We must resist the urge to navel gaze for too long
After the cataclysm of Thursday’s election result, many Labour politicians have suggested a need for reflection on the party’s fundamental values, either before or in parallel with the leadership election.
That is, of course, necessary after such a disappointing result.
This reflection must not, however, come at the cost of leaving a political vacuum to the right. We must resist the urge to navel gaze for too long, given that we are possibly (and some say likely) less than twelve months away from a referendum on membership of the European Union.
The beginnings of a cross-party ‘in’ campaign are already in place, with Lord Mandelson as the key Labour representative. But the Scottish referendum clearly demonstrated the negative consequences of Labour being identified with an ‘elite’, ‘establishment’ consensus.
There are three reasons why a Labour (rather than cross-party) ‘in’ campaign could – and I hope, will – offer the first step towards rebuilding Labour.
First, despite the disappointing result, more people were engaged in political activity this election than ever before – the vast majority of them, with the Labour Party. No less than 200,000 people left their comfort zone to tap on doors and speak to complete strangers as Labour canvassers.
For many I spoke to, from Milton Keynes to Dover, this was their first experience of political activism. Labour as a party must ensure it is not their last engagement in organised politics. This can be done by offering people a meaningful role in an optimistic, forward-looking ‘in’ campaign.
Second, many of those new, often young (in age or spirit) activists were energised by the very values that Labour is trying to pursue in Europe. They abhor the xenophobia of UKIP and reject racism instinctively. They care passionately about increasing living standards, not just for themselves but across the world. They are disturbed by current rates of youth unemployment, and would be appalled by the job losses that would occur if Britain cuts itself off from the rest of Europe.
They are also often passionate about the need to tackle climate change and air pollution, viewing these issues as core to Labour’s progressive message.
A strong Labour ‘in’ campaign offers a chance to champion these values. It also gives Labour a chance to offer hope to young people, capitalising on the wave of support from younger people that arose in the latter stages of the election campaign (even if that did not always translate into votes, given the challenge we still face in getting younger voters to turn out in the same numbers as their parents and grandparents).
Labour should now repay that commitment by demanding that 16-year-olds be given a vote in this referendum, and redouble its efforts to register young voters, more necessary than ever before given the Tories’ new, US-style measures to make registration harder.
And third, a progressive ‘in’ campaign offers an excellent chance for local Labour parties to renew their links with trade union members. Just as it was the trade unions who made much of the running against UKIP over the last two years, so it has been the trade unions who have loudly and proudly argued for Britain’s continued place in Europe.
A strong Labour campaign, joint with trade unions, will not only be essential to mobilise ‘in’ voters, but also important in ensuring that Cameron’s ‘renegotiation’ does not remove the working protections and social rights that stop Europe from being just a trade club for multinational companies. It will also prevent accusations that the ‘in’ campaign is dominated by captains of industry and not representative of working people, a card that UKIP has attempted to play in recent months.
Labour activists, politicians and supporters will need some time to lick their wounds and regroup. But as soon as this is done, we must move quickly to mobilise again all those people who put worked so hard for a better, fairer future for Britain, and provide hope to all those who, despite all the smears and brickbats, did opt to vote Labour last Thursday.
Despite the spin, we know that there is a large body of support across the whole of Britain, and particularly amongst the young, for membership of an EU focused on jobs and living standards. Labour cannot waste any time in arguing for it.
Anneliese Dodds MEP is a member of the European Parliament economic and monetary affairs committee. Follow her on Twitter
22 Responses to “Comment: A progressive ‘in’ campaign is the first step to rebuilding Labour”
Peter Martin
There’s nothing progressive about the EU. There’s nothing progressive about the sadistic economic treatment of Greece and other peripheral EU countries. There’s nothing progressive about the likes of Herr Wolfgang Schäuble. A vote for the EU is a vote for Schäuble, or some equally unpleasant successor, calling the shots everywhere in the EU.
Labour would have won had they offered an EU referendum. Better a referendum under Labour than under the Tories which is what we’re going to get.
The assumption that UKIP would harm the Tories more was a big mistake. Does anyone remeber the 9% strategy now? How stupid was that?
There’s potential UKIP supporters everywhere. In a EU election they’ll all vote UKIP. But in this election, because of the lack of an EU referendum offer things were different. UKIP/Labour supporters were much more likely to defect to UKIP, or even the Tories, than UKIP/Conservative supporters who were being offered that referendum.
I could never bring myself to vote for either the Tories or UKIP. But, for the first time ever, I can’t feel any sadness about a Tory win. That EU referendum is a big consolation.
wj
I’ve read this through and found myself arguing with every point made – except the first maybe.
“Offering people a meaningful role in an optimistic, forward-looking ‘in’ campaign” is entirely different than whipping up lynch mobs to oppose UKIP – the latter was easy, the former not so easy.
And, how is belonging to the EU about “increasing living standards” or avoiding “job losses” – if anything the opposite is true; the young people of this country have been thrown on the scrapheap in preference for cheap Eastern European labour.
And why does the UK have to belong to a political union to have trade agreements with the EU.
And what have the traditional supporters of the EU done to deserve the unemployment rates being experienced now – Italy’s youth unemployment now stands at 43%, Spain’s 50%, and poor old Greece’s 50% – is this what the UK has to look forward to.
On the subject of climate change or air pollution – why is it impossible for the people of this country to fight for, and implement such measures through our own democratic process. I would have thought that it was
easier to mobilize the young for these issues than supporting a bureaucratic quango in Brussels. Bearing in mind that the EU is not always on the right side of these issues – bio-fuel policies were a disaster.
Your third point illustrates all too clearly the famous ‘disconnect’ in this country – Lord Mandelson, “progressive”, unions against UKIP – and you don’t wish to present yourselves as an “’elite’, ‘establishment’
consensus”.
With the Conservatives winning 36.9% and UKIP 12-6% of the votes in the last election, and making inroads into the Labour vote, Labour and the “progressive left” have to realise that the taken-for-granted connection between Labour and working class communities is no longer there; the Left’s love for the EU is not understood, and has nothing to offer ‘us plebs’; at best most people at street level are completely indifferent.
Wheeling out Mandelson and goggle-eyed progressives will have the opposite effect to what the ‘inners’ wish for. As an ‘outer’ I can only encourage you to carry on as you are.
theprog
Labour would have done better if it hadn’t chosen a Marxist muppet for a leader, a truth only publicly acknowledged by the Labour mandarins after the event. Thank God most of the electorate has more sense. The fact is that the majority don’t want any more steps to the left. Indeed, the signs suggest that most would prefer the reverse. Labour should also accept that a substantial number of its former supporters are not true socialists, given the rise in the UKIP vote.
Cole
Mikiband a ‘Marxist muppet’? What planet do you live on? He is a mild social democrat. You must have been reading the Daily Mail.
stevep
Despite the outcome of the election, There is still a huge left of centre consensus in the UK. The success of the Tories was their usual trick of making people take their eye off the ball and then apply divide and rule scare tactics. Their friends in the media ran the vilest, negative, most hate-ridden campaign ever seen in this country (and that includes the early`80s when newspapers sacked trades unionists and retreated behind razor wire compounds to print their pro-tory propaganda.). Despite this the Tories only hold a small majority.
Much has been made of the SNP`s success in the election in wiping out Labour in Scotland. All that has actually happened is there has been a colour swop from red to yellow, the voters are still left-leaning in Scotland, they want to part of the UK but with a slightly more radical voice, the SNP offered this. We can learn from it. Time will tell whether voters in Scotland will still be as enthusiastically pro SNP when Nicola Sturgeons band of Mp`s have had their Braveheart moment of lifting their kilts and scaring the English, but repeatedly come up against a three line Tory whip when trying to implement or influence policy and realise they are getting very little change out of them.
The Green Party can teach us much when it comes to a radical, progressive agenda for social change and again, Labour supporters would do well to study their manifesto.
Rather than indulge in a protracted bout of infighting I feel that we should celebrate the differences in our UK left-leaning community and find common ground on which to build a better society. Votes will fluctuate from one party to another over the years but as long as the consensus remains and can be built upon and we don`t allow divide and rule politics to affect us, We can be a formidable force for change, both within the UK and Europe.