19.09.1996

Grubby Labour microcosm

The craven machinations of careerists which pass for everyday politics in the London Borough of Hackney bobbed turd-like to the surface again last week.

Seventeen rebels who call themselves the Hackney New Labour Group quit the controlling official Labour group, depriving it of its majority. They have written to Tony Blair, pledging support for his policies, but have received short shrift. Labour Party officials called on them to resign their seats and accused them of “playing their own selfish political games”.

Blustering attempts like these to distance the party leadership from the chaos will not wash. For decades local government in Hackney has acted as a guinea pig for the larger ideological squabbles in the Labour Party. What is happening in Hackney is a grubby microcosm of a much larger process of political renegadism - where, as in the case of the deep thinker Kim Howells, socialism with all its principled commitment to radical change seems to have disappeared from view and consequently must no longer be important.

In the absence of even a token acceptance of socialist principles we are left with high-powered games pursued without any accountability to democracy. In Hackney now there is the unedifying spectacle of the Empire and the Central Hall promoting an identical menu of light entertainment on opposite sides of the road. This competition, costing millions, is the result of an internal squabble between two councillors, both wanting to claim the credit for making Hackney the new West End of London - that would really help the inhabitants of one of the poorest boroughs in the country!

Unsurprisingly, the bourgeois press has been playing down all this unrest, not wanting to rock HMS Tony Blair in these pre-election times. But despite all efforts to the contrary this mess will not go away.

It is merely the reflection of the deepest contradictions within Labourism and its present political incarnation, New Labour.

Paul Hart