TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

In the US and Britain, the left must create a mass politics

In the US and Britain, the left must create a mass politics

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ’S sharp rebuff to right-wing Democrats over why their party lost Congress seats and only scraped the presidency contains lessons for the British left.
Right-wing Democrats’ claim that the party’s left lost it votes to Donald Trump exposes the same fixation with obsolete conceptions of the “centre ground” that dominates right-wing Labour thinking. Politics is conceived of in a linear fashion in which the party closest to the middle wins.

That model is not applicable to an era of crisis, as Ocasio-Cortez points out. There is no evidence that endorsements from “moderate” Republicans such as former Ohio governor John Kasich helped the Democrats: in fact, in Ohio, Trump’s majority increased. By contrast, “every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat. We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker ...”

The known transfer of voters from Bernie Sanders to Trump illustrates the real Democrat weakness: being seen as the Establishment option. The Democrats clinched the presidency despite that, precisely because of the passion and anger of their left and the impact of mass movements such as Black Lives Matter on the political scene.

In the same vein, Labour surged despite its MPs in 2017 because of the grassroots organising of Momentum and a mass-rally campaign that made it look like the insurgent force in politics. And it sank in 2019 when the party’s obvious hostility to implementing the result of a UK-wide referendum allowed Boris Johnson to paint it as the Establishment.

So much is history. But the position and priorities of the left now must draw on it.

Causes championed by left-wing Democrats such as the $15-an-hour minimum wage and the Green New Deal remain popular, just as polls have consistently shown Labour’s bolder manifesto policies - its own Green New Deal, extending public ownership, kicking the privateers out of the NHS — to be popular too.

The Joe Biden administration is unlikely to move on them. It faces a Republican-controlled Senate that has the power to veto legislation. Even on foreign policy, where presidents have greater freedom of manoeuvre, Biden’s power is limited. He can rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change; he cannot force a Republican Senate to pass laws that would actually reduce emissions.

Real as these obstacles are, they will also be excuses. The right will push the left to accept that its causes are impossible under current circumstances and not to campaign on them; but it will be happy to do so, since it objects to most of these policies anyway.

The only way to advance the left agenda that people and planet desperately need is outside official political channels - through mass campaigning that places pressure on office-holders to act. In the US this has the added advantage that a militant left is more likely to win the two Georgia Senate run-offs next year, the party’s only hope of ending Republican control and being able to seriously legislate at all.

The circumstances here are different, but the conclusion must be the same.

Labour’s leadership will not press willingly for the radical changes we need: a zero-Covid strategy, as called for by the People’s Assembly; the nationalisation of stricken industries and investment in a green industrial revolution to protect and create jobs while meeting the climate-change challenge; an end to privatisation and outsourcing in our public services.

But the appetite for all this exists - and it can be won, if sufficient pressure is built up from below. Government U-turns over school reopening in the summer over exams, over evictions, over extending furlough, have been the result of public protest and trade-union organising. Not one has been a response to pressure from the official opposition.

The real opposition in this country is no longer parliamentary. It needs to develop strategies to force change despite that.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×