Left politics in Britain

It is worth for a moment turning our gaze away from the major class struggle in the world, the colossal US military action to win back hegemony in the Middle East (after a decade of defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan) — now aided and abetted by the reactionary and murderous utopians of IS. And even to look aside from mainland Europe - from the Ukraine, or from a room in Brussels where a concentration of contradictory and massive class forces on the move across the continent are to be found; as Syriza negotiates with the enemy over austerity and for Greek survival. The political crisis in Britain (the very lively ghost of Scottish independence, the coming EU vote, the ten year prospect of no single party government, etc) has, up to now been a minor aspect of the European scene; pre-eminently a crisis of rule. It is a crisis of the British ruling class which has largely been kept to themselves, but now it has taken a new turn.

Britain has held a marginal position up to now in the various European class conflicts. Part of the reason for the UK's spectator role has been that the serious political crisis emanating from the turmoils of our rulers have long been mirrored by the ragged politics of those set up to oppose them (with some honourable exceptions). The left in Britain has generally been as chaotic and unfit for the new realities in the post 2008 world as their opposite numbers. Now a new 'position' speech by the leader of the SNP on austerity in Britain marks a potential point of recomposition of the left. The new SNP initiative, to attack the main Westminster parties for their collective support for continued austerity, serves to clarify left politics in the next period in Britain and opens a new opportunity.

First to be clear. The SNP still insists that 'we' still pay the debt. But it also insists that austerity has 'failed', it rehearses Keynes's dictum that the economy should be designed to give the maximum number of people in society a good life and it proposes an estimated additional £180 billion government growth package over 5 years to stimulate the economy and increase tax revenues. In that, the SNP is simply echoing louder and louder voices across the capitalist world, particularly those of the US government. They also aim to embarrass Labour as a pro-austerity party and outflank it in their Scottish seats in the coming election.

For its own reasons the SNP have made its anti-austerity (not austerity light) policy a deal breaker if Labour needs to form a coalition. In doing this, at a stroke, Nicholas Sturgeon has clarified the main line of divide in the coming General Election. Undoubtedly the gathering pressure of Syriza in Greece and Podemus in Spain are part of the story, even in Britain — but the SNP appeal has an unmediated, direct impact on millions - obviously most especially in Scotland (but also in England.)

Does this translate into (re)organisational regroupment? The Labour Party's troubles lie deep in its decades long movement away from its class base. Faced with the decline of the trade unions, the recomposition of the working class, the reorganisation of the very contract between capital and labour, it sought state employees (at all levels) the self employed and small business as its alternative voting mass. It broke away from class identification, as its project and purpose became proposing new alliances around high tech, new culture, 'aspirant' workers and 'citizens' of cities. This melange regularly fell to pieces. Sections of the now fragile union leaderships were then brought back as repositories of wealth if not votes, but Labour's signal lack of any positive direction meant that it was, and remains, in serious decline and vulnerable to any credible alternative that does seem rooted in real life. In Southern England that looks like UKIP, in Scotland it is the SNP. Some Labour MPs may denounce austerity. But the Labour leadership can no more separate itself from its commitments in this area than it can reorganise its alienating and alienated leadership. A shadow Chancellor who protected the super rich; a shadow Health Minister who supports PFI and who sold the first hospital to a private company; a shadow PM who presents himself as an incompetent Oxbridge/Westminster machine man; the Labour Party cannot and will not lead a regroupment of all who oppose austerity. The best that can be hoped for is that bits of it will have the opportunity to break away in cases where a credible lead against austerity has emerged.

And what is emerging? A potential anti-austerity political coalition is beginning to emerge. While millions will still have to waste their vote on Labour, especially in Northern England, a million in Scotland might vote SNP and against austerity, the Greens could win up to 4,000,000 votes, small left groups and parties could poll another 50,000 and various individual candidates (for example Louise Irvine, chair of the successful Lewisham hospital campaign who is standing against Hunt) could achieve another 200,000 votes.

As the new government to be stumbles into the light of day on May 8, it will still face a political crisis completely undiminuished from that of its predecessors. It continues not to represent the real experiences of real life for the overwhelming majority of the population. Perhaps there will be a sufficient force of Scottish MPs strong enough to force a larger but weaker Labour Party into some anti-austerity concessions. Hopefully there will be a batch of much stronger anti-austerity voices, to support Green MP Caroline Lucas, and form a small group.

And outside? In the territory where Syriza and Podemus grew into life? In England we might envisage the beginnings of a new political umbrella, perhaps based around the strongest organised force, provided by the Greens, designed both to unite those who fight austerity day to day with all those who increasingly see the need for an anti-austerity political voice in Parliament in a small parliamentary group and, in due course, in an anti-austerity government.