Hard left

{{Short description|Political faction in the British Labour Party and the Australian Labor Party}}

Hard left or hard-left is a term that is used particularly in Australian and British English to describe the most radical members of a left-wing political party or political group.{{Cite web |title=Definition of 'hard left' |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hard-left |access-date=24 March 2023 |website=Collins English Dictionary}}{{Cite web |title=Definition of hard left |url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/hard-left |access-date=24 March 2023 |website=Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary}} The term is also a noun and modifier taken to mean the far-left and the left-wing political movements and ideas outside the mainstream centre-left.* {{cite book |author=John Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=axT2G0W9sl0C&pg=PA203 |title=Understanding Journalism: A Guide to Issues |publisher=Psychology Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-415-11599-5 |page=203 |quote=Condemnation by label is a favourite tactic of political antagonism ... Descriptions like 'hard left', 'far left' ... all have extra connotations, political under-meanings to damage the people they describe}}

{{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=Moyra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RUcAQAAIAAJ |title=The British media |date=1984 |publisher=Comedia |isbn=9780906890516 |edition=illustrated |page=29 |quote=Key words and phrases like 'hard left', 'extremist' and 'Soviet style' are explicitly derogatory and dismissive labels which mask a serious lack of information and analysis about the theory and practice of socialism and communism. |access-date=1 November 2015}} The term has been used to describe wings and factions of several political parties across the world, such as the left-wing of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom{{Cite web |date=2016-01-05 |title=Labour's left wing 'can't tolerate dissent', a right-wing Labour MP has claimed |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-s-left-wing-can-t-tolerate-dissent-labour-mp-chris-leslie-claims-a6797481.html |access-date=2023-02-19 |website=The Independent |language=en}} and left-wing factions of the Australian Labor Party.{{Cite book |last=Megalogenis |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHQzwqY1b90C&pg=PA6 |title=Quarterly Essay 40 Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the End of the Reform Era |date=2010-11-16 |publisher=Black Inc. |isbn=978-1-921866-53-1 |page=6 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Sartor |first=Frank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ETr2gEsXg0C&pg=PA328 |title=The Fog on the Hill: How NSW Labor Lost Its Way |date=2011 |publisher=Melbourne Univ. Publishing |isbn=978-0-522-86106-8 |page=328 |language=en}}

Australia

As with the Labor Right faction, the Labor Left faction of the Australian Labor Party is split between multiple competing sub-factions, called "fractions". These vary between state branches and in union support and affiliation.

In New South Wales, the left is split mainly between the so-called "hard" left and "soft" left. The hard left was historically focused on the trade union movement and international issues, and organised around figures like Frank Walker, Arthur Gietzelt, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Tony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0lNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA192 |title=Basket Weavers and True Believers: Making and unmaking the Labor Left in Leichhardt Municipality, c.1970–1991 |date=2007-08-10 |publisher=Leftbank Press |isbn=978-0-9803883-5-0 |page=192 |language=en}} The soft left presented a "more pragmatic" vision of the left and used rank-and-file members to gain power through branch stacking, and organised around politicians Peter Baldwin and Jack Ferguson.{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Tony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0lNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA192 |title=Basket Weavers and True Believers: Making and unmaking the Labor Left in Leichhardt Municipality, c.1970–1991 |date=2007-08-10 |publisher=Leftbank Press |isbn=978-0-9803883-5-0 |pages=192-198 |language=en}}

In Victoria, the term "hard left" historically referred to the far-left "Tomato Left" faction, which included Bill Hartley, George Crawford, and Joan Coxsedge.

Britain

The term was first used in the context of debates within both the Labour Party and the broader left in the 1980s to describe Trotskyist groups such as the Militant tendency, Socialist Organiser and Socialist Action.{{cite book|author=Eric Shaw|title=Discipline and Discord in the Labour Party: The Politics of Managerial Control in the Labour Party, 1951–87|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tgcNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA267|date=1 January 1988|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-2483-2|page=267}} Within the party, the Labour left or "hard left", represented by the Campaign Group, subscribed to more strongly socialist views while the "soft left", associated for example with the Tribune Group, embraced more moderate social democratic ideas.{{cite book|last1=Crines|first1=Andrew Scott|title=Michael Foot and the Labour leadership|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge Scholars|location=Newcastle upon Tyne|isbn=9781443832397|page=161}}{{cite web|title=What's left of the Labour left?|url=http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/161892/whats-left-of-the-labour-left.thtml|publisher=Total Politics|access-date=6 May 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150821005801/http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/161892/whats-left-of-the-labour-left.thtml|archive-date=21 August 2015|df=dmy-all}}

Politicians commonly described as being on the hard left of the Labour Party at the time included Tony Benn, Derek Hatton, Ken Livingstone,{{cite book|title=Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory|last=Hill|first=Dave|year=2002|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=0739103466|page=188|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nK_UST5ng6gC&pg=PA188}} Dennis Skinner,{{cite news|title=Dennis Skinner|newspaper=The Guardian|author=Andrew Roth|date=20 March 2001|at=Andrew Roth's parliament profiles|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/20/profiles.parliament9}} and Eric Heffer.{{cite book|title=A History of the British Labour Party|last=Thorpe|first=Andrew|edition=3rd|year=2008|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1137248152|page=228|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CAMoBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT228}} {{dead link|date=June 2022}}

The term has since then often been used pejoratively by Labour's political opponents, for example, during the Conservative Party's election campaigns of the early 1990s, and by the media.{{cite book|author1=James Curran|title=Culture Wars: The Media and the British Left|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|date=29 July 2005|pages=196, 209}}Use by BBC: * "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/174636.stm Kinnock attacks hard left]", BBC World Service. 18 September 1998.

The Guardian:

{{cite news|last1=Wintour|first1=Patrick|title=Unite challenges expulsion of alleged Trotskyists from Labour party|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/23/unite-challenges-expulsion-of-alleged-trotskyists-from-labour-party|access-date=24 October 2015|work=The Guardian|date=24 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024122941/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/23/unite-challenges-expulsion-of-alleged-trotskyists-from-labour-party|archive-date=24 October 2015|url-status=live|quote=However, there is concern in the parliamentary party that several hard-left groups such as Left Unity, the Socialist Workers party (SWP), the Socialist party and the AWL are trying to attach themselves to Momentum to gain entry into the party. Party moderates are fearful that Labour's largest affiliated union is too relaxed about opening the party's doors to the hard left.}}

Use by The Independent:

Merill, Jamie. "[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-sets-100-staff-to-root-out-ineligible-supporters-as-hard-left-groups-deny-infiltrating-10446997.html Labour sets 100 staff to root out ineligible supporters as hard-left groups deny infiltrating election to support Jeremy Corbyn]" The Independent. 8 August 2015.

Use by The Glasgow Herald:

{{cite news|title=Turning hard left|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=64FDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1806%2C7144387|access-date=1 November 2015|work=The Glasgow Herald|date=26 February 1988}}
{{cite news|last1=Clark|first1=William|title=Hard left in bid for key SNP group|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Y7dAAAAAIBAJ&pg=4543%2C1264546|access-date=1 November 2015|work=The Glasgow Herald|date=6 December 1985}} It has continued to be used pejoratively for the left-wing of the Labour Party.

Hard left

Australia

Britain

See also

References

Further reading