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Neal Lawson
© Neal Lawson 2007
Jonathan asked me to write about left strategies for this debate in the run up to the Left Futures event on 30 June - which I'm looking forward to. My problem is that the words 'left' and 'strategies' don't fit that well unless we insert the word 'rubbish' at the start. This takes us back to the brief conversation between Mark Perryman and me on this site. Mark is rightly critical of the soft left - although too harsh in my view. But it's not as if any other bit of the left has flourished on the basis of a sound strategy. What was the Euro-communist wing of the CP has had an important analytical impact - although that recedes like my hair with time. But it has no organisational capability. Also outside of Labour, agitators and reporters like those around Red Pepper continue to do a good job. But again the impact is limited. The hard left dug deep over John McDonnell's attempt at the Labour leadership and stirred up some grass roots interest but was found wanting at the parliamentary level. There is clearly a big disconnect here. I'm writing before the Labour deputy leadership result. Some would say - so what! But if Jon Cruddas does well then that at least shows some organisational and political potential for the soft-left - we shall see.
But let's accept that after 18 years of Thatcher and ten years of Blair - we haven't exactly covered ourselves in glory. It is a collective failure based on some fundamental weaknesses and a total lack of strategy. We ought to understand our failure. It is ideological - we don't know if we are progressives, social democrats, democratic socialists, socialists or what. We have no compelling vision of the good society we are trying to create. In the rich interplay between what we believe in: equality, liberty, solidarity and democracy we have yet to weave a convincing narrative. On the policy front there is no alternative economic strategy and no public service reform agenda other than the market or the commands of the central state. Internationally we are unsure where and how we intervene after Iraq and we have failed to establish an international network of the like minded left to address the need for global organisational reach. The European project continues to tread water - at least from the mainstream UK view. It's little wonder then that there is no popular narrative or language for the left: a gap being filled in some towns by the BNP. Organisationally the left is still largely divided and weak. If the left is to have a strategy it must address all these issues in a systematic fashion.
I would argue that Compass is or is going to attempt to do this. I won't try and persuade Mark or anyone of our success or potential. If you are reading this then you are more than capable of making your own mind up. But there are some contextual and actual reasons to be cheerful. At one level the dominance of neo-liberal ideology and practice is creating a reaction. Spaces are opening up amongst most social classes. The social recession of insecurity and anxiety won't be solved by shopping. As the pop band Johnny Boy say 'You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve'. But in more political terms there are signs of life. London Citizens continue to inspire and prove that bottom up community groups can mobilise around very current threats and fears. Ken Livingstone does an impressive job of ploughing his own furrow while still getting the most from the state. In the unions the merger of Amicus and TGWU into Unite might be the precursor to a pan national unionism. On that stage the US SEIU is forging interesting international links. Back home Unison are thinking more creatively than ever about public sector reform issues. Campaigns to promote social and council housing are taking off. But a huge amount of intellectual and organisational effort is going to have to be made.
None of us has all the answers. That's why we need to talk, and is what makes the Left Futures event really important. The strategy is inside Labour and out, now and the future, ideas and organisation, being radical and popular, modern and left, new and Labour.
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