The Labour excuse factory is cranking into gear: poor campaign, no clear policies, Corbyn, PV... it's always done to deflect from ANALYSING THE NEW CLASS DYNAMICS... 1/ ... because that would involve thinking ... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
2/ That's why Jim McMahon's (Labour's campaign organiser) attack on "abstract theories" was so telling ... but it's not rocket science: values now determine voting behaviour - from Hartlepool to Hillsborough ... but... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
3/ The question is what's shaping the values. Answer: the new forms of exploitation and working class survival strategies... because contrary to Cruddas et al, work is no longer the defining political experience ... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
4/ (This incidentally is why the Labour right has suddenly woken up and started attacking the post-work left ...)... the point is that race, gender, sexuality, place, space, disability are all venues for class struggle - newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
5/ Starmer's task in a nutshell: to build an alliance including all the social liberal/economic left voters and *enough* social conservative/economic left voters: I'm confident it can be done... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
6/ Since common economic interest or workplace experience is no longer the glue that binds the exploited class together, and their survival strategies and ideologies diverge ... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
7/ ... only an explicit compromise and a narrative of combat against the real elite (ie hedge fund managers not "students and luvvies") can bind the two value-sets together... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
8/ This cannot be done thru Blue Labour Lite; Corbynism also had no real answers faced with the values problem (though some local activists did) ... but as @p_surridge says; you construct the alliance out of specific fragments of class identity...
9/ So if Labour now launches a policy process, the question it should answer is: what is the big eye catching, life transforming offer, arising out of the desires and experience of ordinary people, that the Tories cannot offer? newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
10/ My 5 demands: £190bn Investment programme; return to grassroots organising; the left back in the SC; talks with the Greens at all levels; tell a story of hope and resistance ... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
11/ And before you can win converts, you have to represent the people who actually vote for you: voice their values, but in a way that starts a conversation with those who do not share them... newstatesman.com/politics/2021/…
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