OhSoNamechanged Fri 24-Jul-15 12:03:53

Hi Yvette,



I am really interested in what Paul Mason has been saying about post-capitalism recently. I don't entirely agree with him though as I think that while what he talking about could take place, I think he massively underestimates the rigour with which traditional power structures will hang onto their control of resources (for instance ordinary people's time and energy in particular) to prevent any radical shift in structures. I think that most working people are simply too stretched by necessity to "throw things into the gift economy as side projects" for instance, as he so airily put it on the Guardian Live debate. I think that we are still stuck in a situation where the vast majority of people derive their income as employees in which they giving more and more and receiving less and less, and I think that's very hard to change because no one realistically has the opportunity not to be employed.



but I am still really interested in what he is talking about and I think the Left in general and the Labour party in particular are offering no practical, coordinated way to take advantage of real, powerful changes that are happening around us all the time and are being exploited by the Right. Eg. Technology forces workers to be always on and thereby benefits (the class we used to call) Capital. New patterns of working have weakened the esprit de corps of the traditional shop floor and the potential power of online community that can be generated instead has been totally missed. Individualism and being "pro business" is the spirit of the times and no one is offering us a realistic coherent narrative of the benefits of (any kind of) collectivism. There is nothing to take part in, nothing to contribute to, that will make any of this any better.



I feel like the Labour party is living in the past. Personally and aesthetically and emotionally I am more attracted to the distant Corbynate past than the more recent utterly cynical Blairite past. But neither is offering a realistic vision of the present or the future; or how they can be better for ordinary people.



My question to you is what can you do to bring a Labour party into the future and that can rewrite a political narrative of the Left that recognises the world we live in now, and how concertedly it is creating inequality to the advantage of a particular Finance elite, (while the old Labour ways are just too steam age to deal with that, new labour is even worse by not making any effort to deal with it at all) - and what are you going to do instead if you win?