An argument for hope — an open letter to the post-Corbyn left
JVL Introduction
In a thought-provoking article, Christine Berry engages head-on with the disappointment and disillusion felt by so many of us on the left.
She engages critically with, and tries to understand the limitations of, the Corbynite movement – how much remained to be done and the enormous obstacles to delivering radical change had Labour won.
And she looks at the Starmer leadership, finding grounds for hope in the fact that Starmer doesn’t have a clear political project; political strategies can change in response to pressure and we need to be contributing to that pressure on him.
We need to be asking what we can do, whether in the Party and/or on the ground, not fixating on what the leadership is or isn’t doing.
Thanks to Christine Berry for permission to reproduce this article
This article was originally published by Medium on Thu 13 Aug 2020. Read the original here.
An argument for hope — an open letter to the post-Corbyn left
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Has the internal report taught us on the left nothing, there is no room for those who would rather see a Tory government
Until we resolve this issue once and for all there is no future for the party
I am afraid that Christine is apparently subject to the same ailments she describes. I, for one, won’t be getting anywhere close to John McDonnell, now or in the future. The World Transformed is not doing the things that that she herself describes as necessary.
Is Christine Berry American? She writes ‘alternate’ instead of ‘alternative’.
I don’t think many of us on the left would disagree with most of this. The two main ideas are that Corbyn and co were useless in key ways, and that Starmer may surprise us but that may partly be due to external factors – BLM, Extinction Rebellion etc are to large extent where politics that matter to many, particularly the young, has shifted.
But there are also two counters. One, think how much better things would have been if not for the saboteurs – if the Labour right had pitched in that would have at least addressed much of the Corbyn failings with expertise and support, and a pro-Brexit strategy should have been worked out.
Second, the witch hunt against the left continues and there is no mention of the weaponisation of antisemitism, which is one of the worst political smear campaigns I’ve ever seen. That cannot be ignored as people are getting letters now and tomorrow.
Such an interesting piece. Yes, there’s much to mull over here.
I do not much like this piece. It is too jargonised. It is over lengthy for not enough substance. As already noted, the antisemitism slant campaign, which was by far the most influential in preventing a Labour government, is not in it. After the relentless nastiness of the ‘mainstream’ media towards Jeremy, I am not in any mood for more unfair criticism. The only part of this piece with which I agree is that Keir Starmer seems without political beliefs. Keir Starmer is an opportinist. I previously said this within my CLP. I also said that Keir Starmer hopes to be another Tony Blair. I partially have to take this back as Keir is fast proving to be far worse than the original Tony.
There are a number of good points here – and I for one will not be giving up.
There were many reasons why Labour lost the 2019 Election – not all of them Labours fault! Illegal manoeuvres such as the proroguing of Parliament and the opposition to these had the end effect of extending the discussions on Brexit. This has Cummings thumb print on it – and his like – stir things up sufficiently and the public just get fed up with “them”. They subsequently vote in the most incompetent government we’ve had in my life time .. under the impression that they are “different”.
The slurs and lies about Corbyn undoubtedly contributed and to my disgust still persist. The object appears to be to tippex out the last five years as if they did not happen – as in photographs taken during Soviet rule to those who disappeared in real life too.
I think that building up from the grass roots is an excellent idea. The pity of it is that anti-Union legislation during the 1980s might make this more difficult in the work place. However attending to local “issues” as good citizens is a way forward.
I for one hope that lies and smears associated with the Corbyn years (eg anti semitism) will be rebutted and justice is done where possible to loyal party members who have given many years to the Labour Party. Ignoring these “for the sake of unity” is a false premiss.
May I concur with the view that we do – and always did – need to do the deeper ground work, getting Jeremy elected was never enough. Getting branches and constituencies facing outwards, being proud to be Labour fighting for Our NHS locally and nationally, supporting the climate emergency locally and nationally, offering good advice, alongside the unions, to people being forced back to work or being sacked: Labour needs to be seen as the Leadership in workplaces, communities, welfare struggles. While we may be despondent about Starmer, that shouldn’t distract us from being politically active locally and in national campaigns.
Hope without Optimism. Heard it all before. Look how they throttled Benn.
As mentioned before there is no hint in the article of the deadly smear campaigns operated by the mainstream media against the left-wing of the Labour party.
As Doig says, until the issues raised by the leaked report are resolved, there is no future for Labour.
Labour is no longer a safe home for democratic socialists. I am no longer convinced that Labour is even left of centre. Here in Scotland, Labour is all but dead and next year’s Holyrood election is likely to be the final nail in the coffin.
The Labour Party under Starmer is finished. The party under Jeremy was not strong enough they knew what was going on behind the senses and did nothing about it. The thing that showed me that Jeremy had know chance against the liars and accusers was when he allowed Hodge to swear and chastise him in front of all sorts in westminster and do nothing about it. When that happened the knew they had him.
As ever from Christine a deep and thoughtful analysis that looks ahead rather than stewing in a recent defeats. My one query concerns Starmer. I think he has a firm agenda. Evidenced by many choices such as his choic of Gen Sec, his close to relationship with NHS privatisers, his close dealings with the Security establishment,to name a few. However whether he is malleable or more sinister does not detract from Christine’s case:
I read this with relief. I have been distressed and concerned at the descent into enraged insults that have characterised much of the discourse on the Left. I think Corbyn, if he chose to, could prevent much of that, as he is still seen as the “Leader”.Apart from anything else they give an appalling image of socialism to people who know little about it and understand less. Most people in this country have a warped view of what Socialism means, but could support Labour policies that we would think of as socialist.
This is a thought provoking piece,but suffers badly from not considering the fabricated Antisemitism campaign. It is true that the Corbyn movement in many localities was not backed by solidly developed grass roots organisation and there is a need for serious discussion of what we mean by ‘Socialism’. The dilemma for people like myself,especially at age 81, is whether I can usefully contribute to developing the Left in the Labour Party.
The phrase ‘La La Land’ kept coming to mind.
No – I’m not blind to the fact that Corbyn was not the ideal leader, much as I admire him as an individual politician with integrity.
But to see much hope in *any* of Starmer’s actions (and I was willing to give it time) is wishing upon a star, when he is clearly the safe establishment fall-back candidate, installed after the most vicious, lying propaganda campaign that many of us can ever remember.
And then we have this example of the gullibility of the left, who have been absent without leave during this unprecedented assault on civil liberties that I have ever seen :
” Having just been spat out of a gruelling ‘once-in-a-generation’ election campaign, we have been flung straight into a ‘once-in-a-generation’ crisis.”
If you haven’t grasped that this is not a ‘once-in-a-generation crisis’ in any meaningful objective sense – then you haven’t been paying attention.
In fact, in epidemiological terms, this is, in fact only the *eighth* highest level of mortality in the last quarter of a century. In terms of my generation, (mid-70s), I have lived without pause through about two dozen worse epidemic surges.
‘Once-in-a-generation’? Go educate yourself with the facts – they are there; they are objective. This is a *politically* generated crisis (albeit a cross-national one), and the real epidemic is the calculated induction of panic and fear that has neutered democracy.
A ‘left’ that can’t even see the enemy isn’t on the road to success.
What has happened has happened before. History repeats itself, wrote Marx,in tragedy or in farce. If anyone wants an overview of how the Party has failed due to political cowardice they should Michael Foots biography of Nye Bevan. Several times Labour have been in a position to become the natural party of government. It has failed because it refused to adopt progressive policies. The Attlee Government changed our country by bringing in more radical policies than those put forward in the last two elections. Labour lost office when it elected an awful right-wing leader in Gaitskell and abandoned its radical programme which had done so much for the working class. Far too many elected Labour MPs have never been socialists of any stripe. My membership card says I am a member of a democratic socialist party. Many on the Right are members by false pretences. So many MPs have made a good living out of the Labour Party. So many have stabbed it in the back Desmond Donnelly, Richard March, Woodrow Wyatt, John Mann, Kate Hoey, Giselle Stewart to name but a few. The Blair Government is partly resonsible for the chaos in the Middle East and much responsible for the rise of the Murdoch dynasty. Anyone who believes a “moderate” Labour Government would bring about the changes we need in this country where every thing in in crisis should be very careful what they wish for. Power without real purpose is useless.
Of course the Corbyn leadership made mistakes. Of course we’d have faced an uphill task if we’d got into government. But I fail to see why it’s necessary to write at such length to state the obvious. The argument could have been made in 500 words or less.
There’s a power struggle within the Party and this kind of soggy Left discourse isn’t going to get us anywhere. Nor vacuous messages of hope. The Left needs serious analysis of where we are and what options are open to us.
But I’m fairly sure I’m not prepared to wait another 30 years for the Labour Party to give the Left another chance.
Well what can you say. I agree with some of it – Corbyn’s failure for example, but in fact think the paradigm shift happened. Just ahead of the NEC elections, we are, like the last ones In the middle of an uptick in the witch-hunt which is targetting Labour Councillors, veterans of the miners strike, and doubtless in due course, left wing NEC candidates. In that respect it is very disappointing that JVL has participated in the CLGA stitch up and worth pointing out that not one of the slate candidates thinks it worth campaigning against the IHRA definition, or repudiating the Board of Deputies ten outrageous McCarthyite demands, I don’t agree that we don’t know what Starmer is about – he has subverted the party for Zionism much in the same way Lansman did with his TWT nonsense, which was busy organising yoga sessions ( nothing against yoga in its time and place), while the right were planning their take-over. The only reason to stay and fight in Labour is to conduct the same merciless purge of those now doing the same to the left, but if that was not achieved under Corbyn, how realistic is it to suppose it will be under Starmer. Perhaps what we need is another Tory government in 2024 to make the penny drop and bring it home to people that Labour is part of the problem, not the solution.
I would like to be hopeful but I can’t find my way to it. I don’t think Corbyn got everything right – but he did make his opposition to the destruction of public services stick. I wish he had stood up to the smear tactics, and I wish the centre and right of the Party had tried to work with him. As Christine says, somehow, between them, they lost touch with the communities that make up this country. Now, when the current Labour leadership chooses the allies it does, it’s too easy for people to say politicians are all the same, and to ignore the scale of corruption in Government. Also hard for those who voted Johnson in to say they got it wrong. We know, too, how hard it is for the abused, as I think our population has been, to face the reality of their abuse… Christine suggests that we do have to face reality. The trouble is, how do we face the reality of this Starmer opposition without calling him and his Shadow ministers out? That’s not rancour, and if we don’t speak out then we end up with politics in place of integrity, and the danger of compromise as a consequence of choosing the wrong allies. So I hope the voices in JVL continue to stand up for those wrongly accused, and continue to develop a way of thinking that Starmer et al find they have to listen to. That way unification lies.
Have to agree with John Bowely. I find this post too vague and wordy. She feels Mr Starmer has no particular agenda? How odd! Mr Starmer has a rigid agenda which consists of expulsion on the slightest pretext of anyone who does not worship Zionism or Israel.
I am really not sure what this person is trying to say. Are we to hope that Mr Starmer just might, by divine intervention perhaps, eventually become amenable to concepts of democracy and socialism? With indecent haste he has proven himself to have NO interest in Labour Party values. He has, with a ruthlessness that Corbyn should have used, committed what can only be described as atrocities. Yet have we still to hope that he might yet see the light? Let us dream!
How much hope will we be left with when, if ever, the long awaited leaks inquiry reaches it`s inevitable conclusion, that no one really did anything wrong, that the plot was light hearted banter and when Mr Starmer awards the saboteurs with an apology and substantial payout.
I might feel hope if more people would ask themselves what were some SENIOR Labour Party members doing and/or thinking on general election night 2017.
This is the time for the Labour Party to bravely embrace the politics of Zarah Sultana and other outspoken Socialists fighting for the working class; speaking out for Migrants; making very clear that the real enemy is the Ruling Class. And always has been. However much we do this in our communities that work is undermined by a Leadership either afraid of the MSM or simply drawn back to the politics of Blair’s New Labour. It isn’t just a case of a befuddled Johnson Government of Public School boys but a class that will embrace anything including Fascism to maintain its privileges. A Labour Party that disallows discussion and turns its back on democracy as well as socialism is simply inviting in a terrible future. We need to fight for every gain made over the past few years. Difficult in these times. But we have no real choice. And that starts with defending every comrade speaking out against Israel on behalf of Palestinians. That is what JVL means to me.
I’m sorry but this article for , for all it’s good intentions? and constructive criticism? of a generic “Left”… reads in places, as others here have pointed out , as an appeasement to the abusive actions of Keir Starmer and his Allies, Labor Right and Others within and without the Party . Part of the naming alone addressed as it is to a “Post Corbyn Left” is quite disrespectful to Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.
The Strategies, “this new management” have been using over time … including weaponised provocations , Personal attacks, Denials and Lies of Omission and Commission are Designed to wear down, immobilise and silence those they see the Enemy , so they can “take back” what they believe to be “their” Party. Much of this is documented on this and other websites as we know
It is not acceptable to compromise with abusive behaviour . There can be no sweeping under the carpet of this weaponised culture of abuse. To do so would be to further corrupt , an already highly corrupt political discourse in the UK. In short, to compromise with Bullies .
Surely, its time for those who are choosing to remain in the Labor Party to consider working for the removal of this ” new management” from their positions and arguably from the Party itself ? That is, if The Labor Party is to move forward with any integrity as a force for sorely needed Social and Political Change!
Yes, Personally and Collectively, we need Hope in the ongoing struggle for Greater Democracy and fairer distribution of Wealth in the UK and around the world . But that cannot be a hope separated from actions based on Personal and Collective Integrity , , and the Solidarity of the Many working toward those ends. None of this is easy , and all of it is ongoing .
Don’t settle for despair and fatalism.
Do respond to these Threats with Solidarity while looking after ourselves and each other in the Process .
Corbynism v Starmerism? Nothing to do with it. The Tories won because they are smarter than us. They saw that Labour members are pro-Remain and our voters are pro-Brexit. ‘Get Brexit Done’ was all Johnson ever said and the voters liked what they heard. Get used to it. Cummings made fools of us.
Corbyn called it right, 2019 was no different to 2017, not honouring the brexit result was fatal
Temporary Embarrassment is stuck in no man’s land
Don’t comrades use paragraphs any more? I suppose it doesn’t matter now the only real issue before us is stopping the witch-hunt in its tracks and, as for the rest of it, there is less to it than meets the eye.