Culture war or class war?

Labour’s election defeat last year, followed by a sharp shift to the right in the party under Keir Starmer, has opened up a period of introspection and questioning on the Left. Many are asking: what now? Into this context, self-appointed advisors to the movement have been quick to put forward their own ‘new’ prescriptions. One such idea – put forward by Paul Mason and other ‘left’ commentators – is that ‘values’ now form the fundamental dividing line in British politics, as opposed to class interests. This is a picture similar to the so-called ‘culture war’ fought between conservative Republicans and ‘progressive’ Democrats. In reality, however, this argument only mirrors the Labour right wing’s own insistence that reactionary anti-immigrant and nationalist rhetoric is the only way to win back former strongholds in the North and the Midlands. As Joe Attard of Socialist Appeal explains in this session, these snake oil remedies offer nothing to the Left and the working class in Britain, or anywhere else. What is needed in this period of capitalist crisis and political instability is class politics, with a fighting lead from a militant labour movement.