There is only dialogue

@LabourList Editorial

After a tough month or so for Labour, there are signs that the party is hunkering up, dusting down and preparing once again to fight the good fight.

It’s not coming from the Party leader, who continues to hide away in his Downing Street bunker, making only guest appearances to toe the line both at the dispatch box and through the automation of a decade-old politics: Labour investment over Tory cuts.

But in the back rooms and conference halls of the movement, there’s a sense that something is stirring. In those places, defiance and – more importantly – vision are beginning to arise from the depths insecurity; dark introspection is starting to translate into positive outward expression.

It was palpable last week in at the London Institute, where Compass held an inspiring rallying call to build a collegiate movement of the Left that would open a progressive dialogue and reach out the hand of friendship to former adversaries.

And it was tangible again at an event on Wednesday night to mark the new ownership and new direction of Tribune, one of the Labour movement’s most stalwart advocates. That publication has a similar ethos to this one: critical of Labour because the party is nothing without us; its role is only to work toward the country’s loftiest expectations.

At that event in the House of Commons, Peter Hain was eloquent and impassioned on the need for Labour to rebuild and regrow as a force for good. He spoke to a group of supporters who had travelled from around the country to be there, because they believed. And, most impressively, he spoke to a group newly united by adversity.

That belief must now be taken out of London and into the nation. But it must be also flexible, because in modern politics, there can be no such thing as message, only dialogue. So the rebirth must begin with a conversation, on the doorsteps and the street corners and in workplaces of the everyday existence.

And in that spirit of listening and learning from others, we may look to our cousins across the Atlantic and see that Hope and hard work can lead inexorably to action. So starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking Labour.