We can't afForde to go on like this
Factions have their place in the discussion of ideas and approaches. But they have come to dominate all things Labour in a deeply unhealthy way. How do we change that?
This post is going to assume a basic level of knowledge on behalf of the reader about the contents of the Forde Report, its background and the long wait for its publication on behalf of the reader. If you want to read the report in full, it can be found here. The Guardian has a summary of its key takeaways.
In my recent sold-out (did I mention we sold out?) play Triggered there is one scene that does not follow the naturalism of the rest of the play. In it, each character, representing as they do a faction of the Labour Party, comes on stage singing a different song traditionally connected to their politics. The result is a joyous cacophony. By the end of the scene, however, all the characters sing the Red Flag together to signify that though they come from different factions they are also all members of the same party. It is - despite (or perhaps because) having no original writing be me, my favourite scene.
The point was that while these people were - proudly - of different factions in Labour, they also came together after their infighting to remember that they were members of the same party and that this is more important.
The Labour Party’s factions and many of its members are a very long way from understanding that. The Forde report has tried to stay neutral in its tone and recognise the very obvious fact that both sides (there are, of course, more than two, but over the last seven years these have largely broken down into pro or anti-Corbyn, no matter what your policy stance on any given issue) have driven themselves and each other further and further into a factional spiral that led to appalling behaviours from far too many concerned.
That this also spread from members and MPs to staff - again on both sides - is probably the most regrettable part of all of this.
The staff are paid through a combination of Short money (a fund to ensure that in a democracy we have an effective opposition), donations largely from unions and mostly the money received from membership fees. All three of these have reduced. Short money because we lost both seats and votes in 2019. Donations from the unions because of a new spate of General Secretaries and a new sense of where British workforce priorities are has left unions less interested in funding Labour for reasons from left and right. And member numbers have reduced from their peak significantly which is in part due to a sense of disillusionment from those who were fully bought into Corbyn, in part due to some expulsions and in part due to the natural waning that happens between elections. Which of these you emphasise depends on which faction you subscribe to… sigh.
What this has meant to the running of the party is that there have been wage freezes and job losses. Hard for a party called Labour at any time - harder still when we are in a cost of living crisis and the party is focused on how hard the Government are making life for workers - particularly public sector workers. I don’t know where this process has got to. Negotiations are usually internal until they spill over into the public discourse. But it should almost inevitably be the case that the staffing structures and functions of the Party will need to be looked at in some depth and while the core recommendations in the Forde report scratch the surface of this, it will need significant change.
It would be wholly wrong to say that poor attitudes from staff towards members started just under Corbyn. In fact I had a case of appalling treatment of my own father by, among others, one of the people whose WhatsApp messages were part of the leaked report. I fought that hard, all the way, eventually getting some recognition of the problem by the then General Secretary. There was not any action taken though. And the person involved moved inexorably upwards in the party hierarchy.
So we need a change of culture among the staff - not just the members. And while Forde’s recommendations on staffing are mostly instrumental, it is essential that they lie alongside the culture change piece largely aimed at members and elected politicians.
What concerns me about both the recommendations for staff and for members is that they do not fall into either navel-gazing or avoid the truth of who we actually are - as human beings who have chosen to join a political party.
As human beings we are naturally tribal. We bond with people we perceive to be ‘like us’ and reject those we see as not being part of our group. This is natural to all of us. It is not a criticism - just an observation. Going outside your tribe can be incredibly painful. Being rejected by it even more so. Lonliness is an under-examined concept in political motivation. But fear of rejection has led many to adopt group think. Rather than determining how we feel about each issue on the basis of the evidence we just ask what our mates have decided to do; How our mates have decided to vote. And the harder we cling to not thinking for ourselves, the more we reject those who step outside of the accepted boundaries of our tribe. We become more vicious to those who we see rejecting some part of us than we ever were to those who never accepted any part of us in the first place. This is how a culture that endlessly divides into internal factionalism develops.
The Labour Party is the perfect Petri Dish for this. Almost everything about being a member of the Labour Party is set up to have you look internally.
You join the Labour Party usually because you have a general interest in politics and believe that society would be better organised along socialist - or social democratic - principles. It might be that you are also interested in getting involved in your local community and doing so active good at that level.
So what happens then?
Well, it is quite likely that, if you do anything at all beyond paying your subs, you will attend a branch meeting.
Here you will be bombarded by unfamiliar terminology and processes designed to be opaque. Like all cults, there has to be a hierarchical air of mystery. Just as only level Whatever Operating Thetans are promised that they will really understand the ‘truth’ behind Scientology (beyond it being a money-making pyramid scheme obvs) so too do you need to immerse yourself in Labour processology before you really understand what it means. Start as a member, progress to branch officer, get on the GC. Get elected as a CLP officer. Sit on the EC of the GC. Get elected to the Regional Board, to the NEC or to the NCC.
Each of these levels of progression is not remotely connected to the thing that made you want to join the party - your desire to change the lives of the people of the country you live in and the wider world. But each of them pulls you further and further into the internal and inwards-looking life of the party. Probably accompanied by the journey of the person who recruited you to the party in the first place or the first person who spoke to you kindly and welcomingly at that first branch meeting.
With each step, your gaze is drawn ever further inward. Motions to branch become motions to the GC become motions to conference. We pretend this is how we make policy for government but it isn’t. It’s how the members are kept distracted while policy is made from the top.
Members have a lot more to give than this. The party can and should be a lot more imaginative about drawing them into a policy conversation. But instead, we follow the pyramid scheme of distraction. Annual internal elections to branches and GCs and bi-annual elections to national and regional bodies mean that our focus on internal campaigning is relentless and vicious and ultimately completely futile. Who cares who is the chair of the Sout Branch in Walthamstow Labour Party when Boris Johnson is Prime Minister? Sadly the answer is far, far too many members of South Branch (my branch) in Walthamstow.
Well here’s another line from my sell-out play “Proces matters. It shapes us. It shapes our thinking.”
I believe that.
So while we talk about changing the Labour Party’s culture,l we have to look at what drives this factionalism. And part of that is this endless focus on internal battles. The ones that are written into the DNA of the party.
Here is a thought. No internal officer needs to be elected more frequently than an external representative.
We have set terms for council elections and the more sensible ones happen on an all-out basis every four years. Elections in normal times happen on roughly the same basis. Have internal posts filled and fought over at the same rate and we will have far fewer times when members are campaigning against each other. Sparing up a lot of time and capacity to do much more external-facing work.
This is a proposal almost universally rejected by all factions. Because factions, by their nature, want to win more internal elections. It will be a brave factional leader who will be able to make a decision that could be good for the party as a whole bat damaging to their power base within it.
But that is what leadership really would look like. Taking decisions that would make the party better equipped to run the country.
Take it from someone who knows from very bitter personal experience - standing up against your faction is incredibly hard, and leaving it incredibly painful. And then it isn’t. And the freedom to think things through for yourself is like drinking cool spring water after years of stale bile. It is worth it for your own sake - but it is also worth it for the better contribution you are able to make to the whole. You will do those you care about good by taking difficult but right decisions.
So let the left and right of Labour decide in the wake of Forde declaring peace. Not - as they have so far - try to continue to use the moment to fight and refight their battles. But to actually make all our lives better.
All our lives as members but more importantly of citizens who need a Labour Party that looks beyond itself. That is what culture change means. A staff, a membership and the elected cadre all looking outwards.
We have a long way to go. I am unsure, as yet, whether the party even recognises that this is the journey it needs to be on.
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What I’ve been up to
I reviewed the fun if ultimately frothy Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National Theatre.
And the rather disappointing Mosquito at the Seven Dials.
A final appeal. This newsletter takes quite a while to think about and write. I know things are really tough all over at the moment, but if you can spare some cash to say you’ve appreciated it, I can’t tell you how much that would mean to me right now.
Questions, comments and arguments are very welcome. Insults will get you summarily blocked on every platform that no longer hosts Donald Trump. I’m at emmaburnell@gmail.com or on Twitter (far too often) at @EmmaBurnell_.
I was that person - I joined Labour as I am interested in politics and change, and a socialist. It was so boring and hard to understand I decided my time was better spent in local community organisations where you are more likely to feel you can made a difference.