Coming to terms with change

Far from exhausted, the left of British politics is alive and thriving

The British mainstream left is seeking to come to terms with Barack Obama and finding it difficult. The simple fact is that few on the left expected Obama to win either the primaries or the presidential election. His insurgent victory has been thrown into the mix just as the Labour party is going through, often beneath the radar of the senior echelons of the government and party, one of its periodic existential crises. As a consequence, the sparks are flying this way and that. Win or lose the next election the debate about the future direction of the party is already being framed.

A couple of weeks ago a flurry of articles and publications about the future of the left of British politics was kicked off by Neal Lawson and John Harris in the New Statesman. With more audacity than hope they invoked the spirit of the Obama campaign in arguing for a maximum wage, 35 hour week, Tobin tax, and a new tax on land.

Any cursory reading of the Obama election platform or the Audacity of Hope or reading of his speeches clearly demonstrates that in order to energise a movement for change you don’t just lurch left. That is the tempting but ultimately futile path. It would leave Labour talking the language of movement politics while actually steering a ghost ship.

Just a few days later came Jon Cruddas who impressively managed to avoid the Obama trap. His suggestion that there are policies to be reached for on ‘fair taxation, employment security and job creation, the environment, and enduring devolution in public services and housing’ is grounded in the British experience and feels well aimed. In searching for an emotional language of inspiration and empathy to confront a ‘crisis of representative’ politics again he is also on the right lines. It’s just not clear that bandying around claims to a ‘new socialism’ is the sort of language that will engage.

So that’s the ethical socialist view. The democratic republican view comes from the GDH Cole quoting Phil Collins in Progress’s own magazine in discussion with Jon Cruddas. The core of the republican tradition is the removal of subjugation - political and economic. Both Cruddas and Collins argue for greater localism, though the localism of Collins is more variable and contextual than that of Cruddas. They avoid locking horns over how you create ‘powerful people.’ Both the socialist and republican traditions have something to say on that. Indeed, subjugation can only be resisted if you have an asset base: educational, physical, and financial. How that is achieved is an area for urgent discussion.

Maybe there could be more common ground in this discussion than would be automatically supposed and the tone of the Collins/ Cruddas discussion certainly reflected that. Any medicine to be taken could be less bitter and have fewer side effects if that is to be the case.

Democratic republican approaches to politics immediately swing us back the new president. Nick Anstead and Will Straw dissect and translate the Obama campaign for a British audience in their Fabian pamphlet, Change we need. It argues for a more open, flexible, movement based party: a model that neatly matches the localist approach that both sides of the discussion are advocating. In a piece for Liberal Conspiracy I argued that I felt that the lessons to be learned from the Obama campaign should be rather more soulful- about the one on one personal contact- than wired but, nonetheless, this pamphlet offers the party the right sort of direction. Now it’s a matter of local leaders delivering it.

There is something to learn from the Obama campaign as there will be from his presidency over time. However, Labour can not become consumed by that. Britain has its own issues to grapple with and solutions are not going to fly across the Atlantic to nest here with ease. His campaign shows us what the mainstream left can do when it seeks to inspire, engage, and energise. It’s up to us to find a British way of doing things beyond that.

What has become clear over the last few days is that far from exhausted, the left of British politics is alive and thriving. Ideas abound and a notion of where Labour goes next is starting to emerge. A personal politics of empowered people, actively engaging in civic life and with services that impact them, insisting they improve is the vision that’s taking shape. There is twelve months or so to find the language and policies that make this vision a reality.

A demonstrable prospect of economic recovery is, of course, a precondition of political recovery. Beyond that, this intellectual energy offers a way out of the thicket. It is also something that the centre of the party, the centre-left, and the soft left can all find common cause in articulating. Whatever the circumstances that Labour faces, if this verve continues then it will match the Tories blow for blow and then some. Obama shows it can be done. It’s up to Labour to do it as well but it has to be a British argument for change.

Anthony Painter is author of Barack Obama: the movement for change and blogs at www.anthonypainter.co.uk

Comments

Posted by Will Straw on 31 March 2009, 7:34:40 PM

Another fascinating article by Anthony Painter. One of the key points that Nick Anstead and I made in "The Change We Need" was the need for a 'cultural glasnost' within the Labour Party. But although we talk almost exclusively about what this means in terms of the Party's organisation, members also need to think carefully about what it means in relation to policy making. Two things struck me with Anthony's statement that "in order to energise a movement for change you don’t just lurch left." First, the old labels of left vs right appear to be very much yesterday's titles (as Cruddas and Collins engagingly outline in their fascinating discussion for Progress). Second, to the extent that lurching to the left means anything, it is not clear to me that Obama has avoided this (or whether it is a problem that he has not). For example, his policies on healthcare, climate change, AIG bonuses and many other issues are a dramatic (but sensible) relative lurch to the left. In the UK, we have the virtue of already being a society that is more equal and fair than the US. As social democrats, democratic socialists or progressives, we should all be committed to advancing social justice and equality further. This may mean that the time has come for policies such as a Tobin Tax (or local bond issuance which was another No Turning Back idea). A genuine cultural glasnost means that we should judge ideas on their merits, not where they come from.