Ideas matter. They shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us. Few were more influential in developing thinking in and around Compass than Stuart Hall who sadly died today after a long period of illness, throughout which he never lost the sharpest ideological analysis.
I only met Stuart a few times but went to listen to him whenever I could. I was privileged to have supper with him and the editor of Marxism Today Martin Jacques. Stuart was rightly very wary of this pushy younger thing who had been part of the rise of New Labour. But he warmed to Compass over time and recently sent me a very warm email applauding our move to rethink what New Times – the project he led in the late 1980s – meant today.
I remember vividly, sitting on a train to South Wales in 2003 – where I was hopelessly looking to get selected in a parliamentary seat – reading his seminal Soundings essay New Labour’s Double Shuffle. As I turned each page the scales fell from my eyes. Stuart explained clearly and precisely exactly why the New Labour model project was doomed. He wrote then “The fact is that New Labour is a hybrid regime, composed of two strands. However, one strand – the neo-liberal – is in the dominant position. The other strand – the social democratic – is subordinate”. My personal resolve to be any part of such a doomed project diminished with every sentence Stuart had written. I got off the train – not knowing why I was there or what to do next. A year later Compass was launched.
Stuart was an ever present on the long march of three new lefts – from the 1950, through the 1960s and to today with his latest work for the Kilburn Manifesto. He showed us why ideas matter and how perseverance is essential in there development and political application. The political world is horribly poorer for his death but immeasurably richer for his amazing contribution to how we understand ourselves and our world. Our love and thoughts go to his family and all his many friends.
Neal says “Ideas matter”. There’s a thought.
He also tells us “They shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us”. Something else to reflect on.
Stuart Hall, Neal says, was a great influence on Compass.
I have now read, and listened to, quite a few appreciations of Hall. Not one of them mentions a specific idea or concept of his that we should use in our task of analysing the world today. I wonder why that is.
Sprinkling one’s speeches and writings with phrases like “neo-liberal hegemony” seems to be the clue. The word “hegemony” occurs ten times in the introduction to the Kilburn Manifesto which is full of pretentious claims which could only appeal to people who have already been initiated into the narrow world of people who can congratulate themselves and each other by their use of terminology that is a guarantee that they have no intention of speaking to the person in the street.
I remember Stuart Hall. I have read articles by him. I heard him speak. I wish I could say “here is a great idea he introduced” but I can’t. I would like to know what it was that impressed Neal so much.