The Revolt No-One Saw Coming

With support for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership campaign apparently growing by the day, what should the left make of this revolt from the blue? DAVID CONNOLLY crosses his fingers and pins his colours to the Corbyn mast.

It goes without saying that everyone has been surprised by the high level of support for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership campaign and there seems to be no obvious reason why it won’t continue to grow.

As has been widely remarked, by contemporary standards, he is the anti-candidate candidate. There are no frills, no spin, no personal attacks, an increasing number of substantive policy statements, he is driven not by cynicism but by idealism and, for once, he is someone who is able to express the meaning of ‘socialism’ in a language that is accessible to those who have a care for their fellow citizens. He also has an impressive record of campaigning which stretches over many years, albeit one that the ILP and others challenged in the 1980s on issues such as Labour Party democracy and Northern Ireland.

There is a wider international picture here. In America the sole self-declared socialist on Capitol Hill, Bernie Saunders from Vermont, is now campaigning for the Democratic nomination and recently drew 10,000 people to a rally in Houston, Texas, which is only 3,000 less than Barak Obama attracted in 2008 at the height of his popularity.

Likewise, in Spain the anti-austerity, anti-corruption Podemos continues to reflect the frustrations of millions while a majority of Greeks rejected the counter-productive policies of the EU in the recent referendum, even though their government subsequently buckled under the pressure from Brussels and the imminent collapse of the banking system.

The financial crash of 2008 has had many long term political effects across the world and, combined with the effects of Tory and coalition policies, the surge of support for Corbyn is also one of its consequences.

The fact that Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham are politically timid and Liz Kendall supports discredited Blairism obviously helps Corbyn, not to mention the crass interventions from Tony Blair, John McTernan and Alan Milburn. Having thought they had stuffed the Labour left into the dustbin of history, how galling must be its return as a force to be reckoned with. Threats from MPs to organise an immediate vote of no confidence if the outcome is not to their liking, and talk of an SDP-type split, only add fuel to the fire.

I have a lot of time for the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland but he is mistaken when he somewhat patronisingly suggests that Corbyn’s support comes from those indulging in a self-serving version of identity politics. It doesn’t, it comes from a strong desire to change the terms of the economic and social debate in the country. If politics is continually forced, pushed and bribed to the right, as it has been for many years, where does the hallowed centre ground end up? Sadly, it ends up with Harriet Harman in a policy panic.

Participatory democracy?

One fascinating aspect of the election so far has been the number of people who have joined the Labour Party as members, supporters or registered affiliates with a high proportion being young people. A low cost enrolment scheme was introduced in the 2010 leadership election but the take-up was minimal and its effects diluted by the electoral college structure.

While the recruitment of the young in particular is most welcome, I am one of those old fashioned people who think that when you call an election you should, as a matter of principle, freeze the voting list. Indeed, this used to be the standard practice . Clearly the current approach has exceeded all expectations in terms of recruitment but it is also open to abuse by those who did not vote Labour in the general election.

In a previous era the ILP argued long and hard for the principle of participatory democracy in a one member, one vote system for the selection of parliamentary candidates. This would have involved attending at least three branch meetings in a 12-month period in order to vote. That wasn’t achieved then and it certainly won’t be achieved now, but the idea that there should be some kind of active connection between the party and its members, beyond the life of the internet, remains valid.

That said, the new system has captured the interest of many thousands of Labour supporters who want to have their say and it brings a fascinating dynamic to an election in which a Corbyn victory, once inconceivable, is now a distinct possibility. He represents a direct challenge to the established economic and social orthodoxy, both inside and outside Labour, and his success would open up the possibility of a very different relationship with extra-parliamentary movements on a wide range of issues. He has enthused and re-invigorated many; he is the revolt that no one saw coming.

But there are also risks attached to a Corbyn leadership – the risk of having a leader with so few natural supporters in the Parliamentary Labour Party; the risk of a civil war in the Party involving more than just the hard core Blairites; the risk of a section of the core Labour vote shearing away; and the risk that, with the very best of intentions, this could be Labour’s ‘George McGovern moment’ (when the 1972 Democratic Presidential campaign was radicalised by an influx of youthful and enthusiastic anti-war campaigners, including the Clintons, only to be rejected by the wider electorate).

That said, I think there is no alternative but to take these risks, and I will be voting for Corbyn in the hope that, if he does achieve the ‘impossible’, his leadership will be open to constructive suggestions from all points of view on the left. Whatever the outcome, there is no doubt the Labour Party will have changed in the process and it will have to find new ways of engaging with its supporters and the wider electorate to build a progressive coalition for change.

In the meantime, fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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David Connolly is chair of the ILP. This article expresses his personal view.