Can we recover hope in dark times?
Michael Calderbank previews “Can Labour still deliver the change we need – and stop the rise of Reform?”, an upcoming Labour Conference fringe event In Liverpool (details below).
Twelve months on from last year’s Labour Party Conference, the mood could scarcely be different. Last year was full of self-congratulatory back-slapping following the landslide victory of the General Election, along with a readiness to schmooze with the corporate lobbyists descending on Liverpool like vultures.
Not that the horizon was without entirely without clouds, even at that stage. The decision to axe the winter fuel payment for all bar the poorest pensioners seemed needlessly cruel and punitive, as did withdrawing the whip from MPs who voted for an amendment to the King’s Speech to scrap the two-child benefit limit on Universal Credit. The relentlessly downbeat economic narrative jarred with the promise of ‘change’ on which the Party was elected, and appeared more concerned with appeasing the bond markets than tackling the cost of living crisis.
One year later, and the storm clouds are all around us. The populist far right are consistently ahead in the polls in the shape of Nigel Farage’s Reform, whilst earlier this month Tommy Robinson mobilised the largest far right demonstration in British history.
Black and minority ethnic voters are increasingly left alarmed and afraid, with open expressions of racist hatred resurfacing in a way not seen for generations. In the departures of Angela Rayner and Peter Mandelson, the Party is linked with tax-dodging and the defenders of paedophiles. Labour’s response to the demonisation of migrants has often been to echo Farage’s rhetoric and talk about speeding up deportations. Are we sleepwalking towards a far right takeover of Britain?
It should be recognised that whilst the organisers and many of the hardcore activists on the “Unite the Kingdom” march were ideologically committed racists, the demo attracted some broader elements, and still more who broadly identified with it on social media. Aspects of the populist narrative understandably resonate – the politicians aren’t taking decisions in our interests; public services are buckling; young people will likely never get a foot on the housing ladder; the money isn’t going where it’s most needed; our lives are getting harder, and things were better for earlier generations, etcetera. In the absence of any more compelling popular outlet for the expression of political discontent, is it any wonder that people are drawn towards ‘state of the nation’ protests that present themselves?
How does the labour and trade union movement respond? The form of political blackmail being posed by commentators like Paul Mason (vote for anyone other than Keir Starmer’s Labour and you’ll get Farage) simply won’t wash. Labour will be punished if it fails to deliver on the promise of change it made to the electorate.
Nor will the far right be defeated simply by mobilising counter-protests denouncing them. Instead, what’s needed is the building of a mass movement which offers perceptible improvements in peoples’ lives, and gives grounds for hope by beginning to tackle the root causes of the present crisis. In the short-term there is little realistic expectation that the Starmer leadership has either the appetite or the capacity to offer such hope. Therefore politics can’t just be left to what happens in Westminster – far right ideas have to be contested in workplaces and communities, and here the role of trade unions could be central.
Affiliates to the Trade Union Coordinating Group are campaigning for a political alternative based on the delivery of a thorough-going restructuring of the economy based on (i) a reversal of austerity and significant investment in public services and extension of public ownership, to be funded by (ii) wealth taxes on the richest in society; (iii) delivering on the promise of the “biggest wave of insourcing for a generation”; (iv) developing a radical new industrial strategy at the centre of which is the restoration of sectoral collective bargaining across the economy, which would require a part two of the Employment Rights Bill; (v) to deliver a new phase of workers’ rights adequate to the meet the challenge of AI; (vi) a just transition to tackle the climate crisis to deliver high quality, secure, well-paid jobs; and (vii) the extension of a genuine system of social security for those unable to work – and the Right to Food so no household goes hungry.
Ultimately this is an agenda which would genuinely transform the lives of working people, and provides a basis for a positive alternative to hatred and division, based on unity and solidarity. Tuesday’s meeting is not just for Labour conference delegates, or even just Labour Party members – it’s for anyone who wants to discuss how we can improve the lives of all our communities across the UK and restore hope to our politics.
“Can Labour still deliver the change we need – and stop the rise of Reform?”
Tuesday 30th September, 6.30 – 8.00pm (followed by a solidarity social with drinks and hot buffet), Love Lane Brewery, 62-64 Bridgewater St, L1 0AY
No conference security pass required.
Hosted by the Trade Union Coordinating Group, with Institute of Employment Rights and Campaign for Trade Union Freedom.
Speakers: Taj Ali, Kim Johnson MP, Ian Byrne MP, John McDonnell MP, Dr Jo Grady (UCU), Fran Heathcote (PCS), Steve Wright (FBU). Chair: Paul Fleming (Equity).
Michael Calderbank is Trade Union Liaison Officer of Tottenham CLP.
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