When you get to my age getting up in the morning means creaking joints and pains here and there. But this morning it also came with me singing to myself. Our two dogs were happy too as they could see I was in a good mood. The cause of this exuberance? I had just heard that Jeremy Corbyn the left candidate for leader of the British Labor party had won in a landslide. He defeated his other main rivals gaining more than all their votes combined. The candidate supported by the degenerate war criminal Blair came last. That was just the icing on the cake. Blair should now be arrested and charged with war crimes.
Corbyn's victory came after the most vicious political and personal campaign against him. The entire mass media opposed him, all the capitalist institutions opposed him, practically everyone of the other Labor Party leaders opposed him, the best known figures in the leadership of the Labor Party tried to blackmail the Party members by saying he could never win an election, that they would not serve with him, tens of thousands of Party members had their membership withdrawn if it was thought they would vote for Corbyn, but still he won in a landslide. This is a great victory and Jeremy Corby must be congratulated.
However the most important conclusion that has to be drawn from this victory is that the overwhelming majority of the British working and middle class have had it with the extreme right wing so-called austerity policies of successive British governments. (They are not austere for the rich) Corbyn campaigned for more government spending not less, for renationalization of sectors such as rail and health, campaigned against nuclear weapons and NATO. According to the lying capitalist media these are the death knell for any politician. It was not the case here. Corbyn won.
So what will happen now. The big business class in Britain and elsewhere will try everything they can get away with to crush Corbyn. It is years to the next election but they will get to work right away. The fifth columnists in the Labor Party after saying all through the campaign they would not serve under his leadership are now lining up to bootlick the new leader and offer their services. Their "services" are to get into his cabinet and undermine him, to sabotage him. The mass media and all the institutions of capitalism in Britain and internationally will get on board. If Corbyn moves seriously to withdraw from NATO or to remove the nuclear weapons from Scotland then it could not be ruled out that he would meet with an "accident." He should stay far away from any small plane trips.
The task now for activists and those who want to end the catastrophe of capitalism, who want to build a socialist Britain and a socialist world is to organize around the victory of Corbyn. Join and build the trade unions and democratize these organizations. Join and build the Labor Party and democratize this organization. Develop and democratize the links between the trade unions and the Labor Party. Build committees of struggle in every workplace, every community, every school and college. Link these committees together into a network of struggle. Build trade unions in the armed forces, democratize the armed forces and make them accountable to the working people of Britain not to the dictatorship of the British monarchy.
This drive to organize should be based on an alternative society and economy. This would center around taking the British economy out of private hands, this would mean taking into public ownership under workers management and control the approximate 500 corporations which dominate the British economy and on this basis developing a democratic socialist plan of production, distribution and exchange. This is essential if the economy is to serve the needs of the population and not the demands of the profit addicted capitalist class.
Let us celebrate this victory for Corbyn. But let us also see that it is only a first step. Our enemies are already preparing to nullify this victory either through sabotaging from within or confronting and beating him down from without. Corbyn's victory shows there are hundreds or thousands of British workers and youth who want a left wing, a socialist, alternative. This is what has to now be built.
Finally a word on sectarianism. There will be the many self styled revolutionary groups who, on seeing Corbyn's victory will immediately jump to point out his weaknesses and faults and insufficiently thought out revolutionary strategy. And they are not totally wrong. But timing is essential in politics and struggle. Now is the time to put the emphasis on building a mass alternative out of the movement that gave Corbyn his victory. Yes simultaneously point out the dangers that lie ahead and the steps that have to be taken. Yes build a mass democratic socialist alternative out of thisvote for Corbyn but also and in a non sectarian manner build within this a revolutionary left current which as the class struggle gets more intense would have the chance of being able to build a mass revolutionary force in Britain that could end capitalism in that country and replace it with democratic socialism and spread this revolutionary socialist alternative internationally.
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