The Labour right is on the offensive against "post capitalism" and the UBI. That's nothing new - and we need to understand neither side can impose its agenda on the other - but they're wrong: here's why 1/ newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
2/ By "Labour right" I mean the pre-Blairite "old Labour" MPs largely represented in the Fabian Hearts & Minds pamphlet... they argue the party needs to "represent" small-town ex-industrial culture... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
3/ Some, like Yvonne Fovargue, say anti-racism, human rights and radical redistribution (aka "freebies") are secondary to "our core communities". Leave aside your outrage at this, they are just stone cold wrong... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
4/ Capitalism as a time-limited system was never a problem for the social-democratic right, because they had no intention/vision of overcoming capitalism... but since 2008 they're at a loss... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
5/ The arguments for a radically expanded commons, for a low-work week/year/life and for state intervention to make that happen are a) as old as socialism b) the core of Marxism c) shaping the 21st century left newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
6/ Labour's Jon Cruddas is right to attack the anti-humanism of the Pomo left... but there's nothing accelerationist or anti-humanist about the Postcapitalism project... (see here) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…
7/ The point is, however, to decide the political content of the alliance we need to build between both the right of the PLP and the centre/left, and the relevant mass base... as I argued here... medium.com/@paulmasonnews…
8/ The UBI, free broadband and human rights have become, for the Labour right, what nationalising the top 200 monopolies and the miners' strike were to their predecessors in the 1980s... fine but this time around it's the left's program that makes sense... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
9/ The solution - a radical economic offer, modelled on Biden's 10% of GDP pro-cyclical stimulus, combined with social-democratic offer on crime, housing, defence... the right has no arguments against tax, borrow, print and spend anymore... but...
10/ The sticking point is migration and "identity politics". You may want to return to anti-migrant rhetoric and anti-woke verbiage (I don't), but it has no electoral upsides and many downsides... that's what we're about to find out... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
11/ The fact is there's a progressive majority in the UK electorate, and when the Labour right pander to the Mail and GMB agenda of (some of) their constituents, they are alienating the allies we need to form a govt... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
12/ Finally, large numbers of people sense capitalism as a system is trashed - by 2008, by Covid and by the imperatives of climate change. If scarcity-based socialism is dead, so is scarcity-based Crosslandism... there's no point to it... newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
13/ If you cling to it, you just end up being a cultural shop steward for people who don't like modernity. newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…
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