Labour – the new wilderness years

In the mid 1990s there was a superb BBC documentary on Labour in opposition called the Wilderness Years. It’s on YouTube. It’s bouncing around again at the moment for, well, obvious reasons. Labour was mighty close to extinction at various points in the early part of the 1980s. That it survived was luck as much as anything else.

There are obvious parallels between Bennism and Corbynism. I’d recommend watching the series to be reminded that Tony Benn wasn’t always the avuncular figure of his later years. In fact, he was deeply destructive and egotistical for the 70s and 80s. So are we seeing a re-run?

The answer is no. Bennism and Corbyn have ideological consistencies but the Corbyn for Leader campaign is no Militant entryism- Bennism became attached to Militant. The Corbyn campaign is quite a different phenomenon. It has the feel of a very modern political wave. It’s recognisable in the context of Scottish nationalism – a mini-version tapping the same sense of hope. We are not seeing the country rising up – nor will we do other than than to desert Labour. It is a mini-surge that will be reserved for the Labour Party and university campuses in the main. If the Corbyn campaign fails it will float towards some other entity- the Green Party or a range of issue campaigns.

The Corbyn surge is part-spontaneous mobilisation and part trade union mobilisation. Perhaps I was too hasty in describing a victory for Corbyn as a ‘myth’ last week. Though it was absolutely right to highlight the continuing lack of scrutiny of the two Labour centre candidates who have offered this contest nothing.

The politics of organisation was too lowly for our cerebral last leader. So when the OMOV election process was announced, no one thought to drive a mobilisation of supporters as we went along. The £3 supporters’ fee is set at the perfect level to encourage the very passionate but discourage a proper mass mobilisation of primary-style voters. There’s no place in this contest for those who are simply interested as opposed to ideologically driven. No one is mobilising them anyway. When Ed Miliband fired the starting gun straight after the election no proper mobilisation of leadership election voters could take place other than by those who were ready, ie the unions.

So now some on the ‘old right’ are calling for counter-organisation – winning back the party one committee at a time – and even suspension of the contest. It really is the height of nonsense- and just as outdated as much of the Corbyn platform. Labour, it would now appear, was a sitting duck. Only by mobilising a mainstream majority can it prevent this dash to the left. Or reverse it once it has happened. This is not Militant- Corbyn supporters are not threatening people (yes, I have seen the ‘purge’ blog- silly), they are arguing for political change and not of the revolutionary type. They have every right to do so.

It may be too late. Perhaps the momentum is already unstoppable and tens of thousands Corbyn supporters will join before the August 12th deadline. Last minute interventions by senior party and media figures may fail to scare members and supporters as we might expect. And then Labour will have Jeremy Corbyn as leader. Maybe, unlike the last wilderness years, Labour won’t get lucky this time.