March 27, 2016
Labour Party Future of Work Conference Day 2 – the most important thing to emerge
Labour Party Future of Work Conference Day 2 – the most important thing to emerge
MARTYN BRADBURY
Day 2 of Labour's impressive Future of Work Conference saw impassioned argument and debate. It was as if the days previous intellectual juggernauts cleared the way for the Left to begin a dialogue in earnest.
Sessions like Young People and the Future of Work, Education and Training for the Future of Work, Future of Work – technology driven productivity improvement, Economic Development and Sustainability, New Models of Organising Work and Decent Work for All tried to put flesh upon the conclusions Professor Robert B. Reich and Professor Guy Standing had made so convincingly the day before.
If we accept massive job displacement and a growing inequality caused by plutocracy, then how we view job training and education needs a 22nd Century overhaul. In this, Labour can boast vision and understanding of vocational job training directed by the State, it shows that beyond the big ideas Labour have understood what needs to happen to make the ideas real.
The most important thing that has a come out of this conference is confidence. If you had mentioned Sanders or Corbyn to Labour MPs three months ago, you would have either received haunted looks or angry disdain. That simply isn't there any longer. The challenge of neoliberalism for the Left has always been about countering its social liberalism and vicious simplicity of lowest cost capitalism. The rise of plutocracy has broken the system of managed capitalism and exposed its truth that the 1% gain while the 99% suffer. The Left have firm intellectual ground to argue their values from now and that knowledge has given them a far stronger confidence to push debate in a way we haven't seen before.
A quiet revolution has taken place inside Labour, if the economy tanks, expect to see people demanding that it roar.
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.co.nz
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