The way forward - buiding a democratic socialist party ll

In my previous post on this topic, I blogged about four key principles for setting up a democratic socialist party, which are:

1. horizontalism

2. member-led

3. consensus

4. ecosocialism

In addition, such a party needs to be built on solidarity and mutual aid. The party must not simply be an electoral vehicle with the aim of electing MPs and councillors. It must put down roots in local communities that are built to last. 

Every local party should aim to acquire spaces that can serve as community hubs - buildings and/or land where solidarity can be practiced - whether through meeting spaces, community libraries, foodbanks, education, child care, growing local food, and other means of community support, cohesion, and resilience. The spaces must be open to all and inclusive.

For too long the left has relied on winning elections in a broken democratic system to bring about radical change. We can bring about change and improve the quality of life in our communities now. It will take many years to undo the damage wrought by the Tories and solidarity will be key for many years to come. Local grassroots action will provide the party with the bedrock of support that it needs to become successful in a sustainable manner. We need to build community structures that will last for many generations to come.

There are already many groups operating in countries across the world who are developing and growing wealth, health, and wellbeing in communities through economic democracy (see here), and many mutual aid organisations, and we can learn from them. 

They are involved in activities such as:

• growing local food sustainably
• food coops
• street kitchens 
• building a democratic economy
• providing shared spaces - for the community, particularly lonely and elderly people
• building homes (community land trusts)
• retrofitting homes for energy efficiency
• energy cooperatives with renewable energy
• rewilding
• local currencies
• reuse, repair, and recycling

All of the activities above will become more important as the climate crisis bites. We cannot expect any help from the sociopathic billionaires who control our economy and their tame politicians. 

It's essential that members become community activists as well as political activists if we are going to build a successful party that will last.

In a third post, I discuss the policies the party should have..... here.

The way forward - building a democratic socialist party

This is the first in a series of posts about creating a new democratic socialist party (although the ideas and principles could be used for reforming an existing party). But it's more than just that, it's about rethinking what a political party of the left should be, and how it should work. To do that, we have to go back to the drawing board and start with a blank slate. We need to think about how a party is structured, how decisions are made, and who makes them. 

That means challenging received wisdom about how political parties work and thinking about fundamental changes in how we organise ourselves and our society. We need to get the principles right - from the start.

There are some key principles that I believe any new party must follow if it is going to genuinely be responsive to its members, and controlled by them. If we fail to change the way we do things we will inevitably fall into the age-old traps of factionalism, splits, and top-down control

I'll focus on four essential elements in this post. 

1. Horizontalism - no one is more important than anyone else. All members are equal. There are no leaders.

2. The party must be member-led - this follows from horizontalism. All decisions on actions, policies, and programmes are made by the membership.

3. Consensus - this is how the party will make all its decisions. There will be no majority group and no minority group. You may be wondering how this will work. Here is a simple explanation and methodology which can be shared. You may wonder if consensus can work with a large group of people. But it can and has done successfully as it did in the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street. It's a way of operating that is new to most of us, and we will have to learn. 

What also follows from this is that there will be no 'representatives'. There will be people who are chosen as spokespersons but they will be delegates who relay the decisions members have taken. In addition, the party conference will be supreme and decisions taken at the conference will form party policy. 

Having said that it's important to be sure that all members have access to the conference and are able to follow the proceedings and vote either in person or virtually.

How will this work in a representative democracy? The answer is that we will have to make it work. Members who are chosen as parliamentary candidates will be delegates speaking on behalf of all the members and articulating the policies and programmes that the members have decided upon. If they get elected that is what they will do in Parliament and they will be subject to recall if they fail to do so. All decisions made on who is to be a local delegate will be made by the local party through an open selection process. In the longer term, the party has to work towards creating a genuine democracy in the UK by putting power into the hands of the many. That means devolving powers down to a local level.

If we are serious about equality and bringing about fundamental change to create a society that works for all, we have to begin at the very base and build up from there. There are some examples of good practices that we can point to like Rojova and the Zapatistas in Mexico. Not perfect, but nothing that is created by human beings ever is. If we don't aim high we will be stuck near the bottom forever.

4. It's also important that the party is explicitly an ecosocialist party, and that should be reflected in its name and values. We are living through a pandemic, a difficult time for all of us, but we face an even greater threat because of biodiversity loss and global warming. We know that capitalism has no regard for the natural world, seeing it merely as a 'free' resource to be exploited for profit and a dumping ground for waste. That, along with the damage caused by intensive farming methods, and the burning of fossil fuels is leading us into a very dangerous place that is an existential threat to humanity and other planetary species.

I have continued in my next post describing how the party can be built from the grassroots up ....here.

Why Labour isn't 20 points ahead

When Jeremy Corbyn was LOTO we were told by centrists and much of the media that if only Labour had a 'moderate' leader the Party would be 20 points ahead in the polls. Now that Corbyn has been replaced by Keir Starmer this hasn't happened. In fact, despite the utter incompetence and corruption of Boris Johnson's Conservative government, the Tories have been ahead in the polls for most of 2020. Only in recent days after the Christmas covid cock up has Labour taken a small lead. Why is this? This Twitter thread by @cakeylaura about her father night help to explain (I've not included all the tweets in the thread):

"He's got some significant health issues and so does his partner. They both rely on the NHS. He's very worried about climate change. In every respect he ought to be a slam dunk Labour voter. But instead he thinks Boris Johnson is great and voted Tory at the last election. Why"

Because he's afraid of change. And the world is changing fast. Suddenly he's being accused of racism for the same jokes he used to tell loudly and unchallenged down the pub (accurately btw, he is racist, although of course he doesn't think so).

And that's the essential heart of it. To him, the Tories love Britain and want it to thrive. They will put Europe in its place, will play Rule Britannia, will give him something to be proud of. Labour? Labour will just accelerate Britain's decline into namby pamby wokeism."

Of course, people like @cakeylaura's father didn't get these views overnight. The community they grew up in (including family) will have had a large influence as will the mainstream media which, through newspapers like the Sun and Daily Mail, has been bigging up Britain and slagging off the EU for decades, stoking the fires of English nationalism.

The key question is - how do we change the opinions of people who share his views in order to promote racial harmony and progressive change? Why do some people prefer conspiracy theories promoted by politicians like Trump to facts presented by 'experts'? This Guardian article by Lois Beckett gives us some important clues. 

Firstly, people operate emotionally not rationally. They won't be swayed by facts. Experts telling us the truth won't cut it. Secondly, the narrative is important. Tell a story that is consistent and promotes the right values and policy solutions. For decades the right has had a consistent narrative about free markets, tax burdens, and red tape. Repeat this often enough and it seeps into people's consciousness. Where is the left's alternative to this? There isn't one but I've suggested one in this post.

So how do we change people's minds? According to the Guardian article:

"While it is possible to engage with people who believe deeply in false narratives, and sometimes change their minds, that work is most successful on an individual basis, with people who know each other well, experts said.

It’s helpful to understand someone’s fundamental framework for viewing the world, including whom they view as the “good guys” and the “bad guys”, in order to understand what kind of additional information might sway them, Phillips said."

We can't change the minds of millions through personal actions but we can change the narrative and we can make much more use of effective frames such as "for the many" instead of banging on about our good policies. Because most people don't vote for policies they vote with their hearts, not their head.  

The left has a lot of work to do. People on the left and right talk disparagingly about 'identity politics' but the truth is, for most people, like @cakeylaura's father, their politics are bound up completely with their identity. It's time we understood that. 

In the shorter term, the question is - will the approach adopted by Starmer's Labour be able to appeal to red wall Labour Tories and will Labour be able to square the circle of Brexit-loving English nationalism and progressive policies? I'm not holding my breath waiting for that poll lead.