Inside, against and beyond the Labour Party: Thoughts for the Left post-GE

[killer b]

Alex Sobel's piece in the graun today offers some kind of a way forward for Labour - good stuff IMO

Labour doesn’t have to wait five years to start rebuilding communities | Alex Sobel

 

[Shechemite]

Er, the leadership might have spoke about FB's and UC, but UC, BT, etc, haven't been the focus of the wider left, infact there really hasn't been a mass mobilisation on a large sacle on basic issues like cuts, since 2012 TUC march and then before that The Poll Tax, this is imo, where the left lost its way..

This isn’t the entirely Labour Party’s fault though. The ‘disabled people’s movement’ has the same problems as the Labour Party (eg antisemitism, conspiraloonery, authoritarianism, weird geo-politics and general misanthropic vanguardist stuff)

Disabled people need a fundamentally different politics than the one we have now. And the normal left (eg places like this) seriously need to step up their game on disability and stop gifting our struggles to trots and Scientologists.

Disability will grow as a political battleground. It won’t shrink.

 

[LDC]

Yeah but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water

Oh fuck yeah of course. That kind of political organising is great and is much needed. (Although I'm sceptical about how much the Labour party could currently manage it in reality.)

But it can't be the only solution. What about the people who never need a foodbank or benefits advice, how might they be won back to Labour, or to a wider left wing project?

 

[LDC]

A ruthless zero tolerance for cranks might be a good start.

 

[8ball]

A campaigner for Labour that I know was explaining part of the problem they were having when we were speaking earlier today.

They found when speaking to all sorts of people they were getting this kind of response, depending on their wording:

“What do you think of... <insert policy here>?”
“Sounds like a great idea!”

Vs.

“Labour are proposing to <insert same policy here>”
“That’s a really silly idea”

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Oh fuck yeah of course. That kind of political organising is great and is much needed. (Although I'm sceptical about how much the Labour party could currently manage it in reality.)

But it can't be the only solution. What about the people who never need a foodbank or benefits advice, how might they be won back to Labour, or to a wider left wing project?

Thompson's work on the Making of the Working Class - referenced by Louis McNeice earlier on this thread - of "a movement born out of the culture, practices and desires of a class" tells us instantly that food bank and UC type work alone will only take us so far.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Alex Sobel's piece in the graun today offers some kind of a way forward for Labour - good stuff IMO

Labour doesn’t have to wait five years to start rebuilding communities | Alex Sobel

I like that, and a few similar things I've seen.

What seems to me to be missing from that though is a narrative about how Labour might return actual jobs to these areas. The sort of jobs that have been lost - not necessarily the same but ones that pay well and you can potentially get without 2 degrees and an unpaid internship. Without that you're ultimately promising people a less shit situation a lot of the time - better community centres and support are important for sure but not enough.

That's an incredibly hard thing to achieve, I certainly don't know how you do it but I think it's necessary.

 

[killer b]

I like that, and a few similar things I've seen.

What seems to me to be missing from that though is a narrative about how Labour might return actual jobs to these areas. The sort of jobs that have been lost - not necessarily the same but ones that pay well and you can potentially get without 2 degrees and an unpaid internship. Without that you're ultimately promising people a less shit situation a lot of the time - better community centres and support are important for sure but not enough.

That's an incredibly hard thing to achieve, I certainly don't know how you do it but I think it's necessary.

I guess a partial response to that is to combine it with support for developing workers co-ops etc, visible council strategies (assuming Labour councils, which may be too much to expect from next May...) to keep money and jobs circulating in the local area viz. the Preston Model, that kind of thing I guess?

 

[LDC]

Thompson's work on the Making of the Working Class - referenced by Louis McNeice earlier on this thread - of "a movement born out of the culture, practices and desires of a class" tells us instantly that food bank and UC type work alone will only take us so far.

What is the culture of the class though nowadays? And how might that be utilized for political organisation?

 

[Shechemite]

A ruthless zero tolerance for cranks.

This is Sparta

 

[chilango]

What is the culture of the class though nowadays? And how might that be utilized for political organisation?

Lots of cultures I guess.

 

[The39thStep]

Anyone noticed Galloway new venture?

 

[Louis MacNeice]

What is the culture of the class though nowadays? And how might that be utilized for political organisation?

I think 'how might they be expressed as political organisation' works better. It allows for a diversity of distinct but identifiably working class cultures and tries to acknowledge a rather more organic/interdependent (and less instrumental) relationship between the two.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[Louis MacNeice]

Anyone noticed Galloway new venture?

Deputy leader Joti Brar and a link to the CPGB (ML) at the bottom of the home page. Galloway's new Workers Party of Britain is set to take the world by storm.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[LDC]

Anyone noticed Galloway new venture?

Yes. Been mentioned elsewhere I think. Amongst other lunacy they're using the RAF roundel for some of their imagery.

 

[Shechemite]

Are the Brars to the anti-revisionists what the Cox’s are (were) to the SWP?

 

[chilango]

Pfwc. Look at the hats.

 

[chilango]

Hopefully they'll do just well enough to be a magnet for all the cranks and bigots who claim to be on the left.

 

[butchersapron]

Only lad the right not bleary eyed and GET UP ITS 7AM I thought GG was teetotal.

West brom. West brom, let me think...

 

[killer b]

what's wrong with their hats?

 

[butchersapron]

what's wrong with their hats?

It's pathetic peaky blinders stuff. Like a cool gang.

 

[killer b]

I don't think it is anymore tbh, everyone wears panel caps these days.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

what's wrong with their hats?

the uniformity.

 

[rekil]

Anyone noticed Galloway new venture?

If scarlett moffat's autobiography doesn't take one's stocking filler fancy, he has an alternate history buke out as well. What if the hun won in 1940 and only a small sonorous scotsman could stalin britain to freeeeedom.

 

[killer b]

(anyway, I've got loads of caps that look just like those, and have done since before peaky blinders existed. so watch it)

 

[butchersapron]

I don't think it is anymore tbh, everyone wears panel caps these days.

Really, i thought they did yonks ago - a quid on market stalls etc then went naff then maybe in. Either way, you're going bald, don't try and get in a bald covering gang.

edit: not kb, he might be, but generally

 

[butchersapron]

(anyway, I've got loads of caps that look just like those, and have done since before peaky blinders existed. so watch it)

It's the area though

 

[killer b]

I am bald, that's why I own a load of wool caps.

 

[butchersapron]

I am bald, that's why I own a load of wool caps.

Bit defeatist though.

 

[killer b]

It's the hoody/overcoat combo I'd take issue with