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Where we go from here
The
trade union leaders known as the ‘awkward squad’ are clearly intent
on propping up the Blair regime by refusing to mount a serious challenge
to it. That is why they avoided putting down a resolution on Iraq at
Labour’s conference in Bournemouth. Blair told them in no uncertain
Thatcherite terms that he was not for turning, knowing he was dealing
with people whose bark is worse than their bite.
Kevin
Curran, the new general secretary of the GMB union, made it clear after
the conference that all the efforts would be placed on “developing a
manifesto that will help re-elect this government for a radical third
term” (Independent, October 5). In other words, the ‘awkward squad’
is devoting its energy not to fighting this reactionary, capitalist
government but to improving it in time for the next election. The only
thing awkward about this group is their inability to grasp principles.
The
stage-managed New Labour conference resembled a populist rally. Delegates
cheered a prime minister who had co-led the imperialist invasion of
Iraq and in his speech attacked asylum seekers, defended ‘foundation’
(privatisation) hospitals and tuition fees for students. What the conference
also demonstrated is that at constituency level, the party is dominated
by Blairite supporters. New Labour is a totally different organisation
to the former party, which it has overthrown. It cannot be “reclaimed”,
as the union leaders wistfully hope. It is tied hand and foot to the
state and to the global corporations that call the shots.
Meanwhile,
the Stop the War Coalition organised a demonstration on the eve of Labour’s
conference. The official demands of the march were restricted to a call
for an inquiry into the invasion of Iraq. Organisers of the 40,000-strong
march couldn’t even bring themselves to call for Blair’s resignation.
Now the coalition is asking people to write to Blair,
politely asking him to tell Bush that his planned state visit
next month is off! This takes pressure politics to a new low.
There
are reports that George Monbiot, the noted anti-capitalist globalisation
campaigner and writer, is joining forces with others to launch a new
coalition. This is intended to challenge New Labour at next year’s European
and local elections. The new coalition is intended to include peace
groups, Muslim faith organisations, socialists and others.
Once
more, it seems, we are being asked to divert our energies into an electoral
campaign where the turnout is certain to be extremely low as a result
of massive indifference and disinterest in traditional politics. This
is the result of the transformation of parties like Labour into managers
of the market economy and the fact that increasingly people have to
make to their own pension, health, education, transport and housing
arrangements.
This
disenchantment is something we should welcome and build on. Surely,
we need to concentrate our energies on building a movement that argues
for and elaborates a comprehensive alternative to the world of globalised
capitalism and what passes for politics today. Under capitalist globalisation,
particularly in Britain and the USA, democratic life is whittled down
and rendered meaningless. The power and influence of the corporations
knows few bounds. We have to make the right to vote mean something by
extending democracy rather than accepting the status quo of meaningless
local and European elections.
That
is why the Movement for a Socialist Future is supporting the call made
by the Network for Economic and Political Democracy for a conference
next year to take forward a strategy for fundamental and progressive
change. The provisional agenda rightly includes plans to discuss and
decide on proposals for developing a democratic system beyond Parliament
through local People’s Assemblies with real power. We need to reshape
the state, getting rid of privilege, ending the power of the secret
intelligence agencies and reorganising the police and justice system.
In
place of private corporate power, the conference proposes a strategy
for democratic, social ownership and control of economic and financial
resources. There is a plan to discuss solutions to the environmental
crisis and use science and technology for the common good. We support
the intention of linking with movements in other countries and putting
forward alternatives to the European Union of big business. The task
or organising a movement to achieve these aims in practice is obviously
central to such a conference.
In
promoting his new book, The Age of Consent, Monbiot argues: "Our
task is not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it, and to use
it as a vehicle for humanity's first global democratic revolution. All
over our planet, the rich get richer while the poor are overtaken by
debt and disaster. The world is run not by its people but by a handful
of unelected or underelected executives who make the decisions on which
everyone else depends: concerning war, peace, debt, development and
the balance of trade. Without democracy at the global level, the rest
of us are left with no means of influencing these men but to shout abuse
and hurl ourselves at the lines of police defending their gatherings
and decisions. Does it have to be this way?"
You
can’t disagree with his analysis. The central ssue is do we offer a
fundamental challenge to globalised capitalist economic and political
power, or do we fritter our energies away in building futile, electoral
pressure groups? All the evidence is that protest and pressure won’t
change New Labour from a capitalist government or the way the corporations
do business. Their first duty is and will always remain to their shareholders
and the markets
The
massive anti-war movement revealed a illingness to challenge the status
quo. Our way forward is to build on this with the objective of mobilising
the mass of people to shape their own future by taking history into
their own hands. It’s not the easy option but it is the only practical
way to transform society.
