If anyone now thinks the left can win elections by embracing neoliberalism they are, I think, wrong.
And if anyone thinks supplying people with ever more credit in response to wage stagnation is acceptable as an economic strategy, then that too is wrong.
Whilst the days of globalisation look as though they need to be over if the left are to win again.
In the UK and now the USA these ideas have been rejected.
What replaces them? A more local, people focussed, Keynesian, green focus has to be the basis for the rebuilding of economics of the left.
But let's not pretend that this will be easy. The neoliberal elite are not going to relax their control of the Opposition without a struggle. There is a fight to be had before the campaign against the prejudice which is now in control can even begin.
The need for better ideas on the left has never been more apparent.
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Well called Ivan and RM. Red necks and white working class have had enough and come out against The Establishment who have punished the lower orders for too long. Note Osborne and Cameron punishment meted out with unnecessary Austerity and will leave a future mark. A move to the extreme right, Republicans have total domination in the US with Congress and Senate won by the Reds. Looks bleak for the UK if a GE is called with UKIP being a major benefactor of the revolt. Labour are in disarray with embers of neoliberal greatness still glowing in their leadership ranks. UK Greens have the policies but not the support yet.
I agree with all that
Tony_B, thanks, but just like calling Brexit correctly I have to say I’m not proud that I got Trump’s victory correct too. In terms of analysis of what went wrong, and the dire consequences for many people (including Clinton presumably as Trump makes good on his promise to lock her up), I think this by Thomas Frank is excellent and picks up on some of the themes Richard touches on here and elsewhere. As Franks concludes:
‘The even larger problem is that there is a kind of chronic complacency that has been rotting American liberalism for years, a hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone — except their friends on the Google jet and those nice people at Goldman. The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the “last thing standing” between us and the end of the world. It is a liberalism of the rich, it has failed the middle class, and now it has failed on its own terms of electability. Enough with these comfortable Democrats and their cozy Washington system. Enough with Clintonism and its prideful air of professional-class virtue. Enough!’
The full article is here and well worth a read.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/donald-trump-white-house-hillary-clinton-liberals
I agree: this assumption by the ‘left’ that some will always vote for them has to go
Because it has
mr horrocks , thanks for the link , downloaded the book , read his What’s the Matter with Kansas and a few others years ago. a link that may be of interest but more to do with england http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2016/07/listening-to-brexit/
The bottom line is that the left are just crap at doing politics
Totally agree – as I’ve said elsewhere-they just can’t explicate things for the public, they are poor educators so people will naturally opt for the simplistic stuff.
Crap at politics and economics?
I think a part of it is that, for too long, targetting social groups and not being as bad as the Tories was enough to get enough votes and when things change people don’t always realise and, when they do, don’t know how to react. The left need an identity and a narrative that people can identify with and which all sections of the left can unite behind, with policies which benefit ordinary people. I can’t see either half of the Labour party even heading in that direction at the moment (or any direction for that matter). Corbyn may have been the beginning of the change but he is not it and he must know that.
What has happened in the USA is a sort of amplified Brexit. People protesting but according to a false narrative. This is more of a statement of the ghastly failure of the left going back to Callaghan in 1976.
Trump is at least talking about infrastructure/keeping out of foreign wars – a message that the left could not deliver in the USA with its Russophobia and regime change madness. Whether there is substance behind that remains a question, it may be no more that May’s ‘mouth farting’ about taking care of those struggling.
Trump has used vileness on his path to power but at least we can see it whereas the vileness of corporate capture of Clinton was hidden behind a mask of faux progressiveness.
Trump won’t make ‘America Great Again’, though and the Left will need to be ready to pick those pieces up.
The sad thing is that Sanders should have been running against Trump -but due to possible corruption and a frightened wall Street he was sidelined. It’s possible that Trump garnered some Sanders voters as an ‘anything but Hilary’ vote.
The Left is not ready yet and shows no sign of being so -that’s sad beyond expression.
Who would have thought that we would see something like this?
Many of us have not taken this man seriously. However, what effect did the FBI have on the vote when they said Clinton’s emails needed to be looked at again? I would love to have seen voting intentions during the period before they said there were no concerns – especially in the early voting that took place.
But what else can we expect when we look at the stagnation in ideas in politics since 2008?
All I see is a rejection of neo-liberalism.
The Left has lost ground because they too supped from the same neo-lib cup and because they too have become part of the establishment in the UK and the USA.
This morning Trump has spoken about state backed infrastructure investment in the US in order to create wealth (jobs). We know that doing the same in the UK would be good thing.
What I find both worrying and fascinating is that the kick back against neo-liberalism in the USA is being led from within a party which basically introduced it in the first place. What does this mean? A new sort of politics?
It seems the shock of Trump’s victory has led to the return of Pilgrim Slight Return, PSR? 🙂
I’ve never been away really but shortened my silly name to ‘PSR’. I’m not shocked by Trump Ivan. It’s more like a sense or resignation really and an understanding as to why people have voted as they do – usually through anger and frustration.
I agree. Working with some people in the North west with whom I hope to build a local energy coop – where they end up owning the power generators & supply around 60% (to start with) of their elec needs – at a much lower price than the usual suspects. In such small actions community spirit is built & with it a sense of belonging. This could be done everywhere. & extended. & gov’ has a role possibly in funding, possibly in just ebing supportive.
Trump does not seem to be Neoliberal he is not a particularly nice person I know but he might do something good for the poorer Americans but of course likely do a lot of really bad things
problem is:
His own party will bang on about the ‘fiscal cliff’ nonsense; small Government and that you are a ‘bum’ if you need social security.
Creating jobs will almost certainly mean loosening environmental rules and fracking the crap out of whatever scraps of land still haven’t been fracked.
Expect even more environmental decline.
Environmental disaster is one of the likely outcomes
Of course Trump is a neo-liberal. He’s likely to believe that you run an economy like a business – and he’s not very good at that.
The Republican Party establishment loathe Trump and I think the feeling is probably mutual but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him impose their economic dreams on the country. What will he stand to do?
Slash taxes on the wealthy? Check (he will personally benefit)
Slash Corporation taxes? Check (he will personally benefit)
Try to find some way to end Obamacare? Check – if it will keep the Republican establishment happy.
Get rid of all the ‘green crap’? Check – see above.
This doesn’t even consider that a new Republican nominee to the Supreme Court will gerrymander it against any sort of progressive thought for the foreseeable future and we can expect an ongoing erosion of liberties.
They will probably railroad through anti-abortion legislation to keep the evangelicals happy for a start.
Our only hope is that he will do one of his 180 degree turns now he’s won power and do the exact opposite of what he claimed he would during campaigning!
He’s got off to a good start, praising Clinton for her service to the nation which I’d imagine is rowing back from his threats to prosecute!
If he doesn’t pay tax, how will he benefit from cutting taxes?
The deal has just ended
His companies would too
Quite simple really. Embrace MMT and the Job Guarantee and support temporary immigration controls. Restrict the open borders to other parts of the world that have an equivalent Job Guarantee programme and social infrastructure, high enough wages etc. If you don’t come from such country then you have to apply for a visa and be assessed.
It’s quite difficult for a foreign leader to argue against that position, because if they do then they are essentially saying they want to dump their unemployment in the UK (or wherever) rather than deal with it themselves. The push back would be: Implement a Job Guarantee and we’ll gladly remove the restrictions for your country.
There is a set of people who put the needs of people from outside the UK ahead of those who are currently resident here (including those immigrants with legitimate paperwork). That set then run for national office and wonder why they don’t get elected.
So it is because they don’t put the voters as a priority *ahead of anybody else*. Labour must guarantee everyone a job, house and pension, and pray for a recession to get into power.
And even if there is no recession/house price crash in the long term change voters from voting house prices to voting jobs and pensions, which will take decades. Not less than a year as the coup plotters and their lackeys wanted.
Yes. Although I’m not convinced by all of MMT. But ‘Yes’ that would be a huge step in the right direction and provide hope for the future. The rest we can work with and improve as we go along. The JG is a far more widely acceptable solution to current unused capacity than the Basic Income concepts if only for the fact it presents no barrier to acceptance by getting something for nothing, in some eyes. I’m not agreeing with the whole ‘scroungers’ dialogue, you understand, just prudently warning any supporters of UBI schemes that no matter the mehchanics, human psychology is against them.
The solutions are not hidden, not impossible and are already available; what remains is to begin to put them in place. In the absence of ‘us’ being at the steering wheel of state we have to do so piecemeal in from the grassroots upwards.
Bernie + Stephanie Kelton kick ass. Oh wait, we’ll let Clinton be the candidate.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/presidential-election-donald-trump-would-have-lost-if-bernie-sanders-had-been-the-candidate-a7406346.html
Stephanie didn’t kick my ass when I last sat next to her
But I think she has the capacity to do so
My point is *both* the fake-Tory and fake-Green approaches are wrong. We need a distinctive Labour voice and there isn’t one. There hasn’t been one for half a century.
And that’s the problem
I know that this will set the hares running (again) but I think that Len McCluskey was right when he said in his CLASS speech last Saturday that EU immigration has suppressed UK wages. http://labourlist.org/2016/11/len-mccluskey-workers-need-safeguards-and-strong-unions-to-make-migration-work/. He suggested that one way to tackle this is to insist that employers who wish to bring in workers from abroad should have to accept unions and collective bargaining. I think he would have gone further if he thought he had a receptive audience. I spoke to him afterwards and praised him for speaking up, which was against what everyone else had said about immigration, including Corbyn. Len also mentioned the fact that the East European states were becoming denuded of their youngest and brightest and best. An endless stream of new cheap labour has meant that UK businesses have had no incentive to invest in capital, which is why our productivity is pathetic. I believe that Brexit under the tories will put a stop to the free movement of Labour here and will be of benefit to the next Labour government which would have never have sought it.
It is still worth reflecting on the impact of immigration in order to come up with policies that limit any damage to workers established here and the immigrants themselves so your comments are alright with me.
But Corbyn has said as much in the past too. It’s just that as we are now, even our more reasonable politicians are scared of the BREXIT mob. Look what happened to those Judges recently.
Well, according to Bill Mitchell, the Left began to fall for the neo-liberal / monetarist line years (decades) ago, and still haven’t woken up. He has a long series of blog articles about it, and a book coming up. Even McDonnell wants to balance budgets.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog
He even refers to Greens as “neo-liberals with bikes”. I think that’s unfair in the case of the UK Green Party, as I think they do mostly “get it” (Though I would push them more towards MMT than PM these days, but that’s an argument for another time and place). They were the only explicitly anti-austerity party (as far as I know) in the 2015 G.E.
PM is neanderthal, not neoliberal
The Greens are definitely more austerity than McDonnell who has no clue