Downturn portrays the lives of a group of revolutionary and 'far left' socialists in Britain over a period of nine months between October 1982 and July 1983. It embraces both the political activities of its main characters and their personal relationships. The action is based in London for the first two-thirds of the book, then moves to the seaside for a union conference and to the South of France on 'holiday' before returning to London after Thatcher's landslide victory in the June 1983 election.
The novel follows two characters in particular: one known by his first name, Simon, considers himself a revolutionary, but is not a member of any party, group or tendency. The other known mostly by his surname, Maloney, is a Trotskyist and member of a small group called Workers' Struggle.
The political views of my characters go back to Marx and Engels, but their activism was inspired by the 'events' of 1968 when 'the entire post-war order was challenged in a chain of insurrections extending from America to Western Europe and Czechoslovakia.' (David Caute, Sixty-Eight:The Year of the Barricades). Caute notes that the revolts in the late 1960s were 'a break with history: in a period of unprecedented material prosperity and cultural tolerance, the sons and daughters of the most privileged sections of the population rebelled. It was a moral revolt generated by "alienation" from dominant values, but it did not, on the whole, extend to the working class.' I would have said 'more privileged' rather than 'most', but it was certainly a revolt unrelated to economic depression or government-inflicted 'austerity' like the protests of the 1930s or the decade we've just lived through.
The basic belief was that a fair and just society serving 'the many and not the few' (to coin a phrase) could only be brought into existence outside the main institutions of capitalist society such as parliament and the judiciary. The working class needed to be educated and mobilised in their workplaces and communities under the leadership of a revolutionary party. And many of the young people who joined far left groups in 1968 or thereafter believed that the revolution was possible not just within their lifetimes but within their youth - an idea probably encouraged by the fact that this generation was able to enjoy the longest period of 'youth' in human history. By 1982 when Downturn takes up the story, that vision was - like Maloney's car in the novel - showing grievous signs of wear and tear. Nevertheless, there was still a belief that Thatcher would be kicked out at the next election. That 'the people' would not stand for her reactionary politics.
In the event, the massive victory of the Tory party in the 1983 polls, coupled with the tragedy of the miners' strike in 1984/85, led to many drifting away from the far left vision - a process probably helped by the election of Neil Kinnock as leader of the Labour Party. Kinnock had working class and socialist credentials and was felt initially to be an inspiring speaker. As the 1968 generation hit middle age and had to think about paying mortgages and feeding children, a softer vision of achieving a fair and just society was quietly accepted. That is my take on what happened, or my excuse for following the same path.
Downturn deals with the post-1968 revolutionary movement after fourteen years of 'struggle'. It focuses not on heroic battles, but on what Maloney calls 'the day to day grind of holding the line, trying to make small advances like publishing a newsletter or organising a meeting, trying to build class consciousness against all the odds.' Its characters are white collar workers in the public sector and therefore on the fringe of the labour movement as it was back then. Because of that, and perhaps because 'history repeats itself as farce', their efforts become almost comical at times. But they keep on fighting for the cause.
The personal relationships depicted in the novel are there mainly because it would have been an incomplete portrait without them. The world of left wing politics is no different from human society in general when it comes to sexual desire, sexual problems, betrayal, adultery, heartache and all the rest. Incidentally, on page 113, Simon asserts that Lenin and Trotsky never had extra-marital affairs. This is not true, or rather it is probably not true. Lenin is widely believed to have dallied with Inessa Armand ("He could not take his Mongolian eyes off the little French woman"!), while Trotsky had a 'brief affair' with Frida Kahlo according to her biographers.
Downturn is based on my personal experience, though it is heavily fictionalised. But for the record, I was a member of the Socialist Workers Party from 1976-79 and active in the Civil Service trade union movement from 1976-1986. The first demonstration I went on, however, was the Anti-Vietnam War march in March 1968. The photograph on the front cover shows the marchers in North Audley Street which leads from Oxford Street into Grosvenor Square where the American Embassy stood. I am somewhere in that photograph and remember being held there in close confinement before the police line gave way, just as I remember being assaulted by a police officer outside the Grunwick factory in North West London a few years later. For Simon and Maloney in the novel, those are just memories too. The downturn is upon them.
In the event, the massive victory of the Tory party in the 1983 polls, coupled with the tragedy of the miners' strike in 1984/85, led to many drifting away from the far left vision - a process probably helped by the election of Neil Kinnock as leader of the Labour Party. Kinnock had working class and socialist credentials and was felt initially to be an inspiring speaker. As the 1968 generation hit middle age and had to think about paying mortgages and feeding children, a softer vision of achieving a fair and just society was quietly accepted. That is my take on what happened, or my excuse for following the same path.
Downturn deals with the post-1968 revolutionary movement after fourteen years of 'struggle'. It focuses not on heroic battles, but on what Maloney calls 'the day to day grind of holding the line, trying to make small advances like publishing a newsletter or organising a meeting, trying to build class consciousness against all the odds.' Its characters are white collar workers in the public sector and therefore on the fringe of the labour movement as it was back then. Because of that, and perhaps because 'history repeats itself as farce', their efforts become almost comical at times. But they keep on fighting for the cause.
The personal relationships depicted in the novel are there mainly because it would have been an incomplete portrait without them. The world of left wing politics is no different from human society in general when it comes to sexual desire, sexual problems, betrayal, adultery, heartache and all the rest. Incidentally, on page 113, Simon asserts that Lenin and Trotsky never had extra-marital affairs. This is not true, or rather it is probably not true. Lenin is widely believed to have dallied with Inessa Armand ("He could not take his Mongolian eyes off the little French woman"!), while Trotsky had a 'brief affair' with Frida Kahlo according to her biographers.
Downturn is based on my personal experience, though it is heavily fictionalised. But for the record, I was a member of the Socialist Workers Party from 1976-79 and active in the Civil Service trade union movement from 1976-1986. The first demonstration I went on, however, was the Anti-Vietnam War march in March 1968. The photograph on the front cover shows the marchers in North Audley Street which leads from Oxford Street into Grosvenor Square where the American Embassy stood. I am somewhere in that photograph and remember being held there in close confinement before the police line gave way, just as I remember being assaulted by a police officer outside the Grunwick factory in North West London a few years later. For Simon and Maloney in the novel, those are just memories too. The downturn is upon them.
Comments
Post a Comment