This has always been the mantra right across the Left - even from those with no patience with the consistent pro capitalist status quo record ofall previous Labour Governments . Defenders of this position rightly point to the very real gains made for the working classs by some previous Labour Governments, the post WWII Welfare state obviously being the biggie. TODAY though does New Labour really have any residual connection or loyalty to its traditional working class base ? One only has to look at the social background of the current Parliamentary Labour Party, the money they got/ get from snake-eyed capitalist firms, the penetration of their ranks by "advisors" seconded by Price waterhouse, etc, and the pro-banker, pro capitalist policies of the blair/Brown era, to see that the old mantra is now wildly outdated. The likes of scum like Alan Johnson, entirely dependant on his trades union career for his current status and lifestyle, feels perfectly comfortable , just the other day, to verbally piss on trades unionism yet again ! New Labour have morphed qualitatively over the last 30 years or so, from a generally collaborationist but nevertheless mass reformist party of organised labour and the working class, to a purely pro-capitalist party, competing only on the fine policy detail of the shared neoloberal economic/political/social agenda. If New Labour were in office today they would be implementing pretty much the IDENTICAL austerity policies of the Coalition. They might be doing it more gradually, and with crocodile tears, but implement them they would. Unlike the class hate-filled Tories, Labour has always understood the need to "boil the (working class) frog ... sloooooowwwly" in case we get too angry, see clearly what's going on, and leap out of the societal boiling pan and rip their fucking throats out !
With the Trot Left apparently entering long overdue final organisational and doctrinal meltdown, and New Labour utterly lost to any progressive pro-working class role, we all collectively have to seriously start thinking about a building a new mass party of radical left resistance - even if its initially a rag-bag alliance of everyone who simply wants to resist - on the Syriza model. It obviously wouldn't survive forever as a radical route forward - but might at least organise meaningful mass resistance in the medium term. Unfortunately, the chaos on the Trot Left also seems to have given comfort to even more reactionery pseudo-socialist forces - like the neo-stalinist apologists across the blogosphere who currently are salivating at the collapse of the SWP, those who run the "Socialist Unity" blog for instance - cynically masquerading as proponents of openness and free debate , in contrast to the cultishness of the SWP - whilst constantly denying the monstrous crimes of stalinism. One things for sure , if the broad Left are ever to attract masses of normal working class people to their ranks they'll/we'll have to rid themselves/ourselves of an awful lot of ideological baggage and organisational habits -- and stop suggesting, a la that epochal world class philosopher and sage, Owen Jones , that we now need to prioritise "getting a real socialist movement together to get Labour elected !" .
