COMPASS STATEMENT ON LABOUR PARTY CRISIS
Filed under: Compass, Labour Party — admin @ 3:30 pm
No Turning BackIf these election results and the political events of the last week don’t wake up the Labour leadership, nothing will. Both are truly shocking. Worse still, they are largely self-inflicted.
For five years Compass has been agitating for a change in Labour’s direction. We could see the consequence of sticking to New Labour’s chosen course: inequality would rise if we did nothing about taxing the very rich; support for the BNP would increase if we ignored our core vote; markets in key areas like housing would fail if social investment wasn’t forthcoming. Millions of voters and thousands of party members have been lost since 2001. They will go on being lost unless the Party changes direction. For that it is never too late.
As the uber-Blairites call for the Prime Minister to go they have nothing to say about ideas or policy substance. They make no case for what change they want to see that will be any more popular. All of this is happening for factional reasons and is so far failing because of it. The Hazel Blears resignation was an attempt to bring down Brown with no thought for the consequences of the grassroots Party members she claims she is returning to. It was an act of treachery that will not easily be forgotten.
The Blairites should not be allowed to get away with it. But not because Brown deserves our backing. His leadership has been a severe disappointment precisely because he failed to make the promised break with Blairism, whose final failure we are now witnessing. That is why there can be no turning back. What does it say about the Prime Minister’s political judgement when he is attacked by the old right of the party but continues to dismay the democratic left over issues like the privatisation of Royal Mail?
Labour changed the leader once before but the Party didn’t change direction - and now it has fallen into this incredible mess. In response, it will be pointless jumping to someone else unless they hold out the real promise of a change of direction. Let Brown or anyone who wants his job come forward and tell us how they will turn round the fortunes of the country and the party. Only then will the arguments about leadership reflect the most fundamental issues.
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=4162
