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The events in the UK have moved at a break neck pace since the referendum. Etienne Balibar's blog on the Verso site contains an interesting argument that most referenda are ignored and as a consequence what appears to be happening may not eventuate. Some sort of compromise will be cobbled together. He does have the interesting comment "we are witnessing a *destituent *process that for the moment has no *constituent* counterpart". That would certainly appear to be an apt description of what is going on the the British Labour Party. The rush towards the destituent end of the spectrum would seem to be unstoppable. I will be frank and admit I am astonished that Corbyn has not yielded to the pressure and made some deal. The coup plotters have over played their hand totally. They can only destroy the Party from here, if things proceed to an election. A victory for Corbyn means that the Blairites will have been exposed as a over represented minority. They cannot afford that. I, as you all know, suspect that Burnham will make a move but he will not cut it without explicit endorsement from Corbyn. The compromise of putting McDonnell forward as an alternative has been mooted, but seemingly absolutely rejected. The polls suggest that if Corbyn stands he will win massively his standing among members is around 70%, it would seem. Among the wider public it is over 55%. So my reading of the situation is that, contrary to all the media hype and the noise from the commentariat, Corbyn is in a strong position. He can break and remake the Labour Party, while the Blairites etc can only break. I may be hopelessly wrong here. That is one of the dangers of commentary from afar. But I will also run up my flag. I hope that Corbyn stands firm and does no deal. And I hope the people have the strength to take the opportunity and settle accounts with the politics of Blairism by backing Corbyn massively. But the scale of the change all this would bring about is almost beyond comprehension. For the Capitalist class, the crisis in the tried and trusted second eleven must be a source of some anxiety. When the First Eleven, the Tory Party, gets into a muddle, it is always handy to put the second eleven, the Labour Party, in for a while. But that may not be possible ever again. There may be no Labour Party! 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
