We publish here a letter from Ben Gliniecki, a Labour Party member and Socialist Appeal supporter, who responds to a comment from another London Young Labour member and Jeremy Corbyn supporter that “it’s the taking part that counts”. Far from being unelectable, Ben argues, with a bold socialist programme, Corbyn could make Labour a pole of attraction to workers and youth across Britain.
We publish here a letter from Ben Gliniecki, a Labour Party member and Socialist Appeal supporter, who responds to a comment from another London Young Labour member and Jeremy Corbyn supporter that “it’s the taking part that counts”. Far from being unelectable, Ben argues, with a bold socialist programme, Corbyn could make Labour a pole of attraction to workers and youth across Britain.
[Ben’s letter was originally published on the London Young Labour blog]
We are living at a time when politics and the economy, not just in Britain but internationally, appear to many people to be unfit for purpose. There is austerity all over the world being imposed by governments of all political shades; and at the same time the 1% are getting ever richer. Just 24% of people voted for the Tories at the last election and yet they have a (seemingly) stronger government than what they had previously. The system is broken and people are angry about it.
In such circumstances it’s not surprising, and it’s certainly very welcome, that Jeremy Corbyn has managed to pick up the support that he has in a bid for the leadership of the Labour Party. Like many others, I am fully behind Corbyn in this campaign because he is giving some expression to the mood of anger and the desire for change that exists among millions of people in Britain at the moment.
In this leadership race Corbyn is viewed as an outsider – an anti-establishment candidate who has consistently opposed war and austerity. This is why he has enthusiastic support among many young people, including large numbers who have been turned off by the Blairite careerism that has infected the Party for years. It is these anti-establishment, anti-status quo credentials that those of us campaigning for Corbyn should emphasise because – as with Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece and even the SNP in Scotland -people are looking for something to challenge this broken system in a fundamental way, not something that seeks to patch it up.
In fact, my only criticism of the Corbyn campaign so far is that is hasn’t been radical enough. I think if Corbyn pointed out that war and austerity are the inevitable product of an economic system based on greed and profit, then he would connect even more with those people who want to really hit back against the Tories and the system they represent. On my membership card it says I’m a member of a democratic socialist party, so I think Corbyn should put forward a clear anti-capitalist, socialist programme because this would give conscious expression to the anger that a lot of people feel towards the system right now.
For this reason I disagree with my fellow Corbyn-supporter Rhea Wolfson about what’s important when it comes to this Labour leadership race. In her post ‘It’s the taking part that counts’ she writes that Labour winning the 2020 election is not only different to, but can actually be in contradiction with, building a powerful labour movement. On the contrary, I think these are one and the same thing.
If Labour is to avoid a repeat of the defeat at the 2015 general election it will be thanks to an energetic working class that genuinely believes that the Party offers an alternative to austerity, war and crisis. Such enthusiasm for Labour among workers and youth has been conspicuously absent for quite a long time. However it can be regained by giving practical support and political leadership to ordinary people fighting the Tories, the bosses and the system as a whole. Agitating for and supporting strike action, refusing to implement cuts at local council level, and other such action would galvanise the labour movement and therefore pave the way for an electoral victory for Labour.
Rhea says she believes “winning 2020 should not be the priority of the Labour Party” and later that “this belief has led me to back Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader”. Personally I don’t think this is a very strong argument to vote for Corbyn as leader, given that it paints him as the candidate least likely to lead the Party to victory.
In fact, I think this is a concession to the right-wing media lies that a left party can’t win elections. We only need to look at Scotland and the SNP’s election-winning left rhetoric, or even Corbyn’s own constituency of Islington North – where his left credentials gave him an even larger majority at the last election than he had already – to disprove such nonsense. At a time when the working class is more desperate than ever to hit back at the establishment, we have to be very firm in combatting the lie that socialist ideas do not have the potential to be enormously popular. We can’t make any concessions on this point.
Rhea’s argument seems quite defeatist. The 2015 election is only just over, and yet Labour activists are already saying that the Party’s priority isn’t to win the next election. Does this mean we’re happy for the Tories to rule until 2025? Does that mean we’re not going to be able to put an end to austerity for another decade? Grassroots activism is an essential part of our politics, and I strongly agree with Rhea that it has been ignored by the Party in a scandalous way for a long time. But surely the overall aim has to be to win political power so that we can implement the socialist policies for which we’ve been campaigning at grassroots level?
I actually can’t think of a more certain way to demoralise Labour Party activists and supporters, as well as the labour movement as a whole, than by accepting another ten years of the Tories in government before we even begin the fight.
Fundamentally I think what’s needed are bold socialist ideas that explain that the cause of austerity and war is capitalism. Such ideas, if put forward by the Labour Party in a clear and coherent way, would give people something to be optimistic about. We could provide a radical plan with which to guide our fight against the Tories and austerity, and for a fundamental transformation of society. This is what people are looking for today. I am supporting Corbyn because, albeit in a watered down way, he is trying to express some of these ideas. I appeal to everyone, inside and outside the Party, to join me in backing Corbyn and fighting for socialism.
