Left-wing politics in Europe is at a dead-end.
In future posts, I'll be sharing some thinking on tactics for political campaigns. Specifically, on how anti-establishment, leftwing parties could win in our current political climate. (Update 04/12/23: here’s one such post.)
But for those parties to have a shot, it's important that they acknowledge the mistakes that led to this point. To avoid repeating them.
As I've discussed often on this blog, these mistakes are largely organisational and tactical, not political. And at their root are the same issues that ail progressive activist groups, think-tanks and NGOs.
It's the classic problem of the left. (And a solvable one.)
So that's what this piece is about. It's framed as a speech given by a hypothetical leftist leader in Europe, to their organisation's members and allies.