Change! (in moderation): Labourism, Starmer and the conjuncture

This article approaches the rise of a Starmer-led Labour Party as part of the unfolding current conjuncture. It begins from the fragmentation of the electoral alliance around the Conservatives that had for a long time sustained the dominant bloc in the face of proliferating crises and conflicts. It then turns to the question of Labourism and explores what Starmer’s leadership adds to the familiar mixture of co-option and containment of popular disaffection and desire. Four themes stand out: fiscal realism; a ‘value-led’ project; Starmer’s version of managerialism; and the celebration of ‘working people’. At the same time, an emergent set of antagonisms, operating internationally, not least through multiple diasporas, are reworking familiar Labour tensions around ‘race’. Finally, the article returns to wider framings of the conjuncture, through Gramsci’s idea of ‘passive revolution’ and Hart’s exploration of the dominant political responses to popular antagonisms.