In December 2010, months after Labour lost the general election to a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition and Ed Milliband won the Labour leadership, I commented on a discussion on Facebook about the Millibands and the events and changes in the Labour Party that I think have not only led the party away from its roots but where mainstream politics as a whole have failed us.
During the years of Thatcherism and the Tories and the rise of neo-liberalism the Labour Party remained true to it’s basic principles. The problem was that in doing so it couldn’t get elected. This is because the neo-liberals had the working class and the rest of our society stitched up by preying on our aspirations, making it alright to get into debt in order to have the things which our families could not have before. Things were more desperate before, there were still back to back houses, houses with no bathrooms etc. So it was easily done. What that meant was that less people were likely to vote for old Labour because it could mean sacrificing this false notion of a new found prosperity, sacrificing aspirations.
Ed and David grew up during these times, their parents did not.
By the time we got to the early 1990s The Labour Party was still struggling and could not win elections.
Then the struggle from within. Those that wanted to keep on with the Labour struggle, and those that saw that in order to elected in those times it appeared that the party would need to change. Or at least appear to change. Since the rise of neo-liberalism and up until recently there has been little appetite amongst the average person for radical change. The Tories had drugged the people of this country with consumerism on credit. Made the real working class and the unions the seem like the enemy of the people because they threatened this neo-liberal pseudo utopia. So, the only sure way for a party like Labour to get itself elected to government during those times was to sell out to neo-liberalism and as a result we got New Labour. The Millibands, regardless of their family background, were really part of this. They did not fight to save old Labour, old Labour was, and is still radical compared to the neo-liberal status quo. The radicals within the Labour Party were played down or they left (about half of the Brighton Green Party are old Labour). Great Labour veterans like Tony Benn left (in order to spend more time in politics!).
Now we find ourselves in a time when society is polarising. The cracks are appearing in neo-liberalism. But we’re in a transition period where nothing is certain anymore. It still looks, at the moment at least, like neo-liberalism will still win elections. We are bound by the global situation and the legacy of both Thatcherism and New Labour. There is still a bad taste in the minds of many people about old Labour, unfortuately. People don’t want to give up or sacrifice anything for the good of the whole. I’m sitting here in an office with many of them right now, working for big business. The other day we had a message from our new union rep. Some people said “I hate the unions”.
When Labour lost the election they had a choice. I think the grass roots really did want to get a flavour of old, true Labour back. But to be truly progressive. People wanted people like John McDonnell to stand. They didn’t. What Labour got was Milliband vs Milliband and neither of them representing where Labour originally came from. Neither of them really stood up for real Labour during the neo-liberal years. They are a product of neo-liberal politics. Instituationalised. When one of them was elected, very much by the Unions (who are the reason Labour really exists) one of the first things the new leader did was start to attack the unions. The next thing he did instead of standing up for fairness and the workers who made Labour, was to openly talk about protecting the “middle class”. This is code for protecting the neo-liberal status quo.
It is clear to me that unfortunately the likes of Ed Milliband have no Labour balls, they were most likely castrated by neo-liberal Thatcher and Blair. It might not be their fault, they might not be bad people but if people want Labour back they are not the right people to do it. Labour had a real chance to turn it all around, the right people didn’t even stand for leadership. Either because they lacked enough support, sadly, or that they were essentially forced to stand aside for other more neo-liberal candidates because at the top of the party think that is the only way they will get elected again.
The alternative would have been that the party could have convinced itself that it needed to not only shed the New Labour brand but also the Neo-liberal path that New Labour represented. The party could have elected someone like John McDonnell. It could have stood up for what Labour was and should really be about (as my Grandad fought for, a Labour and Union man) It could have accepted that in doing so, at least for the time being, it may not have been the best way of getting re-elected to government and Labour might potentially have to wait longer. Better that than selling out though I think. Look what happened to the Lib Dems. They could have stood up for what they believed in (if they could have worked out what they believed in first!), let the Tories have a minority government and been stronger in opposition, gained support from the people and been a more effective opposition than Labour as it had just come out of government and needed to elect a new Leader. Instead the Lib Dems went for the short term power and in doing so showed themselves to be cowards. They’ve shot themselves in the foot for the rest of history. New Labour may have done that to Labour and Ed Milliband is doing nothing to turn it around. He’s still walking down the same path really.
