2007 will be a year of critical choices for the Labour movement.
Over the last 6 months I have spoken at dozens of meetings of Labour Party members and supporters. As a result I have most probably met more grassroots activists than most Labour MPs or Party representatives.
A small but I believe significant thing that has struck me in these meetings is that fewer and fewer of our supporters refer to "our government" but instead say "the" government.
What does this mean?
I believe that it demonstrates the distancing of even our most loyal supporters and activists from what the government has come to represent under New Labour.
Of course there have been many policies over the last 10 years which we all support and nobody wants to see the Tories back. However the consistent message from the grassroots is that it's time to learn some lessons. honestly admit past mistakes and to move on.
People are worried that after a decade in office Labour has not realised the full potential of government and is at risk of losing power because it has made a series of catastrophic policy mistakes from Iraq to privatisation and the provoking of a forthcoming spring of discontent in the public sector.
People are crying out for a Labour government that provides real inspiration, describing the society we want to create and spelling out the small step policies we will implement to take us there.
At home they want to see a Labour Government transforming our daily lives by honestly addressing the pressures many face including inequality, poverty, low pay, debt, long hours and exploitation at work, housing pressures and, yes, a proper discussion on crime and community harm that goes beyond the failure of just locking more and more people up and attacking civil liberties.
Abroad they want to be able to take pride in a Labour Government playing a role in helping to secure world peace and overcome poverty, hunger, destitution and injustices in the developing world.
In 2007 the Labour movement has a clear choice to make.
Some will want to continue in the policy direction which has alienated so many of our supporters and put our hold on government at risk. They will want to spend their time justifying self evident policy failures and provoke even further disputes and disillusionment in our ranks by forcing through more of the same.
Others, like me, will want to use this year to explain what our society could look like under a transforming Labour government and to inspire people once again with the potential that we could have in government to enact this twenty first century socialism.
8 Comments:
I was astonished last night to watch Newsnight and see some be-suited pundit or other (actually I believe it was Peter Hyman a former Blair aide) blathering on lik a parrot about how "everyone" was New labour now...... and how the new leadership would just carry on the status quo. It's about time the BBC got out there, did some proper homework, and asked the REAL Labour Party people what they think of "the government" No it's not "ours" anymore and I find these assumptions by the London-based media deeply insulting, and deeply depressing, frankly. When cabinet Ministers are going on picket lines agianst "our" health policy what on earth is going on !
The onus has fallen on us to get in the press rather than the other way around. This year is such a good opportunity to raise the profile of the left given John's invovlement in the leadership bid - I really hope this is properly capitalised on. Come on John - let's get going! Would be nice to see you in more than the Morning Star & the odd Guardian article. Maybe now is the time for a motivational talk with your press officer!
what I've also noticed about New Labour is that they are like rather square school prefects; bossily telling us all what to do but if you disagree with them they start telling you off and pleading with you in a very stroppy way to agree with them, remember Margaret McDonagh trying to get the conference to vote with the leadership line on index linked pensions the first time we voted on this, I was in the conference hall and thought they sounded really desparate and unpleasant and was quite shocked that they did not admit their democratic defeat gracefully although I should have known of course after they forced through the terrible single parent cuts, John was one of the MPs who stood up to them on this. They have continued in such weasly vein ever since hoping in vain that we will accept rule by this bigoted elite, as if the Labour party was not full of thinking people often operating and doing their best to try and improve things in the very public services they are dismanteling before our eyes; if something therefor goes wrong say during an operation than the blame culture we now unfortunately have kicks in and an individual member of staff may be absolutely crucified for things that were really the fault of the systemn they've been mad eto work within i.e. the effects of savage staff cuts, having to do the work of two or more people in one day and so on.If New Labour had any truly good policies which would really help people they would stand alone and they wouldn't need to behave like this. Disagreement used to be respected with Labour as party members recognised that people would all be following their consciences on policy decisions and they should not have to apologise for their views as we are all supposed to be on the same side although ideologically it's difficult to say that now. I find it hard not to get angry with New Labour on the policy issues as I can see the terrible damage their policy decisions such as privatisations can cause but they don't like you to get angry of course as it makes them feel uncomfortable and also of course I shouldn't have to prove my views to them, I should just be able to state a relaxed espousal of my posiiton on things in say a delegate's speech but either we are not allowed on the platform or our views in anything they consult on are ignored and so on and so forth, even the MPs that represent more left-wing views are manouevered out of expressing them wherever possible (though they don't remove the whip from them you notice or they wouldn't have a majority at all) and we are only human so it's difficult and sometimes a bit of directness is called for; or a large bit of it such as an anti-war demo of one million people.......they may have ignored this for now but it is obvious that it will come back to haunt them; it's just a matter of time; the Politics students and historians will already be analysing it and will be asking very awkward questions which will not go away. Domestically the spring of discontent in the public secotr workplaces and the impact of the NHS cuts will start to bite, bit like Thatcherism made itself felt nationwide. Even on the areas where New Labour and particulary Brown have made what you could call soem progress towards redistribution there is often a nasty catch due to teh complicated and often means tested systemns he has set up, we all now about the tax credit situation and I recently discovered that my son's (ethical)child trust fund is actually worth 5% less than the £250 it's advertised to be as the banks take a cut of 5% and the cut can INCREASE according to any extra money you put in which you are encouraged to do! What a swizz! It was in a baby magazine in an article explaining how teh CTF works in practice. It will be all rightfor those parents with a few spare thousands to invest anyway,but parents who are scrimping and saving to put away anything are going to feel justifiably cheated. Just hope the CTFs don't get Maxwelled.
Agree about John getting into the soft media, it's the only way. Women's magazines like Glamour, Cosmopolitan etc actually have very detailed interviews with Parliamentary candidates and would be party leaders etc at elceion times; it's a complete misnomer to write them off as just asking a few questions on women's issues. Also everybody has a human side and even politicians are allowed to have a few interests; I remember reading loads about Ken Livingstone's meals out in London's restaurants to give just oen example at the time when he first ran as London Mayor in some of the more light-hearted articles; they are meant to be read in conjunction with the heavier weight pieces of course if you wan to gain a true picture of someone.
My A level pols teachers put Private Eye on the end of our booklist for light relief but at the moment they are brilliant for exposing dodgy PFIs and other management cock-ups usually due to excessive corporate/New Labour greed (and their special issue on the MMR debate was excellent and well researched). I think a lot of people don't realise that many magazines on diverse subjects are very well researced these days and may employ their own doctors/lecturers and other specialists etc etc depending on the title and subject matter and they tend to ignore everything they read unless it comes from the holy God of televison where the news etc can be biased towards the establishment as any media/journalism student can tell you.
on R4 news today they interviewed somebody representing the UN forces in various parts of the world who have been raping the women and girls (some as yound as twelve) they are supposed to be helping. There's a long running investigation in this but the people who had done it had been given quite weak penitentary measures such as being sent home, instead of being fully disciplined. This can't go on in this day and age and we need to find ways of reforming the cumbersome UN so that primarily this stops immediately and secondly to speed up the investigation into it. There was encouraging news today about the AMICUS international super union merger which means they can work against companies who persist with wht worst conditions for their staff, so there can be ways of fighting back against the wexploiting mulitnationals with new technology and strength in numbers in a world that is getting smaller. This is the kind of thing we can do to make ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE, just as Chavez is improving the lives of milions in Venezuela.
I think also that the French will elect their female socialist candidate S Rabin from what I've read about how her campaign is going and then it would no longer eb socialists in power in the non-Western world would it so British people would eb more inclined to sit up and take notice
So many faces bleating "we must retain New Labour", leads me to believe that they have something to worry about.
Having watched the ThicK of It, time for life to imitate art methinks. No real canvassing from the less independent MPs can begin until we get a date. We need this soon, before anymore loony-right policies get pushed through.
Happy New Year everyone - lets make it a year for change?
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