Red Ed? Don't think so.

Climate hero my arse

After the most vicious battle between two brothers since Van Damme vs Van Damme in Double Impact, the victor for Labour leader has finally been declared. In a surprising result, Ed Miliband has defeated his brother David, despite being much geekier with him, not as good with women and not allowed to stay up as late as him during weeknights.

It’s also surprising given the New Labour/Media campaign against him, with Peter Mandelson denouncing him for losing them the last election. Mandy also declared any candidate – i.e. Ed Miliband – who wasn’t New Labour enough would lose the next election. The Daily Mail got in on the act by labelling him “Red Ed”, in a feat of tabloid literary imagination not seen since the Sun’s classic “Super caley go ballistic Celtic are atrocious”.

The justification for this campaign to brand Ed a dangerous Old Labour style Socialist comes from his left posturing during the leadership election, which includes support from the unions and a call for a living wage. As far as anything the Labour leadership candidates called for (with the exception of possibly Diane Aboott) the living wage was the most eye catching and progressive demand by far. While this might not be saying much now Ed is Labour leader Socialists in the SSP, SSY and Labour should push for him to pressure all Labour controlled councils to enact his living wage policy.

It was this willingness to at least sound a bit left-wing and break from the Blairite vs Brown infighting that won Ed the Labour leadership. Despite losing to his brother in the membership and MP/MEP votes, he had a clear lead in the union votes. Expect this to be used by the Tories and their media allies to attack the Labour Party as a puppet of the Unions.

The reality behind the red-baiting is that Ed Miliband is no Socialist or progressive. His campaign has simply been willing to make left sounding noises without any real substance to back it up. Ed has also had the advantage of not being in New Labour politics long enough to accumulate much dirt on his hands. Unlike his brother, he wasn’t involved in torture flights, or Brown’s economic policy like Ed Balls. He also managed to avoid being in the parliament for the vote on the Iraq war.

In his last position of responsibility in Government as Climate secretary however, Ed managed to reveal his true colours in putting the UK with the rest of the Western world in a campaign to bash the poorer countries over climate change at the Copenhagen summit. Socialist Resistance member Liam Macuaid has an interesting piece on his blog detailing how “Red Ed” tried to coeerce poorer countries into accepting a deal that would allow the US and other developed countries to continue pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. Proposals by Venezuela and Boliva to examine capitalism as an economic system being responsible for he destruction of the environment were dismissed by Ed Miliband, who was much more keen on blaming China and whitewashing the West. So much for “Red Ed”.

Ed’s already been trying to break away from the Unions who got him his position. One of his supporters, ex-Labour leader Neil Kinnock said,

“Ed Miliband owes the trade unions nothing. They haven’t asked and he certainly hasn’t offered, nor will he agree to any form of supportive role or order-taking. He’s certainly not enthralled to the unions, although obviously the support of some of the unions and some of the union members was immensely valuable.”

His first act as Labour leader has been to conduct interviews with the BBC laying down the line immediately that he is “his own man” and not in hoc to the unions. He’s already aiming for the same “middle England centre ground” Tony Blair did when he became Labour Leader.

Ed’s flagship “Left” policy, the campaign for a living wage is also a fraud – it is only about putting pressure on institutions to implement a decent wage, instead of a legal compulsion to do so. That’s quite unlike the SSP and SSY’s demand for an £8 an hour minimum wage to be enshrined by law for every worker over 16.

Labour are already seeing a new lease of life in many areas due to the brutal cuts planned by the Conservatives and the betrayal of the Lib Dems. In Scotland it looks likely that Labour will be the largest party in Holyrood next year. This resurgence in support for Labour has meant a lot of folk on the Left have advocated rejoining Labour, arguing it’s still the natural party of the working class.

But the fact that Miliband is considered a “left” shows how weak the left is in the Labour Party – any candidate not explicitly a Blairite is painted as being red. This is alongside John McDonnell being unable even to get on the ballot, and the candidate of the Socialist left being Diane Abott  - who only got 7% of the vote and was eliminated first.

It’s definitely true that the situation for the Socialist left outside the Labour Party isn’t good – but at least outside Labour you can put forward your own ideas and arguments about how to oppose the condems cuts, withdraw troops from Afghanistan and stop climate change to the general public. In Labour you’re trapped in a party where the left can’t even get on the ballot – and is eliminated first before it’s even able to start reaching out to people.