TMP Online

This is a guest post by a young labour party activist.

The Left, broadly defined, has become quite fractious and
fissiparous. There are left-wingers in Labour, in the Lib-Dems, in the Greens, in Marxist groups and in no party at all.

The Progressive London Conference aimed to gather together speakers from the capital’s left. As an attendee, I found some of the sessions interesting and some of the speakers good. Others, however, notably Harriet Harman, fell flat. People were not happy with the government’s record and with its rhetoric. As Deputy Leader of the Labour Party she failed to inspire people with confidence in the leadership or with optimism that the government was going to move leftwards.

Although all wanted to see a Conservative defeat, many of those present did not want a Labour victory. The Lib-Dems and Greens present would obviously rather people voted for them rather than Labour. Unless left-wing voters unite behind the strongest anti-Tory candidate in every seat, the Tories will benefit from the splits on the centre-left.

The Progressive London Conference seems to be the brainchild of Ken Livingstone. As such, it is partly to build his profile for his candidacy for London Mayor in 2012. To regain the mayoralty, he has judged he needs Lib-Dems and Green support [or second preferences] as well as Labour ones.

Given this, the key test he may have for Progressive London may well be whether the Tories can be beaten in the 2012 Mayoral election rather than in 2010.

On broader political issues, there was a clear view articulated that the cost of balancing the budget must not be at the expense of public services. It is in defending public services that the left can strike the strongest chord with the public .However I was disappointed at the two Labour councillors who spoke at the ‘Defending Public Services’ session for failing to strongly articulate the notion that both local and national public services ought to be protected from cuts.

Another issue touched on is that the trade union movement is in need of revitalisation. It is through trade unions that workers can get a better deal and that inequality can be reduced. As is natural for a meeting held at Congress House, there were a number of trade union speakers. Both Frances O’Grady, Deputy General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress and Len McCluskey Assistant General Secretary of Unite the Union, spoke passionately about the need for strong trade unions and for more left-wing policies. Len McCluskey’s speech in particular articulated a strongly left-wing line while remaining committed to the Labour Party. If he is elected Unite General Secretary, there may be hope of the union exercising some influence on the party to move it leftwards.

The cloud hanging over the conference is that of the recession. As we know, economic policy has been dominated by the City for too long. Ken Livingstone spoke of the need for more investment. It is right that we should invest more in infrastructure and more in manufacturing industry. We can not be dependent on the City for a large chunk of our GDP – as we were during the 2000s boom. However, speakers cited China as an example of a society that is taking the right route to tackle the recession. Although China’s investment and stimulus packages are to be admired, it must not be forgotten that it is a repressive authoritarian regime. And, furthermore, it is one that has become more financially corrupt and has dismantled some state industries and allowed the private sector to dominate some of the newer parts of the economy.

We must look for a democratic socialist way forward – and not be too seduced by the fast rates of economic growth in authoritarian state-capitalist China as it plays “catch-up”.

Progressive London was good in terms of hearing from speakers and trying to build links between various elements of the left. However, it was hampered by the lack of a clear consensus on the way forward. Disparate sections of the left now need to work together to stop the Tories and also to tackle the neo-liberal free-market ideology that has dominated and withered away democratic socialist ideas in the Labour Government.

This is a guest post by James Holland, a climate camp and a local community activist.
Please add your thoughts below and join the debate.

People who want to make the world a better place usually start with the big things – war, poverty, climate change etc and they usually look to make changes on a national and global level, because surely you can have more impact more quickly that way?

But I want to convince you that in fact you change more by working on apparently very small and local issues. ‘Politics’ as it is, is simply too remote and too conservative, you could spend your whole life lobbying governments and international organisations and get absolutely nowhere, but a few days working to help local people stop their school being closed or even just making sure that someone unfairly denied benefits gets what they’re entitled to could have a much greater effect. This is because in addition to directly helping those specific people the more we give people hope that sticking together and solving our own problems actually works, the more people will have the confidence to try it. In short working on small local stuff is a virtuous cycle of empowerment and small victories, whereas the opposite is true of ‘politics’ where even success can mean that people as a whole feel less able to do things for themselves.

And of course it’s not only for strategic reasons that working locally is better – we directly benefit from the improvements we work for and perhaps most importantly we start to feel like part of a community, something I believe we all want to some extent. But surely this approach can’t work for the biggest and most urgent problem we face – climate change? Well yes, and in fact I believe that it might be our only realistic chance. Copenhagen showed us that Governments are unable to make a sufficiently ambitious deal, and I doubt whether they could enact one even if they did. The only way for rich countries to start to reduce emissions on the trajectory required is for individuals and communities to just do it themselves. In fact it looks really simple if you look at it from this point of view – you have probably reduced your own impact drastically in the last few years, partly because other people you knew were doing it and it seemed like the right thing to do, so why can’t everyone else do the same?

This is already beginning to happen in the shape of the Transition Towns’ movement. OK, so these groups are still largely middle class usual suspects who are mostly focussed on ‘the environment’ as a single issue, but if TTs themselves or other related groups start to form that add the goal of tackling immediate, everyday problems that ordinary people face and build a really feeling of the community taking responsibility for itself then social norms have a strange way of gathering weight and then going over a tipping point. I’m not claiming it’s guaranteed to work, relying on inter governmental process for so long has meant that we have very little time but even if we fail then we still have built resilient, self reliant and healthy communities, and surely that’s better than what your left with after another failed international conference or lobbying of governments?

As I write my first editorial it is clear that the nightmare prophesied by Searchlight and others has become a reality.

A grinning Griffin and Andrew Brons entering the European Parliament may be a sickening sight for all anti-fascists, however there is some cold comfort when the truth behind the headlines is that the BNP have gained in popularity but Griffin in fact received a fewer number of votes than he received in 2004.

Nevertheless evidence is growing that the rise of the Rabid Right in Britain is becoming less of a blip on the political landscape. On Thursday, the lesser known English Democrats secured their first major electoral win when Peter Davies became the elected Mayor of Doncaster. Davies, a longstanding anti-EU and anti-immigration campaigner got elected on the promise of limiting the mayor’s wage to £30,000, abolishing “politically correct” (read community cohesion and diversity) council jobs and cutting translation services for non-English speaking immigrants.

This has resulted in Peter Davies vowing to end Doncaster Gay Pride event, not too dissimilar to Boris’ decision to end the Rise Festival. This comparison isn’t lost on them either as their website proudly proclaims Peter Davies as “truly the Boris Johnson of the north”.

In the fog of groans about the growing and gaining Right, The Multicultural Progressive will be a voice of a new and energised multicultural Left.

We make the call not only to debate new ideas but also to inspire others to act and organise. We aim to break out and open up cultural barriers and ghettoes by incorporating a range of voices in the debate about making a different and better world for all.

To breakdown barriers, friction and diversity is needed and a variety of opinions will be embraced rather than avoided. From Centre-Left to Radical Left, we aim to present and be a bearer for social innovation, to champion social projects, community initiatives and people that are making progressive and real change in low to middle income people.

The guiding thought behind our articles and debate is how our beliefs in solidarity, egalitarianism, liberty and democratic socialism can bring about a better world.

TMPOnline will not just be a showcase for exciting projects and initiatives but also ideas. We believe that politics isn’t about chasing the gossip of Westminster village, but about the fundamental and important questions about how our society is organised and run.

In addressing those questions the new TMP Online will reflect on the contemporary issues and questions that impact multicultural Britain; on internationalism versus immigration, combining ecology and economy, and opening up ideas perceived by some as “special interest” from feminism to pan-Africanism. Tough and intriguing questions on popular culture as well as politics will be tackled.

Before I end this post I’ll leave new subscribers with a glimpse of what to expect in the coming weeks from TMP:

1) As public disaffection with New Labour and Parliament grows and as even establishment papers such as the Times calls for constitutional reform we will look at the question of what constitutes a real democracy?

2) From Church to Reggae – is black culture institutionally homophobic?

3) What shape will the defence of public services take when Budget 2009’s cuts kick in 2011 under a probable Tory government?

4) Does the politically slow response to the climate crisis mean that we should prepare for an age of austerity?

5) What and where are examples of working class communities successfully resisting the recession?

Interested in writing on this blog? Contact Justin@tmponline.org