Shadow Cabinet Elections

On a day when the forces of entitlement scorned took to the streets to articulate the demand of Brecht's Writers' Union that we dissolve the people and elect another, I should start by saying that I am heartily in favour of democracy. One of the many problems with capitalism, whether run from Brussels or London, is that it is not nearly democratic enough.

So, then, I support the demand of some Labour MPs to restore Shadow Cabinet elections, right? Well, as it happens, no. At least not in the terms in which they're being requested.

The internal democracy of the Labour Party is about the democracy of a movement or it is a hollow sham. The Labour Party I am interested in being a member of is about the political representation of a mass of working people and their allies, not least as organised in trade unions. Labour MPs matter in as much as they are the parliamentary expression of this movement, but they are not the Labour Party. We are, all of us.

In the heady days of the late 70s and early 80s, the Labour Left supported Shadow Cabinet elections in combination with a raft of measures designed to secure the accountability of the PLP to the wider Party and the election of the leader by the entire Party. Subsequent history has brought us a situation in which there are no Shadow Cabinet elections, the PLP is packed full of MPs more right-wing than the Party at large, and yet Jeremy Corbyn is - and in all likelihood will still be at the end of the month - Labour leader. In this context the demand for the PLP to elect the Shadow Cabinet is not a democratic demand. It is all about a right-wing PLP blocking the ability of a leader supported by the mass membership to implement policies supported by that membership. And it should be opposed.

However, electing the Shadow Cabinet isn't a bad idea in itself. Why not allow every member of the Labour Party and its affiliates to participate, holding elections at the same time as NEC elections?