Why The Left Will Gain From Labour’s Transformation

Why The Left Will Gain From Labour’s Transformation

Posted: 03/03/2014 | Author: The Political Idealist | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: austerity, Labour, LabS14, Politics, socialism, trade unions, TUC |Leave a comment

There was something surreal about the Special Conference of the Labour Party that was held this weekend to radically alter the party’s constitution. The reforms, which include the abolition of the electoral college for leadership elections; the revamping of the new “registered supporter” category of membership; and changes to the financial relationship between trade unions and Labour. That Conference would approve the changes was a forgone conclusion: Conference is just an elaborate pretence that the grassroots have any influence over the party.

Yet the reason the reforms passed with 86% of delegates’ backing is because most parts of the party think they stand to gain from them. Trade unionists and their allies (I include myself in this category) note that affiliated union members are likely to be better integrated into the party, enjoying a bigger share of the vote in leadership and mayoral selections, and with the new right to get involved in Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs). Blairites calculate that slashing payments made by union members to Labour will reduce the supposed influence Unite, the GMB and Usdaw unions have over the party. Also, the party’s right wing assume that they can flood Labour with new Registered Supporters who will help guarantee the awful centre-right domination of our party that was shattered by Ed Miliband in 2010. That’s why the likes of Tony Blair and even David Owen (who I will turn to later) were delighted with the changes.

I think that they’re wrong on both counts.

Firstly, trade unions and their members will be more important than ever to the party now: the effect of slashing donations to Labour from automatic affiliation of union members will be to boost unions’ “Political Funds”- pots of money allocated for political activities that are under control of union executives. More often than not, the bulk of this will go to the Labour Party- but with strings attached. Gone are the days in which union members fund large donations to a party that consistently marginalises them. No, unions will expect Labour policy to be firmly rooted in the need to support hardworking Britons, and that is no problem in my view.

The second miscalculation of the Labour right is that Registered Supporters will automatically side with them. “Blair’s heirs” work on the flawed assumption that the wider electorate all gravitate towards the centre, and that Labour’s winning formula is a combination of betraying its socialist roots and “selling” the party as a brand. But we do not live in the 1990s.anymore. Britain wants a party of substance, one that is not afraid to stand up for it. The same uninspiring old plan of slicing, dicing and diluting our ideas to build a suitably bland platform not only doesn’t cut it any more: it’s killing our politics. Turnout has dropped through the floor because voters are turned off by the weakness of our leaders. That’s why Registered Supporters could well side with figures who show the conviction and originality that voters are crying out for.

“Ordinary” folk do not think along left-right lines, but that doesn’t make them centrists.

In short, I think we socialists have everything to gain and nothing to lose from Labour’s constitutional reforms. It is our responsibility to build a labour movement fit to lead the nation- and the world- towards a fairer society despite the challenges and economic issues posed in this era of change. Let’s not blow it.