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Fabians, Co-Operativists and the Living Dead of the Left
Posted by Sara Scarlett (@sscrltt)
Wednesday, 3rd February 2010
The news that our Prime Minister was going to rake the Co-op Party over the coals for Labour’s GE manifesto upset me. It really did. Everything the man touches turns to dust before our eyes. I went to bed last night dreading the possibility that the sensible discussion on mutualist solutions that this country so desperately needs was never going to happen having been further cursed by Gordon “Jonah” Brown.
Those of you who read this blog will know that I’m not a big fan of the Co-op Party being an “affliate constituent” of the Labour Party. State socialism and mutualism are not compatible. In fact they are mutually exclusive. So all this talk of co-operative schools and housing settlements mean nothing in the context of a welfare state.
As Simon Cooke quite rightly points out there is nothing remotely ’socialist’ about the John Lewis Partnership. But there is a lot to be said for individuals having a stake in the company or institutions they work for and feeling more connected to the profit that they generate. But there has to be profit.
On further thought what struck me was this: why all this emphasis on co-operativism from Labour all of a sudden? I find it unlikely that Gordon Brown is seriously considering dismantling the welfare state… But where are the Fabians? Am I the only one who finds it interesting, however, that instead of harking back and shoring up the core vote in the typical manner, the Labour Party are changing their tack slightly?
Could it be that the Labour Party’s faith in Fabianism is faltering? After all we literally cannot afford Fabian style social democracy anymore. I would so much like for this to be to an acknowledgment of that. Alas, I fear this is not likely. Instead what we’ll see is the conflation of the remains of Fabianism conflated with soft mutualist rhetoric, the unfortunate hybrid of which will taint the name of genuine mutualism for years to come. These are very sorry days for any genuine mutualists, indeed.
