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From "Old Left" to "New Labour"? Eric Hobsbawm and the Rhetoric of "Realistic Marxism"

Pimlott, Herbert

Labour (Halifax), 2005-09, Vol.56 (56), p.175-197 [Periódico revisado por pares]

Committee on Canadian Labour History

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  • Título:
    From "Old Left" to "New Labour"? Eric Hobsbawm and the Rhetoric of "Realistic Marxism"
  • Autor: Pimlott, Herbert
  • Assuntos: Communism ; Conservative parties ; Debates ; Historians ; Historiography ; Hobsbawm, Eric ; Labor ; Labor parties ; Labour relations ; Left ; Marxian economics ; Marxism ; Marxist history ; New Labour ; Political activism ; Political debate ; Political parties ; Political rhetoric ; Presentation/Présentation ; Realism ; Rhetoric ; Socialism ; United Kingdom ; Working class
  • É parte de: Labour (Halifax), 2005-09, Vol.56 (56), p.175-197
  • Notas: ObjectType-Article-2
    SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
    ObjectType-Feature-1
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  • Descrição: [Eric Hobsbawm] was well aware of the "political implications" of his analysis. During the period of his interventions, he had to be careful because those who challenged party orthodoxy, especially the "leading role" of the working class, were liable to be accused of "betrayal," especially by those adhering to traditional positions. His interjections reinforced the "reasonableness" of his view that there was something wrong with "class politics": this was a tactical necessity because of the increasingly vociferous internal opposition to Marxism Today by 1984 and the appropriation of the term, "class politics," by opponents of [Martin Jacques] and his magazine. The importance of such a term was meant to undercut the credibility of Hobsbawm's argument because if his analysis was not a "class" analysis, it would not emphasize the importance and role of the working class and, therefore, it could not be a "true" revolutionary reading. Thus, Hobsbawm's ideas were resolutely presented as "realistic" despite their (ultimate) implications for the raison d'être of both the CPGB and an old-style, working-class ordered Labour Party: if little of any consequence can be determined by "being" working class, then for what purpose does a "working class party" exist? Hobsbawm's negative characterizations of his opponents on the Left were particularly effective in derailing their criticisms. These were usually launched hi the opening paragraphs of his articles, where he would make it clear that those who failed to recognize the "reality" of things "as they are and not as they would wish them to be," were "blinkered" and cannot "face up to the facts": unwilling "to confront reality," the unseeing Left was already retreating behind screens to protect itself from "the grim sight of reality." When opposition to Hobsbawm's critique continued, he became more insistent on how "not even the most blinkered of sectarians" were prepared to claim that Labour had not "suffered a disastrous defeat" or, at least, they were not willing to do so "in public."32 Secondly, to emphasize just how bad things were, he made it clear that the election results were worse than expected because "even the gloomiest," i.e., pessimistic "realists" like himself, failed to anticipate that Labour's vote would "suddenly collapse."33 The second trope focused on the "hard Left" and "Trotskyists," usually caricatured in right-wing tabloids as a "rent-a-mob," but more bitingly lampooned by Hobsbawm as "photo-fit hard-liners."38 The notion of "photo-fit" comes from police use of a combination of different, stock photographic images of facial features to put together a possible "fit" for a criminal suspect. This places traditionalist opponents in a particular position: those who are, by transference and connotation, "suspect" and interchangeable, assembled from "stock" or generic images, as with mannequins or robots, attending demonstrations or protests as rote behaviour, whatever the issue. They "chant" an endless recitation, a "ready-made set of slogans": no thinking is necessary because it is already done, "ready-made" for whatever situation such leftists find themselves in. Such imagery is richly suggestive of mass-produced, popular caricatures of "mindless Marxist militants," ably promoted by daily newspapers, especially the Thatcherite tabloid press.
  • Editor: Committee on Canadian Labour History
  • Idioma: Inglês
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