OPEN LETTER TO JEREMY CORBYN AND JOHN McDONNELL
7 May 2021
Dear Jeremy and John,
I have been following the Hartlepool by-election and local election results from yesterday’s ballots. They are grim results for the Labour Party, even if not much of a surprise to many of us. But they have set me thinking again about possible routes towards socialism.
Like many others I re-joined the Labour Party on Jeremy’s election as leader. I take John’s point that there is a sense in which the cart was before the horse: instead of a political movement sweeping a socialist leader of the Labour Party into parliament, a socialist leader had been elected before a movement had been properly formed. Momentum, a leaderless movement with at times too much leadership, could not in the event fill the gap.
Anyway, Jeremy’s victory gave real hope for transformative change, as reflected in the rapidly growing Labour Party membership and the progress made, against all the odds, in the 2017 general election. In the run up to the 2019 election the fabricated attacks on Jeremy from the mass media grew in intensity. What was more disturbing to many of us was that many in the PLP continued openly to manoeuvre against him and that the Party bureaucracy was no less intent on replacing him. The antidemocratic character of the Party was an uncomfortable revelation to many members – I had myself been suspended by the Party for using the word ‘Blairite’ in a tweet in order to prevent me voting in the second leadership election – though as a sociologist I was perhaps less shocked than some others. After all I had read Ralph Miliband, of whom more later.
Keir Starmer’s election as the new leader of the Labour Party was a disappointment to many, and I resigned my membership when I saw his appointments to the shadow cabinet. It was a decision that was easier to make after the Party had replaced our duly elected local parliamentary candidate for the 2019 election (no satisfactory reason was ever given) and parachuted in a replacement from outside the area. Since then, as you know, it has been downhill all the way. In contrast with Jeremy’s attempts to unify the Party, Starmer has neutralised the socialist contingent of MPs, and even suspended Jeremy’s membership. To add insult to injury he has embraced the pro-Israeli lobby, having observed their protracted attempt to brand Jeremy as anti-Semitic in the ultimately effective project to prevent a pro-Palestinian socialist becoming PM. I have to say here that I was one of many who thought you were far too accommodating to this lobby. Indeed, a case might be constructed that you were far too accommodating also to the PLP and Party machine.
I have argued that the period immediately after the 2019 election and the emergence of Starmer afforded a window of opportunity for a breakaway and the formation of a new socialist party. That window was always set to close rapidly, although yesterday’s results might see it ajar once more. You might respond by saying that the Labour Party remains the only possible vehicle for the social transformation that we socialists want urgently to see. I must mention Ralph Miliband’s analysis again here: he purported to show, and recent events have surely confirmed his thesis, that the Labour Party as presently constituted will never be the agent of a socialist transition.
The fact that you both remain committed to the Party, despite its machinations, will suggest to some that you will ultimately go down as parliamentary backbenchers with a sinking pro-establishment, pro-capitalist Labour ship. I appreciate that it’s ‘a job’, and that you both take representing your constituents very seriously. You are also seasoned and sterling campaigners whom I much admire. I am aware too that I do not have full access to the ‘inside story’ (though I have read widely); in other words, I do not know how many of your fellow MPs would join a potential breakaway grouping. You might protest that a breakaway group and a new socialist formation in parliament would be a form of collective suicide because many of you would likely lose your seats in the next general election. A riposte might be: you are committing collective suicide by staying.
I for one am not prepared to wait another generation to see if the Labour Party might once again be steered leftwards. No more can the working class wait. We are all aware that the resistance to socialism in the UK is rooted in abiding social structures of class, race and gender. Defended by vested interests it will indeed, as John has intimated, take a people’s movement to mount a worthwhile challenge. Incidentally, I have several times posted a blog to the Corbyn Project, setting out some ideas about how to build coalitions locally, but I’ve heard nothing back.
I want to conclude with two remarks. The first is to thank you both – and of course the tens of thousands of activists (including members and ex-members of the Labour Party) who accomplished so much in the lead up to 2017. I don’t know how Jeremy in particular coped with the truly awful character assassinations he was confronted with. Maybe, as some have said, neither of you was ruthless enough in facing down the opposition within and without the Party. Too decent and considerate for your own good? But second, I want to urge you to think seriously about founding a new socialist party. The iron is no longer hot in my view, but after yesterday it has warmed up. A considerable membership would be guaranteed, with a bias towards youthful activism. Your 2019 manifesto was superb and, let’s not forget, popular. With a sizeable and active membership and some union support, you would be up and running, financially as well as politically. Yes, it would be risky; but it seems to some of us that this is now the only optimistic option for a decade for more.
Very best wishes,
Graham Scambler.