JMcD in Hackney
Last night's Hackney TUC / Leabridge Labour Party meeting with John McDonnell was packed. I couldn't go, as I still languish at home getting used to the falsie. But I spoke to a few people afterwards, and the feeling was generally very positive.
Those who attended the meeting - including fellow bloggers Stroppy, David, Mike and Dave - are welcome to post your comments here. Dave - do you still believe that McDonnell's campaign is a doomed attempt to reinvent Bennism, or did the meeting win you over?
Luke Akehurst was, apparently, refused entry to the building for health and safety reasons.
Actually, the meeting was so well-attended that the venue reached its top capacity and the Hackney Empire staff had to close the doors and turn away latecomers, which allegedly included Luke. But "Luke Akehurst refused entry on health and safety grounds" sounds much more amusing, and is, technically, correct.
- Janine's blog
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Janine asked me to post my report here....
Last night we held a meeting at the Hackney Empire with John McDonnell, Matt Wrack (Fire Brigades' Union General Secretary), Maria Exall (Communication Workers Union Exec) and Gill George (Amicus exec).
There were about 90 people there throughout, with some turned away (see above!) There was very strong enthusiasm, and not just people on the organized left speaking from the floor. The way in which the leadership issue was linked into grassroots workers' campaigns was excellent.
Gill George is a Respect member, but from the panel she expressed how much she hoped to actively support John's campaign. All the speakers referred to the importance of organizing even people outside Labour behind McDonnell.
From the floor Jeremy Dewar from Workers' Power criticized John's short-sightedness in not calling for the expropriation of the banks and disarming the police and/or state. Why, does the Campaign for a New Workers' Party do this? A Socialist Party comrade said John is bound to lose, so why not join the CNWP? Perhaps, we thought, because it is a very small, centrist sectarian project.
McDonnell attacked all such pessimism around the campaign. He focused on the power the grassroots members and union rank-and-file have in the election, and how he isn't planning to lose - he commented, "When Lenin came into the Finland station, he wasn't thinking 'hmmm.. shall I holiday in Switzerland next summer?'"!
Umm, is there a reason why
Umm, is there a reason why he's called Luke The Nuke? I mean, without looking at his picture, you could think that he wrestles in the WWF in his spare time.
The Nuke
Cos ever since he was a young lad, he has really really liked nuclear weapons.
Hackney McDonnell public meeting
It has been interesting reading some of the blogs after the Hackney McDonnell public meeting and I think the issue of this leadership challenge is vitally important. We should give ourselves a big pat on the back for what was a blinding success, we got nearly a 100 people into a room which seated 70 and an unknown number turned away by the Hackney Empire on health and safety grounds. (According to the Morning Star report it was over 100 in the room.)
I don’t agree with one explanation that this due to the fact “Hackney is also extremely unrepresentative of the Labour Party as a whole - its left is actually bigger than most.” Whilst it’s clearly true some areas have stronger movement traditions and survived perhaps more than others I agree with Janine that the success of the event was down to the organising work put into it and not local exceptionalism.
The local Labour left has been pretty passive and has not made an effort to mobilise potential support in the rank and file Labour Party members to challenge the right-wing Council etc. We took the initiative to link up with the trades council to get the meeting off the ground. We found some of the left particularly Briefing people to be rather pessimistic.
However when Janine says she hopes the success of the public meeting “will prove to be part of a process of revilatising Hackney's left” I think this points to the wider significance of the McDonnell campaign as well as locally. Locally in terms of the organising for this meeting it a was good application of the model of the Labour Representation Committee. We got a good united front linking unions and the Labour Party in terms of a sponsorship by a local branch and support from a left Counciller, of Marxists in and outside the LP and reformists. Its seems to me the McDonnell campaign locally (and the work we have put into it) has had a revitalising effect on the left particularly the Labour Party. (despite cynicism of the SP which is like a child in a temper tantrum).
I think some of commentary and contributions at the meeting are not placing the McDonnell campaign necessarily in full context of state of the movement today and 18 years since the last leadership challenge. Nor fully taking into account the repeated failed attempts of the left to establish organisatonal alternatives since the ascendancy of ‘New Labour’ by trying to circumvent a direct struggle inside the whole labour movement.
In considering a lot of the criticism of the McDonnell campaign at the public meeting such as it’s a failed attempt to recreate Bennism and its doomed - it was useful reexamining what we argued at the LRC conference in support of McDonnell standing. That the “purpose is to gather together all those labour movement people – a minority – who want to build a serious challenge to New Labour”. Something however that cant be achieved by entering a fight on the basis of loosing.
I think we also need to discuss this campaign in the historical context of where British politics is heading i.e. if the Tories win, will we have a repeat of 1979-80 in terms of a Labour left, how does our activity today relate to the objective situation etc.
Whilst not wishing to be swept up by the enthusiasm of a successful event it is certainly heartening to see socialist pessimism being replaced by some revitalisation. I think for our class and as an organisation there is all to play for in this campaign.
Reports on other blogs
Here and here.