Newcastle – In light of Labour’s election victory, has woke won?
We asked author and commentator Joanna Williams – does a Labour government mean that woke has won? How has this happened? And more importantly, what can we do about it?
What is ‘woke’?
Our evening with Joanna Williams attracted a full house, with over 55 people booked and more on a waiting list – so ‘woke’ is obviously a hot topic, but what does it mean? Jo defined ‘wokeness’ as an obsession with identity politics to the exclusion of other issues. She explained that it is a divisive ideology – woke activists create hierarchies of victimhood and power based on the most mundane characteristics, such as race, gender and trans identity, while completely ignoring social class. Jo described the woke movement as elite, authoritarian, hectoring and anti-democratic, so sure of its moral righteousness that it brooks no argument or debate. Woke is thus a threat to free speech and intrinsically linked to cancel culture.
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Jo started her talk with a current news story that illustrated her definition of woke. Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre had scheduled a 5-week run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but an internal preview revealed that the show demanded audience participation in a song referring to trans rights and including the phrase ‘free Palestine’. Theatre bosses asked for the song to be removed. The director and cast refused to stage the show without the song, and so the entire run was cancelled, costing the theatre tens of thousands of pounds.
This story perfectly exemplifies the woke mindset, said Jo – their sense of moral virtue made them feel they could dictate how the audience should behave. When challenged, they didn’t negotiate or compromise, they simply stormed out.
Titania would be proud (Titania McGrath, that is…).
Is woke winning under Labour?
Jo emphasised that the previous Conservative government was totally implicated in the march of woke activism through our institutions. Things were not all hunky dory before Labour got in, she said, but the Tories had just started to understand the damage that was being done and to pull back accordingly. A ban on gender-inclusive conversion therapy had been ruled out, universities had a new legal duty to protect free speech and schools had been told not to teach young children that people can change gender. Civil servants had even been ordered not to wear rainbow lanyards in the workplace.
Then Labour came to power with a victory described by many as a ‘loveless landslide’, winning two thirds of the seats with just 34% of the vote, the lowest vote share of any governing party since the first world war. Jo initially wondered whether the thinness of their victory would give Labour some humility, but no! They immediately rolled out policies to reverse the slight progress made by the Tories, doubling down on woke thinking while telling us ‘the culture wars are over’.
Within weeks of being elected, Labour halted the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act just days before it was due to come into force, a move branded as having a ‘chilling’ effect on academic freedom. That same week, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy rejected a ban on biological males in women’s sports, saying that each sporting body should decide for themselves whether to allow this.
And then came the riots… rather than discussing the underlying causes and engaging with the public about their concerns, Keir Starmer simply dismissed entire swathes of the population as ‘far right thugs’. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson decided that the appropriate response to the riots was to teach primary school children how to spot extremist content and fake news online.
Jo said that the infiltration of woke ideology in schools – a topic we discussed at our March meeting – is the greatest cause for concern and is likely to get much worse under Labour. There are fears that Labour will rip up the guidance stating that schools should teach the facts about biological sex rather than the concept of ‘gender identity’. Plans to teach children a nuanced history of the British empire have been shelved. An academic specialising in ‘social identities’ has been appointed to review the curriculum, and Labour have openly backed the idea of teaching children about ‘white privilege’.
This is an attempt to change society by shaping the minds of the young, said Jo, and if it divides families and undermines parental authority, that’s a bonus.
Challenging woke – it hasn’t won yet!
The situation seems bleak. Members of the audience discussed how woke ideology had impacted their lives in the workplace, in their children’s schools and even in the Church. Many stated that they have to self-censor. The callous nature of the #BeKind brigade was mentioned with reference to children being punished for using the wrong pronouns. Others lamented the fact that the culture wars are distracting us from tackling the important social and economic problems that our country faces.
But Jo and the audience agreed that we can, and must, challenge woke. This means finding the courage to speak out, which is not easy, but it becomes less daunting when you know that you are not alone. Groups like Politics in Pubs are good way to find allies and gain confidence in making arguments. Jo stated that the unions have betrayed working class people over woke ideology, but we can find new forms of genuinely grass roots collective organisation.
The weakness of Labour’s victory is also a cause for hope. We agreed that voter apathy is understandable but that we must continue to use our vote – and to campaign for a more representative political system – as this is one of the few mechanisms we have for effecting change. It was noted that populist parties are gaining ground in other European countries.
Woke often flounders when challenged in the courts, as shown by high profile cases such as those of Harry Miller, Jo Phoenix or Maya Forstater. This is encouraging, as is the excellent work of the Free Speech Union, but we noted that these cases take a huge toll on those involved.
Parents in the audience reminded us that we can take heart from the fact that young people are not stupid and do not automatically accept everything they are told at school or via the internet – in fact many of them actively rebel against the orthodoxies of the older generation, as young people should do!
We must also laugh at woke! Its inherent inconsistencies and ever more ludicrous claims are comical, and in mediaeval times the court jester was the only person who could tell the king he was wrong. One audience member quoted Mark Twain: ‘against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.’ Let’s hope he was right.
Links
How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement that Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason by Joanna Williams:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Woke-Won-Threatens-Democracy/dp/1916749038/
Royal Exchange Theatre show was cancelled after pro-Palestine and trans rights row: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/royal-exchange-theatre-show-cancelled-29947579
The ‘freebies’ scandal exposes the entitlement of the woke, by Joanna Williams:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/09/25/the-freebies-scandal-exposes-the-entitlement-of-the-woke/
Lessons about ‘fake news’ are indoctrination masquerading as education, by Joanna Williams:
Rejoice, the war is over! by Titania McGrath:
