Let’s get the party started
The first national Left Unity meeting in May
Jim Jepps on the state of Left Unity, its potential, and the dangers ahead.
We are what we do. While the stories we tell about ourselves can be interesting, significant, enduring or helpful they are rarely the best guide to what an organisation is.
Before the 2010 General Election I had many conversations with Liberal Democrat supporters and activists. I told them of my concerns that Clegg intended to take them into a coalition with the Tories if the maths was right. The response was always clear; “Impossible”, “We’re a left of centre party”, “We’d only go into coalition with Labour”, “There’s nothing to suggest he would and it’s a disgrace to say he might”.
Yet come the results of the election many of the same activists were meekly herded into “power”, and some became enthusiasts for the very coalition they had denied was possible just weeks earlier. They told themselves stories to justify to themselves the dark path they were always going to take, but those stories were not the reality.
We on the left are far from immune from this tendency and can often be amongst the worst offenders creating special words like “vanguard” or developing intricate theories about our special place in history, even as history steadily plods on oblivious to our importance.
I’m concerned that some of our discussions recently have resembled a fairly obscure theological debate about the essence of Left Unity rather than a practical discussion that focuses on what we hope to achieve and how. It’s a discussion that is a million miles away from the impulse that saw thousands of people sign up earlier in the year and it does little to shape what this new party of the left would do in practice.
For a normal party that’s to the left of Labour.
Real political parties that have a diverse membership do not have single dominant discourses on the future utopia they hope to usher in. They do have political perspectives on the tasks that need doing today and the prospects for the economy, society and politics in general. It’s those perspectives, often shaped by a shared but loosely defined ideology, that determine how successful those parties are at shaping society in the direction that they want and whether they grow as a political force.
It’s what we do that will determine whether Left Unity is a success, not the stories that we tell about ourselves, who we think we’re going to attract, or what sort of society we will build. We won’t attract anyone unless we get a grip on what local groups are meant to be doing, how the national organisation supports them and what our campaigning priorities should be.
I’d be disappointed if Left Unity does not become a party where both, say, Kate Hudson and Nick Wrack can both make enthusiastic, complementary contributions – because they both have so much to give. I’m concerned that the platform debate has become both entrenched and antagonisitic and that we’re seeing a “winner take all” approach that will inevitably lead to losing many of those initial supporters from November’s conference onwards.
A diverse party does not have to formalise disagreement
I initially welcomed the platform discussion but it’s become clearer to an increasing number of people that the debate, broadly defined as between a broad left party versus a more well defined socialist party, is the wrong discussion that we should be having right now. Not because it’s not a legitimate discussion (it is) but because it simply does not reflect the kind of campaigning tasks that we should be engaged in if we’re to have an actual impact on the world.
I now believe that platforms should have no formal privileges within the constitution of our new party (as they will at the November conference) although the right to set up internal groupings of any kind should be sacrosanct.
The concerns that I hear expressed by those hoping to build groups in their areas are overwhelming about what they should be doing and how. I’ve had discussions about how Left Unity groups can throw themselves into building the People’s Assemblies without duplicating work or dissolving themselves into them. I’ve discussed how we set up new groups in areas without an established far-left presence and discussions about how we set up groups that aren’t only about the established far-left presence.
Largely we’re ignoring those concerns by focusing on what increasingly looks like a tussle for the national leadership of Left Unity. If we don’t move away from the comfort zone of ideological posturing and onto the genuinely difficult work of how we build a successful left of Labour party in this country, well, we’re going to have problems.
Instead of people from different traditions joyfully working together promoting the idea of a new fighting force on the left we have activists lined up in opposition to one another debating what is a fundamentally abstract question. It’s one thing to say, for example, we’ll attract people from Occupy, the environmental movement and feminist activists it’s quite another to actually be attractive to them, something that can only be achieved by doing things that they see as worth joining in with.
So, what’s going well?
Two things we’re doing give me hope. The media coverage we’ve been receiving has been excellent, well beyond what a small organisation that has done very little deserves. All credit to Salman Shaheen and his press team for that, too often on the left we ignore opportunities to get ourselves seen by a wider audience because we either write off the press as inherently opposed to us or simply don’t take the millions who read papers and watch TV seriously. It shows what can be done with a little skill and application.
Second, the policy reviews, which I’m sure are uneven in the amount of work they’ve produced but are laying the foundations for the kind of practical campaigning we’ll need to be engaged in over the next few years. The initial guide that was produced to steer this work was spot on (and all credit to the authors) when it advised that policy needed to be pithy, written in a way that ordinary people can understand and that has a focus on campaign priorities.
That’s something we can organise around, ensuring policy is practical and allowing the national organisation to support the growth of local groups rather than simply fight to control them.
There needs to be a strategic shape
To some extent this is where Workers’ Power’s platform (the Class Struggle Platform) has merit. They are clear on a series of demands and, I think, it’s not difficult to image the sort of priorities and activities of local groups they are proposing. Their demand for a general strike and a focus on trade union propaganda has a clear strategic and tactical shape. It’s a shape that repels me with its futile sound and fury but shape it has. It’s extremely difficult to tell from the Left and Socialist Platforms what a Left Unity branch would actually do with their emphasis on what we’d be.
What’s an achievable strategy and how are we going to implement it? What does the day to day life of a Left Unity branch look like? How are we setting up new branches? How do we turn supporters into activists and activists into leaders of their communities? Are we fighting elections, and if so, how? Are we focused on bringing together the existing left groups or are we trying to attract those to the left of Labour but currently have no political force that is loyal to them? These are the fundamental questions that will shape what Left Unity becomes.
The idea that there has been more debate over whether we use the word feminist or are simply in favour of women’s liberation than what our approach to next year’s elections should be is an example of this. A wrong headed, last minute election campaign in 2014 could be the last meaningful thing that Left Unity does. The f-word debate? Not so critical.
What sort of party do we need?
There are millions whose instincts are to the left of Labour but who are not part of any ideological grouping or movement. I believe there is a space for laying the foundations of a radical party. A socialist party. A party that makes a contribution with others towards making the world a better place.
These are my five final thoughts on what that party would need to look like;
- A credible left party would need to feel “normal” to ordinary people – which means leaving 19th century language and weird mechanisms like democratic centralism and slate systems behind.
- It would need to be useful. Organising in their communities and articulating often very basic policies that are rarely represented in the mainstream media or by the parties of government.
- It would need to provide an interesting and rich place to be. Providing discussion and, dare I say it, fun, without the toxic bickering of left tribes who are more familiar with the line of small ideological groupings than they are with what’s happening with the school on the corner.
- It has to exist where people live and work. Campaigning on both local and national issues. If people feel their branch is simply an adjunct or by-stander to the concerns of national players it will be difficult to retain current activists let alone recruit new ones.
- The national organisation should do two key things. First facilitate local successes across the country and, second, not fuck it up.
Thanks for reading, I hope you have found this a useful contribution.
16 comments
16 responses to “Let’s get the party started”
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Some good points here and who cannot agree that the Platforms are sectarian divisiveness. We are after all supposed to be building an alternative to New Labour not a replacement for the SWP. However you are also right about the opportunistic approach of the likes of the Lib Dems which is reflected in the left and its opportunistic obsession with broadness as opposed to principle. Principled unity as you say will be built on practice and programme and for the programme to be principled it must reflect objective necessity. It must express the most immediate needs and demands of workers and point the way to socialism. It should not be demagogic like Keynesianism for instance that promises things that cannot be achieved except by class struggle. It must also be holistic because though the working class are currently politically unified, though increasingly fragily, behind an opportunist leadership in the shape of New Labour we should not be seeking to disrupt that unity for our own opportunist and self-serving reasons. That could be fatal. No our programme must be principled. It must be servicable for the day to day class struggle but also usable in elections addressing the day to day issues such as banks, jobs, welfare, wages, services, profiteering monopolies, tax, the Union and the EU.
The Manifesto Group has attempted to transcend the intra-sectarian squabbling of the platformers and offer the membership of Left Unity a discussion on programme and policy in which they are all involved in opposition to the exclusive policy commission approach which intends to serve up policy ready made for the foot soldiers to simply endorse without any sense of ownership leaving a free wheeling leadership with a free hand to horse trade with other groups rather than ruthlessly pursue party policy by any means necessary. The Manifesto Group’s programme can be seen in previous postings on this site.
The divide and rule from below sectarians would cut Left Unity up vertically but the eclecting policy commission approach threatens a horizontal incision between the leadership and the membership.
Finally, the Manifesto Group would like to see Left Unity contesting the Euro Election in 2014 as to delay our entry into politics longer than that could prove fatal. We propose standing on a plaform of renegotiation of the founding treaties of the EU in accordance with socialist principles such as EU-wide trade union living wage, full employment, socialised finance, democratic planning, end of the gravy train. We should also make it clear that in power we would not implement any anti-working class EU directives and in the event of an `in-out’ referendum called by Cameron or New Labour we cannot vote positively for the current neo-liberal policies that are tearing Europe apart.
Thanks for this salutary but positive reminder of what the LU initiative is all about. You are, of course, entirely right to hope that LU becomes ‘a party where both, say, Kate Hudson and Nick Wrack can both make enthusiastic, complementary contributions – because they both have so much to give.’
I’m not as concerned as you that ‘the platform debate has become both entrenched and antagonisitic and that we’re seeing a “winner take all” approach that will inevitably lead to losing many of those initial supporters from November’s conference onwards.’ Perhaps I need a new prescription for my rose tinted glasses, but I think that on the whole, the contributions from the proponents of the two main platforms have been pretty positive and have been largely free from the finger stabbing accusations of betrayal, class collaboration and general nastiness that has for so long characterised so much of what passes for debate on the left.
Of course, we have can see the familiar names or nom de plumes of a very small handful of rabid sectarians cropping up in the forums, but the ranting and sterile swapping of mutual abuse that they inflict on those of us that can be bothered to read them is a small price to pay for what promises to be the beginnings of the sort of healthy, fraternal – and occasionally sharp – debates that are the lifeblood of a broad based and pluralist socialist party. The fact that some of us old dogs are finding it quite hard at times to learn new tricks shouldn’t hide the fact that we – including Kate and Nick – are all learning.
I very much agree with your five points on what our new party will need to look like. In particular I passionately support your first point, which is why, removing my ecumenical hat for just one moment, I am a signatory of the Left Party Platform. Having said that, I’m sure that most supporters of the Socialist Party Platform would agree with your five points as well, and that over time, the differences between us will be seen over time to be largely tactical ones of emphasis and tone.
`Of course, we have can see the familiar names or nom de plumes of a very small handful of rabid sectarians cropping up in the forums’
And then you announce yourself as a signatory of the Left Party Platform. A sectarian document that espouses unprinicpled `broadness’ or opportunism against those who call themselves socialists. You are clearly on the Tony Blair wing of Left Unity and if ever there was a self-serving, opportunist sectarian clique, funded by god knows who, it was New Labour. You might feel more at home back in New Labour where I am assured `Russia’, Lenin, revolution, 1945 and other words have long ago been banned by the thought police.
Tsk tsk!
I rest my case.
Is the first overt electioneering for Kate and Nick? It would be good to hear from these two and other shadow figures that they intend to play no part at all in the leadership of Left Unity.
This would open the door for Left Unity to be a truly democratic organisation rather someone’s pet poodle.
Great piece! For the normal people reading, I hope they appreciate that the ravings of rabid sectarians takes place entirely in the comments of this website. Left Unity, nationally and locally, at least as far as I’ve been able to see, is a smashing place to be, developing very much along the lines advocated in this piece. Let’s keep building this normal party!
Thanks for writing this excellent piece Jim which I think voices the feelings of the vast majority of LU supporters. I thought stuart’s point was also sound – radical, left-wing and socialist ideas and policies need to become part of the mainstream political debate. To do that we have to appeal normal people by addressing the real issues that concern them and build deep roots in our local communities.
I understand we have to have debate and discussion, its the lifeblood of a genuinely democratic organisation, But I hope that LU believes in action too. I have a real fear that L/U is becoming dominated by issues that appeal mostly to the M/C, meanwhile Universal Credit will mean millions forced to look for more work or face sanctions and harassment and another suicide has occurred as harassment and benefits cuts bite.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10649155.Crawley_man_killed_himself_after_losing_benefits/?ref=twtrec
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/06/uk-lowest-paid-classed-not-working-enough
OK, Jeff, all good, positive stuff and could I also add that another (probably quite major)issue/point to get across to “ordinary people” is just what it is that they will avoid by supporting Left Unity as well as what they will gain.
Jim
way back when you left Colchester SWP you said you couldn’t hack Leninism. Then you were all for the Socialist Alliance but quickly flipped from there to the Green Party and now, out again to Left Unity.
you’ve published much against the SWP, which is sad because it shows a weakness in your own beliefs and activity.
Left Unity is dead in the water if it cannot A) adopt a socialist platform and B) attract organised workers (why no union branch model motions for support???)
There is a bigger problem for Left Unity: Owen Jones of Labour and the fact the SWP is still strong.
I know you want to find some fluid middle ground but it doesn’t quite exist. The early history of The independent Labour Party shows this – and LU is nowhere near the ILP.
Left Unity will only stand a chance if it orientates around Nick Wrack and the Socialist Platform – and unionised workers
Haven’t we been here before…Respect, Socialist Alliance…etc?
Left Unity is more of the same surely. Also the fact that it is a new party rather than a coalition of existing parties indicates that it is not about ‘unity’ but a new project to invent a more left-wing Labour Party. If it was about unity it would be a pressure group open to all members of parties from Labour to left of Labour to discuss methods and tactics towards making a change without the disunity of a new party.
Lastly the call for a new ‘UKIP of the left’ ignores the fact that the very existence of a UKIP of the right may well mean the Tories will lose the next election. If a UKIP of the left is successful and doesn’t operate a sensible policy of target to win it will nullify the effect of two right wing parties and take votes from Labour. The result would be a Tory win.
The only way that this new party could have any effect at all that wasn’t counteractive to its aims would be under a system of either Alternative Vote or Proportional Representation. Under the current system of FPTP it will only help the Tories.
Jim I don’t care if you came from Pluto or mars. I am one of those that is unafiliated and despairing non voter you mentioned earlier, and I am sick of not having representation. I basically understand some rhetoric but still cannot understand the attacks on each others characters and beliefs. For instance Baton Rouge. I have read his manifesto and on principle totally agree with many points, until it becomes more fundamentalist in nature. Not that I am calling him a fundamentalist and I am positive he is a nice guy. I have also read the socialist platforms and again agree with the vast majority of points on offer. But the reason I joined left unity and signed the left party platform was it said more to me as a person. I am hoping what happens at the conference I will be attending has a beginning and an end result of party being born that can get past the differences we all will always have, but negotiate principle that we can all aspire. Which ever platform win or not at the end of the day to people like myself as I am classed as disabled and a burden on society as are three of my children. I for one as well as others in my predicament need to believe left unity will become the beacon we are looking for and amalgamate all your suggestions and unite and give us hope, not bullshit. Well done Jim if I forgot to say it. Lets move forward and to hell with who wins the election in 2015 it won’t help us anyway. Stop talking shite and build a party from the ground up and do it properly. And embarrass a few politicians by making them back down as we grow stronger. Lets get on with it shall we.
That was very honest Paul and makes a refreshing change.My main worry at the moment is cant anybody see that the ping pong between Left Party and Socialist Platforms is negative though i think if we follow the road map of Nick Wrack or similiar it is just a repeat of previous left party disasters because parties have to be coalitions and not just speak for one interest group or point of view. THe other thing i am aware of is in my opinion the recent success of the Green Party in moving into some of our natural terrain. Rather than denounce this i applaud it because in our absence we need these ideas common to everyone to the left of Labour to be aired. THe two key speakers for the Greens Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas are very good. i may take some stick for saying that but i believe in terms of elections we draw from the same type of voter pool. Our relationship with groups and parties who are similiar – the green party as many policies that would be amenable to people who support LU – is an important issue.
Personally i dont have a left wing background in terms of experience so you need to consider how to retain the interest of people like me and if the unalligned are a distinct proportion of the group signing up you have to careful not alienate us because i thought i was joining a broad left grouping that is open! Equally i dont want to be competing with the socialist party on campus!
best wishes tony walker (dmu student / artist)
Hi Tony. Thank you for that. I actually believe that left unity should not be afraid to be a socialist party or include and welcome even the more forcefully opinionated. It will add spice to the party and bring out difference of opinion and sometimes lead to strength of ideals. My only concern, is and always was the exstreme views from all being more important than the views that we all share and agree and ultimately producing just another left party screaming from the pathways as people pass us by in the high street or slammed front doors. Also we need more honesty, because to me untruths come back and bite your rear end as the LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES ARE FINDING OUT AGAIN AND LABOUR IF WIN POWER NO DOUGHT WILL TELL A FEW PORKYS ALONG THE WAY. It’s time for the left but we must start and finish with integraty as well as strong beliefs and policies that will stand time and public scrutiny. Without tearing ourself apart before we’ve started.
I hope that that clarifys
Paul