In Praise of Talking Shops
I learned a lot in our last Left Unity meeting in Wandsworth, reports Micheline Mason. I learned about the Workers’ Party of Ireland from Paul; I learned about growing up under a military dictatorship in Ethiopia from Gelila, and from her I also learned how some Christians think about the term ‘left’ (i.e. on the ‘wrong’ side of Jesus), and I learned about the long history of name changes in our major political parties from Mike. There were only five of us who managed to turn up, but this small number allowed everyone present to get a chance to speak, to debate ideas, to ask questions and to listen to people different to themselves. I loved it.
I have been a bit bemused since joining LU at the pull to dismiss ‘talking shops’ in favour of local action – seeming mostly to mean standing about on the streets with badly painted placards shouting protests at ‘them’. I am not saying people don’t need to do this of course, but what really attracted me to LU was Ken Loach’s invitation to join a debate.
I was attracted to this because of my experience of life as someone not bought up on the left. My family did not discuss politics at the dinner table. They discussed untidy bedrooms and what was on the tele. There were no books except the mandatory Readers Digest, and the newspaper of choice was the Sun (but only because of the crossword you understand). Like many working class families, thinking about what sort of world we wanted was not for ‘the likes of us’. This was a problem for me because as a disabled child I rapidly worked out that if I didn’t think about these sort of things I would be trapped in a desolate and pointless sub-world created by the mindlessness of others.
It was only when I was in my early twenties that I stumbled across a group called ‘The Alternative Society’ that things started looking up. Having pretended to be a teacher of ‘Batik’ and after a quick swot up on the subject in my local library, I swanned off to work at a strange kind of ‘holiday’ for people who wanted to think about alternatives to ‘The System’. In the evening informal discussions took place on subjects I had never had the opportunity to grapple with before, and I discovered part of my brain, including a whole vocabulary, had been lying dormant and hidden, even to me. It was such a revelation.
It has struck me since joining LU that many people in the left are bought up to it. They have been debating these ideas since they got out of nappies, and now they just want to get on with the action, which I completely understand. However, this will deny the many more who had lives more like mine, and didn’t get a second chance at university either, to get a chance to think things out for themselves.
There are many protest movements rising up around the world including here in the UK as could be seen at the recent People’s Assembly. Working out the details of the replacement of capitalism with viable policies which will unite and empower human beings does require us to think, learn, debate, share, listen and think again. So I think talking shops, or rather ‘listening shops’ are essential for real democracy to happen, and I think rather than put them down, we should share skills and guidelines on how to run them well.
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8 responses to “In Praise of Talking Shops”
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Great post, Micheline!
There seems to be a lot of dismissal of discussion and debate as “just talk” around Left Unity, at least in my experience. This is very encouraging.
We need to continuously discuss all events as they develop, and re-assessing our understanding on the way, in order to understand the truth about the world and to inform the actions we take. This also means being open about any mistakes we make,in order to learn from them.
Hear hear, great post.
Couldn’t agree more, Micheline. Our own Disabled People’s Movement emerged from long discussions but, sadly, the failure to keep exploring changing circumstances and new ideas has now seen it turn upon itself in a hideous fashion. I want to see a strong Left Unity capable of understanding that “class politics” goes beyond traditional workerist boundaries and must include taking into account the knowledge, experience and theoretical understanding of communities that have been victims of capitalism.
Having been a disabled Trotskyist for forty years I’ve always felt betrayed by the Left’s ignorance of, and failure to engage with, disability politics. There are a number of disabled people now joining the ranks of Left Unity and I’d welcome a forum whereby we could develop discussions that could be then taken into the heart of Left Unity – so yes, more talking, please!
Micheline you make such an important point and one that’s easily missed – we need to hone and develop our listening skills. You write about what you learned from other people in your group discussions. I like that. In most debates people are so keen to get their point over they don’t hear what others are saying or learn from different experiences or points of view. Let’s talk less and listen more.
Censoring my stuff again?
Hilarious irony about today’s thread about internal democracy etc. So open and transparent aren’t you – ‘you are not allowed access to this’ or words to that effect.
Doug, it was a mistake and has now been corrected. I apologise.
Best James
I agree with Micheline, but I think part of the problem is the sense of urgency, given the onslaught on our very basic rights (including the right to a free education). So the question become ‘How do we balance the need to listen to each other and learn, whilst trying to be speedy enough to develop ourselves into a viable alternative before everything we value is destroyed?’
Yes, Merry, I agree with you absolutely.
Listening and learning need to continue, and develop, throughout the life of an individual – and the life of an organisation.
It’s not something which can be done first, before developing an alternative. And listening and discussing is only one of the ways in which we learn. We learn from doing too; and from all of history – not just cherry-picked times – and from other cultures etc etc.
We also, in my opinion, need to learn from the people we don’t agree with; who are behaving in ways we do not like. eg. dissmissing the coalition and their ilk as selfish posh boys who do not represent us is no more useful than them dismissing us as ignorant scroungers. We need to understand why they are behaving like that; and, in particular, why an increasing proportion of young people, amongst others, are taking this discolouration of us as if it were true.
The longer things are left the more difficult they will be to change; and the fewer people will be interested in trying to do so.