Book review of Leo Panitch and Colin Leys’ “The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left To New Labour”
‘The majority of this text concerns itself with the, largely, unsuccessful battles of Labour’s new left during the 1970s and 1980s, and the failure, on the part of Labour’ leadership, to pursue the opportunities for a new left approach when they arose, much of which has been highlighted before. As is common among writers who adopt a pro-Bennite stance, Panitch and Leys understate its destructive force and lay the blame for arguments and splits firmly at the door of an intransigent right-wing party leadership; whilst failing to highlight many of the contradictions within the ideas of the new left. The hostile examination of Blair and new Labour reveals little that has not been stated before – the authors being content to recount the manner in which the Blair ‘project’ has aligned itself with neo-liberalism, without fully explaining how far removed Blair is from ‘the left’. Their conclusions, which fall around the need for parliamentary and extra-parliamentary politics to be reconfigured, are altogether too scant but arise from the belief that the new left was incorrect in merely pursuing a programme of reform for the Labour Party. Although constructive, this is not the definitive new left critique of new Labour.’
Political Studies, Volume 46, Number 5, December 1998, p990