We need to be strategic in opposing cuts

Again from New Left Project, a response to Richard Seymour's 'Axeman's Jazz', a piece by Sunny Hundal from Liberal Conspiracy entitled 'We need to be strategic in opposing cuts'.

Always good to see critical debate. Hundal comes from a position that validates the modernisation project of the Labour Party in the 1990s and for reasons to do with changes in class structure, basically that the old 'core constituency' for Labour 'wasn’t large enough to win power and not enough people wanted to fight a class war. They had aspirations and saw themselves as middle class, not working class'.

He points to the need for an 'intellectual response' to the crisis, which Labour hasn't provided - instead Paul Krugman, Martin Wolf and Danny Blanchflower get name-checked (and that is a mixed bunch).

And in terms of response he rejects a ‘no cuts at all’ position in favour of ‘The Cuts Won’t Work’

And in terms of agency he argues that 'the response to the cuts must be ‘people powered’ and not be a trade union led coalition. It has to be framed and developed as ordinary citizens trying to protect their local communities from this ideological assault. Otherwise the movement not only risks being caught in the sectarianism of the past, but will also be dismissed by the media and political classes as ‘vested interests’ that can be ignored. ' We have to tap into middle class anger.'

And finally: "The potential this crisis opens for us is vast. If we can work together and mobilise people, then we can not only put the Tories but also senior Labour MPs on the back-foot. We can change the economic narratives currently being discussed. We can change the way the financial system works. But for that to happen we have to carry as many people as possible with us."

Well a comment at New Left Project has already called this Popular Frontist, but I think the problem is really the ambiguity of talking about the 'middle classes' - such a slippery term.