No more asking nicely
JVL Introduction
Following the July 4 general election, is the left now in a position to build an electoral alliance outside of the Labour Party? Joe Todd writing for Novara Media says yes, but only if it learns from right-wing populist disrupter Nigel Farage who, “rather than avoiding rocking the boat … has made his name trying to capsize it.”
Having worked as Momentum’s press officer over two elections, Todd knows the limits of “the inside game of cajoling and persuasion.”
He celebrates the triumph of Jeremy Corbyn’s independent campaign and acknowledges the role of groupings such as Assemble and the Collective. He celebrates the success of pro-Palestinian independent candidates coordinated and resourced by The Muslim Vote and sees a possible electoral pact encompassing “a community-rooted Muslim party”, the Greens, an emboldened Socialist Campaign Group of left Labour MPs and a union-backed workers’ party.
A crucial question not addressed in the article is, how is the grassroots movement necessary to create a new, democratic party of the working class to be built? We also wonder if Todd’s optimism about the SCG’s readiness to capsize the boat will prove justified. But we cannot disagree when he says “No more asking nicely”.
NWI
This article was originally published by Novara Media on Thu 11 Jul 2024. Read the original here.
What Can the Left Learn From Nigel Farage?
Nigel Farage’s decades-long fight to reconfigure British politics is entering its next phase. Last Thursday, the Reform party achieved a five-seat foothold in parliament, and came second place in around 100 more constituencies.
The Conservative party now faces what could be an existential choice in its leadership election. One option is to plump for a liberal centrist like Jeremy Hunt or Tom Tugendhat and battle it out with the Lib Dems in the south east, ceding northern towns and coastal areas to Reform. The other (more likely) option is to elect a Kemi Badenoch or Suella Braverman and embrace Farage’s culture wars and economic interventionism.
With little formal power and – in his own words – without a single bullet being fired, Farage has successfully organised popular resentment against the status quo and reshaped British politics more than any politician since Margaret Thatcher. In a moment of new possibilities for the electoral left, and with a not dissimilar task ahead, the question is: how has he done it?
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Driscoll didn’t receive a ‘drubbing’; he lost of course but won a large vote.
Sadly, the Green Party does not look like combining with left forces. During the 2024 election they did not campaign in the Hampstead part of the Hampstead & Highgate constituency although they had a candidate on the ballot paper. However, they did campaign in Holborn. I asked them to withdraw from Holborn (in order to increase the chances of left-wing Independent Andrew Feinstein) but to campaign in Hampstead where they were likely to get good results with their ex-Labour Green candidate. They refused my logical request with a heap of cliches, mainly insisting that the Green party had the best chance to beat both Tories and Labour. In the event, their misguided optimism was proved wrong: Andrew Feinstein came second after Starmer in Holborn and, sadly, the Hampstead & Highgate Labour candidate sailed into victory without any meaningful opposition.
Farage took a popular and simple divisive line that the media seemed to like. He falsely blamed the austerity- inflicted economic hardships of many people, and the lack of housing and public services, on immigration, and related this to the EU. He repeatedly attacked the Tories for not resolving this.
What prime problem/solution theme would the Left select that would already resonate with most voters, and would be given adequate media cover?
There’s so many things in this article that left should look into it as we go forward. Our strength is outside of the party and we need to be brave, and bold to take the next step. There’s many that are coming to understand status quo is not an option. The left must come together and quickly to organise for the 2029 and bi-election that might follow. If we don’t seize the moment now we will be left behind and Reform will provide the alternative that many are looking for. Muslim votes and the community is here to stay and build on the strength we have. We have shown what we can do. Excellent article that needs to be discussed seriously.
The unspoken assumption at the heart of this article is that future socialist strategy depends on electoral alliances, parliamentary representation and the arithmetic of Westminster. Surely one of the most powerful, and probably unexpected, factors in the emergence of a parliamentary left, albeit small, has been the sustained, massive mobilisation of millions around Gaza. The Muslim ‘vote’ is a consequence of a profound political activism on the streets and in local communities bringing, amongst many others, tens of thousands of young people back into political action as a part of an impressive popular coalition. Without this movement, the election results would have been very different. The task now is to forge some kind of independent, unifying political action programme around which socialists (within and without Labour) can help bring together, support and fashion a popular, democratic movement.
In the short term the closest we’ll get is a Progressive Alliance based on Gaza, a wealth tax, and a Green New Deal …. expecting unity around more complex issues is unlikely but I’d offer these as a minimum
Comparing the left to rightwing libertarians maybe of only limited value, given the media and establishment treat the two groups very differently. When the US electorate got fed-up with being presented with yet another business-as-usual election between another Clinton or another Bush, the option of Bernie Sanders was in the offering. The media establishment gave the limelight to Trump rather than risk having to pay their fair share in tax again. It was the same between Corbyn and the normalisation of Farage over here.
More recently Leanne Mohamad came within 500 votes of ousting Wes Streeting. The Evening Standard electoral graph initially eliminated her from representation and seemed to show the Tories as second.
The first draft of the Independent’s news site’s coverage of the French Elections stated the right had come third and Macron’s neoliberal lot had come second. No mention of the fact the left had come in first.
Don’t expect the same benefits libertarians enjoy to be applied to leftists.