Former Labour Cabinet member James Purnell MP sets out his policy alternative in today’s Guardian – in a damning critique of Labour Party political inertia he asks ‘where is the vision and vitality to win?’
It is an interesting insight into the muddled thinking and political contradictions which beset those attempting to straddle the divide between neo liberalism and social democracy. Most striking and welcome is Purnell’s high praise for London Citizens a mass movement against poverty based on community organising. A pity though that Purnell gives the impression that trade unions are of a bygone era rather than an actual driving force for a living wage alongside the Citizens movement since the 1990’s. Indeed he makes no reference to unions in the present tense.
>http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/10/vitality-vision-labour-traditions-power
The essential pitch of Purnell is to promote individualism over the ‘state and markets’. Buying into the shop soiled premise of ‘producer capture’ he counter poses collective community provision to a notion of self help for example his references to ‘parent power’.
Of course Purnell’s words should be judged against his recent actions when in a position of political power to change the lives of working people. Only one year ago he was criticised for introducing US style workfare for benefit claimants:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/dec/10/jamespurnell-welfare
Rather than rely on platitudes ‘love of place, family solidarity and the moral contribution of faith’, Purnell could do worse than consult Marx who, like Purnell criticized capitalism (aka markets) for alienating and dehumanising workers, but recognised that ‘in place of the bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, shall we have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.’
