Reorganising Labour: Constructing a new politics.
| Author | Watts, Jake |
| Position | Labour's Internal Politics |
Corbyn has put deepening democracy within Labour at the heart of his project. But party re-organisation is never merely about process and structure. It is always about party culture and identity. Recognising this, and interrogating how 'democracy' within the party and within Britain as a whole should work, will be vital to making party reorganisation a success.
Corbyn's leadership has been based, in significant part, on claims about the need for the building of a 'new politics'. With this, issues of intraparty organisation have re-emerged strongly on the agenda. These have been the source of substantial (and at times heated) argument amongst Labour's representatives and members a like. In attempting to build this new Labour politics, we must face up to the historical gestation of the debates of today and the successive failure of party reform to address holistically the problems of power and influence. Over the last forty years, a focus on rule changes and the individualising of Labour's politics through One-Member-One-Vote balloting has neglected questions about the meanings of democracy, participation and membership in the party. Only through thinking about these issues can Labour attempt to reconstruct itself as a force ready to take on the political challenges that lie before it.
Since the leadership election result in September 2015, almost every corner of Labour's structures has been touched by some form of disquiet about the status quo. From the outset, the opening-up of policy-making to members was an important part of Corbyn's offer and Labour's leader remains committed to the 'democratisation' of the party through giving more direct influence to members over policy. Alongside this, the wider relationship between Labour's MPs and activists has also come into question. Consternation over the 'coup' against Corbyn led to talk of reselections. In addition, a return of shadow cabinet elections was mooted for a time. Concerns have been raised about the registered supporter scheme. And Tom Watson has even suggested the return of the Electoral College for leader selection. All of these particular issues raise bigger questions about democracy and participation, issues that are now compounded by the party's newfound status as the largest in Europe.
Labour has often concerned itself with organisation, rules and structures in a way that other British political parties have not. This is, as Henry Drucker puts it, part of Labour's 'ethos'. (1) Union roots and the founding constitution of 1918 set a backdrop within which the codification of political practices is held to be of great importance. In continuing to engage with questions of structure in this way, Labour continues to live out a historically important part of its identity. Organisational issues are in this respect tied to party culture and interwoven with norms and traditions that make rules more than just words on a page. In the context of this culture, reforming party structure also has the capacity to alter what it means for Labour to be a political party and to define how Labour relates to the rest of the British political system. Changes to rules form part of a story Labour tells its members--and the electorate--about its commitment to democracy, willingness to reach out, and to listen. In this sense, organising and re-organising the party has also been about attempting to embed Labour principles in the way that policy is made, party positions are filled and politics is done. Debates about these narratives of identity frequently turn on the precise nature of these 'Labour principles' and the best way of putting them into practice.
Beyond these stories, rules also hold the power to shape the very essence of Labour's place within the...
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