By Steve McKenzie, Unite member
The failure to confront reality and deal with certain problems was a fundamental reason for the failure and ultimately the collapse of the so-called ‘Corbyn Project.’
Jeremy’s failure to confront, challenge and expose the nature of the bogus anti-Semitism smear campaign from the start, was an unmitigated disaster.
The disgraceful behaviour of the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party, senior full-time officials of the Labour Party apparatus and right-wing trade union bureaucrats was never challenged.
Those around Jeremy, who should have known better, adopted a strategy of appeasement and apology. It was a futile attempt to achieve unity, with those who were ruthlessly committed to undermining and crushing Jeremy Corbyn, and everything he stood for.
This woefully defeatist approach reached its zenith in September 2018, with the unanimous decision of Labour’s NEC to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. That, in turn, facilitated an intensification of the smear campaign and the witch-hunt.
A fortnight later, at the Labour party conference, the right wing and the soft left, conspired to ensure that the open selection debate was pushed off of the agenda. This meant that the membership of the Labour party would continue to be deprived of the opportunity to select their own parliamentary candidates.
What does the failure of the left signify?
What does the left’s tragic failure to confront and deal with these issues reflect? What caused this failure at the highest level of the party?
Does it show that the ‘mass membership’, wasn’t really a mass movement? After all, four fifths of the membership failed to get involved in the Labour party in any way at all. Was Corbynism simply a shallow and superficial cultishness for most of his supporters, that was restricted to hero worship?
A childish illusion that somehow Jeremy Corbyn was going to wave a magic wand and make everything alright? Or was it a fundamental failure that is inherent in reformism, seeking compromise at every twist and turn? Adding compromise to compromise, until in the end it capitulates and does the bidding of the establishment?
Sir Keir Starmer
The election of Keir Starmer as the leader of the Labour party is an indication of how weak the Corbyn movement really was. No-one could seriously think this knight of the realm was anything other than the Establishment’s man.
His performance to date, in relation to the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, has been so lukewarm it is pitiful. Starmer’s reluctance to speak out strongly and hold the government to account is inexcusable. His response could be politely described as lacklustre at best. This is despite the fact that the government’s sheer incompetence, has helped to turn the coronavirus crisis into a catastrophe.
If Starmer refuses to criticise a government whose failure to act appropriately has caused thousands of unnecessary deaths, it is clear he isn’t acting in the interests of ordinary working class people.
Labour’s Governance and Legal Unit
In relation to the leaked document exposing the GLU scandal in the Labour Party, Starmer’s lack of action would seem to indicate that he doesn’t have the interests of ordinary Labour party members at heart. The disclosures in the report, exposing the activities of senior full-time officials in the Labour party apparatus, undermining the Labour party for factional aims, is perhaps one of the biggest scandals in Labour Party history. If this had been left-wing officials undermining a right-wing election campaign, it would be the political story of the year.
The failure to process allegations of anti-Semitism, and then using that failure to smear Jeremy Corbyn was outrageous.
The manipulation of resources, in the course of the 2017 general election campaign, when Labour came within a few thousand votes of being the majority party, is perhaps the most treacherous act in the Labour Party’s history.
A QC, two baronesses and a former GS
The alleged sexism, racism and bullying by senior staff members, is reason enough on its own to suspend the individuals involved and in any other organisation the alleged perpetrators would have been suspended, pending a disciplinary investigation.
The fact that this has not happened and instead we have an ‘independent inquiry’ headed up by a QC, two baronesses, (one a prominent Keir Starmer supporter), and former Labour Party general secretary and witch-hunter Lord Larry Whitty, should tell all but the most naive everything they need to know.
The investigation is supposed to be reporting by July. The words ‘wash’ and ‘white’ come to mind, not separately and not necessarily in that order. The outcome, we can guarantee, will focus on why the report was written, why it was leaked and as little as possible on the content, despite the inquiry remit. The Establishment wrests back control of the Labour leadership
It is clear that the Labour party leadership is now back in the hands of the Establishment. The one-sided civil war that has been waged against Jeremy Corbyn for the last four and a half years is all over bar the shouting.
A short-lived victory?
However, the ascendancy of the right in the party, the establishment’s fifth column, could be very-short lived. The absolute ineptitude of the Tory government and the failure of Labour opposition’s to hold them to account, could result in a dramatic swing back to the left and much sooner than expected.
The social, economic and political effects of the coronavirus crisis will mean that things will never be the same again. But will there be a stable left movement, built on firm foundations, this time? The key question is, can a genuine left movement, and a stable left leadership emerge, based on a commitment to confront and overcome problems, next time around.
Industrial work at a basic level
It is plain to see that the focus for work in the movement, has shifted to the workplace and the trade unions. There are a thousand and one industrial issues that need to be confronted: in hospitals, care homes, shops, building sites and other workplaces, the length and breadth of the country.
Ranging from the lack of PPE, to the failure of employers to ensure social distancing. From workers being laid off when they should have been furloughed, to wrongly being forced to take annual leave, or being pressured to come to work when it was clearly unsafe. The list is endless.
What is desperately needed at this moment in time are workers who are not afraid of confronting a problem, to come forward and take the bull by the horns. For example, a worker in, say, a privately run care home, where there is a reported case of coronavirus but inadequate supplies of PPE.
Taking out a grievance, preferably a collective grievance, and joining and getting fellow workers to join a union is clearly the way forward.
Identifying precisely what the problem is to the company, quoting the legislation, regulations, government advice and guidance, that the employers are in breach of, and identifying what a satisfactory resolution would be, is clearly what needs to be done.
Staff and customers put at risk
A similar approach is applicable in many situations. Take for example a store manager who is allowing too many customers into a shop, which means that social distancing cannot be adhered to, and staff and customers are put at risk. The process is exactly the same with the collective grievance going to the store manager.
There are all sorts of examples that can be used, but they will all have something in common: it needs someone to step forward with a bit of determination and a willingness to confront, challenge and overcome problems. Those with the backbone and the drive to take up these issues are tomorrow’s shop stewards and union branch officials and they will emerge, I’m sure.
It is only by taking up the challenge at this level that there will ever be any chance of rebuilding the labour movement effectively.
The old, ineffective, non-confrontational, approach, so favoured by middle-class Corbynistas was always totally wrong and in practice proved to be an utter disaster. Problems need to be confronted, challenged and overcome, not shied away from using the self-justifying apologetic language of ‘unity at all costs’.
A qualitatively different approach is desperately needed if firm foundations are going to be laid and our unions rebuilt. New members need to be recruited to the industrial wing of the labour movement, the trade unions. Above all, new activists will need to come forward if the shop stewards’ networks and a serious movement is going to be built. Challenging injustices in the workplace and rebuilding our unions at a rank and file level is the essential first step.
A strong trade union base is needed
A strong base in the unions will be needed to rebuild a strong and competent labour movement, one capable of challenging the 1% and the Establishment.
An essential prerequisite to this will be confronting and overcoming the institutional corruption in the Labour party and the trade unions.
That is what will be required if we are going to build the sort of strong and determined movement that will be needed to effectively confront the ruling elite and their establishment. We need to transform our own industrial and political organisations and part of that is sweeping aside the dead wood in the Parliamentary Party, the Labour party apparatus and the trade unions.
Next time round the Aegean stables will need to be properly cleaned, and that, as we have seen, will not be done by apology and appeasement and an abject failure to confront issues.
May 4, 2020
