As part of the publicity campaign for the weekend’s Progressive London conference George Galloway had an article on the Guardian website which was reprinted on Socialist Unity. In it he reminds readers of the Victorian levels of inequality in his constituency and the unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Two things over which the Labour Party has had an opportunity to exercise some influence.
Respect is standing parliamentary candidates in more than the three seats he identifies but the candidates’ objectives in all of them will be to provide an alternative to class inequality, war and racism. It’s what’s left unsaid in the article that is interesting. Referring to the 2008 London elections he argues that a progressive coalition emerged. This would have been the campaign to re-elect Ken Livingstone as mayor of London. Jumping to 2010, and by extension the participants in the Progressive London event George Galloway says “we are engaging across the board with those who want to defend traditional Labour values” and “those who want a fairer and more just society need to band together and stand on principle”.
We’ll take for granted a familiarity with the guest list and the records of the participants. What the article opens up is a space for reflection on what the purpose of an organisation of Respect’s modest size and profile has to offer in the months before and the years after the election.
To a certain extent George Galloway is arguing that its function is to serve as the real Labour Party in those seats it is contesting, defending the traditional Labour programme. This is something he does incredibly well and without that strand to his politics he could never have unseated Oona King. However what Respect has failed to do is to have much of an impact on influencing the debate on economics or Labour’s rightward shift. If anyone has managed to emerge as the comprehensible voice of economic theory it’s Vince Cable of the Liberal Democrats and they are as much in favour of cuts as Peter Mandelson.
If Respect, or any other small left of Labour current, is to have a chance of shifting the terms of political debate it’s self-evident that it will have to start looking for alliances. But with whom and to what end? A perspective of being a small pressure group in Labour’s slipstream is not an appealing one but that is the logical consequence of uncritical engagement with many of the forces represented at Progressive London. The structure of an event like that prevents real political clarification as it is premised on the idea that everyone at it is more or less in agreement on the fundamentals. Sooner or later the question has to be put “wouldn’t you have more influence over Labour policy if you were in the party?” As happened with Ken Livingstone this establishes a trajectory of returning to the Labour fold. Yet the evidence of the post John Smith years is that the cabal around the leader can do pretty much anything they want irrespective of either party traditions or the majority sentiment of the membership.
That’s the major reason Labour has seen a decline in membership. Combined with its neo-liberal drift that’s leading to an erosion of its working class base which opens up both a space for parties like Respect and a debate in the unions about an alternative political representation. The strong possibility of a Tory victory will lead to a consolidation of Labour’s working class vote in all but a couple of constituencies and temporarily mute the debate around union support but that does not invalidate the medium term project of building a class struggle party to its left. George Galloway’s article and the recent one by Salma Yaqoob are both contributions to a discussion about where Respect locates itself both in relation to those sections of Labour which are willing to differentiate themselves from its neo-liberal direction and forces outside the party which are likely to come into struggle with whichever government is elected.
Only an imbecile (or a Tory) would prefer a Tory to a Labour victory. A Conservative win would adversely affect the balance of class forces for years. That’s not a part of the discussion. The real issue is whether or not Respect uses the elections to set itself up as a mini Labour Party in exile, rather like those members of the Church of England who are getting ready to return to Rome or whether it takes the chance to build itself as a possible pole of attraction to all those who are revolted by New Labour for exactly the reasons George Galloway set out. The strategic choice being posed is a return to Labourism or creating a party of struggle which fills the void in British working class politics. Putting the question in that way helps you work out who your friends should be. They probably won’t include Harriet Harman.
Liam redux 
Leave a reply to bill j Cancel reply