My own views about Left Unity

A personal view from Tony Walker, a supporter of Left Unity.

I am an artist / student aged 58 I come from a skilled working class background but also university myself. (In fact my uncle would have been about the same age and occupational profile as Ron Todd, my father was a pattern maker and also a shop steward)

I didn’t really want to write an article I just wanted to discuss the issues but I have not really had the chance. The summer as gone very quickly and I will soon be back at college. Reading the articles published nationally I am rather disappointed with them because of the way the debate such as it is as gone. Not having a traditional British left wing background i.e. I am not a Marxist and I have no history in the Labour Movement makes it difficult for me to contribute without being overly critical of some of the contributions of others. I can only view it as a critic writing an article or an essay. Also it is difficult to get round to say anything positive because of the way the debate has been framed also the aggressive personalisation of issues at times

I feel some of the contributors have got the wrong end of the stick as far as what Left Unity is about – some of them have got a lot of cheek they have joined a broad left party but even before we have had our first conference they want to turn it into a revolutionary socialist organisation. The socialist platform really throws down the gauntlet and asks people to say basically ‘sheep’ or ‘goats’. This is a tactic to divide people employed by a certain type of person which the old sectarian left is full of. Hence the need for a new broad left party that is forward thinking and able to learn from mistakes made when campaigning in the past. Some of the rhetoric in these articles is going to put people off and we need to attract a wider audience than the usual suspects. What we don’t need is another revolutionary socialist organisation -that scene is evolving e.g. Revolutionary socialist network. We don’t want to duplicate that or other pre-existing labour movement organisations. I feel to be successful there as to be some break with the past.

My idea of unity is this: – it should be open to anyone critical of monopoly capitalism or western liberal democracy and environmental policy and other issues affecting ordinary people that are ignored by conventional parties including ethnic and sexual minorities.

Some people think that Marxism or the class struggle view should be the prominent principle to found the new party but I don’t personally not just because there have always been other views and people on the left who don’t fit that narrow emphasis but also because it puts off ordinary working people. It’s not attractive to me unfortunately plus I only understand it from a philosophical view because I read it as philosophy or history. it is an influence on a lot of things but some of the more positive things it has influenced are often not given the emphasis they need e.g. The Frankfurt school i.e. cultural emphasis (and other combination between marxism and other radical schools of thought) and other forms of revision. There’s nothing wrong with updating and improving on past thinkers. Outside of university debates Marxism tend to dominated by the lowest denominator which is very deterministic and ignores human agency or feminism etc. We can call this vulgar Marxism! This is not to deny the huge influence Marxism as had but it’s sketchy on details about the future. Socialist Platform is no exception.

This debate between Broad Left / traditional British left and revolutionary socialist organisations is nothing new and will never be resolved. I don’t like labels but I believe in being honest. I personally think that the emphasis should be on fighting austerity and campaigning with an anti-capitalist emphasis because of the resurgence and hegemony of late capitalism given a boost by the ideology of neo liberalism which itself grew out of monetarism and ideas given prominence by Hayek and Freedman i.e. without the mitigations and compensations of Keynesian economics. There is definitely a need for this party and I thought that in 1985 / 1986 when I was involved in CND. (It’s no good criticising the views of euro cnd / euro communists / Marxist today – they were important
players then intellectually). In Germany that role was then filled by Die Grunen when it was still divided by the cold war. (Whatever people tell you the fall of the Berlin Wall was the most significant event in Europe since the French Revolution apart from the October Revolution. I think it was saying not ‘the end of history’ but that socialism or alternatives to capitalism in future would have to be more democratic and pluralistic. I don’t get this feeling from some of the Marxist left or contributors to the socialist programme.

My ideal really would be the Green Party (I was a member once) working with Left Unity or eventually a merger in practical terms because we need an anti-capitalist green red front as much as we need a broad left (the two should be indistinguishable). We need unity or united front. This idea that some might like that we are somehow a marriage of existing socialist organisations and we don’t upset anyone by not speaking out occasionally is not one I share! It’s a new party and it’s up to the members to decide whatever their previous background. Unity really depends on how narrow or wide the definition of what left means I think it should encompass its original meaning not the one we nowadays think of as left being Marxist or sympathetic to Marxism but much broader.

Some policies:-

Sustainability- including renationalisation of the railways and integrated public transport. Integrated and planned energy policy. Social ownership of key utilities and the construction industry (perhaps excluding small family firms and sole traders)

Extreme reform of the banking industry including control of the major clearing banks and the creation of community run savings and loans banks in every locality. Creation and expansion of non-profit making banking sector starting from current position with existing players. Creation of national investment bank and national wealth and loan investment fund to create investment in new technologies and jobs. Closure of pay day loan companies and outlawing of loans sharks.

In retail bring the Cooperative wholesale and retail into public ownership and run by the community eventually to link a network of producer cooperatives (including the dairy industry) with community run cooperative shops part of an agreement between workers, the unions and producers. Emphasis on domestic production. I feel the coop as drifted off course. Improvements in private retail food sectors including high standards in nutrition and fair wage and employment policies.

Investment in renewable energy and carbon capture and phasing out of nuclear power.

In Education – mergers of some universities and more investment by the government in research to create the new jobs of the future also linking more into schools. Loss of charitable status by private educators who refuse to work with the public sector and greater integration and cooperation with the public sector in education including sharing facilities and teaching resources. Eventual amalgamation. Education to be non-profit making. Education to be free to all.

Encouragement of a healthy small business sector especially in economically disadvantaged and provincial areas. A healthy small business sector is a major grower of jobs in the long run. Self-employment is important as a major growth area and we should encourage the growth of various kinds of cooperatives also in the housing sector.

I think the emphasis in industry should be more towards cooperative ownership and management rather than top down state ownership on corporatist lines.

These were just some policies I had in mind but I have spent a lot of time thinking about this over the last 25 to 30 years, because of our voting system we don’t have the choices electorally. I think we should campaign to replace the current voting system with the additional member system used in Germany. This is a federal PR system with an elected upper house. This system was designed by the Brits at the end of the last war.

I don’t really care if someone calls me reformist even liberal it doesn’t really matter everything is relative. I hate labels. The message I got from these debates is if you’re not a socialist based more or less on Marxist Leninist rhetoric then you are a reformist AKA a class traitor by some! I feel nowadays you can’t legislate for every area of modern life I want any alternative to be more pluralistic and democratic than the current set up. We want to have more real freedom than we do in current capitalist society. The current area that most needs adjustment is the banks because they control the credit cycle and therefore the profit cycle and that controls the number of jobs. We need to balance the economy so that it more satisfies human need and so that it is sustainable too.