Letter from Mark Langabeer, Hastings and Rye Labour member
Remember Amber Rudd? She had the whip removed because of her opposition to Johnson’s Brexit proposals. Rudd made an appearance on the Laura Klunesburg programme, saying that the best thing that can happen is a slim majority for Labour, so that the Tories would be an effective opposition to Labour.
As a loyal Tory, she hoped that her party would remain in the ‘centre ground‘ because, she thought, they can only win elections from the centre. Experience tells us a different story. After Ted Heath’s defeat in 1974, the Tories moved to the right, under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher.
According to the pollster, John Curtice, the Tories have lost some support because Nigel Farage had decided that he is now the leader of the mis-named , Reform Party, and is standing in Clacton. He believes that Reform UK will replace the Tories, but I’m of the view that this is unlikely because the Conservatives will move to the right and pinch many of his policies, like blaming immigrants for deteriorating public services, introducing private health and abolishing inheritance tax.
Labour can only counter this by putting forward bold socialist policies that challenge big business and the so-called market system, which dominates society. This can only be countered by a programme that includes the public ownership of the big banks and large companies. Then profits and surplus could be used to improve the welfare of all, rather than just those at the top of society.
Some lefts argue that Labour could be replaced by some kind of alternative, a new party to rival Labour from a socialist standpoint. They see Labour as the same as the Tories, to use George Galloway’s expression, “two cheeks from the same arse”. But experience tells us that such a new party is unlikely. Labour a party based ultimately on four million affiliated trade union members, will not be immune to the pressure from below.
Our job is to not only to patiently explain the advantages to all of real socialist policies, but also to give a sense of perspective to the more politically advanced sections of the working class. We will get the movement for socialism that we need, but its arrival will not by-pass the coming struggles in the Labour Party.
[Photo from Wikimedia Commons]
