Letter from Mark Langabeer, Hastings and Rye Labour member.
I recently attended a Hastings and Rye Labour Party General Committee meeting. There was a motion, moved by a delegate from a Unison branch, which was critical of Labour’s Front Bench in relation to the NHS and the current disputes of its staff. The criticism included the leader’s refusal to attend picket lines, Army involvement and the use of private hospitals for NHS patients.
However, the motion was amended to exclude any criticism of the leadership. The mover of the amendment said that he had only experienced a Tory Government in adult life and thought that those that were critical of the leadership should leave the Party. Although the debate was relatively short, it proved to be a lively one. The amendment was narrowly carried. What I think is instructive, were the arguments of the right-wing. Radical policies are a vote loser, they said, and those who oppose the policies of Starmer should leave the Party.
Those of the left who advocate leaving the Party, or support disaffiliation, are giving aid to Labour’s right-wing. They should stay in and fight. The fact that it was a union delegate who was critical is a harbinger for the future. It is the kind of thing that will increase when Labour returns to power. My only criticism of the Unison delegate was his perspective. He thought that Tory-lite policies would result in a rerun of the 2015 General Election under Miliband’s leadership.
In my opinion, this is false, because the situation facing the working class is far more serious than in 2015 and I think the majority will vote Labour because the Tories are becoming so unpopular and there is no other alternative. The struggle for socialist measures will take place within Labour. As the former political editor of Militant and later Socialist Appeal said, “outside the labour movement, there is nothing”.
