Blair trotted up to the podium for his final speech as Labour leader to the appropriate strains of James’ 1991 hit “Sit Down”. Still clinging on to office by his fingernails, Blair’s grand finale was completely overshadowed by the backstage manoeuvres in the race for ‘the succession’. The Blair era is drawing to a close not with a bang but with a great deal of whimpering. The claims and counter claims, by Blairites, Brownites, etc, of plots and coups make entertaining subject matter for newspaper leader writers, but hold little interest for the rest of us. Most working people watching the public school parlour game that passes for politics in the New Labour hierarchy can only shake their heads in disgust at the blatant, unapologetic, and self-serving careerism of these creatures.
The media concentrates on this gossip from behind the scenes. They studiously avoid mention of left candidate John McDonnell. For now they try to ignore him as ‘irrelevant’, and concentrate instead on Blairite in-fighting.
This is not an accident. The Mail, Murdoch, and co are more than happy to tear shreds out of the Labour Party. The ruling class has used the Labour leadership to serve their ends for as long as they could. The capitalist class is more than happy with the way Blair and Brown have represented their interests. They have no problem with Brown - the myth that he was somehow to the left of Blair has all but evaporated. They do, however, have a problem with the mounting opposition on the backbenches, and, even worse, over their shoulders, the growing opposition of the trade unions and the working class to their policies. A Brown Labour government could not be relied upon as a solid enough base to push through the attacks on the welfare state, and on jobs, pensions, wages and conditions that enfeebled British capitalism requires to maintain its profits. As a result the ruling class and its media are reverting once more to supporting the bosses’ first eleven, the Tory Party.
The Tories now consistently lead Labour in the polls. Yet on specific policies those questioned do not support Tory policies, neither those of Blair, nor those of Cameron. Instead they demand troops be withdrawn from Iraq; privatisation be stopped; vital services be nationalised, and generally support the programme being put forward by John McDonnell’s campaign for the Labour leadership. This demonstrates that the only way Labour can guarantee to stop the Tories winning the next election is to adopt socialist policies.
When the media does mention the left campaign it is only to sneer that it cannot succeed. Yet this is a serious challenge. In a poll conducted by the Electoral Reform Society at TUC Congress, 59% of delegates backed John McDonnell. A focus group of Labour supporters convened by BBC Newsnight revealed that he was level-pegging with Gordon Brown. Brown remains the favourite to win with the backing of the mass media and cabinet ministers (but notably not yet Blair himself). Nevertheless the campaign for the Labour leadership furnishes an excellent opportunity for raising and discussing socialist ideas throughout the labour movement.
There could be as many as one million people entitled to vote for the Labour leadership. The MPs and Euro MPs get one third of the vote; individual party members get another third; and affiliated trade union members, who all get a vote too, comprise the other third.
Yet there are still some groups who will insist that the Labour Party is a bourgeois party, no different from the Tories. Well some bourgeois party this where rank and file trade unionists and party members get two-thirds of the vote! What are we to conclude? Are the rank and file members of Labour bourgeois? Are the rank and file workers in the trade unions?
Obviously the left’s campaign will not have the resources at its disposal that Brown, Reid or Johnson  would have. Therefore, trade unionists, Labour Party members and activists around the country should get busy organising meetings, inviting John McDonnell to speak, creating opportunities to discuss the socialist ideas needed not only to defeat the Tories, but also to begin to tackle the problems facing working class people.
Socialist Appeal supporters should support to this campaign enthusiastically. We must grasp this opportunity to raise Marxist ideas throughout the movement.
The programme being advocated by John McDonnell  - opposing the war in Iraq; ending privatisation; for trade union rights and civil liberties; the abolition of tuition fees, and so on, would represent an immense step forward on the policies pursued by Blair and Brown. The task of Marxists must be to put flesh on its bones, to take these policies to their logical conclusion.
One of the principal reasons for the existence of a separate Marxist tendency within the labour movement is to act as the memory of the working class. The experience of Blairism has inevitably created a nostalgia for previous Labour governments. An essential part of preparing for the future of the labour movement, once Blairism is finally buried, must be a sober appraisal of the past. For this purpose rose tinted glasses are of little use. We must learn the lessons of previous periods of Labour history, not only the succesful reforms, but also the failures, especially the failure to make those reforms permanent.
The most vital lesson is that it is not sufficient to tinker with the capitalist system. We will fight for any reform in the interests of the working class. The central lesson of the whole of Labour history, however, must be that not one of those reforms can endure if the capitalist system remains intact. What the ruling class are forced to give with their left hand they will always snatch back with their right at the earliest possible opportunity. This lesson is more important today than ever. Capitalism cannot afford the reforms won in the past so it is systematically undermining and destroying them. Therefore there is little room for the granting of new concessions. They can still be wrung from the bosses through industrial and political struggle but they will not be long lasting. The only way to guarantee universal free health care and education, full employment, decent pensions and the other advances John McDonnell’s campaign is demanding is to take the purse strings of society out of the hands of the minority and place them at the disposal of society. That means taking the commanding heights of the economy into public ownership, and planning them rationally, scientifically and democratically. The struggle to defend or gain any reform must be seen as part of the struggle for the socialist transformation of society.

See also:

John McDonnell MP, Left Candidate for the Labour Leadership, Speaks to Socialist Appeal

Blair’s Departure Date: Yesterday Is Not Soon Enough!

The Real Alternative Is Inside Labour.