******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
My fixation on British politics continues though I do of course not neglect keeping an eye on things elsewhere, especially Australia. However, politics here seem to be stuck in the usual go slow. We have a conservative government which is slowly disengaging itself from neoliberalism in rhetoric but of course does not have an alternative program. Tories can administer a Keynesian settlement but they will never initiate one. So the hegemony of neoliberalism has been threatened but there is no clear alternative paradigm being put in place. The onward march of Corbyn has yet to really impinge on public consciousness. Within the Green, though, the left wing senator Lee Rhiannon has raised the success of Corbyn in pushing explicitly socialist politics. Were Corbyn to make a serious break through soon, then that would call forth some kind of leftism here. But Corbyn himself still has to manage the contradictions within the Parliamentary Labor Party (PLP). It is still a hostile force as the recent split over Europe shows. My own reading of this is that the Blairites in the PLP have grown alarmed at the strength of Corbynism. Corbyn's speech at Glastonbury marked I think a deep change in how he is perceived in the popular culture. From that alarm came a preemptive strike led by Chuka Umunna a right winger. The challenge has been seen as premature by some, but I think that is to fail to understand that the Blairites are in a panic. They think, I believe, that they must act now before the Corbyn phenomenon is unstoppable. Hence Umunna's decision to defy his party and put up an amendment around access to the single market in the Brexit negotiations. I do not think the maneuver will succeed. Corbyn's popularity will continue to grow and he will form the next government. But it will be a crisis government and his own party will betray him over some crisis or other. How it will all play out is of course unclear. I just feel that the current youth have not experienced a decisive political defeat and they are gearing up to have a go. There will be a trial of strength between capital and the rest of us. Of that I am certain. Moreover I remain reasonably confident that we mi ght even win. comradely Gary <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> _________________________________________________________ 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
