In everything I have ever written or done I have criticised the domination of capital and argued for the democratic renewal of the Labour movement to resist its power. That is all I stand for really. Resistance to commodification through democratic organisation. That’s the position. Labour as a radical tradition that pursues the common good. That is Blue Labour, and the rest is commentary. – Maurice Glassman

Blue Labour is an approach, attempting to renew the Labour Party after its previous defeat, that has a certain ‘p2p’ (though also communitarian-conservative) flavour to it.

(For background analysis, see here and here, respectively an article and video featuring David Goodheart)

But Steve Akehurst warns it is vulnerable to neo-Blairite manipulation:

“Blue Labour is thus far the most promising attempt to establish a different model of economic growth, a different relationship between labour, society and capitalism; to practically operationalise a sensible critique of neo-liberalism and address the lack of new ideas on the left. But it should be wary of its new friends – Collins, Purnell, Rentoul et al are asking different questions from a fundamentally different political outlook, and they are seeking very different answers. They will not be shy to rush in to any gap, or spot any ambiguities, in Blue Labour’s thinking and redefine it for their own ends – while making minimum concessions.

Glassman has already shown his exasperation at those, such as Billy Bragg, who have confused Blue Labour with being ‘anti-state’ and promoting an economically liberal agenda:

“In everything I have ever written or done I have criticised the domination of capital and argued for the democratic renewal of the Labour movement to resist its power. That is all I stand for really. Resistance to commodification through democratic organisation. That’s the position. Labour as a radical tradition that pursues the common good. That is Blue Labour, and the rest is commentary.”

He should take a careful look, then, at who is providing that commentary – before it drowns him out completely.”

For more:

I don’t know the UK political scene well enough to place various people, but Jonathan Ruterford’s essay in the latest issues of Soundings, The Future is Conservative, seems like a good expression of the ground out of which Blue Labour has emerged.