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The news coming out of the the bunker occupied by the Besses of the British Labour Party would be comical if it were not so dire. Everyday they bring up some maneuver designed to disenfranchise the new membership. Now new members cannot be delegates to the Party Conference. Operation Despair is the strategy that Deputy Leader Tom Watson & co have to rely on. The status quo depends on apathy in the ranks. Nothing else can save the Old Labour Right and the Blairites. Democracy, activism, enthusiasm and, above all hope, are their deadly enemies. It is clear now that the coup plotters never intended for there to be an election where Corbyn was a candidate. When the certainty of his candidature emerged, by all accounts the levels of abuse hurled at him were horrific. He has weathered that and now is embarked on what he does best, fighting for socialist ideas in the arenas outside the corridors of Westminster. His campaign will necessarily also become a campaign for socialism and in truth he will be taking the fight to May and the Tories as well as his Labour Party rival, Owen Smith. The Labour Party establishment is fighting a bitter rearguard action. But there are already voices advising them to do a deal with Corbyn so they can regain influence on the front bench. Because the Right has quit the Shadow Cabinet, the new Shadow Ministers are much more radical. The key to the struggle is the new unity between the unions and the new members. Traditionally the Labour Leaders used the members to discipline and to marginalize the unions. The new unity has driven the Right Wing leadership of the Party into a war against the new members. But that struggle is at best non-hegemonic. When the Party leaders are left with the only option being to actively try to make your party smaller, then they are in real trouble. Their problem is that the Party is getting too big to control and events are moving at too fast a rate for them to spread the poison of despair. >From here Corbyn, should not waste time talking about his opponent. He should campaign against the Tories and their neoliberal austerity and for a socially just society. One commentator has described the conflict in the UK as Corbynism versus Barbarism. I beleive he is very right. 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
