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If a #GeneralElection is called, socialists in #Labour can’t afford a “let’s get Labour into power and sort out the politics afterwards” attitude. We all want and need a Labour government, but *what kind of Labour government* matters greatly too.
The 2017 manifesto was a step forward but on issues like immigration it wasn’t qualitatively more radical/left-wing than the 2015 manifesto. Labour’s policy on the police (they’re great, we need more of them) has now been nicked by Johnson. And on many other issues, Labour is >
< still wedded to technocratic tinkering rather than the sweeping socialisation we need to address inequality and confront climate change. For example, Labour should commit to taking banking and finance into total public ownership to fund a massive expansion of renewable energy.
Then there’s the minor issue of Brexit. Labour’s policy has shifted a lot over the past weeks and months, in a positive direction, but there’s still some clinging onto the idea that Labour could renegotiate a better Brexit. Even though it’s committed to putting any such deal to >
< a referendum against Remain, the whole endeavour is a distraction. There is simply no “better Brexit” to be had. Any form of Brexit will detrimentally impact working-class loving standards and hurt migrants’ rights. Labour needs to commit full-throatedly to “remain and revolt”.
I think there’ll be a lot of pressure within Labour to knuckle down, our political debate aside, get on with electoral work, and “trust Jeremy, John, and Diane.” Challenging that might make you unpopular. But it’s vital.
Firstly, because Labour is fucked in the polls and needs to offer a genuinely radical - and clear - alternative to stand any chance of winning. Reheating 2017 and the “change-the-subject” strategy re: Brexit is almost certain not to work twice.
And secondly, because if we do win, we won’t be able to push the potentials of a left-Labour government to its limits if the left has been politically demobilised into mere electoral foot soldiers.
It’s not that I think Corbyn is going to “sell us out”; it’s that history tells us that without a critical, independent-minded, rank-and-file socialist left pushing for greater radicalism, the inevitable pressures on any left government will be too great to withstand.
