Essay:Left’s Disillusionment with Labour Party in Britain

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In a news update on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian posted on 26^th March 2010, Hélène Mulholland reports that a newly formed coalition of ideologically committed left-wing organizations named the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), is set to field candidates in opposition to the candidates of the Labour party in 40 constituencies (Mulholland, 2010).

The trade unionists particularly feel that the New Labour does not address their concerns or represent their ideology at all. Usually the Labour party could count upon the trade unions to support them in any election, but now the trade unions are looking for other options. Some trade union leaders are even flirting with the Conservative party the former arch-enemy of unions. According to the article, one such union leader was enlisted by David Cameron, the head of the Conservatives in order to convince the trade unions that the Conservative party was no longer their enemy. According to the article this union leader felt that the David Cameron’s recent remarks encouraging British Airways workers to ignore the strike that their union engaging in, is not detrimental to his efforts to present the Conservative party as having changed its position regarding trade unions (Mulholland, 2010).

The disillusionment with the Labour party exhibited by the leaders of trade unions and other left wing organizations is justified. For the last few decades, the political spectrum of Western countries has visibly moved in the rightward direction. Traditionally left-wing parties, like the Labour Party have survived this rightward shift by moving their policies rightward. The New Labour adopted the general policies of the Thatcher regime in nearly every sector of governance. The government of Margaret Thatcher undertook a program of massive deregulation of markets and privatization of state-run enterprises. Public utilities such as gas, electricity and water utilities were privatized.

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