Part 3: The part before the last part...
IV:
The Close Reading
An important essay by Stuart Hall on ghd crisis of the left and the struggle against Thatcherism was “Face the
Future” (conveniently collected in a book
of his prose on Thatcher entitled , The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism
and the Crisis of the Left). The essay was written in 1984 during a rather critical time in the Thatcher regime. While the year 1984 did not see the fulfilling of George Orwell’s promise of
totalitarianism, many leftists viewed Thatcher as a dangerous first
and second step to the fulfillment of his horrific vision. Thatcher won reelection in 1983 riding the wave of popularity caused by her handling of the Falkland Islands crisis. A victory against the Argentine government resulted in a surge of patriotism and popularity for the Conservative
party coming into the election and offset the fact that the
economy had not improved much since Thatcher began as Prime Minister. Winning a good old fashioned war helped propel her party into the majority for
a second consecutive time. As a
fascinating side note, George Bush the elder is the only politician for which
the strategy of winning a prop war did not result in re-election (he was that
bad). 1984 was the first full year of
the second part of Thatcher's rule and another election wouldn't be held anytime soon. Britain had
entered the middle period of Thatcherism and the end was not near. The struggle against Thatcherism had to be reignited
for the left to have any hope in the future.
That is where Stuart Hall’s essay comes into play. “Face the
Future” focuses on how the GLC is the most important font in the battle against
Thatcherism (Hall p.233) even saying so in
his first sentence. He sees the GLC as
the beginnings for a true socialist movement to grow out of. For those not in the know, the GLC stands for Greater London Council and
it was a form of local government that dealt with administrative concern for
the greater London area. Its duties
ranged from setting up social events like concerts to other city services like waste
disposal (Hall p.234). Hall sets up the argument that the GLC serves the function that the Labour
party should in Britain. It had provided a socialist alternative and had been successful in applying this alternative to
everyday life. The GLC started to
build a new bloc for the forces of socialism in the form of engaging
feminists, black activists, young radicals, and the gay community (Hall p.
237). They provided a successful
ideological alternative to Thatcherism on the local level and Hall sees
Thatcher’s quest to shut down the GLC as both a turning point in her popularity
and rendered the consequences of her “authoritarian populism” visible to
the public. To see a popular
governmental organization shut down simply because it had differing
philosophies with the current administration produces the unfriendly smell of the
anti-democratic tendencies of Thatcherism.
Keeping local institutions alive was central to defeating Thatcherism. Hall saw the battle for keeping the GLC
around as a microcosm of the major ideological debate of the times. He states this battle as the battle of “profit motive and possessive liberalism against,
which Thatcher represents; and the camp of collective social need and public
interest, which the labour movement, even in its most degenerated form, has
always represented.” (Hall p. 233).
Labour has not fulfilled the role of collective social need so the
GLC moved in and accomplished what Labour should have been doing in the
first place. The success of the GLC is
the reason Thatcher wanted it shut down.
It has succeeded with a different ideological outlook than the current
administration and like Miss America said in the great Woody Allen film (this
is paraphrased), Bananas, differences
of opinion must be tolerated, but when the opinions are so different they must
not tolerated and then that person becomes a subversive (leave it to Miss America to perfectly sum up how Thatcher feels about the GLC).
A main point brought
up in this passage is how the GLC brought together people
that the mainstream Labour party failed to reach out and connect with. Labour formed too little of an intellectual
support group and suffers from, in Hall’s own words, a poverty of ideas (Hall 236). The disconnect between the young radicals of the leftist movements and the Labour party displays how much of a failure Labour was during the Thatcher years.
The GLC took non-political people and brought them into the
political struggle. It entranced and
engaged with young activists and radicals and made them part of the movement. It is true that the GLC did not always know exactly what
to do with these young radicals and their ideas, but they made the first
step and opened up their ranks to them. As of the time of this essay, they have not been able \ to combine their different support groups
into a cohesive, organic social bloc, but to the credit of the GLC, it has
realized that the most prudent question of contemporary politics is how to form
a successful bloc. Again to the credit
of the GLC, they have not shied away from this task, but have openly embraced it
(Hall p. 236). The GLC started by
embracing groups that Thatcherism had long left for dead. Black activists were included in the
political agenda and given a say in the issues at hand. Feminists were able to participate in the mix
and the gay political movement had been given genuine support. These groups represented the future (and still do) and helped to diversify and strengthen the resistance movement to Thatcherism.
Another key point in Hall’s defense and embrace of the GLC is
the GLC’s commitment to modernity and the alternative lifestyle. This greatly differs with a favorite Thatcher
slogan of “There is No Alternative” (Hall p.237). The GLC moved socialism away constantly playing defense and a policy idea of a return to the days
before the Tories took over. The old
ways are not going to solve any of Britain’s problems. The GLC has succeeded by not falling into the trap of a socialist nostalgic glow.
They have made new, concrete ideas of an alternative style. By making problems more concrete to the public
and giving them concrete alternative solution, the GLC has provided a successful break
from the no alternative rhetoric that comes from the Thatcher administration. The GLC stresses collective needs and
solutions and the essential fact that people must think of themselves as part of a
collective rather than “ratepayers” (Hall p. 234) or a person who
pays for a public utility. At first this
seems like simply a descriptive term with no ideological background behind
it. Well that kind of thinking is wrong
and whoever is thinking those harmful thoughts should take a quick break to refresh their mind (watching a classic episode of The Simpsons usually does the trick). Now, as we return to our discussion, the term
ratepayer does entail an ideological background. It serves to disassociate the people from the
service and makes the service seem like a cold, isolated government
practice. By thinking of themselves as
ratepayers, people fail to identify themselves as citizens who need housing,
clean streets, education or any other collective needs (Hall p. 234). The term ratepayer dissociates the citizen from the
community and their collective needs. It
stresses individual greed over collective needs and harmony. Thatcherism has ideologically
reconstructed the world into possessive individualist terms (Hall p. 234). In Stuart Hall’s eyes this is a bad thing. A very, very, very bad thing.
Hall also argues that the GLC has successful politicized
areas of everyday life to show how a radical leftist administration can identify
positively with popular cultural life and can feed off the energy it has
created (Hall p.238). How did the GLC do
this one might ask? First off, good
question, it is always a pleasure to see the reader paying close attention so far into an essay. For your efforts, you shall be
rewarded with the answer. The GLC has
increased the quality of modern city living by subsidizing public entertainment
and opening up public grounds for the people to enjoy. Parks have become active centers for concerts
of a diversity of musical genres and it is all sponsored by the administration
in power. By democratizing and making
urban living more enjoyable and affordable, the GLC has won the hearts of the
city folk. Showing people what a leftist
administration can do by not watering down their policies has won many a young
radical following for the GLC. Stuart
Hall sees this as the GLC’s greatest success.
He closes his essay by expressing this belief , “It is one of
the aspects of GLC politics – by rooting itself in the everyday experience of
popular urban society and culture, and becoming a leading force in moral and
cultural life - …that socialism could become the politics and culture of the
future…” (Hall p.238). The GLC is the
start of that future.
In a broader sense this small essay in Hall’s collection, The
Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left, plays
to some major points in Hall’s overall ideology. Hall finds much failure with the larger
Labour and socialist movement and expresses great pessimism in the future of
the movement. This essay provides Hall
with a glimmer of hope as to what a successful socialist regime could look like. He is describing a real life example of what
he would like politics and culture in Britain to become. “Face the Future” deals with how socialism
could effectively take hold in British politics and society. The GLC is the blueprint into how to obtain a successful socialist government. This essay also plays to the ideas of
diversity and engaging with young radicals.
Too frequently Hall sees that the problem with the major Labour party is
their disconnect from young leftists and their disconnect from groups of people
that have been left behind under the politics of Thatcherism. Here Hall sees the GLC engaging with young
radicals, feminists, gays, and black activists and sees this acceptance as a
beginning to diversification and the creation of a new socialist bloc. Everything is coming together. This article also plays to Hall’s belief that
one of the reasons socialism has not taken a'hold a'yet is that the Labour party (which should represent its platforms) doesn’t advocate a modern, alternative
approach. Labour is stuck in the past with the
spirit of 1945 and hasn’t modernized.
The GLC is a modern organization with modern solutions that provide a
concrete alternative to Thatcherism. It has
provided a difference of opinion, and thus become dangerous to the Thatcher
administration. IT is easy to see why she meant to shut it down and why she eventually did.
Stuart Hall sees the GLC as a concrete beginning to putting his ideas
and the ideas of true socialism into practice.
It is a blueprint into seeing socialism work effectively and with a
great diversity of the people. An
added bonus to that is that the people seem to like it. As Bart Simpson would say, “sorry mom the mob
has spoken” (also as a side note Britain should build a monorail...).
