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Last week I did a talk on Corbynism for the local Socialist Alliance. I channeled Richard Seymour without the Lacan bit and the accompanying Dark Side Dreaming. My take on things is that we are far from being in danger of excessive optimism. Rather we need to fight the absence of Utopian Dreaming. But the stark actualities of British politics are formidable obstacles to hope. Faced with the polls which showed Labour on 24% and the Tories on 49%, I regressed to the age old Irish practice of whingeing about the Sasanach. I just cannot get my mind around how people could not vote for Corbyn's offer. His endeavor to recreate a Keynesian Centre to replace the Neoliberal Centre is just too good to refuse, given the crisis of neoliberalism. But now there is a poll which has Labour on 38% and the Tories on 43%. The Tory Manifesto was deeply unpopular especially the proposal to seize the family home of those who had dementia after they died. Even the sickening horror of the Manchester bombing seems not to have helped the Tories as attention has been drawn to the fact they were responsible for cutting the police force by 19,000. Richard Seymour dissected this very well and managed to deflate my euphoria which had me "muttering like a fool". But he still says it is significant. Corbynism might survive this election even if Labour do not win. By Corbynism I mean the attempt to move a large social democratic party back to the Keynesian Centre. The political editor of the New Statesman even speculated in a tweet that Milliband would have done better in 2015 with Corbyn's program. The right wing splitter Polly Toynbee also wrote in the Guardian that she loved the manifesto but thought that the fact that Corbyn was Labour Leader would prevent people from voting for it. Of course without Corbyn there would have been no Keynesian manifesto. That is a point which the likes of Eaton and Toynbee would never admit. Nonetheless, the fact that the manifesto was popular, shows that the struggle to move Labour away from Blair's pro neoliberal stance is making ground. But I long for more than all this - absolutely. I want a world where to slightest sign of neoliberalism dare not even raise its head. Still, I will take a Corbyn victory and the fact that throughout this campaign Labour have been gaining steadily is rekindling my dreams of a better world. comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com