04.04.2007
Song of hope and solidarity
The organisers of the John McDonnell rally on Saturday March 31 were pleased with the turnout of those supporting the leftwing Labour MP's bid for the leadership of the party. Mark Fischer reports
After a little bit of slow start, well over 400 people eventually packed into the Shaw Theatre as attendance reached its peak. Unless, however, they had their 'things can only get better' specs on, the organisers were probably less thrilled by the age demographic on show. Despite the frequent references to the way the John for Leader campaign had mobilised youth to its banner (and there are certainly a number of young people centrally involved) the audience featured the usual preponderance of grey heads.
Most of the speakers, who were interspersed with numerous music and comedy acts, did little more than deliver brief solidarity messages, but again their make-up speaks of the problems the campaign has been running into. As Jim Moody has pointed out, many of the individuals and unions that have expressed backing - and had some presence on March 31, such as the PCSU, the FBU, or Jeremy Dear of the NUJ - have offered "valuable" support to the campaign, but are in no way able to affect the outcome simply because they are not affiliated to Labour (Weekly Worker March 22). A rally such as this would have been the obvious place to announce significant new support, a dramatic coup for the campaign - none was forthcoming.
Implicitly, McDonnell himself recognised this in the most effective intervention of the whole day. The comrade spoke with passion and some real eloquence (his strongly delivered point - "we are in favour of peace, not war: that's why we for withdrawal from Iraq now" - raised one of the biggest cheers).
As an individual, he has clearly risen to the challenge of this leadership bid and grown as a politician. His remarks were upbeat, without going over the top: "We are nearly there. We've got about five weeks left. We think Blair is going to go soon after the Scottish and Welsh elections, some time around May 9 or 10 - be out there and we'll have a street party. We need your help now in the next four weeks."
However, in an important section of his contribution, he was obviously preparing his troops for possible defeat and life under a Brown leadership: "You know what the score is. To get on that ballot paper we need 44 Labour MPs to nominate me. We think we've got about 25 and another 10 that aren't going to go anywhere else once a certain ex-environment minister has departed the scene "¦ But this campaign doesn't end, whether we are on the ballot paper or not, or whether we win that election or not. It goes on."
He concluded optimistically: "You're here at the birth of a new united front, a new movement. We're calling it 21st century socialism because that's what it's all about. It's a song of hope, a song of belief and it's a song of solidarity."
Whether such a campaign will have sufficient momentum or political coherence to survive if, as seems likely, comrade McDonnell does not make it onto the ballot paper is highly debatable. However, there is no doubt many of his supporters left the event buoyed up and visibly more confident.
McDonnell himself was worth coming for and the day had been lively and engaging, with an array of comedic and musical talent. Oh, and the bloke from The Alarm "¦