×
This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
JEREMY CORBYN’S election built on Ed Miliband’s before, but there can be no doubt that it still represented an earthquake in British politics. Corbyn is one of the most left-wing MPs in Parliament, and certainly the left-most Labour leader since George Lansbury, including Michael Foot.
But to simply describe Corbyn as part of a “hard left” does not do his broad campaign justice. Jeremy won election to the leadership with a broad coalition behind him and could not have done otherwise. He had strong support from trade unionists and he reached out to anti-austerity young people and traditional Labour voters.
Perhaps most importantly, the lack of a “soft left” candidate in the mould of Miliband gave Corbyn, a follower of the late and great Tony Benn, a huge opportunity. There was a large swathe of membership looking for an authentic voice free from the overcautiousness of Westminster and Whitehall high office. Jeremy provided this voice. In doing so he reached towards the centre of Labour opinion and won an overwhelming chunk of existing members — not just new supporters.
A Corbyn government could transform Britain, overturn much of the Thatcher consensus and embed left-wing thinking. It would be able to make it far easier for unions to organise and gain mass membership and would reverse the idea that we can’t have good, publicly accountable services or fair taxes.
Corbyn would need to work hard to break concentrations of power in the media and global finance, where bosses are always threatening take their money and run if they are made to pay their share. Most of all, a Corbyn government would begin to show young working-class people a political alternative to consumerism — solidarity and collective organisation.
This is a prize worth fighting for. But how can it happen?
Last week, grassroots activists around the country launched OpenLabour.org, a left Labour forum aimed at answering this question. Our group stands on the left but is less focused than Momentum, for example, on social movement activism, and more focused on generating ideas to get Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour into power. We have not asked for support from MPs, and have spent just a little to get our website created. In less than a week over 1,000 people have signed up. We want many more members and trade unionists to get involved.
Open Labour thinks that debate and strategy will both be crucial to winning a socialist government. Like any campaign, elections can’t be won simply by stating what you think when you have the opportunity, but by thinking about the best ways to organise things and picking principled arguments that still have strong ability to persuade widely.
Last week, the results were published of two opinion polls that asked almost the same question — in one, if “reducing the voting age to 16” was a good idea; in the other, if “giving 16-17-year-olds the vote” was a good idea.
The first split 56-37 against extending the franchise, the second 52-41 in favour.
Presenting the same idea in different ways can make a difference, especially if it isn’t a major point on the political agenda. This affects both the content of policies and how we talk about them — all needed in a complete, winning strategy for the left.
Corbyn is also starting with a block of voters from 2015 that wasn’t large enough to win. Labour needs to work out who else to bring in. We know that Corbyn wants ideas that will inspire people who did not vote, particularly younger people, so he will need a strong anti-austerity platform.
But Corbyn will also need to make sure that pursuing left ideas does not cost votes at the other end, which means a language and a set of detailed policies which can make the argument as broad as possible, and “safe” for workers who are still doing well or are not very politically conscious. Most of all, he needs to be able to be trusted broadly and for people to think his plans will work.
The best way to ensure Labour can have this conversation with the public is to harness the knowledge and energy of the thousands of members who have joined, and make sure they are able to have an open and comradely conversation before Labour finalises its platform. We will have a programme and a leader that all members have a stake in.
Corbyn has done well to have only around 20 regular rebels. There are not as many rebels as some people on the left are given to think — so a period of calmer, more tolerant and democratic politics within the party would benefit the party as a whole — and with it, Corbyn’s chance of forming a left government.
Jeremy has done well to pick a diverse shadow cabinet and to bring the vast majority on board. We in Open Labour will support this general approach.
Now is the time to face outwards, and to start working on both strategy and policy to beat Osborne and co. It’s important we do this — electing Jeremy Corbyn could see the biggest left-wing change for decades.
- Tom Miller is a Labour councillor in Brent, London. To find out more about Open Labour, visit openlabour.org
