.  20 points ahead is of course still possible, but only of the Lib Dems & even that is doubtful.  But “centrists” care not that the ship is sinking, merely who the Captain is. Peerages & Executive positions await them in the corrupt plutocracy in which we exist.  Socialists need to be far away from the wreckage as make no mistake, the right will try to pin it on us.

The only circumstance I could possibly consider voting Labour many years from now would be for a truly unifying leader based around profound constitutional & electoral reform/ Proportional Representation, even then on the understanding the party would split once PR is established.

So I sit back with quiet contentment at the Labour rights necessary & inevitable destruction of the neoliberal Labour Party. In its place will rise once again a truly, socialist, democratic party which the country needs & were it not for the Labour Leaks could well have been delivered in 2017.