The End of the Party? Labor History and the Rise of the Greens.
- Introduction: The End of the Party? Hysteria and History
- Historical Context: Electoral Challenges to Labor from the Left
- Historical Context: A Direct Historical Parallel - The Lang Labor Split
- Lessons from History: The Limited Scale of the Threat
- Lessons from History: The Risks of an Ideologically Isolated Labor Party
- Lessons from History: The Risks of a Divided Progressive Movement
- Responding to the Challenge of the Greens: Political Philosophy And the Case for Government
- Responding to the Challenge of the Greens: Progressive Policy Making in the Real World
- Conclusion
Lessons from History: The Risks of a Divided Progressive Movement
The final lesson that the ALP must learn from its history of responding
to left wing challenges within the progressive movement is that while The
Greens must be actively confronted and their agenda rejected, the ALP must
ensure that the necessary confrontation does not alienate future Labor voters
and members. In this respect, Labor has handled past divisions in the
progressive movement poorly. All too often, Labor leaders like Kidston, Lang
and Evatt have responded to internal divisions with an aggression and personal
acrimony that split the party and the progressive movement for years to come. The
early signs of such a fractious division between the supporters of the ALP and those
of The Greens are already observable.
Many in the Labor party, particularly those in the inner
cities, resent the way that the Greens actively court Labor voters, without the
constraint of having to make their appeal palatable to the broader population.
The feeling that The Greens are opportunists betraying the broader progressive
movement’s electoral prospects in pursuit of their own narrow political self
interest is palpable and the source of much anger. The Greens’ tendency to
frame their campaigns as black and white morality plays in which the ALP is
condemned not simply for adopting a different electoral strategy or policy
approach, but as being actively morally inferior to the Greens particularly
grates. As Proust once said, those that we hate the most are those who are most
like ourselves, but with our faults uncured. Given that to many on the Labor
side, the world view of The Greens is that of a left wing student politician who
never confronted the realities of democratic politics, it’s easy to see why
there is so much animosity towards the party within the ALP.
Despite this, Labor must learn from its’ history to resist
the temptation to engage in personal attacks on The Greens. The animosity that
has accompanied historic splits within the Australian progressive movement over
nationalisation, conscription, the response to the depression and communism has
wastefully diverted the energies and distracted the attentions of those who
ought to be working for Labor’s electoralist mission. Labor members should
remind themselves that one of John Curtin’s first acts as Leader of the ALP was
to establish a series of ALP Unity Conferences in which the motions to expel
Lang Labor supporters were rescinded and Lang Labor MPs were invited to rejoin
the Labor caucus. The resulting détente brought the McKell Government into
power in New South Wales and the Curtin led Labor Party into power federally not
long after. If the rancour and betrayals of a party split could be successfully
overcome in this way in the name of progressive solidarity, so too can the petty
frustrations of responding to opportunism and hypocrisy.
Instead of engaging in counter-productive ad hominem
attacks, Labor must adopt an approach to confronting The Greens that keeps an
eye to a future in which these voters (and members) are brought back into the
fold. Instead of either belittling The Greens and their supporters, or engaging
in an unwinnable ideological auction for their support, Labor should seek to
confront The Greens asymmetrically, competing for the support of these voters
using the comparative advantages of the ALP in political philosophy and policy
making.
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