Britain: Anger over Labour leadership lurch

Workers have reacted with anger and bewilderment at the latest statements coming from Ed Miliband and Ed Balls endorsing continuation of the Coalition’s public sector wage freeze and in effect accepting Coalition cuts. This represents a sharp turn to the right by the Labour leadership, justified – we are told– by the remark that a “changed” Labour Party needed to deliver “fairness” in tough times.

Labour supporters in Doncaster, Ed Miliband’s constituency, were disgusted by this stance, saying that Labour was supposed to stand up for ordinary people. Others were alarmed by the contempt shown by the Labour leader when he said, “If you don’t like what I have to say, then tough.”

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have made these statements in the name of “economic credibility.” Instead of fighting the Coalition with a clear socialist alternative, they have tried to out-Tory the Tory-led government by adopting their ideas. Labour, we are now told, will not make any promises to restore Tory cuts, including the cut to winter payments to the elderly. “We are absolutely determined that Labour shows that we would be fiscally credible in government”, stated Ed Miliband, a remark clearly aimed at the City of London rather than at working people. 

“Whoever is the next prime minister will not have the money to spend” added Miliband, as according to him the economic conditions would be far worse than those which had faced the party when it won successive elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005. “The ideas which won three elections won't be the ideas which win the election in 2015. So we will be a different party from the one we were in the past.”

Those on the right wing of the Labour Party, who dominate the Parliamentary Labour Party, are delighted. They have accepted the eternal nature of capitalism and are keen to go down this road. In effect, they are prepared to do the bidding of big business. They are the ones, with the full backing of the ruling class, who have demanded that Ed Miliband come off the fence and state openly that Labour in office will also follow the Coalition and cut the budget deficit. The present Labour mantra is cuts, just not so deep and over a longer period. In reality, there is little difference between this line and the Coalition’s. Death not by hanging but by a thousand cuts, is still fatal.

The message from big business and its shadows in the labour movement is always the same – Labour needs to be more pro-business and clearer about supporting cuts. Now Ed Miliband has bent to this pressure, as is evident from his recent speeches. He is keen to distance himself from the “Red Ed” label, which means embracing austerity and alienating the trade unions and its members.

Cuts

The announcement by the Labour leader that he supported the public sector wage freeze, as wage cuts are better than workers losing their jobs, angered many trade unionists who are presently fighting the Coalition attacks. His statement will be used by employers as a green light to cut wages. Miliband was then backed up by Ed Balls: “I know there will be some people in the trade union movement and the Labour party who will think of course Labour has got to oppose that pay restraint in 2014 and 2015. That is something we cannot do, should not do and will not do.”

Labour shadow cabinet member, Stephen Twigg, has now openly come out in support of most of the Tory cuts in the school building programme! This is all justified by the need to face up to “economic reality.” Miliband concurs: “We will have to make difficult choices that all of us wish we did not have to make…” The Labour leaders have therefore accepted the argument of the Tories that the massive deficit caused by the crisis of capitalism must be paid for by ordinary workers, while the bankers and their big business friends are laughing all the way to the bank.

As expected, David Cameron has now seized on Miliband’s new enthusiasm for cuts and wage freezes. The Tory leader is rubbing his hands in glee and the Tory front benches are overjoyed. “Last year he marched against the cuts, now he tells us he accepts the cuts,” said Cameron.

Labour MPs have largely remained silent or have supported the new line. One exception is Grimsby Labour MP Austin Mitchell – who comes from the right wing of the party – who has said that the Labour leadership’s latest ploy is “crazy.”

“Supporting the cuts and the wage freeze means telling the trade unions that you’re on your own, brothers… It is tragic that every Labour leader has tried to court popularity by attacking the party’s friends. The Tories never do this. They never attack their big business backers.” Mitchell has accused Miliband and Balls of committing “an act of self-immolation.”

Fury

Quite correctly, many trade union leaders are furious at the stand of the Labour leadership. Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said the remarks were “hugely disappointing”, and accused Labour of failing to stand up for “ordinary people”. Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, said that Ed Balls was signing “Labour’s electoral suicide note.”

More significantly, Len McCluskey, general secretary of UNITE, the largest affiliate to the Labour Party, correctly said that Ed Balls's “sudden weekend embrace of austerity and the government's public-sector pay squeeze represents a victory for discredited Blairism at the expense of the party's core supporters”.

He said that when the public-sector unions confront the government over the pay freeze, they would “now be fighting the Labour front bench as well”.

He went on: “It leaves the country with something like a 'national government' consensus where, as in 1931, the leaders of the three big parties agree on a common agenda of austerity to get capitalism – be it 'good' or 'bad' – back on its feet.”

“The view that deficit reduction through spending cuts must be a priority in order to keep the financial speculators onside has been the road to ruin for Labour chancellors from Philip Snowden to Denis Healey.”

He then added: “This is the last gasp of the neoliberalism which led to 2008 and the final point on the arc of 'new Labour' politics – from 'things can only get better' to 'heaven knows we're miserable now' and will be for the foreseeable future.”

The leftwing Labour MP John McDonnell said that McCluskey’s position “sums up the general feeling... of overwhelming disappointment”.

Take back

The criticism by Len McCluskey was shared by Paul Kenny, general secretary of Britain’s third biggest union, the GMB, who even raised the possibility of his union disaffiliating over the wage freeze issue. However, this is no time to be talking about the unions disaffiliating from the party. The unions created the party and supported it. It is up to them to take back the Labour party from these careerists who infest the parliamentary wing and restore it as a party of the working class. Anything else misses the point entirely.

Alan Johnson, the former Blairite minister has now joined in by accusing the trade union leaders of being part of “the hard left” who were living in “some fantasy utopia based on outdated ideology and a distorted view of which vested interests should be immune to radical change.”

It is clear that such ex-Labour ministers have more in common with the Tories and big business than the interests of ordinary working people. This is where the acceptance of capitalism inevitably leads.

Relish

Astonishingly, it even looks like the Labour leadership is relishing this attack from the trade unions. Some have even described it as a “Clause 4” moment, similar to when Tony Blair threw out the socialist aims of the party and embraced New Labour. Shadow Cabinet members see the dispute as clarifying their openly pro-capitalist position. By adopting this position, people see there is little difference in policies between the leaders of the main parties. This is threatening to demoralize Labour supporters and hand victory over to the Tories in 2015. The first set of opinion polls to be published since the statements are hardly encouraging.

This attempt by Miliband to appeal to the “middle ground” is taking place at a time when the middle ground is fast disappearing. There is a class polarization taking place in society. Its most graphic political expression is the collapse in support for the Liberal Democrats, who are stuck around the 9% mark in the polls. 

However, we are seeing a clear failure by the Labour leadership to challenge the Coalition government. This cannot be done effectively without breaking with capitalism. There is no such thing as “responsible capitalism.” It is the domination of the market and the rule of profit. If Labour is only prepared to offer what capitalism in crisis can afford, then Labour cannot offer rising living standards, affordable housing, an end to unemployment or decent pay for all. On the contrary, capitalism will be demanding more cuts and austerity measures. This will be a disasterous road for Labour to seek to go down.

Instead, Labour should return to its socialist roots. Only by taking over the commanding heights of the economy can the resources of society be planned in the interests of ordinary working people, rather than the profits of the bankers and millionaires.

Source: Socialist Appeal (Britain)