This is the full text of the article I wrote for Comment is Free on the current Labour leadership debacle, which is summarised in the main Guardian today.
What have they done to our party?Ambition and self-interest have become more important to many in the Labour hierarchy than the struggles of Britain's people
Comments (108)
The Labour party was founded to transform our society. Men and women of ideals came together to give a voice to the large mass of ordinary people, who until then had no consistent or effective voice in the politics of this country. They had such ambition for their class and for the whole country. The party wasn't just about providing the jobs, homes, schools and health service our people so desperately needed. It was also about releasing the talents of so many who had been held back by class, gender and race-based inequality. They were inspired to create a new society.
Reading past Labour party manifestos you get a real feel for the idealism and commitment of the millions of Labour party members, who over generations worked selflessly, often in the most difficult circumstances, without thought of personal reward to advance this cause. Each generation held in trust the party and its ideals that it had inherited from the previous generation of activists. Undoubtedly, disputes broke out in each era and were often bitterly fought but they centred on the basic policies and political direction of the party. Personal ambitions were of course often present but overridden by the overall crusading ethos of the party.
Given this history of a party created and motivated by the highest ideals, founded and motivated by the self-sacrifice of generation after generation of its members and supporters, party members have looked on aghast, in disgust and anger at the self-interested, self-serving political faction fighting among ministers and MPs over the last week. Ambition and naked self-interest have taken over from any sense of political purpose. Saving seats and manoeuvring for cabinet or prime ministerial office seem to have become more important to many in the Labour hierarchy than the suffering being caused to so many of our people who are losing their jobs and homes in this recession.
Handing over power to the Tories, whether in local councils or national government, at a time when our communities need to be protected from Tory policies of public service cutbacks is just unforgivable. What could a Labour cabinet minister responsible for local government have been thinking of when she resigned 24 hours before council elections? No fit of personal pique is worth the sacrifice of a single Labour councillor's seat.
It says it all that as ministers has announced their resignations to the media, not a single policy difference has been mentioned. Typically, the response from Number 10 has not been about identifying and tackling any political issues dividing the party, but to resort to covert media briefing and counter-briefing.
Lacking in political purpose, the infighting within the Labour hierarchy is about personalities not politics, about who can save more of their seats from the potential disaster of the next general election. Candidates who are publicly declaring loyalty to the prime minister and an unwillingness to take on the role have recruited and mobilised their leadership campaign teams.
For the sake of the party we are all supposed to be members of, and more importantly for the sake of the people we are meant to represent, I appeal to this leading clique to stand back and look at what they are doing to the party and to the supporters who have stuck with us through thick and thin. If Labour is to continue in government and have any chance at the next election, the debate about how we use the next 12 months in office needs to be open to all our potential supporters in the party, the trade unions and beyond into the various progressive campaigns and it needs to be about the policies and political behaviour of our government, not the personalities. Bouncing through a cabinet reshuffle simply to tie down potential rivals or plotters can only be a temporary fix.
Over recent years people have been alienated by the policies of illegal and immoral wars, privatisation of public services, attacks on civil liberties, unfettered greed in the finance sector and among the political class, and above all else by being lied to and by being ignored by political leaders. A first step to at least restoring some confidence at least to our own members and supporters could be setting in train a recall Labour party conference – one that is properly open to all our members, supporters and progressives – at which we can debate the policies, democratically agree a new way forward and motivate our supporters once again with the high ideals that our party was founded upon.
40 Comments:
As the only person (so far) John to have publicly challenged Brown for the leadership you have been very quiet with the media.
What the Country needs now let alone the party is strong leadership to get us through the recession, the question is can Brown deliver that?
Seems to me he is fatally flawed and a new direction has to be found. Clearly the worry is that a new leader cannot be chosen and installed without a mandate from the Country.
The damage is probably already done, the party probably cannot win the next election be it in October or in May next year, what is certain is it is only a new direction and a new leader which can revive fortunes. The eye must now focus on 2014/15 and the election then and the strategy developed to win that.
The PLP must consider the needs of the party and the Country above that of their own seats, which is really the only reason Brown has not been deposed already.
John you have a part to play here get out into the media call for a leadership election, the party and people of the Country must be made aware that there is a will to get through this without Brown whatever the cost!!
Stand again if you think it worthwhile or back one of the other big players so long as it is not milliband.....
Problem is that the media is so right wing (tv as well as the press), that it is impossible to get any coverage of what good people like John stand for and believe in.
Dreading the next 5 or more years of yet more tory policies....
another serious problem with our politics in this country is our press. I think they have not been fair to Gordon Brown nor labour party,with the way they report their stories: always giving a biased coverage.
On the those using Gordon brown personality to judge him and the party, politics such be about policies and not personalities. The prime minister is doing an extraordinary job at a very difficult time, but people within his party are making it more difficult for him, because of personal reasons.The opposition must be very happy that all this is going on.It would be a disater for ordinary people for Cameron and his tory party to come back to power. Labour party needs to unite behind its leader, get back to the grassroot and reach out to her supporter, we should not give up now.I believe Gordon has the integrity, intelligence, experience to lead our country through this challenging times.
I think it is rather too late now to talk of leadership challenge, even if there is a more credible candidate.
I lived though 18 years of tory policy's from 1979 to 1997, then I have lived through another 11 years of tory policy's, since 1997.
Presently we have a situation where the capitalist system is collapsing in front of our eyes.
We must let John take the lead, (something which I strongly agree with), when he says we should stand back whilst two bad lots fight it out for control of our party.
We should however, continue to state our case for a socialist Britain and Europe.
I believe that correctly lead, our class can take advantage of the opportunity that arrive during this forthcoming period. In which we will see the fanal demise of the retched system of privledge that has repressed our class for years
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Having lived through the Thatcher years of govt and been at the blunt end of her policies as a miner, and tasted the hatred for that govt, and speaking to the normal person on the street today, that spouted hatred is nearly the same now for new labour. It is now a reality that the labour balance has tipped and the electorate has already made its mind up about new labour. The trust has gone with the frauds that have come to light.
The hijacking of the party by Blair the lies taking us to war,the disastrous policies it has pushed through in anti trade union laws, planned welfare reforms, PFI's and the planned reforms of public services, which I take as backdoor privatisations of some kind. Brown still doesn't get it, that its these policies that have made this govt so unpopular.The frightening thing is that the media and press owned largely by Murdoch and Tory backers have the unregulated bias to keep going for Browns head,eventually this will grind him down, but any leadership contest must be put to the LP MEMBERS.
John your hat must go into the ring if this happens, you are the only one that represent us on the left. God forbid Mandelson taking over, as it seems he is positioning himself to do.
John's right in his analysis - the current attempt to unseat Brown is all about a bunch of self interested careerists.
They are rebels without a coup. No policy, no agenda and no candidate.
On this occasion Brown is right about something too - don't precipitate an election now, and start getting things in place to improve the chances of defeating the Tories next year.
The Left is, and has always been correct about what needs to be done: put in place popular and effective policies which people will vote for.
John McDonnell has consistently identified a platform of such policies - Another World is Possible; the Alternative Queen's Speech; countless speeches and articles - and we have the People's Charter which can focus cross party left support.
To the extent the Brown can be persuaded to adopt the sensible, and largely democratically agreed measures in these programmes, there is the chance of beating Cameron. The Tories have a thin, right wing and actually unpopular platform of massive destruction of public services and jobs.
We could ditch Trident.
We could ditch the plan to privatise Royal Mail.
We could ditch ID cards.
All hugely unpopular and expensive mistakes.
We could ditch the Purnell assault on the Welfare State, and instead add some more tax burden to the wealthy.
If he wants a legacy, Brown could promote historic onstitutional reforms: not just cleaning out the Westminster stable regarding expenses, which is essential of course - but a written constitution and bill of rights; an elected Hourse of Lords; and - why not - electoral reform for the House of Commons.
The EU election results due out tonight will be another drubbing - but also an opportunity to say Labour will listen to the voters.
Let's have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
And ditch the UK opt-out on working hours.
Using a raft of policies like these Brown could lead Labour in flushing out the Tories and fighting them on the beaches.
We could even win.
Malky
x
Don`t worry brothers and sisters Gordon Brown is in the driving seat of the Labour party and the country...
http://tinyurl.com/pvfrz8
far too much loyalty to the party, on this blog and the comments people have added
don't you all get it yet? party politics is on its way out
a dodo from a bygone era
you cannot have democracy while you have political parties, it's as simple as that
is it going to take another two thousand years to make any progress with this social issue?
looks like it, judging by the postings and comments on blogs like this
Labour won't have a conference it denies its members any say.
A conference of the broad left is needed in the centre of the country (Sheffield) it is now the correct time for a united left alternative to challenge every seat in the country or we are finished, and the right wing will flourish.
Personally I got 346 votes as a Labour county council candidate for Marlow in Bucks. At least I beat the BNP candidate who got about 148...Tories won with Lib Dems second. I was pleased with the total though I expect some of them know me from school. However we obvioulsy are in a complete crisis and I hope John will be able to get a word in edgeways at the PLP meetin gtonigh tto mention that we may be two yrs behind America adn we need to get our act together...off to do school run now - real world intervenes!
H
I am sure you'll find it easy to ignore the badly spelled and semi-literate attacks on you, John. People who obviously don't know anything about you or your record!John for leader!
John,
Please challenge Gordon Brown. There's nothing left to lose, nobody likes New Labour. It would have been better if they had never won any elections, we've simply endured with a further 12 years of right wing, city friendly policies that have led us here.
And Brown tries to claim credit for 'solving' the economic problems. It hasn't got started yet. Where did our 700 billion go?
The expenses scandal is a classic spin operation to divert attention away from the sleazy heart of the city and the taxpayers money funding it all.
There is an idea that in General Elections, people don't vote for a Party, they vote for, or against, the Government of the day - and in 1997, British people voted overwhelmingly against the New Right Government. Unfortunately, what they got was another New Right Government, called New Labour - who were similarly committed to privatization, liberalization of the economy, inequitable taxation, weakened Trade Unions, and pointless wars.
The British public in customary fashion grumbled a bit, but when the next Election came along said, oh well, suppose they're better than the other lot !. But the Credit Crunch has made people question whether unfettered Capitalism is really a sensible option after all. Likewise, the Government have questioned whether Keynesianism, was so bad after all. As a result, the possibility that Labour will again have to `tax the rich until they squeek', has again become a possibility - hence the recent attacks mounted by the right wing press ( I mean why have the Press only just become interested in the abuse of the Parliamentary expenses system - do they think it's new ?).
If the Government really want to curry favour with the Electorate, they will start doing what they were elected to do. People want a decent secure job, a decent secure wage, a decent secure roof over their head, a decent education for their kids, a decent health care system, and a safety net when things go wrong. What the Electorate don't want, is the rich getting richer, at the expense of the poor, or the political class joining in.
New Labour was born out of the idea that Socialism was a gonner, and that the role of the State should be reduced. Without political direction, principle or integrity, Labour opened itself to self serving careerists. So it's no wonder, they have acted without any integrity when the going has got rough. But it's not the expenses row that has got them worried, it's the fact that the New Labour ship is sinking, and all the rats are panicking.
I thought John McD got quite a fair amount of media attention even if the previous leadership challenge wasn't mentioned. At least he was on the BBC election night programme saying Brown needs to listen to grass roots more about things like Post Office privatisation - and a few days later, Brown says he is listening on Post Office privatisation. Maybe coincidence, but it's a good time to start steering the party in the right direction. It would be odd if it accomplished more genuine change in its last year than in the previous 10.
What the Labour Party and the country needs (far) more of is conscience-driven politicians like John, Paul Flynn etc. In other words, people who will put the content back into politics.
Minimises, you are only here to piss other people off, so it isonly logical that john does not give you the oxygen you crave.
You lie about deleted messages since I have had the pleasure of laughing at all the pessages you post here for some time.
You have to ask yourself just one question...How did it come to this?.
The once great Labour party allowing itself to be taken over lock stock and barrel by the far right???????.
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