HubMP2012

The Hard Left is Talking to the Soft Left Again

Since the 1980s, the Labour left has been divided by a split between its hard and soft wings.  In the light of the Labour right’s new and brutal ascendancy, is it time for the two sides to think the unthinkable and at least have a conversation?  Bryn Griffiths, the presenter of the Labour Left Podcast sits down with Neal Lawson, of Compass, to ask: has the time come to try and heal some of the old wounds and work together?

You can find the latest episode of the Labour Left Podcast on YouTube here .  If you prefer to listen to your podcasts on the go, just go to your favourite podcast provider and search for the Labour Left Podcast and it will be there. In addition to all the usual podcast sites, you can watch the Labour Left Podcast on Substack  here, you can listen to it on Audible the audio book site here and now you can watch as well as listen on Spotify here.

In 1981 the Labour left split asunder when Neil Kinnock abstained during Tony Benn’s bid for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party and delivered a wafer-thin victory to Dennis Healey, an Atlanticist of the Labour right.  As a result, the Tribune Group split between the Bennite Socialist Campaign Group and leadership loyalists.  The fighting got worse when the local government left split over the need for councillors to join the miners, at the time of their historic, year-long strike, and open up a second front over ratecapping to defeat Margaret Thatcher, the neoliberal Conservative Prime Minister.

Our conversation got off to a wobbly start when we discovered that we both played prominent roles in Labour Students in the early 1980s where the left in-fighting was at its bloodiest. But, surprisingly, what comes over throughout the podcast is a clear-headed determination to get over our old wounds and focus on the struggle today to save the very essence of the Labour Party.

We discussed how the ‘playground bullies’ in Labour HQ had tried to expel Neal. It certainly felt at this point of the discussion that our enemies’ enemy might possibly become a nice new friend. Have a listen and see what you think. 

During the course of the podcast, we discuss the political culture which Keir Starmer and his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney have established within Labour and ask is it a culture fit for Government?  We are both enthusiastic advocates of proportional representation so we had a robust debate about how we secure the prize and what role Liberal Democrats might play. Looking in our rear-view mirror, we discussed what Labour should learn from Corbynism and the 2017 General Election campaign.  We of course discuss Gaza and the Labour Right’s Atlanticism.

As the interview unfolded, we found lots to agree about so we discussed what organisational form a pluralist Labour Left might take and what we need to do to get there.

Regardless of whether you’re reading this article as someone who comes from the soft left or the hard left of the Labour Party, I think you might be pleasantly surprised about how the discussion unfolds. If you feel delighted or provoked from either side of the historic divide, the pages of Labour Hub are open to you to explain why.

If you’re on the right of the Labour Party the podcast might make you uncomfortable.  Your behaviour over Gaza, the capping of third child benefits, the winter fuel allowance and now disability benefits cuts are breaking up your internal Labour Party alliances and we’re beginning to see new ones form.  The podcast demonstrates the opportunities before us and we’re serious.

We trust that you will find the latest Labour Left Podcast an invaluable resource.  If you do, please help us get the episode to more people by sharing, following, liking, rating and commenting on it wherever you see it.

If you’re new to the Labour Left Podcast, please take a look at our back catalogue.  Previous episodes have included Rachel Shabi on the Truth About Antisemitism;  Bernard Regan from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Executive; Prof Harvey J Kaye on the legacy of the Communist Historians; Prof Corinne Fowler, talking about her book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain; Andrew Fisher telling the story behind For the Many Not the Few, Labour’s 2017 manifesto; Jeremy Gilbert, a Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, a champion of Gramsci, talking about Thatcherism; episodes with Mish Rahman, Rachel Godfrey Wood and Hilary Schan on the contemporary Labour left; Mike Phipps, author of Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jereny Corbyn, taking a longer term look at the Labour left;  Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, on the Great 1984-85 Miners’ Strike; political activist Liz Davies telling her story as the dissenter within Blair’s New Labour; Rachel Garnham, a current co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy looking back at the history of the fight for democracy in the British Labour Party; and finally myself telling the story of Brighton Labour Briefing, a local Bennite magazine of the 1980s.

You can get the podcast on YouTube, Substack, Apple Podcasts and Audible. In fact, you can listen to it on all good podcast sites just search for the Labour Left Podcast. 

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast.