Via www.stroppyblog.blogspot.com
Originally posted over at Sophie's blog: http://zetkin.net/?p=48
This morning Diane Abbott declared her candidacy for the Labour leadership election. The talk across the net now is that John McDonnell ought to withdraw to ensure Abbott gets the 33 nominations needed to get on the ballot paper. I think that's wrong, and here's why.
First off, to deal with the politics of representation. Of course, were there to be two genuine left candidates with similar politics, you'd argue for the white man to step down in favour of the black woman. But we're not in this situation.
It makes me spittingly angry that Abbott is using claims about 'representation' across the media to back up her campaign. She said twice on BBC News that the problem with the current candidates is 'they all look the same', and made claims that she could re-energise women workers and ethnic minority workers, bringing them back to Labour. But representation is about so much more than not 'looking the same' (remember Thatcher?).
Much will be made by the media of Abbott's decision to send her child to private school, especially after she publicly castigated those in the Blairite elite who did the same. Quite aside from the headlines (Politician Is Hypocrite Shocker!), this matters. Abbott claims to represent Hackney, to be a class fighter interested in "women and ethnic minority workers'" struggles. Yet she effectively condemned all those working and fighting in Hackney's schools, by very publicly judging them not good enough for her son.
This is a workers' wage issue: very much like the principle that parliamentary representatives should only take an average workers' salary, they ought to share the living standards and service provision of those they claim to represent. Abbott doesn't do this, and she didn't launch a fight to level-up schooling for all. Instead, she participated in the system of educational privilege that churns out the bosses, bankers and top politicians of tomorrow, effectively shouting a big 'fuck you' at Hackney's teachers, education workers and the vast majority of its populace who have no such choice to opt-out. (Interestingly, while we're on the subject of privilege, John McDonnell is the only candidate to have declared who wasn't educated at Oxford or Cambridge).
Of course, Abbott also isn't great on the other aspects of real representation. She appears to be rather too interested in being a celebrity, raking in thousands of pounds a month for appearances on the This Week, cosied up to Portillo. Meanwhile John McDonnell visited Climate Camp, supported scores of striking workers and has consistently fought against cuts and privatisation, voting against every Blairite attack on the working class and getting stuck in to organising too. Where was Abbott?
Not doing a great job of backing workers by all accounts. Abbott supported the privatisation of the East London Line despite being in the Parliamentary group of the RMT union. While rail workers in Hackney and beyond organised against this attack on their conditions and our public services, Abbott failed even to sign their Early Day Motion opposing the privatisation. Nice left-wing credentials there.
Checking what issues she has supported is difficult, given how much is a mixture of two sides. Look at the record here:
- moderately against an investigation into the Iraq War
- a mixture of for and against allow ministers to intervene in inquests
- a mixture of for and against introducing ID cards
- moderately for equal gay rights
- moderately against introducing student top-up fees
Now go look at John McDonnell's record. 'Moderately' isn't left.
I'm not saying that Abbott isn't preferable to the Milibands or Balls; on many measures she probably is. But socialists cannot let the politics of representation be used as a figleaf for a poor political record, or, worse, be used to draw support away from a genuine left candidate. And the fact remains that Abbott has come out gunning for McDonnell, declaring on the BBC that he has 'conceded' he can't get the nominations (a correction had to be broadcast later) – why, if she's not a spoiler candidate, did she choose to stand against a 'fellow' socialist, denigrate his chances publicly and not get involved earlier to organise a candidacy both camps could support? That's pretty suspicious whatever your politics.
Continue to support McDonnell. On Abbott, I call fake left.
MarshaJane
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www.unionfutures.blogspot.com
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