Violent opposition may be wrong, but Labour cannot ignore the growing anger

By Alan Laing

From the outset, let me say, that I don’t support violence as a basis for political protest. Those of us democratically elected should think carefully before endorsing violent protest. But let’s not also forget the lessons from history – Britain has a tradition of radical and violent political protest that has brought about significant change and has been a major contributory factor in ousting Prime Ministers.

The commentators and the same old tired right-wing voices in the media are of course right. A one off protest, where actions such as we saw in the student march yesterday take place, can so easily be dismissed as Trots, extremists, a hard-line minority. Indeed many of those who acted in that way in Millbank are not Labour students, nor I suspect, members of some Marxist-Leninist revolutionary cell – but nonetheless what we saw yesterday was a genuine and true anger – it’s the beginning and Labour needs to recognise it.

The question is therefore: what will Labour do? We need to understand the anger, the growing militancy and we need to harness it. Not to become violent agitators, but to tap into it and direct it. Labour needs to ferment and encourage protests, dissent and make clear that we understand the anger, we represent those who are angry and that this government needs to face the reality of the consequences of its actions. It is not for us to apologise for those who express their fear, anger and concerns with protest – it is for others to defend their actions that have brought thousands onto the street.

For too long, Labour has been reduced to the voice of “managerialism”. We’ve talked about efficiencies, targets, KPIs and so on. Now however, another voice is needed. We need to be the voice of a mass protest movement again. We need to take this opportunity to take the debates out of council chambers, town hall offices, Whitehall and Westminster and onto the streets, our communities, hospitals, schools and our workplaces.

We need to build and create a movement of protest. Not a one-off student demonstration, but a co-ordinated series of protests, utilising the anger and determination within the trade union movement to bring about a wave of action that hasn’t been seen on our streets in any of our living memories. For if we remain debating on the Tory turf – that the cuts had to come and that we are “all in this together”, then a truly historic opportunity for the Labour Party to reconnect to its roots as a mass movement party will be lost forever.

If we don’t embrace this opportunity, then another generation will go by without the same searing passion that helped keep large parts of this country Tory free. This isn’t about us retreating to our core and yes, in the beginning with a media establishment worried and frightened by what it sees on the streets, it will attack us and decry what it sees as extremism. But we must hold our nerve. A co-ordinated programme of campaigns in our communities, on the streets and with industrial action at the same time, we can shift the political paradigm back and away from us discussing the economy and policies on Tory terms (and in the comfort of parliament) to what is happening on the streets. The debate becomes not a series of Tory politicians telling us what is good for us and how they’re running this country like their family business and our response on the small tweaks we would make to improve our bottom line, but rather it is a debate about people’s lives, prospects, jobs and communities surviving. It becomes a focus on why are the poorest being hit, the ordinary hard working man and woman taking the strain of the Tory cuts. We can begin to portray a Tory/Lib Dem political elite that is out of touch, attacking the most vulnerable and see an organic movement demanding a different approach grow and form.

The alternative is that we march politely, get ignored, leave real action to those who can be so easily attacked as extremists and all go home and sit, resigned talking into our coffees as everything we have fought over generations to build up and protect is unpicked bit by bit by this ideologically driven government. Is it just me who despairs that as a party and as a movement, we have no sense of co-ordinated action, of a fundamental opposition to the utter vandalism being carried out? We will never win a debate where we accept the cuts that are coming through – reluctantly going about the government’s bidding and implementing the cuts, or where our contribution is “we think you should cut this a little less and make other cuts in this area”. It is self-defeating, plays into the perception of universal agreement over cuts and undermines any attempt to argue that these obscenities are ideological rather than necessary.

As part of a new radical campaign of national co-ordinated protest, the message has got to be simple. The cuts are too deep, are unnecessary, are ideological and that if we really are “in this all together” then you’d see the wealthy out marching too. All the time the investment banks will continue to provide the easy examples that we need – their bonus culture – which has returned unabashed, unashamed and as obscene as before the banking crisis exemplifies the point. It is truly one rule for the working man and woman and another for Cameron and his fellow millionaires.

We are at a crossroads for the Labour movement. It is our time to embrace the coalescing of events and circumstances to reunite the political and industrial wings of our movement, engage on the streets and in our communities to fight – and fight hard – for everything we believe in, to bring about a mass protest movement that will shake this coalition to its very foundation, that will challenge its legitimacy and right to do what it is.

Or we can continue on our path of condemning the anger, missing the mood of those who should be part of our fold, remaining managerial and aloof and unconnected and ignoring this once in a generation opportunity to make the case for an alternative vision for Britain.

From the campaigns of chartism, suffrage and to the modern day poll tax – we have a tradition of going beyond polite protest when we are ignored – and it has delivered real change to the political norms. Let this decade bring a similar movement: one that Labour can harness, lead, define and grow to bring down this rotten government who have, within months, begun to destroy that which we’ve spent generations fighting to build. Let’s understand the anger, sympathise with it, tap into it and use it and share it. This is no time for managers in the Labour Party – it’s time for campaigning and it’s time to rediscover our movement’s roots – political dissent and protest to protect those who cannot represent nor speak for themselves.

Alan Laing is a Labour councillor.