I can honestly say that I’ve never sat in a cinema where a
capacity audience booed in unison the moment a well-known ex-politician
appeared on the screen! The cinema: The Glasgow Film Theatre. The event: Ken
Loach’s new documentary The Spirit of ’45 (2012) followed by
a live simulcast chaired by the comedian Jeremy Hardy, with Dot Gibson General
Secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, Owen Jones British columnist,
author and left wing commentator and of course filmmaker Ken Loach. The
politician: you’ve probably guessed, the wicked witch herself ex Prime Minister
and ex leader of the Conservative Party and the scourge of the working classes Mrs
Margret Thatcher, it was truly a wonderful moment and part of a very emotional
afternoon.
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| Labours 1945 landslide election which preceded change. |
The best way to explain this documentary is to reprint a
statement included in the press notes:
"The
Second World War was a struggle, perhaps the most considerable collective
struggle this country has ever experienced. While others made greater
sacrifices, the people of Russia for example, the determination to build a
better world was as strong here as anywhere. Never again, it was believed,
would we allow poverty, unemployment and the rise of fascism to disfigure our
lives.
We
had won the war together; together we could win the peace. If we could plan to
wage military campaigns, could we not plan to build houses, create a health
service, transport system and to make goods that we needed for reconstruction.
The
central idea was common ownership, where production and services were to
benefit all. The few should not get rich to the detriment of everyone else. It
was a noble idea, popular and acclaimed by the majority. It was the Spirit of
1945. Maybe it is time to remember it today"[1].
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| Have things really changed? |
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| Ken Loach. |
Loach is one of the most candid
directors working in cinema today, a man that has never deviated from his own
personnel beliefs and is never afraid to include them as part of his colossal
body of work. From his days at the BBC starting in 1963 which launched a directorial
career which included Up the Junction
(1965) and the ground breaking Cathy Come
Home (1966) which was instrumental in the formation of Shelter in 1966, a
registered charity that is still campaigning to end homelessness and bad
housing in England and Scotland. His work in the cinema includes such intelligent
and affecting
films as Hidden
Agenda (1990) which dealt with the troubles in Northern Ireland, Ladybird Ladybird (1995) about a mothers
dispute with Social Services over the care and custody of her four children, Land and Freedom (1995) set in the
Spanish Civil War about the divisions on the republican side, The Navigators (2001) about the effects
of the privatization of British Rail, The
Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) a film that deals with the Irish War of
Independence, Route Irish (2010) the
role of Private Security Contractors in the Iraq war and many more that refuse to be
intimidated by our privileged political masters.
This latest film is a sincere attempt to
raise political awareness; a call to arms it’s neither a nostalgia trip nor a
history lesson. It also does not hide
the fact that the years after WW2 were not a working class utopia, or a
socialist revolution but a time in which an attempt was made to wrestle the
control of social care and finance from people whose only motivation was profit
and give it back to those who would benefit most. This lasted, in some form or
another, until ever thing was shredded by Thatcher and her cohorts to this
extent 1979 was a crossroad’s in the cause of social justice and fairness when
the political consensus changed to favor individualism.
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| The Discussion |
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| The power of the people is required for change. |
Both the film and the discussion that
followed advocated for a new political formation to pull the Labour Party more
to the left in the same way that UKIP is pulling the Tory party further to the
right. There was a lot of criticism about the modern day Labour Party, how they
appear to be standing by and watching the atrocious austerity cuts that the
coalition are imposing on ordinary people, the dilution of the last of the great
state nationalised services that happened during the spirit of 1945: the
National Health Service and how they no longer give honest working class
families a voice and how they needed a wake up call suggesting that the Unions
should stop subsidising a right wing Labour Party. The discussion raised many
questions that were not particularly easy to answer: how do we organize when
the Left in this country if so fragmented, were will the lead come from? Ken
Loach told us that the film came out of a need at this crucial austere period
in our political history, for change and how a collective strength is required
where the people take charge and real democracy put in place and not a society
that profits the privileged classes.
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| Perhaps there is hope! |
After watching the film and sensing the
feeling that came from the audiences around the country there must be hope
through organizations like the Peoples Assemblies Network that provide a resource platform to support the
ongoing democracy protests and open, democratic assemblies in the UK, Europe
and throughout the world[2].
Also mentioned was the Left Unity Organisation
who ask us to sign an appeal to discuss the formation of a new political party of the Left to bring
together those who wish to defend the welfare state and present an economic
alternative to austerity and in fact to defend the achievements shown in
this must see documentary: The Spirit of ’45.
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