If there's one thing for certain following the disastrous general election result. those of us who are serious about building an alternative to the Tory party have a lot of thinking to do.
The other certainty is there is no unanimity about the way forward either.
On the one hand a few masked Anarchists think that confronting the police in Whitehall and defacing monuments will spark a rebellion, whilst the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition deludes itself with overstating their election results, conveniently ignoring the fact they garnered just 0.6% of the vote and one of their local council candidates entered the record books with no votes whatsoever.
Some are calling for "General Strikes", the vainglorious PCS General Secretary rabbits on about the need for unity (despite the union leadership not so surreptitious backing of the TUSC) and lectures on democracy despite cancelling his own unions election.
If unity was needed it was during the election itself behind the only viable alternative to the Tories that of the Labour Party.
More than that there is a failure to recognise that the old fashioned platitudes from the left do not really appeal to most people outside their own ideological ghetto.
The Labour Party leadership election will expose the same old fault lines that have plagued the left for years as left-wingers still talk about posh boys, even in their own ranks. A reference to Chuka Umunna the favourite to win the race at the moment.
Jeremy Corbyn and the Ken Livingstone seem to think pulling to "the left" is the solution as do the far-left who remain on the fringes not just of politics but of reality itself.
The masses remain unimpressed.
The old left politics have failed.
Even now Andy Murray the old fashioned communist is talking about "Popular Fronts" along withe likes of the tiny and irrelevant Counterfire organisation, friends of Jihadi Johns mates in Cage.
Not impressed.
Not one bit.
The old left has had it's time.
The time really has come for some radical thinking. A recognition of the world and the real aspirations of the people who live in it.
The arrogant methods of "vanguardism" and talk of "false consciousness" (in plain English means the workers don't listen to their self appointed Marxist leaders) has had it's day.
Put those weighty tomes from the false prophets back on their shelves.
Time to come up with new ideas for the future. New ways of organising. Leaning how to talk to people and not shout or lecture the masses on what's good for them.
Unlike the "comrades" I do not claim to have the answers and anyone that does is fooling no one.
Times have changed and the left has not caught up.
The future lies in combining the need for human rights, free speech with a programme of social fairness that matches up rights with responsibilities and avoids the politics of hate and envy.
The future begins now.
And it's success depends on you.
No comments:
Post a Comment