- Coalitions of the Unwilling
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Coalitions of the Unwilling
A Workshop on searching for the left
The English left is at its lowest ebb for many years. A key marker for this is that at a time when a new leader of the governing Labour Party is beset by problems, probably the least of his worries is any challenge from the left of his party even though they disagree profoundly with his policies. And yet, paradoxically, this is also a time when a challenge to those policies could meet with a sympathetic response from many people.
Growth of market-based measures involving the private sector in education and the health service; increasing income inequality; renewal of Trident; involvement in overseas wars and subservience to US foreign policy; absence of any convincing commitment to policies that will cut carbon emissions; refusal to allow any significant growth in social housing; the erosion of social citizenship and the conversion of social security into a mere instrument of employment policy: all of these are sufficiently unpopular to suggest that alternative left policies could gain significant support in the electorate. There is widespread agreement that Britain suffers from a profound social malaise which can only be reduced by reversing the shift towards a society in which nothing stands between the individual and the dynamic of free markets save their own personal wealth.
The problem is that the left is scattered across several political parties and none. Those who belong to political parties spend much of their time trying, with greater or lesser success, to gain support for left policies in their own organisations and have little time and less opportunity to meet others with whom they share almost all political positions save that of party membership. Meanwhile, there is a large group of activists who have despaired of party politics and prefer to channel their energy into direct single-issue campaigns and another group, possibly the largest of all, who have given up any significant political involvement in reaction to the turmoil and betrayals of the past thirty years. How to bring these groups together in some common political agenda is the biggest challenge faced by the left today. In a very real sense, the basic problem of the left is that it does not know who or where it is.
We are holding a workshop to discuss this challenge on a non-sectarian and open basis without any pre-set conclusions. Some of the issues involved are:
- Just what constitutes a left political agenda?
- What is the basis for left cooperation across party and organisational divides?
- How can the left work in areas which form part of its basic agenda such as the environment and equality but which are held in common with others not on the left?
- How can electoral reform assist unity of action on the left?
- How can we reach out to people who have lost faith in organised politics?
- What can the English Left learn from recent developments in Scotland and Wales?
The first workshop will be held in Manchester on February 23. If you are interested in registering and in helping to promote the event please contact us at fbbritain@gmail.com
info@hegemonics.co.uk |