Conundrum facing the Left
A TOTAL of 172 insolent and disloyal Labour MPs launched an ultimately futile attempt to forcibly dethrone the party’s democratically elected leader three months ago.
Despite boasting both financial and “moral” support from big business and the press alike, in addition to dishonest tactics by the party’s Orwellian “compliance unit”, Jeremy Corbyn increased his mandate to 61.8% and his preferred rival Owen Smith has ostensibly almost disappeared from the public eye.
More than 500,000 Labour members, registered supporters and affiliates took part in the leadership elections. In each category, only Jeremy Corbyn could boast consistent support, unlike his notoriously gaffe-prone contender.
The party’s right-wing, which appears to believe that what working-class people actually want is a pale imitation of the Tories, are terrified at the ever-growing consensus that starving peasants to keep the self-indulgent patriciate in fineries is moral and philosophical bankruptcy at its most repellent.
This very same ruling establishment of billionaire barons were clear beneficiaries of Blair’s divisive “New Labour” narrative, which assured us without providing so much as a shred of meaningful evidence that learning to love free market fundamentalism would benefit the entire country.
I can say without resorting to hyperbole that these very same individuals are to blame for creating major artificial divisions in the party, at a time when it should be defending the poor and vulnerable against reckless Tory austerity measures.
Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election has compelled this scabrous Blairite faction to beat a hasty retreat, but this is only a temporary regroup to explore alternate mechanisms to engineer his removal from the Labour Party leadership.
The capitalist establishment which has enjoyed unchallenged rule over political parties of all stripes is in grave jeopardy, and they won’t go down without a damn good fight.
Whether or not the Labour Party will again represent a true antiausterity mass movement with ambitions to consistently champion working-class struggles, or whether it is doomed to be a mendacious puppet party of neoliberal interests, is a crucial conundrum for the Left at present. The answer hinges on how prepared and organised our response is to the dirty tricks of “Progress” and assorted right-wing infiltrators who have contaminated the party. Daniel Pitt Mountain Ash