*Introduction* Sir Keir Starmer has been leader of the Labour Party for one year. He got elected on the basis of 10 pledges <https://keirstarmer.com/plans/10-pledges/> that positioned him as a left of centre leader who would modernize and unite the Party. His centre piece promotional video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Yru2Ridk0> constructed him as the champion of workers in struggle. All that is now blood under the bridge
Starmer, the seemingly lefty butterfly, has, in a dazzling reverse metamorphosis, become the right-wing caterpillar. On the 29th October 2020, Starmer suspended Jeremy Corbyn <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-30/former-leader-jeremy-corbyn-suspended-by-uk-labour-over-comments/12829208> from the Labour Party because of his response to the EHRC report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. From that date, Starmer’s leadership ratings went into steady decline <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/14/boris-johnson-is-voters-clear-choice-for-pm-in-new-poll>. His party also fell behind the Tory Party in the polls and is currently 10 points adrift <https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/issue/Voting_Intention>. There is no necessity for from woe to woe tell o'er the sad account of all of Starmer’s outrageous moves against the Left. He is now recognized as a factional warrior, who is committed to purging his Party of Leftism. For those interested, Oliver Eagleton <https://novaramedia.com/2021/03/02/keir-starmer-is-a-long-time-servant-of-the-british-security-state/> has also carefully documented Starmer’s credentials as a hard-right supporter of American imperialism and the British security establishment. What I want to do in this post is, firstly, to work from the assumption that, precisely because of his victory over the left, Starmer’s failure as Labour Leader is terminal, and then to try & work out why he has failed. To do so I will respond, firstly, to Paul Mason’s argument that Starmer lacks a vision and a narrative. I will then seek to explain the Starmer disaster in conjunctural terms as a failure to acknowledge and respond adequately to the historic crises, whose origins lie in the overwhelming victory of the neoliberal paradigm. I will conclude with a very brief philosophical analysis, which draws upon Alain Badiou’s notion of the Event and the onset of evil that follows the failure to recognize an Event. *Mason and Starmer* Coming to grips with Mason’s politics is not an easy task, not least because he is in a process of change, I believe, from Left to Right. There is also the personal element. He appears to have developed deep antipathy to Corbyn’s support team which he brands as “Stalinists”. His analysis of the Labour party is that it has three factions. The Left linked to left wing unions such as Unite. The Right linked to the rightwing unions such as Unison and a centre left linked to no one. He calls for an alliance between the centre left led by Starmer and the Left. Mason’s prescription for the Starmer camp it “needs a clear narrative, told in straight, emotive language, that appeals to the voters not yet convinced. It needs to talk about crime, security and defence with the same passion that it talks about poverty <https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/02/labour-isn-t-working-how-keir-starmer-allowing-tories-get-away-failure>.” There are a number of problems with this analysis. Firstly, there is no evidence at the Starmer camp talks about poverty with any level of passion at all. To be fair, Mason does want Starmer & his followers to raise the banner of social justice <https://medium.com/@paulmasonnews/the-left-the-party-and-the-class-1ca7b6a959e6>, but so far his pleas do not appear to have cut through. The second problem I have with Mason’s diagnosis is that a focus on “crime, security and defence” is not at all what the working class needs at present. Moreover, what Mason is in effect calling for is what Starmer has already delivered. He backs the security establishment <https://labourlist.org/2020/10/exclusive-starmer-says-labour-should-not-vote-down-spycops-bill-even-if-unamended/>. He has called for more nuclear weapons <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/26/labour-backs-nato-nuclear-weapons-party-distances-corbyn-era/>, and he has beaten the tough on crime drum <https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-says-labour-tough-23848661> very loudly. If there is any passion in the Starmer project that is exactly where it has manifested itself. *Starmer and the Conjuncture* But the most important charge against Mason’s analysis and his continued support for Starmer is that Mason does not follow through on his own diagnosis <https://medium.com/@paulmasonnews/the-left-the-party-and-the-class-1ca7b6a959e6>. As a radical economist Mason knows we face a deep economic crisis. He is also aware of the environmental crisis. None of these conjunctural problems can be solved within the political scope that Starmer and his entire team are prepared to contemplate. Even if we confine our listing of the conjunctural crises we face to Janet Yellen’s <https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/us-facing-historic-crises-again-says-treasury-secy-nominee-janet-yellen-120120200083_1.html> list of four – health, the economy, racism and the environment, it is clear that we need more than the vision splendid and a sparkling narrative. Not that Starmer has been able to supply either of those. It is then my claim that Starmer’s failure is both analytical and political. He is the inheritor of Blair’s acceptance <https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-22073434> of Thatcher’s smashing of the working class and like most of his Labour colleagues Starmer has no intention whatsoever of trying to roll back Thatcherism or its Blairite mutation. The ideology of romanticism blocks us from describing Starmer’s politics as having a vision. But Starmer does actually have a vision though it is a tawdry, ill-favoured thing. Starmer has wrapped himself in the Union Jack <https://inews.co.uk/opinion/keir-starmer-opportunity-reclaim-union-flag-928390>, gushed over the Queen’s jab <https://twitter.com/keir_starmer/status/1347934997701918722?lang=en> and interpreted his role of Leader of the Opposition through the lens of patriotism <https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/03/labour-defends-new-strategy-to-focus-on-patriotism-and-union-flag>. In so doing he has played an important role in blocking the development of the kind of politics that the UK desperately needs as it confronts a series of historic crises. *Starmerism towards a philosophical critique* What I seek to do here is to draw briefly and very schematically upon Alain Badiou’s notion of an Event (Badiou, 2007). This is something that takes place in the domains of Science, Love, Art and Politics. Badiou gives the example of the French Revolution. I would offer example of the Irish Uprising of Easter 1916. After these events it was impossible to do politics in the old way. The Event enunciates a truth which seizes us. If we recognize and are faithful to the truth of the Event, then progress can be made. Change can come about which is beneficial within the particular domain. However, if the Event is not recognized then Evil flourishes (Cox, Whalen, & Badiou, 2001/2). It is my contention that the advent of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the UK Labour Party in 2015 was a potential Event but massive forces were mobilised to prevent its recognition. What we see now as a consequence is the evil of the rule of Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party. There is no need to catalogue the horrors of Conservative rule. Suffice to say that we are only at their beginning. In Badiou’s terms Starmer’s term as Labour Leader must also be brought under the sign of Evil because he too has done all he can to prevent the recognition of the Event that was Corbyn’s election as leader. References Badiou, A. (2007). *Being and Event*. New York: Continuum. Cox, C., Whalen, M., & Badiou, A. (2001/2). On Evil: An Interview with Alain Badiou. *Cabinet, 5*. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7760): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7760 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81859518/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
