The Left Horizons website is three years old today. It was launched this day in 2017, with the aim, we said, of “developing and promoting the Marxist strand of opinion within the Labour and trade union movement”.
We can be justifiably pleased with the progress the website has made in those three short years. It was always envisaged that the website would function as an “on-line newspaper” advancing a clear, consistent and coherent socialist analysis and reflecting the views and political interests of workers, especially its activists.
In terms of the articles and letters we carry month by month, what we are now publishing is at least equivalent to producing a sixteen-page fortnightly socialist newspaper. In the last three calendar years (ie counting from January), we have published 251, 296 and 335 letters and articles in each successive year. This year has two and a half months still to run, so the final figure is likely to be considerably greater (chart above). That is good, because we have no professional journalists, and we rely on our readers and supporters to provide all our reports, articles and letters. For all those contributions we extend our gratitude, with the hope that the articles and letters will continue to roll in.
We have supplemented the website with hard-copy publications, four booklets so far, and these we have been able to distribute at Labour Party and trade union meetings. Our hard-copy publications, however, have been suspended because of the pandemic and the absence of face-to-face meetings. Rest assured, they will resume as soon as it is feasible and worthwhile doing.
Social media is extremely shallow
We also now have a sizeable voice on social media, with hundreds of followers on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, although it is important to make the point that for us social media is primarily a ‘signpost’ to the website. Social media in general, is extremely superficial, and is not best suited to political discourse of any depth or detail. But it can be a useful channel to point workers and youth in the direction of articles that do carry more weight, as well as in the direction of on-line meetings and discussions.
The progress of Left Horizons has been helped, of course, by the bewildering speed of political developments. It might only be three years, but what years! Even the oldest activists in the movement acknowledge that we are living in unprecedented times, economically, socially and politically. That would have been true even before the coronavirus pandemic threw the whole world capitalist system into a nose dive, and now that is doubly or trebly true.
In 2017, we welcomed the fact that “for the first time in generations front bench Labour MPs are happy to describe themselves as ‘Marxists’ or at the very least to pay tribute to Marx’s ideas.” That is no longer the case, and the parliamentary leadership of the party are now guiding the party back to the dead-end of New Labour, albeit under a new name, New Leadership. But the underlying social crisis that created the Corbyn movement has not gone away.
On the contrary, it is getting more intense week by week. Left Horizons will not join the rush to leave the Labour Party. It is not enough simply to denounce right-wing leaders and then think “that’s it, job done”. It is necessary to go through the experience of the new Labour leadership with Labour and trade union members, patiently explaining the ideas of socialism and why capitalism in Britain and internationally is in a cul de sac.
Cuts in living standards
As we argued at the time, in relation to Corbyn’s two leadership victories, “The shift to the left which has taken place in the Party is no accident. It is a direct result of years of cuts in living standards for working class people, both in terms of their actual wages and in terms of the social wage – access to decent homes, education, health and welfare. It is the lack of a secure future under capitalism which has made socialist ideas more popular than ever before.”
In that sense, the phenomenon of ‘Corbynism’ is not the last, but only the first of a series of radical surges that will sweep through the workers’ movement in the coming years. Rather than the Constituency Labour Parties, the next one will likely be manifest in the trade unions – especially those affiliated to the Party – as their membership is battered by austerity, the pandemic and increased unemployment.
Labour’s most scientific, consistent and coherent expression
Workers in Britain and across the world will be striving in their millions to find a way out of the dead-end of cuts, austerity and the unceasing drive to challenge all the democratic and social gains of the last five decades. More than ever before the ideas of socialism will find an echo and be the subject of discussion and debate.
In our opinion, Marxist ideas are more relevant now than at any time. Despite all the attempts of the ‘expert’ academics, journalists and the political pundits – all those who have many times in the past declared Marxism to be ‘dead’ – they have never been able to eliminate a thirst for Marx’s ideas. We believe that our website and our ideas will play a role in that ongoing debate, discussion, and clarification of ideas. Within the labour movement, we believe, Marxism sits within its most radical wing and provides its most scientific and coherent expression.
Left Horizons will continue, therefore, to speak in the language of facts, figures, and argument. We will leave personal abuse, cynicism and uncomradely manners to others and we will address those activists who wish to engage in serious political discussion. We would encourage all our website visitors and readers to share our ideas on social media, to discuss them with other activists and debate them in the movement. But what begins with ideas needs also to take some organisational form. We would also urge, therefore, the creation of solid networks of Left Horizons readers in all regions and in all parts of the labour movement.
Better placed to build on our achievements
Not every aspect of the website we launched in 2017 has been a success and no-one is more aware of its shortcomings than are we. But we believe we have made good progress and, with the possibility of an ‘upgrade’ of the website soon, we will be even better placed to build on what we have already achieved.
We can do no more than repeat the words we wrote three years ago. “We will continue provide the political and factual ammunition to give confidence and articulation to those genuine socialists engaged in discussions and arguments in the workplace, in the pubs and in the bus queues. In the face of unprecedented political convulsions, nationally and internationally, our website will give voice to socialist ideas and socialist analysis, and we will be an authentic voice of socialists in communities, in the workplaces and in union and Labour meetings”.
October 16, 2020
