Labour can deliver another game-changing manifesto. But only if it listens to activists
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Version 0 of 1. The party leadership must not water down radical policies on freedom of movement and the Green New Deal, says Tom Blackburn, a founding editor of New Socialist In September, delegates at the Labour party conference voted for a series of radical new policies. Far-reaching plans on housing and tackling homelessness, a Labour Green New Deal, the integration of private schools into the state sector, and the defence and extension of European freedom of movement were among the main headline-grabbers. Each of these was fought for by impressive grassroots campaigns – indicating a real desire among the Labour rank and file to push the party beyond the programme of 2017. The last Labour manifesto, itself the party’s most progressive in many years, proved to be the springboard for a remarkable campaigning effort that summer; one which produced the largest swing to the party at a general election since 1945. Polling undertaken in the aftermath of the election result suggested that Labour’s policy offer that was by some distance the main motivation for its voters. As another general election campaign begins, Labour’s activists and supporters are waiting to learn what will make it into the final draft of the party’s new manifesto, which will be settled at a “clause V” meeting on Saturday consisting of leading representatives from the party and its affiliated trade unions. It is not guaranteed that all of the policies recently endorsed by conference will make the cut in an unadulterated form. The issue of freedom of movement has caused the Labour frontbench particular trouble: while John McDonnell has said that the party will support “as much freedom of movement as possible”, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott initially distanced herself from the position agreed by Labour conference. Jeremy Corbyn’s recent rhetorical defence of freedom of movement was very welcome but, to confuse matters further, was subsequently contradicted by a backtracking Emily Thornberry. Even if the Labour leadership seems to be trying, albeit fitfully and nervously, to fumble its way towards a more positive and combative stance on migration, the vacillation on this question in recent years has nonetheless been disappointing. Each of Labour’s leading trio – McDonnell, Abbott and Corbyn himself – has long and principled records on migrant solidarity as backbenchers, but they have appeared reluctant (under considerable pressure from their right) to make the case for it consistently from their current positions at the helm of the party. Certainly, years of hostility towards migration – wilfully stoked by vociferous press coverage and persistently pandered to, lest we forget, by previous Labour leaders – have made the task of changing attitudes on the subject particularly challenging. However, that is no excuse for not taking the challenge on directly. Among the reasons why the incumbent Labour leadership was elected in the first place (and returned in a second landslide in 2016) was to help reshape the political climate, expose prevailing economic myths and transform the discourse around contentious issues, among which migration is one of the most pressing. Moreover, migrants’ rights are workers’ rights; the appalling deaths of 39 undocumented Vietnamese workers, found in the back of a lorry on an Essex industrial estate in October, again underlined the brutality of existing border regimes. Freedom of movement is not the only radical policy passed at Labour conference that may be challenged at the clause V meeting. The rousing proposal for a Labour Green New Deal was initially opposed by GMB, which attempted to block the net-zero carbon target of 2030 eventually backed by delegates. The 2030 target is an ambitious one and, while creating new unionised jobs would be an integral part of any Labour Green New Deal, the target may come under renewed demands for delay by some trade unions who are fearful of the possible impact on members working in certain industries. This is why it is incumbent upon the Labour leadership to uphold and defend the policy positions endorsed by the party’s conference. Conference’s precise role in making party policy has always been ambiguous, to put it mildly; previous Labour leaderships were rarely too troubled by it, even when they weren’t able to defuse tricky motions in advance or simply kill them off with the aid of block votes marshalled by allied union leaders. But Corbyn became leader promising precisely a break with this: a “people-powered politics”, finally bringing member-led party democracy to Labour. This remains an aspiration rather than a reality, but the negotiations over the next Labour manifesto will represent an important test of the leadership’s continuing commitment to the idea. Events since 2015 have again demonstrated that Labour is a complex alliance, and all of its stakeholders are entitled to a say on the contents of its manifesto. The policies endorsed by the party conference, however, must be respected rather than denuded of vital substance through backroom horse-trading. If Labour is to win the forthcoming general election, it will need another herculean effort from an energised and enthused activist base. The party leadership needs to give these activists the opportunity to make a full-throated argument for a policy programme they wholeheartedly back – one that embodies their own democratic decisions. When the House of Commons voted for an early general election, the premature obituaries were quick to come pouring in. But Labour can win next month, and its campaigners have got off to a determined start. Though it enters this election still confronted with a substantial polling deficit to the Tories, it very nearly overcame a bigger one in 2017. The task before the party is undeniably difficult, but the potential prize is a glittering one: that of a transformative socialist-led government, beginning the arduous job of rebuilding Britain’s shattered public services, revitalising its stagnant economy, and repairing its tattered social fabric. Boris Johnson and the Tories would love to make the entire election solely about Brexit, and for everyone to play their allotted role in a pre-scripted culture war. Yet much more is at stake than the UK’s future relationship with the European Union, as important as that is. An impassioned grassroots campaign can help Labour broaden the conversation and turn the tide in its favour. But for that to materialise, the Labour leadership must demonstrate that it has faith in its members and respects their right to play a central role in deciding party policy. • Tom Blackburn is a founding editor of New Socialist. He lives in Greater Manchester |