Today saw the election of North Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the UK Labour
Party. His remarkable leadership campaign attracted a storm of near-hysterical criticism
from both established Labour figures and the right-wing press, but gained considerable
support from across the UK left. From major trade-unions to Trotskyist sects, Corbyn
succeeded in uniting a broad swathe of the established left, as well as many ordinary
Labour Party members and supporters, behind his bid to lead the party following its worst
election defeat in 30 years. In spite of a vicious propaganda campaign from right-wing
papers like the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and the Express, alongside former Labour Prime
Ministers and other high-ranking members of the Labour establishment (not to mention an
attempted purge of his supporters by the current Labour leadership) Corbyn now looks set
to lead the Labour Party into the next UK general election in 2020. For most of the
British left, this will doubtless be a cause for considerable celebration.
We're not celebrating.
In spite of the hype surrounding his ascension, we find precious little cause for optimism
in his victory. It isn't simply that he's unelectable, as those on the right of the Labour
Party claim, though it's true the prospect of him actually becoming Prime Minister in 2020
seems pretty remote without seismic changes to the political landscape of the UK. It isn't
that his left leaning policies don't go far enough, though it's true that by the standards
of the pre-1990s Labour Party he's really more of a centrist. It's not even that the party
he leads has a track record of warmongering, austerity, and strike-breaking going back to
1945. Rather, our scepticism of Corbyn's politics comes from the fact that his vision of
an end to austerity, of an end to wars and bloodshed abroad, of well funded state-run
public services, of a more just and equal society, is based on a lie: that if we elect
better politicians, they will build us a better world without us having to do the hard
work of struggling together to improve our lives. The truth is that if we want to see
meaningful change, were have to fight for it ourselves.
The strategy of electing left wing and socialist politicians to fight our battles for us
has failed time and time again. Corbyn is just the latest in a long line of failures,
inside and outside the Labour Party. Just a few months ago, leftists across Europe and
beyond was singing the praises of SYRIZA, a coalition of socialists and revolutionaries
who rose to power in Greece in January this year, claiming they would put an end to the
misery doled out to the Greek people by years of savage spending cuts. Today their
promises are in tatters, their supporters disappointed in yet another Greek government
capitulating in the face of international pressure to implement still more austerity.
Three years earlier another socialist party in France rose to power offering similar
promises of an end to austerity and a fairer society. Three years on, their promises
remain unfulfilled. The list goes on.
Full article from Red & Black Leeds:
https://wearetherabl.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/this-is-not-our-victory/
https://afed.org.uk/repost-this-is-not-our-victory/
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» UK Britain, THIS IS NOT OUR VICTORY by afed