Has ‘the great moving right show’ stopped
Soundings - ISSN 1362-6620
Volume 2024 Number 87
Has ‘the great moving right show’ stopped
Michael Rustin pages 134-146
DOI: 10.3898/SOUN:87.07.2024
Abstract
This article revisits ‘New Labour’s Double Shuffle’, the critique of the New Labour government that Stuart Hall wrote in 2003, to see how this might provide guidance in understanding the conjuncture of the Labour government elected in July 2024. Hall’s article had followed on from his pre-election analysis of the Thatcher project in ‘The Great Moving Right Show’, in 1978. His argument was that the dominant agenda of the New Labour governments was one of subordination to pressures emanating from capital, with the demands of Labour’s supporters being subordinated to this. It is proposed that the relations between the dominant and subordinate elements in these structures should be seen in dialectical terms, as an ongoing struggle between co nflicting social forces. The question is raised of whether the current Labour government is essentially a continuation of the New Labour project, or whether it might be something different. The argument is made that to achieve a favourable outcome in a new struggle for hegemony it is essential that Labour r emain in office for several parliamentary terms, and that there be a critical engagement with what its government does.
SORRY - you are not registered as being permitted online access to the full text of this article
You have the following options:
- If you are viewing this via an institution or academic library you can ask that your institution takes out a Subscription to this journal.
- If you already have a Personal Subscription please login below
Forgotten your username / password? Click here to locate
- Purchase an annual Personal Subscription
PRINT + DIGITAL personal subscription (£40 / year)
DIGITAL personal subscription (£30 / year)
A Personal Subscription provides immediate access not only to the single article you are seeking, but also to all past and future articles in this journal up to the expiry of your annual (calendar year) subscription. - Purchase immediate access to this single article (UK£7.00) - Buy article Coming Soon
To cite this article
Michael Rustin (2024) Has ‘the great moving right show’ stopped, Soundings, 2024(87), 134-146. https://doi.org/10.3898/SOUN:87.07.2024