Understanding the Corbyn Era
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
Mike Phipps reviews Searching for Socialism: The Project of the Labour New Left from Benn to Corbyn, by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, published by Verso.
He believes the jury is still out on the age-old question: Can the Labour Party be a vehicle for the socialist transformation of Britain?
The book is normally priced at £14.99. It is available at £7.50 during May here.
This article was originally published by Labour Hub on Mon 11 May 2020. Read the original here.
Understanding the Corbyn Era
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Looks good. I think maybe I’ll wait for the revised edition after Starmer suspends all of those who sabotaged the Labour Party’s election chances and has a thorough meaningful investigation. Surely that’s worth hanging on another few weeks for..?!
“the confused priorities of some on the left”
This is written in respect of the Brexit issue, but it is a core problem : the ‘left’ is a confused entity – often long on rhetoric but short on the essentials of shaping a national agenda.
The result is impotent confusion – not just within the Party, but in terms of the wider electorate. This runs through many key issues.
Brexit was just the most prominent of the last few years, where the issue became focused on the neoliberal economics of the EU without considering of the fact that the economics of the globe had been captured by neoliberalism and its corporate front. The paradox was that the practical outcome of leaving the EU was likely to lead, perforce, to the embrace of the vanguard of neoliberalism – the US.
But the confusions are legion – the term ‘working class’, for instance is often used as a totem that loses any clear definition in relation to 21st century society. The result is a naivety that conversely rejects about 50% of the support necessary for victory on the basis that it is ‘middle class’.
Some sections of the left currently labour under the impression that ramping up the ‘Panic!’ rhetoric of the MSM and establishment in relation to Covid-19 is somehow an effective way of putting one over on the Tories and their wider health policies. The thought of the wider consequences of such hyperbole doesn’t come into it – despite direct knowledge of the need for long spoons in dealing with MSM narratives.
And then – the key issue. Although the emergence of Corbyn as leader showed what can be done through a focus on the grass roots, a common response to the dismaying resurgence of the right-wing and the place-holders has led to many on the ‘left’ simply taking bat and ball home whilst muttering about a ‘new party’ – despite the unpropitious record on that front.
Need I mention ‘Left Slates’ for NEC elections?
When the left stops participating in circular firing squads will there might be at least a chance of turning things around.