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Sunday 9 August 2015

Corbyn campaign

Letter published in News and Star

The Labour party establishment just can’t understand the enthusiasm for Jeremy Corbyn’s socialist policies. They claim that the British people support globalisation, cuts to jobs, services and living standards, privatisation and attacking the welfare state. They say that Labour lost the election because it was too different from the Tories, therefore it has to become even more like the Tories.

They ignore their wipeout in their traditional heartlands of Scotland, where their working class bedrock shifted to a party claiming to be anti-cuts, anti-Trident and further left. But a poll published in the Independent this week shows that the public are much farther left than Labour, with a majority agreeing with Corbyn on the following issues (figures exclude “don’t knows”): rail nationalisation (60% for, 20% against); for a 75% tax rate on incomes over £1m (56-31);  banning nuclear weapons (64-21); rent controls on landlords (59-7); for a legal (real) living wage (60-31); scrap tuition fees (49-31); condemn the Iraq war (43-37); and to oppose bombing Syria (60-24).

In other words, it’s not the public that are subservient to the rich and powerful, it’s Burnham, Cooper and Kendal. But now Blair has shown the true face of the Labour machine, admitting “I wouldn’t want to win [a general election] on an old-fashioned leftist platform. Even if I thought it was the route to victory, I wouldn’t take it.” How disloyal is that? This traitor would rather see the Tories win again than his own party! Why shouldn’t he be expelled instead of real socialists?

The Socialist Party wishes Jeremy Corbyn well. But win or lose, he’ll need to unite the whole left and the unions against inevitable attacks by the Labour right, to build a real socialist party for workers. Anyone interested in this is welcome to attend our meetings every Monday at 7pm in Club Britannia, Lowther St.

Brent Kennedy,

Carlisle Socialist Party

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