Labour after Blair

[Amusing Scrotum]

Labour after Blair.

It is time for the annual Labour Party conference once again. Brighton is full with Delegates, Ministers, Union members and Media workers. Whose main topic of interest and comment seems to be the post Blair era.

There seems to be a very one-dimensional outlook by all these people. They all ask, when will Gordon Brown become Prime Minister? What will Gordon Brown do as Prime Minister? And will New Labour remain?

The answers to these questions are quite obvious. When will Brown take over the Premiership? Within the next three years. What will Gordon Brown be like as Prime Minister and will he keep the New Labour flag flying? Well of course he will keep the New Labour flag flying. He is after all the co-author of the New Labour project. It is also; very unlikely that Brown will make a dramatic shift towards the left. He is after all the man who funded Iraq, PFI and many of the other disgraceful policies of New Labour.

So where does this leave the disenfranchised Labour left? For a long time they accepted Blair, because they knew there would be a time when Brown followed on. A time when Brown took the country by the scruff of the neck and dragged it to the left. However in his speech to the conference, he reaffirmed what some on the left have long feared. He is no more radical than Blair. That in fact, he is just another New Labour centerist.

Shock, horror and despair for the left? Well no, not really anyway. Brown has always been a romantic figure in the eyes of the Labour left. A member of the New Labour clique, who they thought still, remained true to his Socialist values. This however, is all smoke and mirrors and the Labour left seem to be realising that. Though I suspect they knew they were deluding themselves all along. Only recently at the TUC the Unions made the dramatic statement that their support for Brown was not a given, that to ensure their support, Brown must move further to the left. However in his speech to the Labour Party conference, Brown seemed to say little to make us think he has understood their warning. His speech, which Harriet Harman described as “a cross between Churchill and JF Kennedy - Churchill for the Britishness and Kennedy for the optimism and vision,” seemed to do no more than reinforce the cynics’ view that New Labour and Brown are in fact, indivisible.

So where does this leave the Labour left, now that their saviour has turned into a Blairite monster? Well I think, in a stronger position. Now that Brown has shown his true colours, he has effectively freed the Labour left from its political shackles. No longer must they remain quiet out of fear of hurting Brown’s future political career. Brown, who has long been the cancer of the Labour left, has planted his flagpole firmly in the New Labour project for all to see. And The Labour left, which consists mainly of the Unions and party members, all be it with a few Parliamentary MPs’, can rise up and pursue its own agenda. Free from Brown’s own personal agenda.

Now many of you may laugh at my optimism. You may think that the Labour left regaining is prominence is a dream, but comrades, it is a dream worth fighting for. You may moan that there is no figurehead of the Labour the Labour left, but comrades, as you well know. It is not the figurehead that creates the movement; rather it is the movement that creates the figurehead. Martin Luther King did not drive the Civil Rights movement; it was the movement that drove him. That is what we must create, a movement.

Ahead of us, is a huge opportunity. A historical opportunity. That if the Labour left is brave enough to take. Could propel the Labour movement in Britain, with Class War and Socialism at its helm, back to prominence.

We have seen over the last decade or so, that the Labour Party is in no way a Bourgeois Liberal Party. It cannot operate successfully as a Workers’ Party by pandering to the interests of celebrity parlour pinks and big business. The Labour Party, for it to be a party of the working man, has to find its foundations in the roots of the Party. These roots are the Unions, the Party members and the working man. Which are all, inherently Socialist.

The time for courage is upon us comrades. The time where the worker can rise up and snatch back his Party, the Labour Party and take it by the ear, kicking and screaming, and drag it back to where it belongs. At the heart of the British Socialist movement.

I doubt comrades, that an opportunity will present itself, which is as good as this one, for the Labour left and that is us comrade, to reclaim what is rightfully his. The Labour Party. Therefore we must be brave, we must be bold and we must win. For the future and the life and soul, of the British Socialist movement is at stake here.

On a sidenote, please tell me what you think. This is my first attempt at writing an article and even I think some of it is a bit trite. Though if you have any suggestions regarding improvement of my writing. I'll be most appreciative.

[OleMarxco]

Learn to use more "breatin' space" in-between paragraph's, but other than that, it's a cool article

As for the content's itself, I have to say I half-way's agree to your view on Blair; Yes, it's kind of "un-labourish" for a party that claim's to be LP (And if so case, they should change it's name to another-party, and another -Real- labor party should be made, withouth politic's part-playin' it's way to the burgerouise, 'cuz anythin' else than gov't stuff is goin' into hand's of corp's&#33 - New Labour is NON-Labour! :P

[Amusing Scrotum]

Learn to use more "breatin' space" in-between paragraph's, but other than that, it's a cool article

Thanks for the nice response.

I didn't use more "breathing space" because, after I copied and pasted it from wordpad, I couldn't judge where the paragraphs were. I'll edit it when I have some spare time, in order to make it more readable for everyone.

[Socialist David]

Labour need Tony Benn, he'd sort out all the 'New Labour' pish

[Amusing Scrotum]

Edited the post, to allow for some breathing space for the readers comfort.

Also other than Comrade Compassion and the banned Stalinist. Does anyone else have a particular view on this piece. Negative or Positive, its all good.

[John_worldrevolution.info]

Well I totally disagree!

Now many of you may laugh at my optimism

I fall very much into this category! The labour party has always been the party of trade union bureaucrats and politicians bent on restricting the working class. Kinnock proved this during the miner's strike of 1984, but during that period of time Tony Benn and the Bennites were posing a challenge to the party which could have led to a split or a takeover of the labour party which would have favoured the working class.

These days there is no leadership challenge what so ever to the careerist Blairites who are leading a massive assault on the working class and demolishing the remaining cornerstones of our welfare state. Education is being privatised, the NHS is being privatised and there has been an imperialist war declared on the Iraqi people. Where is the opposition? The 'labour left' has done nothing, with Jeremy Corbyn and the other even quieter traitors to the working class posing no challenge. All they do is speak at the occasional Stop the War rally and vote in a slightly awkward manner when it suits them.

The working class have rejected labour at the last election and only voted for them because there has not been an alternative. The party membership is at an all time low and the working class want a change. They want a new party to join and vote for. Bob Crow of the RMT (Railway Workers Union) has held many conferences on 'the crisis of working class representation'. The possibility of a new workers party is real and this is what we should be fighting for, not to reclaim the war party of privatisation which has finally revealed its self to be the Thatcherite disaster that socialists knew it would.

EDIT:

It is well written though and an entertaining read.

[Amusing Scrotum]

Thanks for the response John_worldrevolution.info.

Well I totally disagree!

I thought quite a few people would disagree with my stance, but hey thats life.

However after reading your response I found that I pretty much agree with you. I obviously take the position that Britain needs a Workers' Party, as you do. Though we disagree on the best way to achieve that.

Personally I think that reclaiming the Labour Party is an easier option, as the links with the Unions etc. are already there. However actually building a strictly Socialist Party, from the roots up, would probably allow a greater chance of success.
Though the problems of bourgeois infiltration would still be there, as they were with the Labour Party. Which in my opinion started out as a Socialist Workers' Party. Though this opinion is open to dispute.

I also agree with you about the passive nature of the current Labour left. And the aim of my article was to try and say that the Labour left should become more assured and confident. Therefore challenging the current Labour regime.
Though they will probably not do this, the opportunity is there. In my humble opinion anyway.

It is well written though and an entertaining read.

Once again thank you.

Although you may be against the articles position, which I don't mind at all. I am glad you found the article readable. I fancied writing an article for a while, although I wasn't sure whether I would be able to write an article to the standard needed to facilitate a debate. But been as you bothered to write a response, I feel incredibly happy that someone has taken the time out to read the article, and then offer a critique of it.

[John_worldrevolution.info]

I went to a meeting last night with speakers who had been suspended and victimised at work for being active trade unionists.

Speakers from the floor asked this guy what support he'd had from labour party councillors. He admitted there had hardly been any support. He also said that the labour party was his party and he was a loyal member who wanted to reclaim it. When asked how it could be reclaimed he had no idea!

It's time to dump the labour party by the wayside where it belongs!

[Amusing Scrotum]

Personally, I think that this kind of situation has a lot to do with the orders local Labour Party members are receiving from Head Office. Change the leadership and I think we'll see a change from the local parties.

I could be wrong, but I'm still willing to try.