Weissman writes: "Who'd a thunk it? In the good old USA, Senator Bernie
Sanders makes a surprisingly credible run for the Democratic Party's
presidential nomination despite calling himself 'a democratic socialist.'
But in supposedly sensible Britain, the Labour Party - which you may
remember as socialist - now tears itself apart because someone who really
is, a long-time but little-known backbench MP named Jeremy Corbyn, is
looking in the latest polls like he's heading for a landslide victory in the
race to become party leader."
Jeremy Corbyn. (photo: unknown)
Can Bernie and Jeremy Rekindle the Socialist Flame?
By Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News
18 August 15
Whod a thunk it? In the good old USA, Senator Bernie Sanders makes a
surprisingly credible run for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination
despite calling himself a democratic socialist. But in supposedly sensible
Britain, the Labour Party which you may remember as socialist now tears
itself apart because someone who really is, a long-time but little-known
backbench MP named Jeremy Corbyn, is looking in the latest polls like hes
heading for a landslide victory in the race to become party leader.
The Guardian, whose politics you may also have misread from its courageous
coverage of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, called anti-socialist
Labourites to action on Thursday, running a must-read opinion piece by no
less than former prime minister Tony Blair. Even if you hate me, please
dont take Labour over the cliff edge, read the headline. If Jeremy Corbyn
becomes leader, the party wont just face defeat but annihilation. Stop him
before its too late.
The Labour party is in danger more mortal today than at any point in the
over 100 years of its existence, wrote Blair. The leadership election has
turned into something far more significant than who is the next leader. It
is now about whether Labour remains a party of government rather than just
a party of protest.
What is Corbyns sin? That he refuses to accept any part of the Tory-imposed
austerity that destroys growth, kills jobs, runs down public services,
slashes the welfare state, sells off public assets, and gives tax cuts to
the wealthiest.
Even worse, he has a solid plan to end the entire nightmare. Like former
finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in Greece, Corbyn offers the mainstream
anti-austerity thinking of John Maynard Keynes and of Swedish socialists
around Gunnar Myrdal, from whom a younger Bernie Sanders learned. When times
are bad, borrow or even print money to grow the economy and create good jobs
on which working people can live. When good times return, pay back what you
borrowed, taking a good chunk of what you need from the people with income
and wealth to spare.
This is the beginning but only the beginning of what modern socialism
should look like, and Corbyn spells it out in an 8-page pamphlet you can
read for yourself. Hundreds of thousands of Brits are now joining the Labour
Party to support this kind of thinking. Many are young and engaging in
politics for the first time, and they prefer his straight-talk to the
polished sound-bites of the robotic politicians running against him. He
talks like a human being, about things that are real, the Guardian itself
admitted. Or, as humorist Andy Borowitz said of Bernie Sanders, Corbyn is
gaining legions of new admirers by shamelessly pandering to voters who want
to hear the truth.
Blair and his camp-followers cannot deny the enthusiasm. But they blithely
dismiss Corbyn as yesterdays man wrapped in a left-wing comfort blanket
singing Well keep the red flag flying here. They grossly misrepresent his
policies as some know-nothing return to old-fashioned state socialism. And,
like vintage red-baiters, they dismiss many of his supporters as part of
some grand conspiracy, fueled in part by the big unions who he sees in
the grip of the hard left.
Clearly, some of the new members need vetting, since even the Daily
Telegraph urged conservatives to join Labour just to vote in someone they
think out-of-touch and unelectable. But, from most reports, the bulk of
Corbyns support seems real and enthusiastic. Is it enough to win a general
election five years from now? No one knows, and it isnt even clear that the
66-year-old Corbyn wants to run. His interest is policy, and his policy can
both work and win elections, which is something that was not true of Ed
Milibands less than full-hearted opposition to austerity.
If Blair and his supporters dont get their way, the danger is that they
will split the Labour Party, as an earlier right-wing faction did in 1981,
creating the Social Democratic Party (SDP), most of which later merged with
the Liberals. Thats clearly not a threat that will stop Corbyn, who fought
Blair every step of the way on Iraq. Nor will it stop Corbyns supporters,
who have come to see Blair and his New Labour for what they were and are.
Buying into the neo-liberal economics embraced by Ronald Reagan, Margaret
Thatcher, François Mitterrand, and Bill Clinton, Blair & Co. went into
business with business, the banks, and the hedge funds. They privatized much
of the National Health Service, wrecking what had been Labours stellar
achievement and demoralizing doctors, nurses, and even administrators around
the country. New Labour similarly went along with charter-type academies,
privatizing a large chunk of public education and demoralizing educators.
They went along with the disastrous denationalization of the British
railways that John Major had pushed through. And they rebranded Labour as
Tory Lite. We do what they do, but we do it better and with more heart.
With Blair or without, it wont work this time.
One final note: In my next column, I will look at one of the many
misrepresentations of Corbyns thinking, that he has vowed to bring back the
British coal industry. Stay tuned.
________________________________________
A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly
Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a
magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France,
where he is researching a new book, "Big Money and the Corporate State: How
Global Banks, Corporations, and Speculators Rule and How to Nonviolently
Break Their Hold."
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Jeremy Corbyn. (photo: unknown)
http://readersupportednews.org/http://readersupportednews.org/
Can Bernie and Jeremy Rekindle the Socialist Flame?
By Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News
18 August 15
hod a thunk it? In the good old USA, Senator Bernie Sanders makes a
surprisingly credible run for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination
despite calling himself a democratic socialist. But in supposedly sensible
Britain, the Labour Party which you may remember as socialist now tears
itself apart because someone who really is, a long-time but little-known
backbench MP named Jeremy Corbyn, is looking in the latest polls like hes
heading for a landslide victory in the race to become party leader.
The Guardian, whose politics you may also have misread from its courageous
coverage of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, called anti-socialist
Labourites to action on Thursday, running a must-read opinion piece by no
less than former prime minister Tony Blair. Even if you hate me, please
dont take Labour over the cliff edge, read the headline. If Jeremy Corbyn
becomes leader, the party wont just face defeat but annihilation. Stop him
before its too late.
The Labour party is in danger more mortal today than at any point in the
over 100 years of its existence, wrote Blair. The leadership election has
turned into something far more significant than who is the next leader. It
is now about whether Labour remains a party of government rather than just
a party of protest.
What is Corbyns sin? That he refuses to accept any part of the Tory-imposed
austerity that destroys growth, kills jobs, runs down public services,
slashes the welfare state, sells off public assets, and gives tax cuts to
the wealthiest.
Even worse, he has a solid plan to end the entire nightmare. Like former
finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in Greece, Corbyn offers the mainstream
anti-austerity thinking of John Maynard Keynes and of Swedish socialists
around Gunnar Myrdal, from whom a younger Bernie Sanders learned. When times
are bad, borrow or even print money to grow the economy and create good jobs
on which working people can live. When good times return, pay back what you
borrowed, taking a good chunk of what you need from the people with income
and wealth to spare.
This is the beginning but only the beginning of what modern socialism
should look like, and Corbyn spells it out in an 8-page pamphlet you can
read for yourself. Hundreds of thousands of Brits are now joining the Labour
Party to support this kind of thinking. Many are young and engaging in
politics for the first time, and they prefer his straight-talk to the
polished sound-bites of the robotic politicians running against him. He
talks like a human being, about things that are real, the Guardian itself
admitted. Or, as humorist Andy Borowitz said of Bernie Sanders, Corbyn is
gaining legions of new admirers by shamelessly pandering to voters who want
to hear the truth.
Blair and his camp-followers cannot deny the enthusiasm. But they blithely
dismiss Corbyn as yesterdays man wrapped in a left-wing comfort blanket
singing Well keep the red flag flying here. They grossly misrepresent his
policies as some know-nothing return to old-fashioned state socialism. And,
like vintage red-baiters, they dismiss many of his supporters as part of
some grand conspiracy, fueled in part by the big unions who he sees in
the grip of the hard left.
Clearly, some of the new members need vetting, since even the Daily
Telegraph urged conservatives to join Labour just to vote in someone they
think out-of-touch and unelectable. But, from most reports, the bulk of
Corbyns support seems real and enthusiastic. Is it enough to win a general
election five years from now? No one knows, and it isnt even clear that the
66-year-old Corbyn wants to run. His interest is policy, and his policy can
both work and win elections, which is something that was not true of Ed
Milibands less than full-hearted opposition to austerity.
If Blair and his supporters dont get their way, the danger is that they
will split the Labour Party, as an earlier right-wing faction did in 1981,
creating the Social Democratic Party (SDP), most of which later merged with
the Liberals. Thats clearly not a threat that will stop Corbyn, who fought
Blair every step of the way on Iraq. Nor will it stop Corbyns supporters,
who have come to see Blair and his New Labour for what they were and are.
Buying into the neo-liberal economics embraced by Ronald Reagan, Margaret
Thatcher, François Mitterrand, and Bill Clinton, Blair & Co. went into
business with business, the banks, and the hedge funds. They privatized much
of the National Health Service, wrecking what had been Labours stellar
achievement and demoralizing doctors, nurses, and even administrators around
the country. New Labour similarly went along with charter-type academies,
privatizing a large chunk of public education and demoralizing educators.
They went along with the disastrous denationalization of the British
railways that John Major had pushed through. And they rebranded Labour as
Tory Lite. We do what they do, but we do it better and with more heart.
With Blair or without, it wont work this time.
One final note: In my next column, I will look at one of the many
misrepresentations of Corbyns thinking, that he has vowed to bring back the
British coal industry. Stay tuned.
A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly
Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a
magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France,
where he is researching a new book, "Big Money and the Corporate State: How
Global Banks, Corporations, and Speculators Rule and How to Nonviolently
Break Their Hold."
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
