It is always unwise to build a whole political strategy on the evidence of a single event. Yet there are lessons we can draw from the colossal March for the Alternative last Saturday.
Perhaps the first is that, in spite of decades of vilification and demonisation, the trade unions are capable of speaking up for the concerns of millions of people.
Although we mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking that we have won the argument and the Government is bound to fail, it was patently the case that, as Ed Miliband said, this trade union march was composed of much of middle Britain.
The leaders of the unions will have been encouraged by this friendly but determined crowd, whose purpose was not deterred in any way by the violent actions of a tiny minority.
They will draw courage and exercise further leadership in the struggles to come. There are many ways that the TUC General Council can mobilise against the cuts, even without strikes.
The second lesson is that it is now quite clear that the Conservative-led Government has not won the argument about the cuts. Indeed, a number of opinion polls in the past few days have shown that the general public are profoundly uneasy about the coalition’s fiscal strategy.
The third lesson is that the right-wing domination of the media and the coalition’s domination of the House of Commons are not connected to a wider hegemony of right-wing ideas.
Attitudes to public services and to the bankers’ bonuses reveal that the ideas of the Tribuneite wing of the labour movement find wide resonance throughout Britain.
There are those commentators – some of whom who are associated with the Labour Party – who are currently arguing there is a major crisis of European social democracy and that Labour must respond by moving to the right.
Some are even arguing that the “future for Labour is Conservative”. There are those who contend that we should cut our link with the unions.
Although the situation is complex, these commentators are wrong. Obviously we need to pay attention to the marchers and the communities from which they come.
But we should not lapse into a form of leftism either. We need to connect with middle Britain and with the political centre of gravity.
The truth is that the centre is not quite where many commentators think it is. Of course, the country wants to resolve the deficit – and rightly so. Equally, though, the country wants and expects our movement to defend the core services which we have gradually built over decades.
The unions may well be the only force capable of mobilising a demonstration of the size of Saturday’s march. It would be a huge folly for the Labour Party to sever the link with the unions.
The Government seeks to diminish the services which make our country a civilised place to live.
David Cameron and his ministers will not be easily forgiven if they cut away at the police force, at our capacity to defend ourselves in times of conflict, or if they dismantle the National Health Service and the myriad other aspects of community provision on which our neighbourhoods depend.
If we listen closely, we will also hear growing discontent about the unfairness of our tax system. It is not just the UK Uncut activists who express this view, the Daily Mail does, too.
Beyond the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, millions were sitting at home, watching events on television and worrying about the future. Saturday’s demonstration showed that core Labour values of justice, fairness and public service still resonate.
We will need intelligence, stamina and determination in these difficult times. Above all, we will need the courage to be bold.
Jon Trickett is Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Labour MP for Hemsworth
