The insurgent mass movement that boosted Jeremy Corbyn into the position of Leader of the British Labour Party is not resting on its laurels. The dynamic new movement swiftly followed up Corbyn’s landslide election victory with new initiatives aimed at transforming the party into a powerful force against austerity, racism and war.
The Labour Party was originally founded in 1900 to defend workers’ interests but then fell under the influence of increasingly opportunist and pro-imperialist (mis)leaders—culminating with the infamous and now widely hated Tony Blair.
Corbyn, in contrast, is a veteran leader of the Labour Party’s left wing, long-serving Labour MP, and former union leader. He advocates major reforms to benefit workers and their allies, including re-nationalizing public utilities and the railways, abolishing university tuition fees and restoring student grants, getting out of NATO and scrapping Britain’s nuclear weapons program, increasing public investment in infrastructure and renewable energy projects, and reversing cuts to public sector and welfare funding made since 2010. He is a member of several progressive organizations including the Socialist Campaign Group (a left-wing grouping of Labour Party MPs), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Stop the War Coalition. He served as chair of the latter united-front coalition until this past September.
Corbyn was a featured speaker on Jan. 18, 2003, at the massive march and rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people in opposition to the imminent U.S.-British invasion and occupation of Iraq, organized by the ANSWER Coalition in Washington, D.C. He has been a consistent champion of Palestinian rights.
Huge mobilization in Manchester
The People’s Assembly, a broad-based, united-front coalition that includes major unions and very much a part of the insurgent movement, organized a week of militant action Oct. 2-7 in Manchester to protest at the Conservative (Tory) Party Conference taking place there. Organizers estimated that 100,000 people from all over Britain marched on Sunday, Oct. 4. Corbyn, who helped initiate the People’s Assemby in 2013, was a featured speaker at “The People’s Post” rally the following evening. (See here for a series of inspiring video reports provided by real media and here for press reports on the mobilization.)
Numerous meetings on the other days of the mobilization discussed, educated on, and organized around key issues facing the movement. These included, according to the People’s Assembly website, “Privatisation, Save our NHS [National Health Service], Climate Change, Education, TTIP [Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership] , Europe, alternatives to austerity, Welfare not Warfare, Stand up to Racism, Faith Against Austerity, Hands off our Unions, and more.”
‘Meet Momentum’
The week of action was clearly a big success and prepared the way for another step forward. That was made public the very next day, Oct. 8, in an article by left-wing Labour MP Clive Lewis posted on NewStatesman.com. Entitled “Meet Momentum: the next step in the transformation of our politics,” the article explained the need for another initiative:
“Be under no illusion—the powerful, the exploiters, the excessively wealthy will not pull their punches. By standing up to them, both Jeremy and the Labour Party will face an unparalleled assault that will make what happened to [former Labour Party Leader] Ed Miliband pale into insignificance.
“That’s why the need for a social movement to work for a more democratic, equal and decent society inside and outside the Labour Party couldn’t be greater. One that can help make the political space necessary for the new ideas we so badly need. The array of vested interests confronting us cannot be taken on by one man or even a single political party in Westminster. Instead, we need a bigger, broader, deeper alliance that can confront such powerful, vested interests.
“That’s why today, four weeks after ballots closed in the Labour leadership election, I’m so very pleased to announce the launch of Momentum.
“Momentum is a grassroots network arising out of, and following on from, the Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader campaign.”
Further details on this new mass organization and what it plans to accomplish can be found on its new website.
Threats and warnings
The warning by Lewis that “the powerful, the exploiters, the excessively wealthy” would not pull their punches had already been shown to be no exaggeration. Immediately after Corbyn’s election, a top general in Britain’s military brazenly threatened a coup if a majority of British voters were to opt for a Labour government under Corbyn. “The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country,” the unnamed general said, “and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that. You can’t put a maverick in charge of a country’s security.” (Sunday Times, Sept. 20)
Many pro-imperialist politicians and pundits have also weighed in, predicting utter disaster for the Labour Party and accusing Corbyn of preparing a purge. Tony Blair went so far as to predict complete “annihilation” of the Labour Party under Corbyn. An Oct. 13 New York Times article reported major divisions: “Feuding has broken out within the party over whether Britain should consider military intervention in Syria, which Mr. Corbyn opposes, and over his pledge never to use the country’s nuclear deterrent.”
These kinds of responses are to be expected in reaction to a rising movement for basic social change in an imperialist country that is long past its shelf life and in irreversible decline. For our part, we in the Party for Socialism and Liberation applaud the efforts of Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters—together with the dynamic mass movement he has helped to spark—to shake up British politics, build a broad, working-class-led anti-monopoly/anti-imperialist coalition, and lay the basis for urgently needed revolutionary change.
