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

ByMartyn Bradbury

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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15 Comments

  1. “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.

  2. ‘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..

  3. 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.

  4. 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. 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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