Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Euston Manifesto: what changed for Alan Johnson?
One of the four lead signatories of the Euston Manifesto is Alan Johnson, an academic and a former member of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. From the style of some of the passages in the document – and as a journo, I’m quite good at literary detective stuff – I would guess that he wrote he large chunks of it.
Less than three years ago, Alan observed, in words I found inspirational at the time:
‘Perhaps there are good reasons to look again at the notion of working class politics. That notion was not always just a quasi-religious talisman to ward off awkward political realities (though it frequently was).
‘It was also, and can be again, the basis of a rational politics of hope. For it remains the case that the unique combination of interest, capacity, and social weight possessed by the global working class can still provide a foundation on which a rational and radical democratic politics and a viable strategy and tactics could be elaborated.’
Yet the funny thing is, the working class - as recently as 2003 the basis of a rational politics of hope - gets the barest of walk-on parts in the EM. They are reduced to yet another interest group that the popular frontist good guys promise to deliver some reforms. How quickly things change.
Less than three years ago, Alan observed, in words I found inspirational at the time:
‘Perhaps there are good reasons to look again at the notion of working class politics. That notion was not always just a quasi-religious talisman to ward off awkward political realities (though it frequently was).
‘It was also, and can be again, the basis of a rational politics of hope. For it remains the case that the unique combination of interest, capacity, and social weight possessed by the global working class can still provide a foundation on which a rational and radical democratic politics and a viable strategy and tactics could be elaborated.’
Yet the funny thing is, the working class - as recently as 2003 the basis of a rational politics of hope - gets the barest of walk-on parts in the EM. They are reduced to yet another interest group that the popular frontist good guys promise to deliver some reforms. How quickly things change.