Does Labour have a chance of victory under Jeremy Corbyn?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/13/labour-leadership-jeremy-corbyn-owen-smith

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Dear Jess

My name is Emma and I am a national organiser for Momentum. Until last year, I was a primary school teacher in your constituency in Yardley, Birmingham. The children in my class were fantastic – full of potential, charisma and creativity. But, as you know, it is an area of high social deprivation and many of the children had challenging and insecure home lives. Statistically, despite their natural abilities, the kids in my class are less likely to achieve at school, less likely to find fulfilling work and less likely to live long and healthy lives. These are precisely the people who need a strong, united Labour party, capable of winning elections and transforming Britain.

For too long, Labour hasn’t felt like a transformative party. For most people, all politicians are the same. For many, Labour might be the slightly nicer face of the establishment, but it’s still the establishment. It has failed to present a genuine alternative to the market-driven, austerity economics that sees inequality spiral and puts profit-making above people time after time.

Jeremy Corbyn was the first Labour leader in decades to stand on a bold platform for real, progressive change. And look what happened: a historic mandate, a tripling membership and an explosion of activity in Labour’s grassroots. The Labour party is once again a social movement and becoming a mass party rooted in communities. Momentum is part of this story.

Momentum was launched just weeks after Jeremy won, to build on the energy and enthusiasm from the campaign to increase participatory democracy, solidarity and grassroots power and help Labour become the transformative governing party of the 21st century.

Momentum has more than 150,000 supporters, 15,000 paying members and more than 150 local groups. For the last 10 months, Momentum’s network has been finding new and exciting ways of engaging people in the political process and bringing thousands of new people into the Labour family and encouraging them to participate fully in the party.

People who have previously felt excluded from party politics have been inspired to become active. Whether it is through Momentum football events, where political workshops take place before a football match, or the people’s politics, philosophy and economics lecture and workshop series, thousands of people have become more politically engaged through Momentum.

This moment is an opportunity for the Labour party. Across the UK, constituency Labour parties have seen their turnouts mushroom. Engaging more people in the party has allowed us to act as a stronger opposition to the Tory government and be more efficient in winning elections, with successes in the 2016 mayoral elections and byelections. Through this wider and more organised network we have started to persuade people that Jeremy’s politics are an effective alternative to the status quo, reflected in the 128,000 people who joined the party in the fortnight after Brexit. There are a lot of people who need us to win, Jess, and to win with a programme that can truly transform Britain.

Labour members will decide over the five weeks who they want to lead the party. Whoever wins, I look forward to working with you to build a more democratic, equal and decent society.Emma

Dear Emma

I remember that you were a teacher in my constituency. You told me when we met months ago. In case you’ve forgotten, we were in parliament. I missed my train home to meet you. I chatted with you about your movement, offered to join in, asked if you wanted to come to Yardley and undertake some of this activism you’ve outlined. I guess in the end my offer was not something Momentum wanted to take up.

The explosion of activity you talk about is clear for all to see in the pictures of the rallies. I can’t say it’s buzzing with Corbyn enthusiasm on the streets of Yardley yet. The movement people talk to me about is usually more about the movement of a lamp post or a parking obstruction.

I worry deeply about outcomes of the children in my constituency, just as you do. I look around at all the local schools, nursery, primary and secondary. Some of them are in desperate need of investment; some were lucky enough to get it under the last Labour government. The tricky home lives of many of my constituents also worry me. Every week, I work with the dwindling workforce of the local children’s centres built by Labour. Together, we try to help families in terrible crisis. I worked in many local children’s centres while at Women’s Aid. I saw lives transformed. Futures changed. I used the services myself as a young mum – some face of the establishment I am. The services created by the last Labour government are under terrible threat, of that we can agree.

Labour might not have felt like a transformative party to you, but the buildings, the resources, the lives of the people in my constituency and my life, in fact, were transformed by them. I’ll never forget the day my son qualified for his free nursery place. It meant that I could earn a proper wage again. My mother, born and bred in Yardley, had no such support when I was little, but then I was a Thatcher baby. Labour seem like a pretty good alternative to me.

Labour governments matter, which is why I have to back our best chance of getting one and that is Owen Smith.

Historic political party mandates don’t build schools. My bigger local membership is lovely; it hasn’t stopped my community centres closing. I admire what Momentum is trying to do. Where I live it hasn’t done any of what you describe. When I asked to go along to a meeting in Yardley I was told no, although people who have attended tell me my name comes up quite a lot.

I desperately don’t want a Tory government – I want Labour to win. At the moment, the party isn’t speaking the language of the people who live in my constituency. I can guarantee you’d have to knock on many doors to find anyone who could tell you what this bold platform is. It’s not getting through. I’m certain we all have some blame in that.

I’m terrified that we are not talking to people at the moment and only talk to ourselves. This will never win elections in marginal seats like mine. I don’t think Jeremy can hear me, let alone my constituents. The future and size of the party under Jeremy might look rosy, but the future of a Labour government, and with it, the things the kids in Yardley need, looks pretty bleak.Jess

Dear Jess

I do remember meeting you (sorry you missed your train) and remember sharing your concerns about how people in Yardley are coming under attack from Tory cuts. I remember our discussion on how difficult it was to help people link what is happening in their lives with politics and to allow them to believe that they can play a part in changing things. We discussed the split between the electorate and the Labour party and how it was apparent that the country did not believe that Labour had an economic plan that would do the job.

I am sorry that you did not feel welcome to participate in Momentum. We found that many MPs who got involved found that it boosted local activity and many MPs and councillors were well supported by Momentum during the May elections this year. I also know that in your constituency members worked tirelessly with activists across the party spectrum to get local candidates elected.

When we met in October, Jeremy had just chosen a pluralistic shadow cabinet that drove at presenting an alternative economic agenda. However, in the months that followed, being an effective opposition became more challenging as MPs briefed against Jeremy and the many new activists trying to engage with Labour at a community level were branded Trotskyists and entryists. With the constant undermining of the membership and movement, building a loving, diverse, inclusive and effective movement has been a challenge.

Our experiences of the impact of a Labour government as opposed to a Tory one leads us both to the same conclusion – that a Labour government is the only vehicle for creating a more equal and just society. But this message has not resonated with communities across the country at the last two general elections and during that time Labour has not offered the anti-austerity opposition that people needed to protect their homes and services. Since then, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have continued to develop that anti-austerity, investment-led alternative. Their plan will rebalance the distribution of wealth and power in society and, given the massive increase in party membership, it is fair to say that this alternative is popular.

Momentum and its activists are dedicated to the electoral success and development of the Labour party. The movement behind Jeremy is creating real change in the political system. The dual assets of radical policies and a movement that can popularise them is a strategy for winning. Activists are engaging communities in order to oppose cuts on the ground and inform people about Labour’s policies. The representative and inclusive party that we all want to see is developing as we nourish new members in the party and involve the previously disengaged.

The movement is growing in numbers and appeal, but it is far from perfect. The fact that the streets of Yardley are not buzzing is not surprising. Engaging people in the way that Momentum is doing is not an overnight process. What I don’t understand is why the MPs are not getting behind this vision to make it work.

I and other Labour supporters across the country fail to see how the agenda that Owen Smith is presenting offers a winning alternative, just as we fail to see how you abstaining on the welfare bill in 2015 helps protect the young people in your constituency.Emma

Dear Emma

I think you miss the point. I did try to get behind Momentum, but it didn’t want me. Some unity. I agree it takes time to build a movement. In Yardley, we’ve inspired hundreds of volunteers. Most are not members of the party, just people who join in to help improve the lot of people and the area where they live. There is plenty of enthusiasm buzzing on the streets here for that. Amazing what you can achieve if you talk to people about stuff that matters to them rather than having your own agenda.

I see you continue to peddle the line about the welfare bill. I think the decision of the Labour party at the time was wrong and misjudged. A bit like when Jeremy said we should trigger article 50 immediately or Momentum’s chair said: “In certain conditions one can see how it would be preferable to violate the minimum wage.” I’m think you’ll agree we all make mistakes that people can over-simplify to then discredit for their own agenda. I did vote against at the third reading, but you know that, don’t you?

As one of the MPs who worked on the welfare bill committee I’m bit of an expert. I have letters of thanks from Parkinson’s UK and Child Poverty Action Group praising me for the work I did to amend it. Thanks for my efforts in actually turning up to work for hours and hours over many weeks to change things. I can see that you prefer people to make a stand. I, on the other hand, like to make a change.

I’ve had success at changing Tory welfare policy. I was part of the group that had people living in supported accommodation removed from the benefits cap, and subsequently universal credit. Currently, I’m working tirelessly with others to amend cuts to housing benefit for the same group. When Jeremy walked through the lobbies in parliament on the night of the second reading of the welfare bill, he changed nothing for the poor people in my constituency. He just made himself look good.

I, on the other hand, have actually worked hard to do something to help the people who need it. It wasn’t rallies that won those wars – it was hours of negotiations and bringing people on board to apply pressure.

If I am successful in my dogged campaign to protect housing benefit for people living in refuge, for care-leavers, for elderly people in supportive homes, Jeremy will claim it as his success. Before and after he became leader, I haven’t seen him rolling up his sleeves, I have never seen him in the meetings and I don’t remember him ever speaking about it or doing anything to help.

Do you know who did turn up to the meetings, who has worked with John Healey and me trying to stop hundreds of women’s refuges and youth homelessness hostels from shutting? Owen Smith.

I want to believe Jeremy can change things, not just hate things, but to date I’ve seen no evidence of this. I suppose the difference between Jeremy and Owen is one says stuff, the other does stuff. For the people who need us, I’ll take the latter.Jess

Dear Jess

I am disappointed by your reply. Jeremy has spent more than three decades serving others and securing far more concrete improvements in people’s lives than I could begin to list in the 200 words I am given here. It is rather cynical to claim otherwise. One reason Jeremy has struck a chord with so many people is precisely because he has avoided these kind of Westminster games.

It is clear that we share a lot of the same passions and concerns. But I remain unconvinced about how you think we will bring about the change in society we so desperately need.

Labour’s strategy in recent years of trying to pitch its message at the “mythical median voter” has simply failed. Membership declined, two general elections were lost, along with huge swaths of support in Scotland and elsewhere.

Instead, Labour must use its growing membership to organise in every community, drawing on the skills, experiences and creativity of ordinary people who want to be part of the solutions, not just victims of the problems. We need structural change to rebalance our society and this is now on Labour’s agenda.

Momentum isn’t seeking to build a movement to protest and hold rallies. We need a movement to win power, enter government and be able to deliver transformative policies that will restructure our society to bring about a better life for everyone.

I look forward to working with you after the election, whatever the outcome. There will be a great deal of work to do and we can’t afford to waste more time like this. Emma

Dear Emma

I don’t doubt Jeremy has been a dutiful backbencher for years. It’s not a Westminster game to say that since I’ve been working fighting down the austerity measures, I have never seen Jeremy do anything but talk about it. The rest of us have tried to crack on and use the privilege we are given, by people, to use parliament for their advantage. Westminster is not a game, parliament is not a joke, the Labour party was created to be the parliamentary route to power for ordinary people.

Your disappointment in me is similar to how I felt reading accounts of those in the shadow cabinet like Lilian Greenwood and Heidi Alexander who Jeremy failed to listen to and failed to work with when they were trying to achieve actual change on our railways and in our health service.

Of course I believe in creating a fairer society. I think income should be redistributed. I’m appalled that in Yardley only about 10 families benefit from inheritance tax cuts while thousands are made poorer by cuts to in-work benefits. I want equal pay, I want improved wages, I want it all. So does my seven-year-old, but we have to be grown up enough to do the difficult work to convince those who are not sure to come with us.

You seemed to have missed the bit where I said that in Yardley we have exactly what you describe. We use members and volunteers to organise across our communities to achieve things like new services, community cohesion events, road safety initiatives.

I’m happy to show Momentum how we did it. Perhaps this time you might take me upon it.

Jess

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