The Progress group in the Labour Party is holding its AGM tomorrow and it has an interesting line up of speakers, who include Jeremy Corbyn, Owen Jones, Emily Thornberry and Dianne Abbott. One might think this a bit odd since Progress represents a more mainstream Labour view (“far right”, as Ken Livingstone said, which suggests they occupy by the same ground as Britain First – they don’t) but I look upon this as a very positive move.
Corbyn has faced a great deal of criticism since he was elected for speaking only with those who already agree with him, at Pro Corbyn meetings, Stop the war and CND rallies. To be invited to speak at the Progress event and to then accept means Labour’s leader deserves due credit and I am pleased to dish some credit out to him.
In fact, it says a great deal about Progress that they have opened the door to three notable figures from the hard left and unilateralist Thornberry. That and Corbyn’s acceptance suggests there might be sufficient agreement between them to see the party move forward, at last.
Last Monday, Corbyn acknowledged that Labour’s performance in the local elections simply wasn’t good enough to give hope that Labour might win the next general election. With Scotland lost to the SNP, Labour needs something like a 12% swing in England to win power and that’s before constituency boundary changes. No one is seriously suggesting that Labour looks like a party that can get anywhere near that figure.
Are there now suggestions that Corbyn might just be prepared to compromise with the rest of the party to improve Labour’s chances? For example, when Tony Benn was the leader of Labour’s hard left, of which Corbyn was a fellow traveller, he bitterly opposed the EU. Although Corbyn uses his words carefully (“Labour believes” this, and “Labour believes” the other), he strikes me as an honest man who really has been persuaded of the arguments that the EU, for all its many flaws, works for the UK and certainly for ordinary workers. In fact, I rather share Corbyn’s line on the EU in that whilst it is generally A Good Thing, there are so many more things that could be done to promote the interests of ordinary workers. It needs to be changed from within.
I have certainly been critical of the comrades who bask in Corbyn’s wake and appear to be unconcerned about whether Labour can actually win an election. The man himself called for a kinder, more gentle type of politics, but many of those who follow him behave the opposite way. “If you don’t like us, go and join Ukip”, that sort of thing, as if a liberal-minded socialist or social democrat would seriously want to join a racist far right party.
I certainly side with the majority of the Labour Party PLP who have been horrified by the early months of Corbyn’s leadership. Whether you like the PLP or not doesn’t matter. But these are women and men who have dedicated their lives to elect a Labour government and they have seen the tantalising possibility of changing the country for the better disappearing before their very eyes. They saw a new leadership bent on changing the Labour Party than changing the country. Maybe Corbyn has listened?
It is not in Labour’s interests to be divided but it is certainly not in the country’s interest to endure permanent Tory rule and that’s why Corbyn’s appearance at a mainstream conference matters, if only by its symbolism. The light at the end of the tunnel may after all only be an oncoming express, but it’s something on which those of us who are desperate to see Labour succeed can focus.
