The Capitulating Left

Another week and another exasperating capitulation by so-called leaders of the left. It seems like a never-ending conveyer belt of promise that always falls into the waste bin that is the Labour Party. Mick Lynch was bellowing his support for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and Sharon Graham has been towing the Labour line by cancelling all showings of the ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie’ in Unite buildings. Considering how these two have been built up by the left, this should be seen as deeply disappointing. It’s not surprising that these two have been standard bearers for British left with the state that it’s in, but will this unsurprising direction be seen as what it is, or will the left follow like lemmings straight off the cliff?

The legacy of the RMT is one of fierce militancy, a standard set by the late and great Bob Crow, who was an ardent critic of the Labour leader of the time, Tony Blair, and a strong EU leaver campaigner. Bob Crow even adumbrated for all unions to disaffiliate from the anti-worker Labour Party and form their own party. This is in stark contrast to Mick Lynch, who used his interview with Nick Ferrari to pledge his support for Labour, as he has done before, and this time even Sir Keir Starmer himself got a mention of support.

Mick Lynch replaced Mick Cash as General Secretary in 2021, but his rise to prominence was in the following year with his public and media appearances as RMT members took part in strike action across the nation’s railways. His battles with the inept British media were a joy to behold after we had suffered for years with media-trained news actors, whose words were carefully chosen so as not offend. His replies were fantastic, and his words resonated with all workers.
A 61-year-old Irish Catholic, Michael Lynch looked like the real deal. It was a strange sight to see a socialist avoid the pitfalls of trade union bureaucracy and hold such a lofty position in this day and age. He was a breath of fresh air, at least until one started to hear his opinions on party politics. He has always held the Conservatives to account, but it wasn’t until the beginning of 2023 that we saw that he didn’t hold Bob Crow’s belief of all unions removing support, and funding, of the Labour Party.

In this LBC episode, a caller asks if they should support the Labour Party or if all left leaning people should start a new party around Jeremy Corbyn (yawn).

Mick Lynch responded by talking about there being no appetite for another party within the people. Both he and Jeremy Corbyn want to support and be a part of Labour. At this point, I believed him to be completely correct. Corbyn has shown no appetite at all for a real fight for socialism. He seems happy to continue to be Sir Keir Starmer’s punching bag and the neutered pet of the left, rolled out to talk at events to warm applause and then sent back to Islington for a jam butty, but I digress. Whereas we believe he is correct in his assertion that neither he nor Corbyn have no appetite for change, there definitely is an appetite for change within the working class and Labour, as we very well know, offers no change. It is a vital cog in the machine that is British capitalism: Offering the electorate a party in opposition, but never acting as such.
He continues his reply to offer his belief that Sir Keir Starmer is going repeal these ‘poor anti-trade union laws’ and “More importantly,” he says, “make individual rights for workers available from day one.” Honestly, I find this hard to believe and even more incredulous is that Mick Lynch believes it. Sir Keir Starmer has made no indication that he would be the first Labour leader to repeal Thatcher’s anti-trade union laws or move Labour into any sort of worker-first politics.

Finally, Mick Lynch talks of Labour being a broad church or a ‘rainbow coalition’ and that this is what is needed to tackle the Tory party. In this coalition he mentions left, center and reformist right wingers. He says this without any sense of irony. Mick Lynch and Jeremy Corbyn both believe in change via the current system in a party created to uphold it. Just like Corbyn, Lynch himself is firmly set in the reformist camp, which is deeply disappointing.

Sharon Graham was also elected in 2021 to the position of General Secretary of UniteTheUnion, the largest trade union in Britain. She was elected after the early resignation of the divisive Len McCluskey, who was one of Jeremy Corbyn’s most fervent supporters.

She came into the election as the hope of the left alongside Howard Beckett, who stepped back to put his support behind Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner. Sharon Graham took the lion’s share of the votes to become the union’s first female General Secretary, winning with almost 47,000 votes, with Steve Turner runner-up and Labour’s preferred choice of Gerard Coyne a distant third.

Her elevation to General Secretary created a great deal of excitement initially, with her opening statements proclaiming “Bad Bosses Beware” and, to be fair, she has supported her reps and members in the huge amount class struggle that Unite has been involved in we over the past two years. There was talk of her withdrawing funds to the Labour Party after a disagreement with Coventry Labour council over a pay dispute involving local refuse workers. There were even whispers of Unite’s disaffiliation from Labour, who are the party’s biggest trade union donor. This would have sent a massive message to all the unions and could have perhaps been the spark British unions needed to remove themselves from subjugation with that wretched party.

Since those opening outbursts, it’s been back to business as usual for Unite – to critically support Labour and stage pantomime battles with the Conservatives. She seemed set to join Mick Lynch and Dave Ward alongside a host of the so called ‘Labour Left’, politicians such as Ian Byrne and Zarah Sultana, in the Enough Is Enough campaign. Which was basically a way of keeping Labour voters busy while they get over their Corbyn hangover. Her support of this wavered almost instantly. Not due to any lack of support for Labour, that’s shown by inviting Keir Starmer to speak at the unite policy conference, but rumours are she didn’t want to throw her support behind something she didn’t start. Even going so far as banning the hashtag of Enough Is Enough from Unite social media accounts.
Like many projects of the Labour Left, Enough is Enough went up like a firework and came down like a burnt stick.

Graham’s support of Sir Keir Starmer was demonstrated most clearly this week, with her decision to ban the new Corbyn film, ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie’, being played in Unite offices and events. I wonder what ‘ol’ Len’ would have thought of this?

She cited that the film was a “Labour issue”, that people need to move on and get busy fighting the Tories. While we agree that it’s time that people stopped crying over ‘Magic Grandad’ and see the Corbyn Project for the abject failure it was, but this isn’t necessarily the reason why ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ is being forbidden by Graham and Unite. The idea is that the short-term memories of supporters will kick in and Sir Keir Starmer will garner support under the banner of “At least he’s not a Tory”.

This capitulation is disappointing but hardly surprising. To find oneself in the positions that these two are currently requires full immersion in the bureaucratic mechanisms of the trade unions. Unite in particular has been a breeding ground for future Labour MPs and councillors.

As ever, we are ardent supporters of trade unionism and working class struggles, but while existing trade unions attempt to work within the capitalist system, they will forever have to exist on scraps and penny increases.