Welcome to Hard Thinking on the Soft Left
Welcome.
Thank you so much for signing up. The fact that so many of you have done so in less than 24 hours shows a real appetite for this conversation and exemplifies how under-examined this area of politics is.
This will be a (semi) regular email where I will be examining what we mean by the soft left, what has led it to where it is now, how it influences and who it comprises, how it might respond as a movement to various issues of the day and why it has such a bloody awful name.
This project is not affiliated with any organisation. The thoughts expressed will be mine alone based on my nearly 46 years on the planet, the vast majority of which I have spent describing myself as on the soft left.
I felt it was about time I worked out what I mean by that. But I don't intend for this to be simply a place to champion my own politics but to challenge and be challenged. I will offer links to articles I agree and disagree with around the areas I discuss and will occasionally ask other voices to post here. I also want to get your comments and will try to make sure any questions are answered in future mailings.
The soft left is an under-covered movement. Too often it is defined by what it isn't - not what it is and what it stands for, it's triumphs and its failures. It essentially came about as a break in the early 1980s in the Tribune group of MPs who split over whether or not to vote for Tony Benn for Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party in 1981. The defeated Bennites then set up the Socialist Campaign Group and were known as the hard left. Those who remained in Tribune were then, pretty much by default, the soft left.
So the soft left started both with bloody awful branding and being defined against a clearer politics. But as that was nearly forty years ago, there isn’t much excuse for the fact that it remains a bit amorphous to this day.
Over the course of the coming weeks, months - probably years, I will try to look at what I think are the core principles of the soft left and how they can and should be applied to modern Labour politics.
For me these are:
Pragmatic radicalism: By this, I mean particularly domestically and economically. the soft left may be soft, but they are still of the left. There are a range of views and approaches within the movement (see the next principle) but all of them would shift economic management further to the left. Whether that be through radical devolution, nationalisation or a move to new models such as Land Value Tax, Community Land Trusts or Cooperatives.
The soft left should have a radical vision for the future of the country. It should have developed policies on how that can be achieved based not only on the economy we have now (and not the one we have had in the past) but also the economy we are moving towards and that we would like to move towards.
Pluralism: The Labour Party is made up of a bunch of human beings and it is as flawed as we all are. This means that we often replicate at scale the worst of human behaviours. While the soft left is a faction - and will support candidates and motions and undertake all the behaviours that factions regularly indulge in - it must be one that is always open to working with others.
That means both to our left and our right. When someone has a good idea, it shouldn't matter to the soft left who had that and whose gang they’re in, it should matter if the idea would make the UK better.
Equally, we will often disagree. There are real and competing ideas in Labour politics that have little to do with a traditional left/right axis. As such these are bound to find people within the same faction on opposite sides of an argument. which is OK. That happens. No one should agree with anyone else 100% of the time - that would be weird. But if the soft left is going to claim to be genuinely pluralist they need to model better disagreements than have been seen across the Labour Party of late. This is hard work. But will be essential.
Eyes on the Prize: The soft left is an electorally focused project or it is nothing. Too often other factions have found themselves squabbling over the mechanisms of the Labour Party to the exclusion of talking to, about and most importantly with the country. Yes, Labour is a mess and that needs sorting out. But if you find your most important political project becomes an internal rule change or a seat on the NEC, you have lost sight of why the Labour Party exists and what it’s worth any of us doing this for.
The UK needs a Labour government. That Labour government would be best served by people who are willing to think radically and act pragmatically to achieve their goals. It is best achieved by people who will take the best ideas from wherever they find them and work with the best people to deliver them. And it is only achieved if that government remains the singular purpose and goal of the party and its membership.
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What comes out of this project is up in the air, but I hope to take it further given the right time, space and funding. If you haven’t already, I really hope you will sign up to the newsletter (and tell your friends!). You don't have to identify as soft left to see value in this discussion - so please do join in!
What I’ve Been Writing
This week I have written about the government’s mixed messages on vaccines and local elections. I also wrote on the historic election of Christina McAnea to the post of General Secretary of Unison - both for Left Foot Forward.
And in a change of pace (But hey - pluralism!) I also wrote about how the Sex and the City reboot will be the further ruination of a once-great brand for The Independent.
Reading List
The soft left needs to get its shit together - Sunny Hundal, Labourlist
It would be extremely remiss of me not to link to the piece that finally made me get my shit together and stop toying with the idea that I wanted to do something and get on with it. So thank you Sunny both for a brilliant baseline argument and for essentially telling me to do this!
Marginal Holds - Lauren McDonald and Nik Rutherford, Labour Society of Campaigners
I edited this pamphlet, but don’t let that put you off. It’s a well written deep dive into a campaign that was run differently from the norm and why and how it worked. It has so many lessons for Labour activists up and down the country.
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_.