Can Labour’s New General Secretary do what Corbyn has done?

By
Martyn Bradbury
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19
0

Andrew-Little

Despite all the claims that Corbyn’s shift to the Left is utterly unelectable, a recent survey of the thousands and thousands of new grass root activists who have flocked to the Party suggests that his leadership has given UK Labour more energy and rebirthed branches that had been near dead…

The Guardian has interviewed Labour secretaries, chairs, other office holders and members from more than 100 of the 632 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales. Almost every constituency party across the country we contacted reported doubling, trebling, quadrupling or even quintupling membership, and a revival of branches that had been moribund for years and close to folding.

…this should make interesting reading for the new Labour General Secretary in NZ, Andrew Kirton.

Corbyn’s troubles are similar to the ones Cunliffe faced. A membership who want a left wing political party that challenges neoliberalism up against a Parliamentary wing that refuses to allow that debate to occur. In NZ, Cunliffe lost after the media and Parliamentary wing killed off his election chances, in the UK that moment hasn’t occurred because the grass root members who are engaged are refusing to allow the Parliamentary wing to do that. Andrew Kirton arrives as Labour NZ are paddling to the centre. That can win the election by focusing only on those who engage with the political process, but it won’t pull in voters who are part of the ‘missing million’.

Such a win won’t herald much progressive Government, it will just see a Labour Party focused on managing the middle. Andrew Little has a chance to stamp his mark on the direction of Labour this month on the 31st with his ‘State of the Nation’ address. If he appeals to the membership to give him the authority to push back against the right wing of the Party maybe we will see a strong Left wing platform.

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19 COMMENTS

  2. “Corbyn’s troubles are similar to the ones Cunliffe faced.”

    Not really. Cunliffe was hated for his personality. Corbyn is hated for his policies.

    “In NZ, Cunliffe lost after the media and Parliamentary wing killed off his election chances, in the UK that moment hasn’t occurred because the grass root members who are engaged are refusing to allow the Parliamentary wing to do that.”

    No. Cunliffe lost because he put forward third way / neoliberal policies which silenced Labour’s base. The Labour base and NZ left looked at Cunliffe’s policies and thought – ‘what’s the point…just another Blairite like Helen Clark’.

    NZ Labour will get nowhere if Cunliffe is continually compared to Corbyn. Cunliffe forgot about Labour’s founding principles, whereas Corbyn is representing them. Where was Cunliffe on housing & welfare?…over on the right.

    Andrew Little is just as average. Little could be moving Labour to the right, but Cunliffe wasn’t Left. And if Cunliffe was ‘Left’ then Labour is dead.

  3. ‘If he appeals to the membership to give him the authority to push back against the right wing of the Party’..

    porcine-creatures will file flight-plans before that happens..

    ..little is a large part of the problem..

    ..he is driving the labour party push to the right..

  4. Corbyn’s troubles are definitely NOT similar to the ones Cunliffe faced.

    Corbyn is an angry old Trot who sat on his hands in a Labour safe seat for decades and foolishly associated with terrorists, whilst Cunliffe was a careerist time-server with no firm values either way.

    The Guardian article you referenced, authored by Ewen MacAskill is just a left winger dreaming of what might be. The reality in the UK is that thousands of Tories paid their three quid Labour membership fee in order to elect Corbyn, thus giving Labour the ultimate kiss of death.

    #toriesforcorbyn. Check it out if you don’t believe me 🙂

    Overall the UK is doing quite well economically, especially when compared to the rest of Europe. So my expectation is that the new divide will not be along left/right issues because that battle has already been lost by the left.

    The new battleground will be about immigration and Islam.

    • What cracks me up about Tories is the town Glenridding. Who voted overwhelmingly for David Cameron and his austerity measures that cut deep into flood defences.

      Now the residence of Glendridding are calling foul because there little town was hit hardest by flooding.

      Bahahahahaha

    • The new battleground will be about immigration and Islam.

      Nah, the world economy will crash, dwarfing that sideshow. Your economic dogma will be coming down all around you.

      Winter is coming.

    • Au contraire, the battle has not been lost by the Left. Corbyn is rallying the anti-neoliberal and anti-militarist forces behind the banner of the Labour Party. In Britain, old-fashioned socialism is coming back into vogue, as institutions such as the NHS face austerity cuts. Any Tories who “joined” the Labour Party in order to vote for Corbyn have unwittingly done their country a real favour.
      The popularity of Bernie Sanders is a reflection of a similar shift in US politics. The shift will occur in NZ too, but it will take longer. It certainly won’t happen under Andrew Little.
      As far as “associating with terrorists” is concerned, Cameron should be keeping his distance from Israel and Saudi Arabia.

    • “The reality in the UK is that thousands of Tories paid their three quid Labour membership fee in order to elect Corbyn”

      Well, that was a silly move. The Tories greatest achievement in the past few decades was Blarism (Thatcher’s claim), and Corbyn seems to be dismantling that.

      “So my expectation is that the new divide will not be along left/right issues because that battle has already been lost by the left.”

      Yes and no. The Left has failed to offer an alternative to capitalism. But capitalism offers us no future too…unless social, economic and environmental collapse is our future. The right has not won, they’ve also lost.

      “The new battleground will be about immigration and Islam.”

      Sadly, this could be true – we can see it in the way immigration is portrayed as the root of our housing crisis (Thanks Andrew Little). Many of us on the Left are pointing to other causes such as capitalism, private property etc.

    • There goes an analysis of Labour from someone who hasn’t a clue about where Labour came from, but still insists he knows enough to dazzle us with brilliance.

  5. I have just sighted the latest Opinium/Observer poll out on Friday. Unfortunately it is not good news for Jeremy Corbyn. He is losing support outside of his core base. In the December poll those in the 55 plus age group were those most disenchanted with his performance and in this poll those in the 35 – 54 age group are also turning against him. While he is seen as a principled person he is not seen as someone to lead the party to an election win. I would be very cautious about suggesting the new Secretary General of Labour follow in his footsteps. Key is winning elections by stealing the left middle ground. Unless the left can recapture it their chances of winning an election are slim.

  6. I have just sighted the latest Opinium/Observer poll out on Friday. Unfortunately it is not good news for Jeremy Corbyn. He is losing support outside of his core base. In the December poll those in the 55 plus age group were those most disenchanted with his performance and in this poll those in the 35 – 54 age group are also turning against him. While he is seen as a principled person he is not seen as someone to lead the party to an election win. I would be very cautious about suggesting the new Secretary General of Labour follow in his footsteps. Key is winning elections by stealing the left middle ground. Unless the left can recapture it their chances of winning an election are slim.

  8. David Cunliffe was inspirational but in the end – yes a large part was dirty politics but also – in retrospect – how could policies like raising the retirement age for people aged only 50 now ever be reconciled with democratic socialism? Much like I’ve heard with regards to Obama and Bernie Sanders – many of those who voted Obama believed they were getting what Bernie Sanders is now offering – but Sanders offers it in a less evangelic, more sincere was. Labour was still peddlling neolib policies – if they want now to win they are going to have to win back peoples’ faith that they are a ‘peoples’ party. Drop the third way – it doesn’t work. It’s not just jobs – it fair days work for fair days pay and respect, and a fair and decent society.

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