Which Way’s Left? Community and Identity

3 November 2009

Should the Left seek to foster a shared sense of identity, morality and community, or embrace a diversity in each?

The Labour Party emerged at the start of the 20th century partly as a result of strong class identities and industrial solidarity, building on the importance of community to pioneering early socialists like Robert Owen. From the 1960s and 1970s, the rise of identity politics embodied an anti-establishment spirit and a strong defence of individuality and difference over tradition and conformity. In recent years a debate about the place of diversity and solidarity within an egalitarian political project has re-emerged, in light of rapid social and economic changes linked to globalisation and rising migration.

Questions of identity, morality and community are central to many of today’s most controversial political issues: multiculturalism; public morality and behaviour; the perceived decline of community; the rise of the BNP; issues of personal freedom; and attempts to shape a stronger sense of citizenship and Britishness. So what should the Left’s approach be?

To help confront this issue we have asked David Miller, Professor of Political Theory at Oxford University, and Mike Kenny, Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research and Professor of Politics at Sheffield University, to write short papers responding to this topic.

As a guide, we think there are broadly two potential approaches:

  • An essential part of the success of modern British society is its multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural character. Identities and attachments are increasingly complex and overlapping. Moral codes are inherently diverse. Communities of value and the obligations which flow from them are multi-layered. These realities are virtues to be celebrated, not trends to be countered for fear that they undercut the basis for a shared egalitarian politics. The centre-Left should promote the concept of an open society, which prides itself on respect for diversity and tolerance of disagreement. Any more substantial attempt to shape shared identity, articulate a public morality or overly associate community with nation, risks descending into intolerance and exclusion.
  • At some level, a shared sense of identity, morality and community is a necessary component of an egalitarian political project. They are essential to establishing and maintaining the bonds of affiliation which underpin our sense of obligation to one another and emphasise our mutual interdependence. They also reflect a powerful reality about humans as social, situated selves. And they need not preclude or inhibit the values of tolerance, respect and diversity from flourishing in our society. Of course people have a range of identities and attachments, but the notion of an open society promotes an individualistic and cosmopolitan perspective which seeks to cast aside powerful language and vehicles for the centre-Left (including through the locus of the national community). It also risks denying the material and cultural insecurities of working people, appealing instead to a metropolitan and middle class audience, who benefit disproportionately from openness.
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