Labour in 2019
In 2019 a YouGov poll surveyed some 1,100 grassroots members of the UK Labour Party against the backdrop of Party infighting and Brexit turmoil. The survey was commissioned by Ian Austin led Mainstream, formed to campaign against political extremism. Austin, who quit the party in February and now sits as an independent, said: “The party of today is not the one I grew up in. It has been consumed by a culture of extremism and intolerance. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour has become a safe haven for antisemites. Those who have taken a stand against this corrosive evil within have been intimidated and even driven from the party but we will not be silenced.”
Fewer than 30 percent of Labour members blame Islamic terror groups for attacks in the UK. And 29 percent mostly blamed Daesh* and Al-Qaeda for jihadist terrorist attacks on British soil with 40 percent saying they felt both sides were equally to blame and 28 percent chiefly blaming the UK and her allies. They also blame Britain, rather than the IRA, for terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland. Some 32 percent of respondents blame the British government for atrocities in the Troubles such as the bombings in Warrington and Birmingham, with only 27 percent blaming the IRA.
A huge 70 percent of those polled agreed with getting rid of Britain’s nuclear weapons. The UK conducted its first nuclear test on 3 October 1952, with the British delivery method sea based, through Trident submarines. On other issues, 15 percent described themselves as “proud” of British history with 43 percent saying they are “ashamed,” while 62 percent said Britain ought to become a republic.
The original part constitution, written by members of the Fabian Society, Sidney and Beatrice Webb in 1917, committed Labour to "common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange". The British Labour Party decided in 2019 to get back to basics and revise changes in the party's constitution made by former leader Tony Blair in 1995 when he moved away from a commitment for the nationalisation of the "commanding heights" of the economy as one of the party's primary goals. The national executive committee (NEC) of the party, controlled by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, ordered the creation of a working group to examine the changes.
Clause IV of the Labour constitution originally stated : "To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange". Blair replaced this aim with "a dynamic economy, serving the public interest, in which the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition are joined with the forces of partnership and co-operation to produce the wealth the nation needs".
If approved, the nationalisation may be applied to major industries such as coal, steel, telecommunications and railways, as well as the Bank of England and principal utilities.
In 2019 Labour had a leadership which, in addition to being pro-working class and pro-poor, was solidly anti-imperialist, anti-war and anti-racist. A left Labour government, led by Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and John McDonnell, would constitute an unprecedented opportunity for the anti-war and anti-imperialist movements. It would put their ideas at the heart of government. And what’s more, these positions are backed up by the bulk of the membership. When Labour had sided with imperialism, it has been following a path of class collaboration.
The present leadership team had a well-known record of opposing imperialist wars. Corbyn, Abbott and McDonnell are among the very small handful of MPs that loudly stood up against war in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Libya and in Syria. Jeremy Corbyn has been a prominent member - Chair for several years - of the Stop the War Coalition since its inception in 2001. He’s been involved with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for decades. All three of them have supported progressive movements and governments in Latin America - in Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Nicaragua. They’re longstanding supporters of Irish unity and self-determination - a key anti-colonial litmus test for the British left.
Corbyn was an energetic campaigner against apartheid in South Africa. The three of them are lifelong campaigners against racism. They oppose NATO, they oppose nuclear weapons. A left Labour government would do everything it could with Iran to defuse tensions, to avoid war, to oppose sanctions, and to bring all parties back to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It would work to reduce tensions with Russia. It would oppose regime change efforts in Venezuela. It would be much less likely to take aggressive action against Syria or Korea. It would pursue fair and balanced relationships with Africa, Asia, Latin America.
Labour’s membership had increased over 2.5-fold since 2015. It is the largest political party in Western Europe. And anti-imperialist, anti-war, anti-racist policies are popular at the grassroots level. Even many of the trade unions are starting to shift in the direction of class struggle, and that means shifting in a direction of internationalism, breaking out from the ideological umbrella of the ruling class and taking up a position of solidarity with the workers and oppressed peoples of the world.
Labour went into the election with a powerful manifesto - a set of commitments that would have made life significantly better for millions of people, a platform from which to develop a peace-oriented multilateral foreign policy, a Green New Deal that could turn Britain into a trailblazer in the global fight against climate breakdown. Had Labour emerged victorious from the elections, the British government would have been led by some of the most consistent socialists in the country’s history; people who have fought against all types of discrimination and injustice their whole lives; people who taken the side of the oppressed and challenged the elite; people who have stood in solidarity with Palestine, Ireland, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.
Corbynism differed from ‘Old Labour’ specifically in its internationalism, in its opposition to wars, in its rejection of empire nostalgia, and in its consistent fight against racism, sexism and homophobia. This is what made Labour in its new incarnation qualitatively different.
Labour lost 60 seats and the Conservatives ended up with an overall majority of 80 seats (in spite of only having increased its vote share by 1.2 percent). It didn’t taken Tony Blair long to offer his opinion as to how Labour’s fortunes can be improved: “The takeover of the Labour party by the far left turned it into a glorified protest movement with cult trimmings, utterly incapable of being a credible government… Corbyn personified politically an idea, a brand, of quasi-revolutionary socialism, mixing far-left economic policy with deep hostility to western foreign policy. This never has appealed to traditional Labour voters, never will appeal to them, and represented for them a combination of misguided ideology and terminal ineptitude that they found insulting.”
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