Our Bloc is a blueprint for a new combination of left-wing forces in Britain. James Schneider proposes a movement-party organisation that acts in society and in the Labour Party, through which party members, social movements, trade unions and socialist-inclined MPs could coordinate their political work. He adapts Chantal Mouffe’s theory of left populism to set out how the bloc could popularise socialist ideas and bend the parameters of politics towards its demands.
Socialist perspectives are now rarely heard in mainstream public debate, after five years under Jeremy Corbyn when the left had some success in shaping political discourse. There is a large base of potential activists and an even larger section of the population available for mobilisation, but no central force to unite and organise them.
Calls to ‘stay and fight’ against Keir Starmer’s failing leadership of the Labour Party are inadequate: socialists need a platform from which to do it. Schneider presents his Left Bloc as a pole of attraction for everyone seeking fundamental economic, social, political and environmental change. In this incisive book he sets out a plan for the next ten years: to build power, weaken our opponents and prepare ourselves for the next surge.
