Labour: democratic renewal and Labour left unity
The current turmoil at the top of the Labour Party begs the question, where is the left in all of this? The Socialist Campaign Group in parliament has a membership of 24 MPs – a tiny fraction of a parliamentary party numbering 403 people. No one from the group currently has a ministerial position, meaning its activity is confined to the backbenches.
The broad left in the wider party had hoped to bring a “big beast” into the ranks to act as its standard bearer in parliament. Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, was a frontrunner for this role. Having been blocked by the National Executive as a possible candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election, the aspirations of the democratic socialist wing of the party will likely remain marginalised for the foreseeable future.
We know the problems: gross manipulation of party structures with CLPs denied open selection rights alongside suppression of debate, particularly on Gaza; repeated government U-turns on welfare and disability rights, the two-child benefit cap and local government elections. The removal of Mandelson and McSweeney is welcome, but the whole structure of the Labour Together organisation with its secretive machinations, must be flushed out. It has broken and blocked progressive changes to the detriment of the party and the country.
Don Flynn explains that without bringing the left in from the cold and a root and branch reform of internal democracy, the party is in danger of dying on its feet. Taking a longer historical view, Bryn Jones dissects The Fraud by Paul Holden. This exposes the web of undemocratic practices that both undermined Corbyn’s leadership and allowed big money to influence the party, including the malign Mandelson cabal, and limit more progressive policies on a wide range of issues.
Labour’s policy launch of its white paper to halve violence against women and girls is topical in the light of the Epstein/Mandelson affair, but has been overshadowed by the scandal, says Sabia Kamali. Labour must put resources in place and put women centre stage to deliver. With the government promising to make the online world safer for children, Rebekah Morton asks for a common-sense approach. On the economy, Alex Bird lays out the conditions for doubling the number of co-ops.
While the shadow of Reform UK and its increasing number of Tory defectors, most notably Braverman and Jenrick, poses big challenges in the May council, Scottish and Welsh elections, Trump also hovers over Starmer. Both Patrick Diamond and Andrea Pisauro see closer European ties as central. The latter looks at the anti-fascist internationalist foundations of the EU and why it remains the only politically sound economic and political alliance for the UK, while the former examines the details of closer relations. As Glyn Ford and Patrick Costello outline, the US policy of fracturing the EU and nurturing far-right populist parties is made crystal clear in the American National Security Strategy, which they analyse. Speedier moves to closer economic and political cooperation, the single market and customs union, alongside coordinated defence policy, is the road Labour must take. Yuliya Yurchenko reminds us of the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and the need for the UK and Europe to step up aid and action to defeat Putin and bypass apologist Trump.
Paul Garver explains why only bold defiance of Trump will yield results, as exemplified by the mass resistance to ICE in Minneapolis. Mark Seddon assesses the dangers of US military action in Iran, and any British support, allied with the risks of a return to the dynasty of the Shah. Meanwhile, Paul Dixon makes a wider case against the growth of militarism, and Panny Antoniou reminds us of the soft power of the BBC’s World Service.
On the UK front the reenergised Green Party also threatens many Labour seats. Victor Anderson examines their prospects and whether Polanski’s leftist eco-populism can deliver results. Cat Smith MP exposes the double standards of Reform UK in their backtracking on privatising social care in Lancashire.
The clock is ticking for Starmer. He may hang on until the May elections. Only decisive action on restoring party democracy – as called for by a group of 25 Labour MPs and five union leaders, and a genuine change of course will suffice. We need an end to legislation branding Palestine Action terrorists, having had courts overturn many charges. We need an end to the deepening of the hostile environment for migrants and asylum seekers – universities and the health and care system are already suffering from the restrictions on immigration. There should be no more backsliding on the employment rights legislation and action to socialise water and energy provision.
Mainstream, initiated by the Compass think tank, aims to leverage more influence by bringing together active party members and sympathetic MPs into coordinated activity. Whilst we wait to see what form that action might take we welcome Mainstream’s condemnation of Labour’s cronyism, lack of party democracy and Starmer’s poor decision-making, Mandelson being a case in point.
The New Statesman hints at a strategy of “stealth leftism” which aims to shift “vibes” about the political direction of the party rather than pose an outright challenge to Starmer on the basis of policy. The first fruit of this seems to be a charm offensive directed at various dissident factions, encouraging them to bond together as putative lefties.
Given that this casts the net of “leftism” so wide as to cover internationalists and campaigners for human rights and the socially conservative, anti-immigrant Blue Labour, the difficulties of achieving unity are writ large. Chartist wants to see a left emerge in the party which sides with working people and others whose lives are being made harsh by the hostile and divisive politics of current times. We need clarity rather than naive obfuscation about who will play a role in putting this alliance together.