Tony Blair's mailbox must be stuffed with warnings - letters such as that of Manchester councillor Kath Fry, who writes: "I have been a member of the party for 30 years. It is very hard for me to continue to work with the same energy. I am so disillusioned about your policies and our lack of influence over them. This despair is widespread. Many members have left the party or are on the brink of doing so."
Activist frustration with Labour governments is not new. Hundreds threw away their party cards over Harold Wilson's anti-trade union laws and support for the US in Vietnam. But Wilson's shift to the right was of mainly internal importance - a betrayal of conference decisions. And there was enough democracy left in party structures for a strong core of activists to feel confident that they could hold the leadership to account.
This time, the leadership has moved so far from the party's original values and has so effectively destroyed what democratic mechanisms there were that a large protest vote has emerged. At last month's local elections many "traditional" Labour voters voted for alternatives, especially in Scotland.
The problem for the Labour left is that their message cannot be heard above the leadership's. The Labour party, once seen by the left as a "shortcut to socialism", has become a political prison. And yet, in England, joining or starting a socialist alternative does not for the moment provide the answer.
Until there is a proportional electoral system and the chance of a credible left challenge to New Labour, the Labour left packing its bags is exactly what Blair wants. It would complete his project of emptying the party of all political life and debate. Those on the left - inside and outside the Labour party - need to find an intermediate strategy that enables them to campaign together electorally as they do on many issues between elections.
Experience on the ground is showing that there is a possibility of such an electoral challenge to the policies of New Labour without the paraphernalia of a new party. This involves recognising the degree of unity that has grown up across the left on public services, democracy, anti-racism and anti-militarism, and the widespread openness to debate over differences. It also involves building on the potential, seen in the opposition to the war and to privatisation, for campaigning coalitions in our cities and towns.
Tyneside's public services alliance (PSA) provides a working example. Set up to defend and improve public services, and supported by local unions, it is increasingly taking on related issues of racism and militarism. The PSA's activities have included a demonstration, successful industrial action against privatisation and concerted campaigning against the British National party.
The PSA needed to take its campaign to an electoral level in order to challenge the council, which is run by a party that has made commitments against privatisation but tries to drive through a privatisation agenda. But the PSA includes people from Labour, the Greens, the Socialist Alliance, the Socialist party and many independents - supporting any one party or standing its own candidates would destroy this coalition. Its solution was to campaign for a common manifesto and in support of candidates who backed it.
It is the increasingly political nature of many of the unions that makes this broad-based strategy possible. "We can't predict where this will go," says the Newcastle Unison branch secretary, Kenny Bell. "It could lead to reclaiming the Labour party, or to developing an alternative, or some mixture of the two."
Interestingly, the Scottish Socialist party (SSP), now five seats strong in the Scottish parliament, grew out of a history of such campaigning coalitions. A change in the electoral system was necessary, but would not have been enough on its own.
As in Scotland, solutions to the English left's dilemma are unlikely to come from Westminster - beyond legislation for regional government and electoral reform. It is on the ground that people face the dead end of existing electoral options and invent, out of necessity, ingenious alternatives.
Kureishi urges us to be aware of the issues on which there is silence. To achieve change we must also focus on the detail of political innovation beyond the battling egos of Downing Street.
· Hilary Wainwright is editor of Red Pepper magazine. Her book, Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy, is published in June by Verso.
