The tension between the electoral and the political, the social movement and the legislative process, is an inevitable feature of left politics. The Labour party was created by the labour movement, just as Podemos in Spain was created by the indignados and Green parties emerged from the ecology movement. Sometimes, like the suffragettes, the civil rights movement or the gay rights movements, parties absorb movements. Contrary to Tony Blair’s claim that the left turned Labour into a “glorified protest movement”, Labour actually turned the left into a glorified electoral machine. There is also more to the left than Labour, and more to Labour than the left.

Source: The Guardian December 21, 2019 06:00 UTC