Sunday, February 25, 2007

Meacher debacle boosts John4Leader campaign


Firstly, I want to apologise for being so rubbish at updating this blog. The past month or so has been ridiculously busy for both me and Marsha (as it has been for most people on the Labour left recently) - but hey, we'll try and make up for it in the coming months.

Thursday was a bit of a shock for many in the labour movement. Former New Labour minister Michael Meacher announced his intention to stand for Labour leader on Thursday - and explicitly stated his intention to force John McDonnell out of the contest.

As everyone who has been remotely connected with the John4Leader campaign will know, Meacher's campaign was not, in fact, launched last week. It has been rumbling along for months. During this time, John has been rushing up and down the country, addressing packed public meetings, actively re-engaging with trade unionists and party members, and winning the support of numerous Labour party and trade union grassroots organisations across the country. In stark contrast, Meacher has focused all of its efforts on winning support in the Westminster Bubble - meeting MPs for cups of teas and inviting them for dinner in an effort to win their support.

The John4Leader campaign has always been open and honest about its tactics from the very beginning. The focus is on winning support from the rank-and-file of the labour movement. In the view of everyone involved, we will get the required 44 nominations if we win a groundswell of support - and prove that there is an appetite for a genuine contest. Our campaign is restoring the PLP's original intended role - that is, to serve as the political wing of the labour movement.

Firstly, I want to explain why Meacher chose this week to announce. His attempt to win support in the PLP - by ignoring activists in the grassroots - has failed disastrously. Last week, Alan Simpson (his campaign manager) gave Meacher a massive vote of confidence by announcing that he's standing down and doubting Meacher's chances of getting the 44. McDonnell had won the support of all the grassroots organisations of the Labour left, all the main trade union broad lefts, and most recently ASLEF. It was now or never for Meacher.

As we all now know, Meacher's campaign launch was a disaster. Only two MPs turned up - Kelvin Hopkins and Ian Gibson. Ian Gibson (who chaired the press conference) then let it be known that he was not backing Meacher for leader, adding: "He has asked some people if we would respect his decision to run, but that doesn't mean we will vote for him." Peter Soulsby was alleged by Tom Watson to be another prominent backer - and quickly wrote on Watson's blog making clear that he was not backing Meacher and had written to him to say so. Meacher is an easy target, and the media have had a field day - ridiculing his lack of support, his "vainglorious" campaign, and the number of houses he owns (estimates range from 7 to 11).

Meacher has no support base in the labour movement. He was a New Labour minister who voted for all of Blair's reactionary policies - whether that be tuition fees or Foundation Hospitals. He stayed in Government to vote for the war - unlike, say, Robin Cook, who (credit where credit's due) had the guts to resign on a point of principle. Only when he was sacked from the Government in June 2003 did he decide to perform a spectacular u-turn, suddenly opposing all the policies he had voted for - including the war in Iraq. Support for Meacher is non-existent in the trade unions. The only 'Meacherites' out there are a handful of 9/11 conspiracy theorists and anti-GM food activists. Unfortunately for Meacher, neither have a slice of Labour's electoral college.

However - ironically - Meacher's campaign has provided a huge boost to the John4Leader campaign. All of a sudden, the media blackout was broken - and John was all over the news. Meacher was bombarded with messages from angry Labour party members and trade unionists demanding that he step down. The John4Leader office was overwhelmed with messages from supporters promising to increase their involvement. Tony Benn, Christine Shawcroft (Labour party NEC), Elaine Smith MSP and a range of leading trade unionists and Labour councillors wrote a letter to the Guardian demanding that he support John's campaign. A number of MPs have indicated since Thursday that they will nominate McDonnell - flushed out by Meacher's catastrophic launch. The Westminster Bubble was full of a mixture of ridicule, pity and frustration.

Crucially, John is now on the map as the only possible credible left candidate. Some of those who identify with the "soft left" have been reluctant to support our campaign on the basis that they have reservations about the level of support John would win. True, many of these have already been won over by the level of support that John has achieved since last July. However, Meacher's launch has now shown beyond reasonable doubt that there is no "credible" left alternative to John. As if to drive this point home, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (whose leading parliamentary representative is Kelvin Hopkins, one of the sole Meacherite MPs) backed John's campaign by a margin of 4-1 just two days after Meacher's launch.

It is undeniably true that Meacher's launch was an attempted coup against the labour movement. A left candidate has already been backed by the grassroots of the Labour and trade union left. Thursday's events represented an attempt to impose a candidate against the will of trade union and Labour party activists by a handful of parliamentarians. Meacher's message was thus: "You may well support John McDonnell, but you're never going to get the chance to vote for him. Therefore, you will have to support me whether you like it or not." Unfortunately, his claim that he had 30 supportive MPs has been exposed as tragic wishful thinking. In actual fact, Meacher has the support of between 5 and 7 MPs. In contrast, John McDonnell has 22 signed up - and a previous 15 or so who have indicated they are likely to support him. This has been achieved solely because of the grassroots campaign.

Nonetheless, we need to bare in mind the slightly sinister side of recent developments. Two weeks ago, the Independent on Sunday wrote that Gordon Brown much preferred to "crush" Meacher rather than McDonnell. On the day of the launch, Brownite MP Tom Watson claimed that Meacher had more parliamentary support than McDonnell. For those who can't remember, Watson led last September's attempted Brownite coup against Blair. Watson is extremely close to Brown - and indeed visited Brown just a day before the September putsch. The Evening Standard suggested: "Speculation is mounting at Westminster that allies of Mr Brown have encouraged Mr Meacher to stand in order to split the vote on the left of the party." The Torygraph suggested that "Brown gets leadership opponent he wants", adding: "Do not be surprised if a number of presumed Brown loyalists appear on Mr Meacher's ballot paper."

It is clear that New Labour would prefer Meacher over McDonnell. Meacher is a representative of Labour's distant past; he is compromised by his support for New Labour's policies prior to his sacking; he has no base in the labour movement. McDonnell has a consistent political record; he is a solid and growing base in the labour movement; he is one of the most articulate, convincing members of the PLP. New Labour know that he would wipe the floor with Brown in any public debate. They recognise that a successful McDonnell campaign will put the Left back on the map and threaten to completely unravel New Labour's grip on the party.

Our task ahead is clear. We need to renew our commitment to building a successful campaign. We should ignore the Meacher campaign which, frankly, has no chance of gaining any grassroots support. Let's keep getting people in the party, giving out John4Leader leaflets, encouraging MPs to sign John's nomination papers. Ironic as it may seem, but the chances of our campaign succeeded have now considerably increased. Let's no waste the opportunity before us.

15 comments:

Olly Onions said...

more on meacher here:
http://ollysonions.blogspot.com/index.html

voltaires_priest said...

Video of Meacher spouting conspiracy garbage at Shiraz Socialist

Anonymous said...

Fantastic analysis Owen. I agree with you 100%, it should be all hands to the pump from now on.

Anonymous said...

Owen, what can I say but you are absolutely right.Positive out of negative.We'll get on that ballot paper! CLPD (I was there at the meeting) was absolutely backing John.Meacher is a very unfunny joke.

Anonymous said...

I think as Duncan has said on John's blog the Blairites will be attacking John (wrongly) over Northern Ireland now that they're getting worried as it's the only trump card they have up their sleeve. He can answer these attacks as he has done before so we should all just stay cool. The Meacher bid is I hope a blessing in disguise in the publicity it will bring; they will have to have an election now. And as for Blears' bid today as a Blairite deputy leadership cnadidate it shows they're getting worried enough to defend their position now and I thought she was in danger of losing her seat over the NHS and local issues at the next election anyway??

Well done for burning the midnight oil till 4.04am; night owl tendencies are good in my opinion or were you just overworked?!

I couldn't make CPLD this weekend as I had a school event but I thouhgt it would come out in full support of the campaign and indeed it has done so; another good sign.

I think we can win it now.

Baby' crying so have to go


Helen

Anonymous said...

Once again, Owen the hypocrite!

Countless times has this man railed against negative campaigning and the hurling of insults, yet here he is dishing it out to anyone who disagrees with him.

I'm almost lost for words. The double standards leave much to be desired ...

Anonymous said...

Ha. I can hear the smallest violin in the world accompanying the wailings of Sham.

Find an example in Owen's post comparable to the ad hominem attacks you so love to launch on the left.

Boo f*cking hoo.

Anonymous said...

Er, I dunno, something along the lines of calling the democratically elected leaders of Britain and America "war criminals" and "mass murderers".

But then, that's Owen for you, no respect for democracy. But if you're a dictator? He won't say a word against you! Indeed, he'll march to keep you in power ...

Mike said...

Getting lots of votes doesn't make you a good person. Otherwise socialists would be compelled to "respect" Hitler. (And presumably even Sham thinks that people who vote Tory are wrong, even if they're in the majority). Nor is it in any way democratic to ignore the wishes of the people who elected you on a manifesto which didn't mention going to war!

Our job is to persuade people of our arguments and broaden democracy, not to "worship the accomplished fact".

Anonymous said...

Hello kids! Did anyone hear me on Radio 5 this afternoon? Aren't I a big celebrity! :/

Btw, does anyone know what's happenned to my nemesis Harry Perkins?

ian said...

'Er, I dunno, something along the lines of calling the democratically elected leaders of Britain and America "war criminals" and "mass murderers".'

Er... are you for real?
That is an accurate description. Being from democratic countries doesnt justify the excesses that have been going on in Iraq.Bush and Blair have effectively replaced one police state with another. The fact that elections have taken place in Iraq during a civil war doesnt signify anything.

Anyway.....
Good article Owen.

BTW I am still awaiting reports from Meacher, Brown, anyone else that they have support of TU and LP activists?

The TU rank and file groups seem to be putting their weight behind J McD and a lot of the CLP activists just want change based on debate which a J McD would give.

Anonymous said...

"That is an accurate description."

Saddam was a war criminal. Remember him? President Bush and the Prime Minister are democratically elected leaders, not Fascist dictators. Is that why you dislike them so much?

"The fact that elections have taken place in Iraq during a civil war doesnt signify anything."

Have you no brains? Have you no respect for the Iraqi people?? Have you no understanding of democracy???

ian said...

'Saddam was a war criminal. Remember him?"

Yes I demonstrated against him in the 1980s.

"President Bush and the Prime Minister are democratically elected leaders, not Fascist dictators."

I never said they were facist. But they do defend the dictatorship of capitalism.

"Is that why you dislike them so much?"

The fact that elections have taken place in Iraq during a civil war doesnt signify anything. The invasion didnt create democracy . The people live in fear and Saddams police are still in their jobs killing and torturing people. Nice democracy.

"Have you no brains?"

Yes last time I checked.

"Have you no respect for the Iraqi people??"

Yes. As I did in the 80s demonstrating against the UK and US support for Saddam.

"Have you no understanding of democracy???"

Yes I do . I'll let you into a little secret though. Have you noticed the civil war in Iraq? The population have been torn in two by the invasion. Well done Tony, well done George!!

ian said...

Here is a good example of democracy in action in Iraq. Bless those oil companies!!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kathlyn__070221_iraq_labor_vs__exxon.htm

Anonymous said...

Where's Harry Perkins?

I miss the little bugger!