Ask not what you can do for Jeremy…
Ed Potts of Exeter Left Unity joins the debate around how we should respond to Jeremy Corbyn’s candidacy for Labour leader
Before discussing recent developments within the Labour Party, it is perhaps necessary to briefly re-state some basic starting points within which I frame my arguments. I am a socialist, by which I mean I’m in favour of a fundamental transformation of our society towards one which is without classes, exploitation or oppression. I think we need to build an organisation which agitates and organises with that as its goal. The Labour Party doesn’t fit that definition, and never has done; nor do I think it can be transformed into such an organisation. Therefore I believe it is necessary to build such an organisation independently, outside of Labour. These are some of the reasons I am a member of Left Unity.
From this perspective, then, I’ve been following with interest the efforts of Jeremy Corbyn to get on the ballot paper in the contest to elect the next leader of the Labour Party. Some comrades, swept up in the excitement, have called the opportunity to campaign for Corbyn “unmissable”. I disagree. The unmissable opportunity here is to use our heads, and say in a comradely and careful way what is right rather than what is popular: namely that buying a ticket for this contest can only result in you being taken for a ride by the real owners of the Labour Party – the Blairites and pro-capitalists, who are bolstered by the Trade Union bureaucracies.
The reasons for this precede and go far deeper than the current juncture brought about by Ed Miliband’s resignation. With the scalp of the ‘wrong brother’ claimed too late to avert disaster, it is unsurprising that the Blairites are taking the opportunity to put the boot in and spin the defeat according to their own narrative. The fact that Miliband’s mild criticism of austerity has been lamented for being too left-wing should not give the mistaken impression that there is an ongoing battle for the party’s soul which could be won by socialists, or even mere anti-austerity forces.
The failure of the Labour Party to oppose austerity, or before that the general accommodation to neoliberal attacks on wages and services, is at least partly a result of a long-term desertion from its ranks of both Marxists who previously operated within it for a strategic purpose, and also layers of left-leaning ‘ordinary’ party members who found themselves unwilling to support an increasingly pro-war, pro-capitalist party. Inherent in this process was the gutting of almost all structures and processes which enabled the membership to democratically control or influence their own party. Whatever one’s analysis of the nature of the Labour party and the function it performs (or could potentially perform) in our capitalist society, is to a certain extent secondary in importance. Even if one marshalled considerable forces (perhaps resulting from a surge in membership) to campaign within the Labour party and drag it to the left, there is no effective way to do so in a party where policy is cooked up by consultations and focus groups rather than decided democratically at conference.
None of this should imply a sectarian attitude towards the Labour left – indeed I reluctantly accept the generally orthodox idea that socialists in their constituencies should campaign for them to be re-elected. After all, they perform a genuinely useful function as mouthpieces for the movement within the House of Commons. However, it is important to recognise that by doing so we are merely sustaining the status quo, i.e. preserving their position as an accurate reflection of the left’s current strength within the Labour party: able to get a handful of MPs elected, but not much else besides. To throw our energies into a serious campaign aimed not only at existing Labour members, but also encouraging new radicalised layers (or even those who have themselves previously broken away from Labour) to engage as supporters goes far beyond this appropriately modest level of support, and is a strategic mistake for all of the reasons outlined above. We would be giving people the mistaken impression that there was something significant to be achieved within Labour, if only they are vociferous enough and numerous enough.
In addition, the idea that we should use campaigning for Corbyn as a means of raising the profile of anti-austerity arguments seems somewhat overblown. After all, by securing his place on the ballot he has now ensured that he will have a media platform for his politics throughout the summer; no further action is required on our part given that he and his supporters will no doubt do an admirable job on their own.
We can go further, however, and consider the ideal outcome of all this: Corbyn is elected leader of the Labour party. It is important to note here that the manner and margin of his victory would be subject to intense scrutiny. He was the only successfully nominated candidate who appeared to struggle to achieve the required 35 nominations. Doubtless there are some who would have nominated him had he not entered late, after they had already declared for another candidate. It is unlikely however that these will make up for the substantial proportion of his 35 nominees who have either openly stated they will not vote for him, or otherwise are so obviously hostile to leftist politics of any kind that the idea would be absurd (e.g. Frank Field).
So Corbyn would start from a position of inherent weakness in the Parliamentary Labour Party, with the firm support of perhaps less than 15% of MPs. Questions would begin to be asked about the manner in which he was elected – how many recently-registered “supporters” from rival organisations (such as LU) had voted for him, as compared to LP members in good standing? This sort of muckraking was effective in casting Ed Miliband as the placeman of the Trade Unions, even though it relied on explaining the unions’ role in the Byzantine and bizarre electoral college. How much easier will it be for the Labour right to cast aspersions on Corbyn’s legitimacy, aided by the tabloid press, with the much more intelligible system of one member, one vote?
Going beyond the obvious contradiction of being elected by a left-wing mass membership to lead a right-wing parliamentary group in which he currently sticks out like a sore thumb, what sort of programme would he promote? To have any hope of uniting and gaining the support of Labour MPs with one eye always on their slim majorities, he would need to synthesise a “realistic” set of compromise policies. This approach would see rejection of austerity politics replaced with reluctance, reservations and plans to mitigate its worst effects. Clearly this would result in a near-instantaneous loss of credibility, not only for Corbyn personally but also for those socialists who had rallied support behind him.
Given his long record of principled stands, however (Libya being a notable example) we can assume that he would reject such a path. The only alternative then would be to press ahead with his traditional opposition to austerity, imperialism and war. Simply getting elected in the first place would spark an immediate flurry of defections by prominent activists and MPs. To attempt to cohere the current crop of Labour MPs around actual socialist policies would more likely cause a split in the party as a whole. Is this desirable? What is the strategy here – to provoke a left split from Labour, led by Corbyn and his supporters? This hardly seems plausible. Or is the plan to provoke another right split of the SDP type, with the worst Labour MPs jumping ship? Perhaps some envisage a renewed campaign to reclaim Labour from the top down, with pro-austerity MPs facing de-selection by energised groups of Corbyn supporters? Again, hardly plausible given the bureaucratisation of the party’s structures discussed previously. But these are all potential consequences of a Corbyn victory which would need to be thought out and planned for if he is seriously expected to win.
The alternative (which seems the more likely motivation, given that there seems to be little no contingency planning or strategy based on Corbyn winning as discussed above) is that we campaign for Corbyn expecting – hoping? – that he will lose. In a way, although this outcome is more mundanely predictable, the justification for it is hard to fathom. The Labour Party will be no more of a vehicle for socialist politics than it was under Ed Miliband; yet thousands of people will have received the overwhelming message, not least from leading figures in Left Unity, that there is something still to be achieved by working within the Labour Party. All of our arguments made so carefully over the years about the need to abandon Labour and build the alternative, will come up against a reinforced bulwark of newly enthused left-wingers who are now once again convinced that they can win back ‘their’ party, if only they are patient and hard-working enough. That perspective is mistaken and futile now; it will still be mistaken and futile by the end of the year, no matter the result of this contest.
No matter how comradely we are towards those persistent activists in the Labour left, no matter whether we may as individuals use our affiliated union membership to cast a vote for him and keep our fingers crossed: to campaign for Corbyn, and to implicitly or explicitly encourage others to take up his fight within Labour, while at the same time trying to build a socialist alternative outside, is in my opinion fundamentally muddled.
25 comments
25 responses to “Ask not what you can do for Jeremy…”
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This is a totally coherent, principled argument. And no I will not leave warm milk out for Father Christmas and his reindeer.
if corbyn wins the labour party will split since the right could not accept the result
Yes – that’s one of the potential results. So should that be our goal? Is that our objective in supporting Corbyn? – it seems unlikely given that he would presumably be publicly and privately hostile to the idea, and a lot of the support for him in LU seems to be coming from those who have known him personally for a long time. This is one of my points – it is all but impossible for Left Unity to engage with this in a serious way, unless we actually think about the potential outcomes.
Personally, I’d leave Santa a green salad because he could lose some weight.
The course of the labour movement from a left perspective is one of ebbs and flows, sometimes offensive, sometimes defensive. We need, as a left, to get a grasp on what will advance ourside against the bosses and the right-wing of the labour movement. Backing JC iis another weapon in our arsenal. I doubt he will win, but that is not the point; there are trade unionists and left labour activists up and down this land who have been spurred into some sort of limited action by JC getting on the ballot paper. We should remind ourselves that the labour movement is a lot more than the 1800 or so members of LU. It is the people out there we need to address ourselves to, which is why I disagree with Ed Potts’ article; it is too inward-looking to ourselves in LU.
If I were to go up to my GMB colleagues at work and say “backing JC is just another fad, forget it, jump off the bandwagon, it has nothing to do with you” or words to that effect, I would lose any credibility as an activist, and not be seen as one of the “good” activists.
If LU does not back JC, then we would be rightly seen as a rump of disillusioned old lefties who care only about correct theoretical positions, rather than relating to the working class movement, sharing their hopes and fears, successes and defeats. That is the only way the left, and us in LU, can learn. Look outwards to what is happening in the world and relate to it and shape your ideas acoordingly.
Corbyn needs to join us, not the other way around. Labour is dead. Why are we bolstering a lost heritage?
Gonna leave LU unless it bucks it’s ideas up…honestly. Join the LP be fucked
Spot on Ed.
Baz, it’s the responsibility of socialists to be quite clear about what is and isn’t the best way forward, not support or encourage illusions people may have. The Labour Party is a dead duck and we have to keep saying that and, as Ed has done, explain precisely why it is.
Well, if Left Unity were prospering as a realistic alternative, Ed’s argument might be more convincing. As it is, I welcome evidence that socialism is still alive and kicking in the principal opposition party (which may be an ill duck but is far from being dead).
A lot of what Ed says about the nature of the present day labour party is right and those points are useful ballast against some of the ridiculous analyses that suggest the labour left is stronger than it is. We should not forget that JC only got on the ballot because the Burnham people decided it was in their interest to lend him some nominations. Yes there were lots of people putting some pressure on their local MPs to nominate him but this was not determinate in my opinion. However the obvious wave of enthusiasm cannot be denied and Andrew Burgin elsewhere correctly argues for us to take a non-sectarian but principled approach to this opportunity. In other words it is quite possible to maintain our political project of building a broad mass party as an alternative to neoliberal labour but at the same time mobilise behind Corbyn. Indeed it is precisely because we know, and most sensible people do too, that he will not win. Consequently there is no chance that he will be faced with the contradictions that Ed projects – leading a parliamentary party more that ninetenths against him. So there will be a very real limit to any illusions in the reclaim Labour for the left – even with a lot of temporary supporters from outside Labour he will still do very well to get 20%. Also the new rule about temporary £3 supporters gives the outside left the chance not just to have an opinion but to have it measured while at the same time in no way committing in any serious way to the Labour Party. If LU and others stay aloof from this battle then it is more likely that a decent vote will encourage people drawn to the campaign to stay with Labour. We need to be non-sectarian and genuinely support JC while at the same time maintaining our central political project. Above all we need to move well away from the framework of JC broadening the debate of ideas into a more concrete one of how the JC campaign can build the broad anti-austerity movement and contribute to building a left alternative that is not based on winning Labour Party structures.
We need to reject too the line pushed by Milne in today’s Guardian that on aim of the campaign might be to constrain the new leadership from moving too far to the right. It should be all about practical questions of building a movement that can win independent of the Labour party over the long term.
I think the outside lp should propose a united front to support cirbyn. Eds statements are defensive and conservative. Preserve what we have, dont complicate our message, build left unity/ and tusc.
It reveals a complete rejection of the idea that left unity / tusc has to be a party that intervenes, and wins socialists to joining. The idea that revolutionaries will block with social democratd around limited objectives. March seperately – strike together is a well worn idea. Surely even in terms of building an alternative a big vote for corbyn, against austerity would be a relly big boost to all the left.
The rule changes make it intetesting too. Any member of an affiliated union gets to vote themselved
Contd. The union bureaucrat doesnt vote for them. To me it shoukd become a referendum of the labour movement on austerity. Do we fight or do we have another bosses stooge!
I’m not a member of Left Unity, but I am following the party with interest (as I consider myself to be left-win and largely unrepresented by politicians). But surely if there is to be any unity of the left, even temporarily, then it should be to rally round a politician like Jeremy Corbyn. It is possible that a united front of left-wingers could get him elected as leader of the Labour Party and, therefore, contesting a general election. Why label your party as Left Unity if you don’t want to take a chance and unite around a worthy cause like this?
This is a debate article – there are various different views on this issue within Left Unity. For an alternative view see http://leftunity.org/a-politics-we-all-share-jeremy-corbyns-campaign/
As much as I admire Jeremy Corbyn for everything that he has done for the movement as a whole – I find myself agreeing with Ed. For me – the Labour Party is a dying duck – and if we are serious about (eventually) replacing them as the main party of the working people – then should we be wasting our time and energy propping them up? My answer is an emphatic no! It would be much better if Jeremy left the LP and joined us – where his skills, knowledge, activism, socialism and experience would be better appreciated.
Well said Ed – why some of our members are running around trying to build support for the leader of another party baffles me a bit.
If you still have a hankering for the Labour Party then fine. If you see the need to build a left alternative to it and break the hold of electoralist sell-out social democracy then stop sliding back to Labour. Corbyn is good on many issues but he has failed utterly to present a coherent opposition to standard Labourism and is tolerated as a patronised maverick who presents no danger to Labour’s general pro-capitalist ideology. When capitalism is sick Labour sees itself as a doctor – not an undertaker.
Many LU members see parties such as Podemos and Syriza as a new hope. Those parties succeeded in direct opposition to old Labour-type parties, not as critical but supportive lobbyists around them.
Pete B
There is no such party as Left unity/TUSC.
It is undoubtedly the case that Jeremy Corbyn’s candidature is having a significant positive national impact in raising the profile of the Anti austerity case in general and crucial issues like the NHS , TTIP, Welfare cuts. This is not to be sneered at – the pro capitalist pro austerity “narrative” usually getting unchallenged prominence on the mass media. Indeed , the televised Labour Leadership debate was noteworthy mainly because the very straightforward socialist positions that Jeremy put forward so seriously wrong footed the other solidly Blairite , pro Austerity candidates – and forced most of them to for the first time do a bit of insincere recognition of the harm that the austerity offensive is doing to ordinary working people – rather than being able to simply all spout all that pro business, “aspirational” neoliberal codswallop that now totally dominates Labour Party ideology.
Having said that – lets not kid ourselves. There will be no miraculous resurrection of a mass Labour Party radical socialist Left – and Jeremy Corbyn will not become Labour Leader. For us, on the radical socialist Left it would be great if he did – but not because the Labour Party as it stands would become a vehicle for socialist advance – it would split overnight into a tiny Left wing Parliamentary Labour Left rump – and a majority of Labour MP’s going off to set up some new right of centre party – funded by Big Business.
The point to grasp is that the Labour Party must eventually be broken up, PASOK style, with the tiny remaining rump of Left Labour MP’s, and the significant , but still not huge, mass of left leaning Labour members and voters and more left leaning trades unions , realigning into a new radical party of the Left.
The current main useful role of Jeremy Corbyn’s candidature is actually to highlight the hopelessness of trying to transform the moribund Labour Party into a socialist party – as well as generally raising the profile of the anti austerity and socialist solutions to the current capitalist crisis.
So far Left Unity is still trapped as a sub 2,000 member proto party – but with the ambition to build a mass radical Left Party. The break up of the Labour Party undoubtedly is happening – but Scotland’s mass rejection of Labour in favour of dead end petty nationalism and confused Left nationalism , and the huge recent growth of the completely pro capitalist and actually pro permanent “green austerity” Green Party shows that this does not necessarily lead to an embrace of socialist politics.
Our task is to express solidarity with the anti Austerity message Jeremy Corbyn is putting over in his Labour candidature bid, without falling into the old trap on the Left of believing that in today’s reality New Labour can ever be other than a pro capitalist party of neoliberalism, and Austerity, whilst continuing the long haul campaigning struggle to be part of an eventual radical realignment of the forces of the Left – outside of the defunct corpse of the Labour Party.
This Labour Party election represents a potentially massive own goal by the Blairites, in trying erode the power of the unions , they have introduced one member one vote and supporters can vote.
I have voted labour all my life, despite my left wing views, so I can sign up as a supporter in good faith and it is only £3 !!! Not even the price of a pint, or a latte.
If Jeremy Corbyn wins, then the Labour Party will be led by an anti war, anti austerity , pro trade union leader. This can only be good.
If you are anti war,anti austerity, pro trade unionism then this is a no brainer , register and vote for Jeremy Corbyn.
The labour party’s membership is small ,250,000 at most
Ed Potts seems to think that by supporting Jeremy Corbyn, Left Unity will somehow be strengthening the Labour Left, it is “muddled thinking” he says. No, it’s socialists learning how to walk on two legs, one inside the LP and one outside.
We have a tactical difference with socialists inside the LP, they think they can further socialism by working inside the LP and that building a party outside always fails (their strongest argument given the far lefts antics in this regard); we think that socialist advance, given the record of the Labour leadership, can only be achieved outside the LP. This argument between socialists can only be settled in the struggle and it will be a long one.
Therefore we have to work as fellow socialists wherever we can together, despite our different perspectives. We can campaign for Corbyn at the same time making clear our belief that 1) he will be defeated by the right wing of the party and trade union leaders and 2) even if he won by some unimaginable fluke the Labour right would immediately split the party and dump Corbyn and the left. How his defeat will strengthen illusions in the LP I fail to understand.
The campaign is also important to put the anti-austerity arguments within the unions affiliated to Labour and within the wider working class movement. We should demand the left talking leaders – like McCluskey – back Corbyn as the anti austerity candidate. We should also recognise that the Labour left with its MPs and national presence has a much louder voice than us. As part of this campaign, adding our voice, we can amplify our arguments, have a bigger impact than we could on our own.
Many of us are in unions that are affiliated to the LP, we cannot stand aside, therefore we should be active within it. The CP could work with the LP left in the 1920s in the National Left Wing Movement, surely we can do it today?
What this Ed Potts is doing is trying to divide us that are fighting against austerity. I thought Left Unity was about bringing all the lefts together, and not be against each other. We all know Labour are crap, and that is what we need to expose. Corbyn’s campaign will make us see who are on our side and those that are not. It is a rare opportunity to be a proper lefty, and something not to sneer at, Left Unity has no future if all it wants to do is to jeer and sneer from the sidelines.
I agree. Were burying out heads in the sand. Because we thought the lp was dead. Oh the schema doesnt work. We need to adapt to changing situation.
No, Pete b, the Labour Party isn’t dead – at least not as a now entirely pro capitalist neoliberal party to the centre right of the political spectrum. However , the Labour Party as an even mildly progressive reformist social democratic party open to real influence by the trades unions and socialist ideas and policies has been dead for many, many, years . Read Ralph Miliband’s all too accurate 1960’s book “Parliamentary Socialism” to see why.
All the current fluttery excitement on the Left about Jeremy Corbyn’s worthy , politically useful, but completely doomed leadership campaign is merely “whistling in the dark” false optimism in the face of the dread reality of another five years of ever accelerating Austerity under a new majority Tory government.
The task of building a new mass radical socialist party outside of Labour remains as real as ever. It would be a real tragedy if the useful pro socialist and anti Austerity propaganda opportunity around Jeremy’s doomed leadership bid led another generation of socialists into the hopeless swamp of endlessly , fruitlessly, “fighting to push the Labour Party leftwards”. That Parrot is seriously dead. The individual members of the LP voted last time around for David Miliband for heavens sakes ! You seriously think there has been a major radical direction sea change in the mass of Labour Party members views since then ? There hasn’t been.
Ed is broadly right. He seems to be saying we support Jeremy without rushing to sign up to the Labour Party and go overboard. This is not to reject work with Labour Party members at all. It rejects the dishonesty of joining a party (or becoming a supporter) which comrades do not support.
Building an alternative is not a game. It is a long term project. His analytical perspective is more open that Stuart’s. We don’t know the result of a ballot months before it happens and we don’t need to. Clearly a JC victory would provoke a major crisis for Labour – as Ed points out he can hardly lead a Parliamentary group in which he has a tiny group of supporters.
Support for Corbyn seems to have exceed that for Diane Abbot last time round. Labour lefties are finding their voice. But it would be foolish to overdo it.
Socialists should support socialists, and not fight each other over minor differences or dogma. There may be some truth in Ed Potts’ arguments about what might happen if Corbyn were elected. But is he really saying that the possibility of a socialist leading the Labour Party is ultimately doomed to fail? If we truly are Left Unity then we should act like it and stop bickering about who’s wearing the hairiest shirt.
I find this article kind of depressing. I know the author doesn’t speak directly for Left Unity but I assumed (or hoped) that Left Unity was all about building solidarity and unity amongst leftists towards a movement for socialism. Jeremy Corbyn is a socialist/leftist in a party that is currently neoliberal and centre-right — he has explicitly state the need for “movement politics” — the fact that he would struggle to survive and/or hold the party together in the extremely unlikely event that he became leader is not a reason not to support him, as he is in a unique position to give a huge boost to the building of a broad socialist movement. Would we socialists truly be better off if Corbyn left the platform he currently has and joined Left Unity? Yes we need to organise but more importantly we need to raise awareness and educate. The fact is there is very little appetite for revolution in this country at the moment — for the time being the path to socialism has to be through social democracy. That means building a movement with a positive vision of equality and fairness and an opposition to neoliberalism and austerity. Corbyn is currently able to reach a wide audience and we should welcome and support that…