More thoughts from Saturday’s Meeting

Micheline Mason is a member of Wandsworth Left Unity, and pleased to be part of the Left Unity ‘adventure’. Here are some of her thoughts on Saturday’s meeting:

I am so pleased to be part of this adventure, right from the beginning.  I felt more at home in that lovely, warm, messy, slightly chaotic gathering than I have felt in any kind of political forum for a long time.  I also believe this is the first attempt to create a political party which includes the contribution of disabled people in an equal and inclusive spirit from it’s outset.  I was delighted to see Merry Cross from DPAC was re-elected to the organising group.  This is all very hopeful to me.

One contribution I hope to bring to the ‘table’ is born from my experience as a woman, as a disabled person and as someone who was raised in a working class family none of whom, including myself, went to university.  None of these identities mean we can’t think for ourselves or have many ideas of our own about what is wrong with the world, and possible solutions which would make things better for everyone. It may mean we need help to articulate them.

What has put me off joining things even when I share the values and goals of the group, is being met with a tirade of words, presumptions about my empty head, my need for guidance, motivation and theory, somehow believing I could be talked into action. I couldn’t get away fast enough!

The problem was that no one ever asked me what I thought.  I think this has been one of the fundamental misunderstanding behind some of the difficulties trying to organise a ‘mass’ movement with diverse membership. People actually need a ‘good listening to’ in order to explore their own experiences and thinking, especially women, working class people and minority groups of all kinds, before they can feel committed to a group identity of any kind.

It did seem to me that some people at the meeting on Saturday, and maybe amongst the local group organisers too, were desperate for LU not to become a ‘talking shop’ and to be active campaigners straight away, but my suspicion is that this might be because they have been part of groups where, in Bob Dylan’s words ‘There were 10.000 talking and no body listening’ which does indeed become tedious, repetitive and unproductive.

I think LU members should join in any existing campaigns where they can to help pressurize the current parties to ease up on their War on the Poor, but Ken Loach’s appeal was for a DEBATE about whether we should create a completely new form of leadership to rise like the phoenix out of the ashes of capitalism to build a new, sustainable, compassionate, peaceful society which can meet real needs rather than the artificial needs of the ‘global market’.  Because it does not yet exist it will require us to do that difficult thing called ‘creative thinking’, and this will take time.

If we are serious about what we are doing, and I am for one, then we will eventually be responsible for the well being of billions of people. –  thinking about what democracy really means, piecing together a manifesto based on expertise, developing a representative leadership who may serve in our Government, helping to design a steady-state economy that could work on a global scale – is a very different task to walking about the streets waving a banner to advertise an idea.  This can help build a movement, yes, but building a party is not to be rushed.