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Heather Wakefield
© Heather Wakefield 2008
Nothing has highlighted the fragmentation of the left and our inability to intervene collectively and effectively as much as the current economic crisis. There's an eerie silence as the global financial world crumbles and 'nationalisation' just happens. Some say that what is emerging is 'socialism for the bosses', not the people who have paid the real price. The final settlement is yet to emerge, but the extent to which need not greed is at the heart of bail-outs with hitherto unavailable and unimaginable quantities of public cash will tell us whether New Labour is changing tack.
The left - and truly progressive forces in all their many guises - should not wait to find out. Whatever the outcome of the credit crunch rescue mission or the next general election, the social fault lines have been there for all to see since 1997 and beyond. But the left has increasingly failed to find popular yet forceful means of articulating the fall-out from turbo-capitalism and discrimination, let alone organising to make governments act or power shift towards the people. Whatever the roots of the left's inertia - be it the disillusion with New Labour, middle age or our recent inability to stop the war in Iraq - our self-belief is surely shaken. But now is not the moment to give in.
The real spectres haunting the earth are clear for all to see: there's still grinding poverty for many. The obsession with markets and failure to understand the importance of public services for collective wellbeing and a sense of belonging has led to costly, alienating and ineffective mass privatisation. There's disrespect for many public sector workers, mostly low-paid women. Social care services are under-funded and rationed as the need for them grows. Pensions are disappearing, race and gender discrimination remain breathtakingly evident in the gender pay gap and unemployment patterns. Migrant workers face new threats, the BNP and fascism are on the rise and 5 million people in England alone languish on housing waiting lists. That's not to mention the threats facing the planet and the desperate need for international solidarity.
These are all issues which the left and civil society organisations together must find new and effective ways to organise and mobilise around. We need strong but flexible coalitions that break with the sectarianism of the past and name, shame and campaign. Organisations as diverse as London Citizens, the Fawcett Society, Compass, Searchlight, CPAG, Friends of the Earth, Philosophy Football, Shelter, the World Development Movement and Liberty will all be vital to new forms of sustainable campaigning.
But trade unions and the TUC, with members and money, need to broaden their horizons, initiate and provide long-term support to coalitions on the big issues and give access to workers' organisations across the world. Academics must share their knowledge more freely, working within these coalitions, as well as talking to each other and the already converted. Radical journals should engage with real struggles, as well as develop theory.
The left has much to learn from organisations like London Citizens whose winning campaigns are led by those who face poverty and injustice themselves and are rooted in painstaking organising involving established community and faith groups. From time to time we could also ask ourselves Brecht's questions from The Doubter: 'Who are you? To whom do you speak? Who finds what you say useful? Is it also linked to what's already there? How does one act if one believes what you say? Above all; how does one act?' We might learn a thing or two.
Part of the Comment is free Soundings debate, first appeared 3 November
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