Thread by @MrBenSellers

🧵 on #Jubilee2022: Parts of the left have become so defensive & lacking in confidence that they are swallowing a Blue Labour politics that has been discredited time & time again. (1/21)

Just to be clear, Blue Labour isn’t Blairite - it’s the strand of Labour politics that has its origins in the old Labour right & emphasises “faith, flag & family”. It fundamentally believes that the working class are unmovable in their social conservatism. (2/21)

The Jubilee is a gift for these people. The pressure to go along with this ‘bread and circuses’ is overwhelming & think Blue Labourites prey on the insecurities of that section of the left which buys a mythologised version of working class past & present. (3/21)

They see opposition to the monarchy, the pomp of the Jubilee, or even the day-to-day flag waving patriotism, as being a dangerous distraction, a sure sign that the left is dominated by “metropolitan” outsiders. wokesters who don’t understand the working class. (4/21)

The right & centre of Labour have already made their choices. They’ll wrap themselves in the flag & bang the drum for jingoism/monarchy, in the desperate hope that it’ll ingratiate them with a working class they hardly know. It’s about winning the next election for them. (5/21)

Let’s just think about that for a moment. It’s an interesting interpretation of why Labour has been abandoned, in the north & in other working class areas, and a convenient one too. (6/21)

Not because of the policies over many decades, which did nothing to reverse deindustrialisation, privatisation & casualisation, you see. But because Labour wasn’t conservative & patriotic enough. (7/21)

I think this is completely wrong. It is based on a wholly patronising & reactionary view of working class people & their communities. It treats the working class as a monolith while ignoring their varied struggles too. (8/21)

If it goes unchallenged on the left, it will take us on a road where the space for socialist, democratic politics in this country is shrunk, to the point of complete irrelevance. (9/21)

I first saw the signs of this when I was working for @jeremycorbyn. Whether it was what Jeremy wore to remembrance services or the national anthem or versions of #poppygate, in reality we did little to resist the narrative that obedience & deference were the only options. (10/21)

Once, I saw two advisors punch the air when they thought they had persuaded Corbyn to sing God Save the Queen - after 4 decades of republicanism & opposition to the monarchy as an institution. No doubt they thought that would lead to electoral victory too, but it didn’t. (11/21)

What it did was confuse and silence a very important and strong argument for democracy, accountability & decency, which we could have won, with a little more confidence & bravery. (12/21)

I’m not interested in opportunistically doing things I don’t agree with based on anecdotal stories & mythologies about the working class. What a focus group tells me is of little relevance here. (13/21)

I’m interested in changing minds & winning hearts in favour of a different type of society, a more modern one that looks after it’s people & gives them respect & dignity, housing & secure jobs. (14/21)

There is a pull towards patriotism, authority & hierarchy amongst all sorts of people, sure. That has always been there, throughout history - and it becomes a particular draw in times of crisis. It’s what often drags societies towards fascism. (15/21)

Our job, as socialists, is not to fatalistically accept this, but to oppose it in the minds of people & to build alternatives in their imaginations. (16/21)

People say it’s not the right time - as if those who are building this authoritarian future are somehow going to lay down their arms & allow us a bit of space to put our arguments at some unspecified time. I’m afraid that’s not the way it works. (17/21)

We have to create that space ourselves, precisely by challenging the common sense of the likes of the #Jubilee & the faux patriotism that goes with it. It means fighting for something very different. And people aren’t always going to like it. (18/21)

But, in the longer term, that battle will bring dividends for the left, unlike the acquiescence to Blue Labour. Because, once you scratch the surface, the majority of working class people aren’t deferential much at all. (19/21)

Much of the flag waving we do see isn’t deeply rooted, but paper thin. And this moment of huge crisis - if it’s used to make socialist and democratic arguments - can be a huge eye opener for many. (20/21)

But we can’t sit there in silence, hoping that we will slip socialism, democracy, republicanism & internationalism in under the radar. People don’t like it when I use the word cowardice. So, there’s another phrase for that: magical thinking. (21/21)