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Andrew and JA have posted and I want to dialog with what they say. I read McDonnell's speech and I too wish he had not said what he said, but I am pushed to think it is racist. What he was attempting to do was to give the air of business as usual. If one reads Polly Toynbee's column on this, then one can see that this tactic was extremely provocative. The Corbyn Camp has legitimacy. They are the democratically elected leaders of the Labour Party and that very fact and the demonstration of it, as in McDonnell's speech, sends the Blairites and their ilk into spasm of rage. Toynbee is of course a splitter from the 1981 period. Though she was by no means the worst of that lot. However she has never understood that the split of 1981 was about ending resistance to the neo-liberalism which she seems to hate. The defeat of Benn and the Left in the period of 1974-1981 was absolutely crucial to turning the Labour party into an austerity-lite machine. A quarter of a century later the defeat of Corbyn and his allies is an essential prelude to what will almost certainly be a Great Depression with the most brutal of politics. That is what is at stake here and it is why we should all be behind Corbyn. Of course we can criticize. Who could stop the Left being critical? But a word now to JA. I do depression as well as anyone. But going into a fight, it is not a good idea to say that all is lost. Corbyn still has a lot of cards up his sleeve. the influx of 60 thousand members since the referendum into the Labour Party has terrified the right. Everyone know, no matter what they pretend, that these new members are largely Corbynistas who know that the decisive battle is about to take place. If it goes to an election, I forecast that Corbyn will win and in a way which will humiliate the coup plotters. I am also certain that they know this too and that is why they hesitate and hope that the Boof head Tom Watson will get them off the hook, by persuading Corbyn to stand down. So it is not a time for depression or forecasting a defeat before the battle begins. In the mean time here in Oz, it is election day and I have to work on a polling booth. Now, that is depressing. 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
