By KD Tait
LABOUR have been consistently ahead of the Tories in the polls since the summer. This Autumn is a chance for the whole labour movement to take the offensive against a Tory government that has no plan except fighting amongst themselves over Brexit.
But although Theresa May is a lame duck prime minister, we will have to do more than rallies and sparring over the dispatch box to force an election and put an end to seven years of bitter austerity.
A serious campaign by the public sector trade unions, could breathe new life into the labour movement, strengthen Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party and provide a big boost to the growing numbers of private sector workers taking action. There is a danger that the Tories will capitulate on pay in the Autumn Budget, preferring to steal the credit than risk a confrontation with the unions – especially now the Labour Party, for the first time in its history, has a leader who supports striking workers.
The party has been in permanent campaign mode, with Jeremy Corbyn taking Labour’s manifesto to marginal constituencies, keeping up the pressure on the ground.
This year’s party conference in Brighton is expected to demonstrate Corbyn’s increasing control over the party – or at least the fruits of his compromise with the party’s apparatus. Whether the so-called ‘McDonnell amendment’ which seeks to reduce the ability of MPs to veto leadership election candidates will pass, or, as it rumoured be heavily watered down by the trade unions remains to be seen.
On this question, the old adage ‘watch your leaders’ bears remembering. The run up to conference is always full of posturing and manoeuvring by labour movement bureaucrats, but Len McCluskey’s comments that Labour’s membership should have a say in who makes the leadership ballot could have a sting in the tail. If members have a say, then certainly unions will want a say – and then we’re back to the old Electoral college system. Watch this space.
With the possibility of an early general election triggered by Theresa May’s resignation, a Tory leadership challenge or a defeat over Brexit legislation, we need to remember that the struggle to deliver a genuinely leftwing Labour manifsto is far from complete. For the Many, Not the Few set out a number of good policies – on housing, pay and education. But there were also serious concessions – on welfare, on education, on public ownership, on defence and foreign policy. Members will have to fight to change Labour policy on this if we want to avoid the fate of other leftwing parties who have attempted to challenge the privileges of the elites without having the nerve to take the necessary measures to stand up to their opposition.
One of the big problems we face is that though the left has a large majority amongst the membership no major democratic changes have taken place in the way policy is developed. Every positive change has come out of the leader’s office. The NEC is still finely balanced and the right are over-represented amongst the PLP and councillors.
This is most clearly seen over the Brexit issue, where despite the fact that a large majority of Labour voters and members oppose Brexit, the party remains formally committed to implementing it.
The struggle for democracy and political change inside Labour is proceeding at a glacial pace. With Momentum effectively reduced to an adjunct of the leader’s office rather than an instrument for Labour’s grassroots to develop their own policy and strategy, we need to look to the developing campaigns by fast food workers, the public sector and the migrant and refugee solidarity movement to bring the class struggle into Labour’s internal life.
That means organising the grassroots of the party and the trade unions to campaign for democratic control over elections and policy, and for a strategy to confront the governemnt and bring it down.
That’s what Red Flag is fighting for – if you agree, then join us.
