The right have differences of opinion too, but are much better at coming together when it matters
Post-election, we’ve seen the inevitable flurry of analysis from left-leaning political pundits, politicians and commentators about why the Labour Party drastically failed to win a majority.
What went wrong, why the party failed to engage voters, and vague suggestions of what to do about it, mainly centred on the need for reflection and new leadership.
Electing the right opposition leader to present a real challenge to the Tories is certainly a priority. But what of civil society?
The community groups, trade associations, charities, NGOs, social enterprises, think tanks, and individuals who don’t agree with Tory cuts that are increasing poverty in the UK, who marched against austerity last weekend to demand an alternative, who want to see a fairer society for all.
What are they doing to improve the chances of power being in the hands of a more progressive government? Unsurprisingly, there are lots of individuals and groups calling for change and action, as well as some actually doing something about it, but not in a joined up way. And herein lies the problem.
Journalist Sunny Hundal published a piece on Labour List last week called, ‘Why the left keeps crashing and burning, and what to do about it‘, claiming that activists on the left tend to lose momentum and let their campaigns fizzle out because of a lack of strategy and planning beyond protests, leading to in-fighting, poor timing and weak implementation.
Hundal makes three simple suggestions for what to do:
1. Build infrastructure and fundraise
2. Avoid clichéd and lazy messaging (a la UKIP) that alienates potential supporters
3. Get young people voting
All good suggestions. So how do we get there? When I tweeted Sunny to ask when he was organising an event or discussion to decide how to put his words into action, he half- jokingly suggested someone else should do the work. But who?
Though Twitter is alive with debate, I haven’t seen a show of hands to take this forward.
Beyond protests – which certainly have their value – we need someone to grab activists by the scruff of the neck, sit them down and facilitate a structured and clear conversation designed to generate a broad agreement on why the movement is failing, what can be done about it, who can do it, and how.
Many of us are familiar with this process when mobilising campaigns and movements, so it seems crazy that we can’t get it together for ‘the left’ as a whole.
From what I’ve gathered, the main problem is that no one is really sure who exactly the ‘left’ is or should be, and don’t feel they have the energy, money or time to tackle the differences that have divided people in the past.
But I think this is where the ‘right’ have always had us. They know the left is divided, poorly funded and thus badly organised. They feed off it.
They also have differences of opinion, as we can clearly see amongst front and backbenchers of the Conservatives and with the rise of UKIP, but when it comes to crunch time i.e. an election, they pool together and unify their messages, presenting a stronger face to the voters.
We cannot let this go on. Mass mobilisation isn’t easy, but with so many savvy digitalists, campaigners, thinkers and organisers around, it shouldn’t be impossible. We just need to take the first step. A discussion: a room, some tables, pens and paper, the internet and a few laptops.
I’m in, and willing to help organise. Who’s with me?
Natasha Dyer is head of the London office, DHA Communications. Follow her on Twitter
29 Responses to “Why can’t the left get unified?”
robertcp
A major problem is the first past the post system. Many people in the centre and left do not like the Labour Party but they know that standing against the Labour Party only helps the Tories. We had a chance to reduce the extent of this problem in 2011 but most of the left did not seem to be interested in campaigning to change the voting system.
tirevaro
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CGR
Just watch Life of Brian. “Splitters!”
treborc
I was thinking of becoming a professional like you, but the sex change operation would cost more then I make.
AlanGiles
Nothing to do with this article, but could I appeal to LFF moderators to police the board to remove the half-witted spammers who infest the threads with nonsense about they earn so many dollars by clicking on dubious websites. If anybody clicks on one of these links it is more than likely they will infect their computers with malware.
One of the halfwits (yes I am talking about you, Shery baby) even typed her crap in bold to draw even more attention to her b******t.
You notice they start with a few random words before the con, but even when you flag the comment they are allowed to remain.
I frankly consider this an insult to the people who contribute – I might not agree with many of them, but they deserve to have their contributions untainted by this fairy tale advertising crap