Not much, it would appear. Even the doyens of socialist thinking are lining up to have a pop after the dismal performance of the Socialist and Social Democratic parties in the European Parliament elections.
When no less a person than Professor E.G. Hobsbawm starts carrying on like Dad’s Army’s Private Fraser then it really is time to start worrying. This is the man who taught most of us everything we needed to know about imperialism and why it’s a bad thing. This is a man of the real left. And yet, and yet.
“The left is in trouble everywhere,” he said in The Guardian recently. “The European left relied on a working class that not longer exists in its old form and in order to recover it will need to find a new constituency. That may be hard.”
Unduly pessimistic ? Some would say. Some include Poul Nyup Rasmussen, the leader of the Party of European Socialism in the European Parliament. “There is a need to reflect and reconnect with the voters. But I am not persuaded these (European) elections provide overwhelming evidence of a crisis in European Socialism.”
No ? What about Labour and its 15% at the polls on June 4th ? What about the German SPD reduced to a rump ? What about the emaciated Italian left, seemingly powerless to halt Berlusconi, who wins votes as he makes those same voters wince with his antics ?
The people who care most about this are the party members themselves, especially those still in elected office and who see that power and influence disappearing at the next set of elections. And the policy wonks who float around the sidelines of power.
They are now in turmoil. After twelve years of power in Britain Labour’s now jumping about realising it’s all slipping away. Quick, lads, lets get some new policies, that’ll help.
But maybe old Eric’s right. Perhaps the damage has already been done. How many people who voted Labour in 1997 as thought it were the most natural thing in the world now do so ?
Many fewer, even in Scotland where the party was ten points behind the SNP at the recent election. The writing was on the wall here two years ago when Labour couldn’t even form a coalition government at Holyrood. They have lost their natural constituency, that’s for sure.
But is that down to changes in society or changes in the democratic left ? Are there fewer poor ? There may be fewer manufacturing workers but the number of people who would consider themselves part of a working class can’t be any lower than in days of old.
And yet, when it comes to voting time those people are scattered to the four winds when left alone in the polling booth. In Scotland, of course, many have found solace in the Scottish National Party; broadly speaking, of the left but avowedly independent of thought. Others have gravitated to the Greens or the hard left since devolution although that revolutionary option seems to have passed though what seems to have been, ‘just a phase.’
But why has this happened ? Of course, now the Labour Party has found itself standing on the edge of a precipice its bright, young intellectuals have been given the task of pulling it back from the edge.
Neal Lawson is the Chairman of the leftist Compass group within the party. He says it’s not the people to blame for Labour’s demise, it’s changes to the party.
“The New Labour or Blairite belief is that everything starts with the individual. It is up to us to think and act based on our own view of our own best interest. The role of the state is to empower us as individuals to spend and demand.”
In other words, no wonder people from Labour’s natural pool of voters started to drift away when Tony came along.
This is the view of shattered dreams. The Labour Party in power presented to naturally left-leaning people a great chance. But they ended up disillusioned as the Labour leadership increasingly aligned itself to interests its core vote viewed as incongruous.
Blair had his head stuck up some very surprising backsides whether it was what old-fashioned Labourites would have dismissed as ‘captialists’ or George W. Bush.
And his next door neighbour Broon was busy handing out baubles to Sir Fred Goodwin and his friends at the same time, so even when the mantle of power switched between enemies even the slowest ship in the convoy could see there was, ultimately, no difference. Both were New Labour, appealed to big business, middle England and traditionally centrist voters. It won them elections, of course it did, but those elections were won not in Labour heartlands but in middle class England.
The class comrades were marginalised and the longer it went on the more disillusioned they became.
Now Labour is finally awakening to the reality of the situation. Its old voters won’t vote for it because they no longer see Labour as the party that represents their interests. And their new constituency is rejecting its suitor because they think Labour’s rubbish at the economy and is putting up taxes.
But don’t fear because the party will use this crisis to rediscover its soul.
Lawson’s even started using the ‘S’ word.
“Socialism should be defined as the ability of people to exert the maximum control over their own lives. For this, people have to be more equal; to have the resources to live a free life. But they must also act in concert with others – as citizens shaping the big things in their life and not just as consumers buying the small things that change too little.”
And, never fear, here comes John Cruddas quoting Antonio Gramsci. ”We do not know what the next election will bring nor can we predict the fate of the Labour party. The task now is to begin building a progressive left movement that, unlike New Labour, will break with the legacy of Thatcherism and establish a new hegemony.”
Ah, there’s nothing like a bit of the old time religion. Except that there are still plenty in the party who want nothing to do with Socialism or legendary Italian Communist thinkers. And while some plot against the leader and while others try to redefine the party’s role nothing is done to convince people they should vote Labour. Mind you, that’s hard when so many within the party seem unable to agree WHY people should do so.
They could start by offering a vision of equality. They could do more to appeal to the poor, the downtrodden, the disposed. They could start to do less simply to stand on the centre ground devoid of ideas that appeal to the centrists.
In many ways, the real crisis of the Labour party is a crisis of belief that goes far beyond its membership.
New Labour tried to reflect a trend in society away from belief. Ideology was binned because people didn’t have an interest in it. Captialism was sold to them as a rising standard of living, increasing consumption and general happiness. New Labour accepted that and tried to put its own spin on someone else’s song.
But now we have a bubble that’s burst, anger against greed, the challenge of global warming and the dangers to our environment. People don’t like greedy bankers and they seem happy to recycle their rubbish, buy low-energy lightbulbs and rein in their previous credit-funded spending.
Labour must be ideological again and it must explain why it is so. People face tough choices, they have to be shaken out of their consumerist apathy (if they haven’t already done it for themselves) and be told they cannot go on like before.
By being socialist, green, by helping the poor and making the rich pay their share, by making the case for high taxation and high public spending, by defending jobs and protecting minorities, by encouraging immigration to fill skills and labour gaps, by not being afraid to nationalise key public services, by doing all of these things they can appeal to what is fair and really mean it.
And if people reject it all at the polls and vote for the small government of the Tories, where the poor have to rely on handouts from charities, where the rich get tax break and our key services are run for profit ? Well, they’ll get the leaders they deserve. But at least the left will still be left to survive and fight on.
When no less a person than Professor E.G. Hobsbawm starts carrying on like Dad’s Army’s Private Fraser then it really is time to start worrying. This is the man who taught most of us everything we needed to know about imperialism and why it’s a bad thing. This is a man of the real left. And yet, and yet.
“The left is in trouble everywhere,” he said in The Guardian recently. “The European left relied on a working class that not longer exists in its old form and in order to recover it will need to find a new constituency. That may be hard.”
Unduly pessimistic ? Some would say. Some include Poul Nyup Rasmussen, the leader of the Party of European Socialism in the European Parliament. “There is a need to reflect and reconnect with the voters. But I am not persuaded these (European) elections provide overwhelming evidence of a crisis in European Socialism.”
No ? What about Labour and its 15% at the polls on June 4th ? What about the German SPD reduced to a rump ? What about the emaciated Italian left, seemingly powerless to halt Berlusconi, who wins votes as he makes those same voters wince with his antics ?
The people who care most about this are the party members themselves, especially those still in elected office and who see that power and influence disappearing at the next set of elections. And the policy wonks who float around the sidelines of power.
They are now in turmoil. After twelve years of power in Britain Labour’s now jumping about realising it’s all slipping away. Quick, lads, lets get some new policies, that’ll help.
But maybe old Eric’s right. Perhaps the damage has already been done. How many people who voted Labour in 1997 as thought it were the most natural thing in the world now do so ?
Many fewer, even in Scotland where the party was ten points behind the SNP at the recent election. The writing was on the wall here two years ago when Labour couldn’t even form a coalition government at Holyrood. They have lost their natural constituency, that’s for sure.
But is that down to changes in society or changes in the democratic left ? Are there fewer poor ? There may be fewer manufacturing workers but the number of people who would consider themselves part of a working class can’t be any lower than in days of old.
And yet, when it comes to voting time those people are scattered to the four winds when left alone in the polling booth. In Scotland, of course, many have found solace in the Scottish National Party; broadly speaking, of the left but avowedly independent of thought. Others have gravitated to the Greens or the hard left since devolution although that revolutionary option seems to have passed though what seems to have been, ‘just a phase.’
But why has this happened ? Of course, now the Labour Party has found itself standing on the edge of a precipice its bright, young intellectuals have been given the task of pulling it back from the edge.
Neal Lawson is the Chairman of the leftist Compass group within the party. He says it’s not the people to blame for Labour’s demise, it’s changes to the party.
“The New Labour or Blairite belief is that everything starts with the individual. It is up to us to think and act based on our own view of our own best interest. The role of the state is to empower us as individuals to spend and demand.”
In other words, no wonder people from Labour’s natural pool of voters started to drift away when Tony came along.
This is the view of shattered dreams. The Labour Party in power presented to naturally left-leaning people a great chance. But they ended up disillusioned as the Labour leadership increasingly aligned itself to interests its core vote viewed as incongruous.
Blair had his head stuck up some very surprising backsides whether it was what old-fashioned Labourites would have dismissed as ‘captialists’ or George W. Bush.
And his next door neighbour Broon was busy handing out baubles to Sir Fred Goodwin and his friends at the same time, so even when the mantle of power switched between enemies even the slowest ship in the convoy could see there was, ultimately, no difference. Both were New Labour, appealed to big business, middle England and traditionally centrist voters. It won them elections, of course it did, but those elections were won not in Labour heartlands but in middle class England.
The class comrades were marginalised and the longer it went on the more disillusioned they became.
Now Labour is finally awakening to the reality of the situation. Its old voters won’t vote for it because they no longer see Labour as the party that represents their interests. And their new constituency is rejecting its suitor because they think Labour’s rubbish at the economy and is putting up taxes.
But don’t fear because the party will use this crisis to rediscover its soul.
Lawson’s even started using the ‘S’ word.
“Socialism should be defined as the ability of people to exert the maximum control over their own lives. For this, people have to be more equal; to have the resources to live a free life. But they must also act in concert with others – as citizens shaping the big things in their life and not just as consumers buying the small things that change too little.”
And, never fear, here comes John Cruddas quoting Antonio Gramsci. ”We do not know what the next election will bring nor can we predict the fate of the Labour party. The task now is to begin building a progressive left movement that, unlike New Labour, will break with the legacy of Thatcherism and establish a new hegemony.”
Ah, there’s nothing like a bit of the old time religion. Except that there are still plenty in the party who want nothing to do with Socialism or legendary Italian Communist thinkers. And while some plot against the leader and while others try to redefine the party’s role nothing is done to convince people they should vote Labour. Mind you, that’s hard when so many within the party seem unable to agree WHY people should do so.
They could start by offering a vision of equality. They could do more to appeal to the poor, the downtrodden, the disposed. They could start to do less simply to stand on the centre ground devoid of ideas that appeal to the centrists.
In many ways, the real crisis of the Labour party is a crisis of belief that goes far beyond its membership.
New Labour tried to reflect a trend in society away from belief. Ideology was binned because people didn’t have an interest in it. Captialism was sold to them as a rising standard of living, increasing consumption and general happiness. New Labour accepted that and tried to put its own spin on someone else’s song.
But now we have a bubble that’s burst, anger against greed, the challenge of global warming and the dangers to our environment. People don’t like greedy bankers and they seem happy to recycle their rubbish, buy low-energy lightbulbs and rein in their previous credit-funded spending.
Labour must be ideological again and it must explain why it is so. People face tough choices, they have to be shaken out of their consumerist apathy (if they haven’t already done it for themselves) and be told they cannot go on like before.
By being socialist, green, by helping the poor and making the rich pay their share, by making the case for high taxation and high public spending, by defending jobs and protecting minorities, by encouraging immigration to fill skills and labour gaps, by not being afraid to nationalise key public services, by doing all of these things they can appeal to what is fair and really mean it.
And if people reject it all at the polls and vote for the small government of the Tories, where the poor have to rely on handouts from charities, where the rich get tax break and our key services are run for profit ? Well, they’ll get the leaders they deserve. But at least the left will still be left to survive and fight on.
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