"Social democracy is dead", but Ken Loach feels it's springtime for the left

Monday, 15 March 2010

"Fundamentally, the old model of social democracy is dead," he said.

"The Left has failed on a historic level: really since the time of Margaret Thatcher we haven't had a coherent united voice on the left that can bring us together."

Ken was giving the opening address to the convention that brought together union representatives, activists and parties on the left, including the Green Party.

"The people are far to the left of the politicians," Ken said.

He pointed out that polls showed that people wanted the renationalistion of the railways and an end to the privatisation of public services.

He described the celebrity politics that saw the party leaders' wives, or WAGS as Ken called them, wheeled out in support of their husbands and Gordon Brown's appearance on the Piers Morgan show as "a disgusting spectacle".

The left in Britain has suffered from splintering, or "sectarianism", Ken said.

The egotism of the gurus and leaders was "killing" and "destroying" the left.

There were hopeful signs across Europe with the emergence of the New Anticapitalist Party (Nouveau parti anticapitaliste, NPA) in France, The Left (Die Linke) in Germany and an anti-capitalist party in Spain.

However, the UK did not yet have such a movement.

"There is a tiny minority that control the wealth, push us into illegal wars, leave the mass of people facing unemployment and increasing cuts to social services," Ken said.

Asylum seekers are treated despicably as that is what the right wants. Children are imprisoned. Toddlers kept in concrete compounds looking out at grass fields they are prevented from playing in, he said.

"What kind of government do we have that would do this?"

He then called on the convention to come to a consensus.

"We don't start from the interests of capital, we start from what the ordinary people want... then we bring together elements and groups that can form the basis of a movement."

Perhaps further down the line we could look at something more formal like a party, he said.

With glorious sunshine outside the community centre, Ken ended on a rallying cry to the delegates to form a new consensus on the left.

"Today feels like the first day of spring!" he said.