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Neal Lawson
© Neal Lawson 2008
To understand what might come after New Labour we have to understand what New Labour is. Like all political projects it is a complex and contradictory beast. It was born in a moment of desperation; after the fall of the Berlin Wall; the collapse of ideological certainty or even hope on both the reform and revolution wings of the left; the decline in working class culture and solidarity; the globalisation of capital and the political dominance of Thatcherism. It has lived in the shadow of all of that. The best it felt it could hope to do to win and govern again was to humanise free markets and invest in public services, especially education, to try and help people survive the pressure of globally competitive markets. And by 'it' we mean the plotting and planning of a very small group of men who captured the Labour party at its weakest and turned it into a vehicle for which it was never intended.
In the last 11 years, it has done a lot that is good and too much that is bad. But to shift decisively beyond the paradigm of the market as master rather than servant of society will require transformational thinking and action that far outstrips the shift from old Labour to new. If there is to be an 'after New Labour' then it has to learn from the boldness and ambition of both New Labour and the New Right. It has to be about a vision of the good society to inspire people to come its assistance and work to create that better world. Freedom based on greater equality and the ability to act with others to shape our world is the foundation of that good society.
But this vision requires an analysis of two things: market and state failure. Life after New Labour demands an attitude to the market that knows where and how they can contribute to individual and social well being - but be clear about the limits of what they can and cannot do. But to regulate and direct the market we need an accountable and efficient state. Instead of the bureaucratic or market models we need a new democratic state that involves people in its decisions and actions. After all it belongs to us. In terms of addressing both market and state failure New Labour has failed. More than anything else the future of the centre-left will be built on the creation of new forms of collective action that put people in charge of their own lives; not just as individuals but much more importantly as communities of interest that can change not just the small things about our lives but the big things too.
What the last eleven years have shown is that without a clear sense of direction and ideological purpose and secondly leading and supporting forces outside of parliament then real progress is always likely to be limited. Neoliberalism dominated the globe for 30 years not just because of the election of Thatcher and Reagan but because a body of ideas was backed by a group of people in the business community and then articulated in a populist way; forging the necessary electoral coalition. Underpinning all of this was the insight that political movements are based on the creation and destruction of institutions. It is within institutions that political values live or die. Thatcherism was an exercise in social engineering to make people more like her creed - possessive and selfish - through the destruction of trade unions, local government, social housing and nationalised industries and the creation of a share and property owning democracy. Meaningful life after New Labour has to be predicated on the same approach to social, economic and political institutions.
Part of the Comment is free Soundings debate, first appeared 1 November
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