Back to the good ole days of ‘one more heave’ is it?

By Colin Challen MP

It is the destiny of all Labour Party leaders to betray the movement, sooner or later. Far better to get one’s betrayal in early so that one get on with the job in hand, which is to be credible in the real world of political grown-ups. Are we not familiar with this narrative? And tired of it? It is always the same, and when it comes to searching for an objective commentary, forget it. The Daily Mailistas have it that Ed Miliband is a stooge of the trade unions (because they ‘won it’ for him, never mind that all the votes in the leadership ballot were cast by individuals), whilst our good friends on the farther left have it that he’s a prisoner of the right. No-one seems to have noticed that those unions which weren’t on strike are affiliated to Labour and seem to be playing a longer game which may have something to do with the fact that they are indeed affiliated to the Labour Party.

Surely the best thing to do is to choose the strongest ground to fight – which is not the same as saying that having the strongest case always makes the strongest ground.

There is no doubt at all of the strength of the case of all those who came out on strike on June 30th. I support the case of those who did, and wish that Ed’s language could have been more supportive, even if it stopped short of endorsing the strike at this juncture.

The right to withdraw one’s labour is a human right, and under the coalition government’s onslaught many working people are forced to the brink. But we live in a country in which strikes have become rarities and the use of this weapon has to be carefully judged, particularly on this scale.

Frankly, we need a strategy which shows how better co-ordinated action, which may include strikes, can more certainly win over the public’s mind. With the Labour Party still weakened after its defeat last year, still coming to terms with the errors it made (not being tough on the city’s wide boys, the 10p tax rate, the rolling advance of privatisation and liberal economics ad nauseum) there needs to be a stronger consensus on the left of how to get out from under this burden and rebuild a strong, united movement.

The failure to do so will be another general election defeat. It may be that sometime soon this new consensus will give the party the confidence (from the leader down) to back a strike, which wins the support of a transformative majority against this disreputable coalition government. But that majority has to have something to replace this government with, and let’s not pretend it’s all just swinging back to Labour like a well-choreographed waltz.

I want to hear from the leaders of Thursday’s action what their political strategy is. And from Ed Miliband too.