Firstly, a little history
The vast majority of British People are Left Wing though so many are convinced by the medias half educating of the opposite. That makes perfect sense when you look at the vulgar disproportionate share of this nation’s wealth, with a 1% ruling-class taking almost all of the wealth produced.
Enfranchisement
Before the Labour Movement and enfranchisement of the working class, the Left had no real place in politics and power passed from the Liberals to the Tories and back for three hundred years, and the lefts home was on the streets. Small protests and skirmishes. The Peterloo Massacre etc. With the workers’ mass enfranchisement through The Representation of the Peoples Act, 1928 and the Left had a new home inside The Labour Party. Ordinary working-class people who wanted the fundamentals of “leftism,” i.e. more for us and less for the bosses, could achieve great things through their party. Indeed, they did until the Callaghan Government took over in 1976. Callaghan found himself in significant disputes with powerful unions and endured “The Winter of Discontent”, which saw the Labour Parties membership crash. The Left was homeless again but found a purpose through the union movement, assisting the unions with fundraising and support activities. Think back to the LGBT community fundraising to feed striking miners and their families.
Modern History
Across the Thatcher era, traditional workforces vanished along with so much of the British Left’s culture, including unionisation, and the coming generations of The Left were homeless once more. From Thatcher through to Blair, The Left reinvented itself as a combination of professional third sector workers and street protestors.
Both grew whilst Labour membership steadily declined.A moment of hope in 1992 as John Smith welcomed a return of The Left and numbers rose for several years, but once Blair had shown his true colours from inside of Number 10, The Left took to the streets once more. Anti-war protests preceded Anti-austerity protests, and if one suggested joining the labour party to any socialist of that era, they would receive a funny look.
A Key Moment
Everything changed when the establishment accidentally welcomed The Left through Jeremy Corbyn, not realising, they still existed. Labour Party membership rose from 180,000 to 580,000, demonstrating that there was always a Left waiting for that welcoming home back from the streets and a great deal of good they did. Where it not for them, the labour party would have been bankrupted by now. Membership was on a trajectory that would have seen it drop to just 80,000 by now.
Considering this history, we get a sense of an omnipresent Left, albeit changing and adapting to the times.
Where next for The Left?
Ultimately, The Left must be sure to return to Parliamentary Politics no matter the tests and trials which lay before us. The movement is our hero in this telling of “The Heroes Tale”. As in any great legend, we find our hero cast out in the wilderness. However, Just as sure as Ironman returned from a powerless spacecraft drifting on the outer edges of a far off galaxy, so too The Left will return to front-line politics.
We find ourselves somewhere within the "Special World" of the heroes journey and staring into "The Abyss". Good-willed comrades suggest we return to the streets as a place of comfort that we know and which provided us with a home and, for most, our living memory. However, We have all smelt real democracy. It was just within our reach, and we all know how grand a prize that is. If only we had pushed a little harder, we would be their right now, and we think to ourselves as we imagine the great deeds we could have been blessing upon our world. The Left can not return to The Streets, a temporary sanctuary where we can achieve little and serve nobody. One ounce of effort in parliament could achieve more than fifty years of protest. The Left would be refusing to reach our apotheosis as street activists and protestors. Never to complete the journey, return to politics, and accent to the higher place we are destined.
Achieving the Ultimate Boon, Growing through The Courts
The movement is idealistically perfect, incredibly knowledgeable and loyal to a fault. But this only goes so far. With these qualities comes naivety. I can not point to a single example of a socialist member of staff using their position unfairly for factional advantage. Not once have I heard that Corbyn supporters managing Labours Governance and Legal Unit suspended Right-Wing members for factional advantage. Not once did I read that The Left had threatened to use the party finances to tie up right-wing members in the courts for years so that they can not get justice. It's good that we did not, as I would not be part of a movement that acted in this way, but we are still victims of these tactics and its time to grow as a movement through litigation.
Our "Ultimate Boon". Imagine for a moment the very same people you love within our movement where expertly versed in law and legal processes. Where might we be today? Those betraying the party would have been removed during the last five years and, in some cases, sued. Our members would have enjoyed protection from spurious claims. Corbyn would never have been suspended, and he would have been Prime Minister.
The IRA recognised the need to learn and famously ordered soldiers within the H-Blocks to read the law. They fought hard to get the books and revolutionised prison education in the process. The Black Panthers had teams of lawyers and self-educated legal volunteers. We are all quite clear that Labours Right Wing is versed in legal procedures and has hired strong legal professionals to carry out their wishes.
In Closing
So to all of those tempted to return to the street activism of old. The place of ineffectiveness that offered you comfort and demanded nothing. Wake Up! Parliamentary Politics is your destiny. Your next challenge is the courts, and once you return to political power, you will be stronger than ever before and able to create a sustainable new normal where socialism is at the core of all we do as a nation.