The Power of Delusions

With a General Election on the way the DGS devotes this editorial to warn against the power of delusions. Neo-liberalism is no longer a coherent political ideology and we are in new political territory. For the first time in a generation, the political centre ground, successfully occupied by Labour, is starting to crumble. Consequently, New Labour is lost, a party without a compass. Always bereft of a core set of meaningful values New Labour now offers no settled electoral strategy either.

At present Labour is neither neo-liberal nor social democratic. Instead it acts more like a gigantic zombie unsure which way to turn. Some on the left, despite everything that’s happened these past thirteen years, still cling to the belief that the zombie might put its left foot forward - such is the power of delusions.

Unfortunately, the enduring narrative that Labour is the lesser of two evils, and/or only a vote for Labour can stop the Tories getting in, will probably ensure a difficult election both for pro-independence parties and smaller left forces in general. In Scotland, Labour’s sycophantic unionist allies in the tabloid press have been repeating the big lie for some months now – that a vote for Labour in Scotland can somehow prevent Scotland being saddled with a Tory Government it didn’t vote for.  Despite the political history of 1979-97 telling us an entirely different thing empirically, it is clear this unchallenged propaganda offensive is having its usual effect.    

For the first time in two decades, the Tories look likely to form the next Westminster government. Make no mistake about it, the Nasty Party are back. Cameron and his rich friends from Eton have tried to delude the British public into thinking that a crisis that began in the financial sector is a crisis of public expenditure. To put it rather crudely, the party of the rich wants the British public to pay for the irresponsibility of greedy bankers. They are not the only ones, however.

Both the Liberals and New Labour, plus the mainstream media, have bought into and are actively promoting this idea. Whoever wins the fixed two party race at Westminster intends to make sure public services and working people pay for the greatest post war crisis of capitalism. The differences are of timing and degree. Anyone suffering under the delusion that Labour has changed after 13 years only need to look at two announcements made earlier this week (10^th Feb). The first was a Labour government announcement that the air Search and Rescue service was to be privatised, the second a Labour Party manifesto ‘float’ to the effect that a returned Labour Government would pay informers to snitch on so called ‘benefit cheats’.

None of this is to suggest that there is any sort of electoral equivalence between New Labour and the Conservatives, however. The Tories will be a disaster for Scotland and for the whole of the UK. Firstly, although the differences between the two are ones of degree, thirteen years of being in opposition will ensure that that the class prejudices of the Tories - cheered to the rafters by the tawdry Little Englander press - come to the fore, and that a vicious assault on the public sector, the unemployed, the disabled, against comprehensive education and the NHS will inevitably follow. Secondly, we know from previous recessions on a world scale that the best way (within capitalism) to get an economy back on its feet is through Keynesian polices geared towards sustainable economic growth. This means state led intervention. As one economist succinctly put it, the only way to get out of a hole is to grow out of it. But for the Tories this is anathema. They want to shrink the state and instead of enabling the public sector to spend us out of recession they want to slash public sector budgets which will inevitably lead to mass unemployment. Labour, if re-elected will also make cuts which will have to be resisted, but sometimes differences of degree and timing are important. It would be delusional for the left to think that it makes no difference who wins. This would be ultra-leftism at its worse.

For this reason, although DGS will continue to argue that the principle task of the left across the UK is to work towards new united broad green left parties capable of bringing new ideas to the table, and capable of filling that electoral space that exists on the left, we can understand why some activists and voters will hold their noses and vote for the party of Iraq, PFI, privatisation, and the biggest gap between rich and poor for forty years.

In Scotland, there will be few seats, if any, however, where there can be any justification for voting Labour.

But for those who cannot stomach a vote for Labour, who cannot forget about war or PFI or many of the other aspects of Labour’s wasted years in office, what are the alternatives?

In Scotland, the SNP appear to have lost the early momentum they won by positioning themselves a social democratic party to Labour’s left, and there is a clear correlation between that loss of support and abandonment of that left of centre ground. There are times when they seem unsure of what they stand for. Yet we should not forget that whilst the SNP might be in office, they are not in power. The devolution settlement allows Scotland to choose any path it wishes, so long as it’s neo-liberalism, within the block grant and doesn’t fundamentally challenge the power of the Westminster British state. We should not lose sight of the fact that the election of a Tory government in England, imposed on Scotland, will put the ‘national question’ firmly back on the agenda.

Beyond electoral politics it is worth noting that the election of the third term Thatcher government in 1987 was followed only eighteen months later by the biggest movement of mass civil disobedience, protest and civil self organisation ever seen in Scotland  (and one year later in the UK)  that is, the anti poll tax movement. This mass movement, which was community rather than trade union based, saw the defeat of Thatcher and a renewed confidence on the left in Scotland which directly led, in turn, to the notable electoral successes of the SSP from May 1999 to 2005. It is possible that a similar mass movement to resist public sector cuts, involving communities, activists, environmentalists, anti cuts campaigners and trade unions, could help galvanise and unify the left in the austerity years that lie ahead.

Electorally, for the left, the short term remains one of limited opportunity. For the candidates that do stand it will, in the main, be an exercise in flying in the flag, an opportunity to give people a protest vote, to raise socialist ideas with small resources and small voices, but not much else. The far left vote has shrunk to an electorally insignificant hardcore. Despite this, the left remains divided. A starting point might be to admit our problems. Engaging in hyperbolic rhetoric about being the biggest or fastest growing socialist party, or being the only vehicle for socialist unity is seen by many as being cut off from reality.

We would also caution against the illusory idea that the trade unions will help create ‘a new worker’s party’ any time soon. There are honourable exceptions to the rule, but most unions and union leaders have failed to break with Labour despite its atrocious betrayals of the last thirteen years. Under a Tory Government the likely narrative will be to get behind Labour for the next general election.

In any case, we would argue that a new Old Labour Mark II led by trade unions is not the best way forward for the left. The DGS is not interested in repeating history, either as tragedy or farce. We repeat, the task ahead is to forge new broad green socialist parties in the relevant national parts of the UK, parties that draw on trade unionists and non-unionised workers, environmentalists, anti war and civil rights campaigners, community activists, progressive thinkers and practitioners in the public sector, and progressives within the cultural and scientific communities - a new type of party that can fill the electoral gap that exists on the left and begin to break the Gordian knot of the old establishment politics, and of the British state.

In the general election the DGS will call upon our readers to vote for candidates who are socialists, who are pro-environment and for radical action to tackle man made climate change, who are pro wealth redistribution, pro trade union and pro public service, and who are prepared to take a stand against working people being asked to pay for the crisis in capitalism caused by the bank crisis and bailout. We ask our readers further to vote for candidates with a clear record of supporting human rights and a genuine equalities agenda, of opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and of opposition to nuclear weapons. In Scotland, additionally, we will call on our readers to vote for candidates with a clear commitment to independence.

Sometimes you have to deal with that’s on the table. Imperfect coalitions or informal agreements not to stand against one another in specific seats may not be what anyone would choose in ideal circumstances. But at the moment it’s all there is. Yet some on the left seem content to throw away an opportunity for electoral unity in what could have been a dress rehearsal for the all important Scottish elections in just over a years time.

Socialists are adept at dealing with bad times. Too adept in our view. Delusions are powerful. It’s all too easy to hide in the comfort zone of party politics or the line, or to retreat into what the recently deceased Daniel Bensaid called ‘the hideous sea of action without a goal’. The DGS continues to call for left unity. We appeal to our fellow socialists, whatever their tradition or party, to take part in the existing initiatives that are on offer and to help take them in a positive direction. At the very least we should be prepared to engage in a discussion,  because it’s when we engage in dialogue that we realise that what we have in common is greater than what divides us. The task for all socialists is to learn from the mistakes of recent years.

This magazine will continue to make this point, even if it gets to the stage of being repetitive, and we will continue to warn against the power of delusions.

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