We publish here a letter by Socialist Appeal supporter Luke Wilson, who responds to the calls by the prominent Guardian journalist, Owen Jones, for Corbyn to stand down. Instead of demanding compromise and retreat, Jones – an influential figure on the Left – should be calling for Corbyn to go on the offensive against the Blairites and the Tories.
After months of equivocation, prominent activist and Guardian journalist Owen Jones has finally called for Jeremy Corbyn to step down. This has prompted something of a backlash amongst a layer of Corbyn’s supporters, prompting Jones to declare a moratorium on social media activity. (How long this actually lasts is anyone’s guess.)
Responding to Labour’s disappointing by-election defeat in Copeland, and citing ‘catastrophic’ polling which has the Tories in a double-digit lead, Jones argues that Corbyn is leading Labour to the kind of electoral defeat that will push the left into the political margins for a generation.
Whilst I completely condemn the sort of vile personal abuse that sadly abounds on the internet, Jones should not be surprised that his motives are called into question by those who rather see this leading figure of the Left use his relatively privileged position to push the movement forwards, rather than spread demoralisation and sow illusions in the honesty of the Blairites.
The renowned author’s solution seems simple enough. “If Corbyn decides he is unable to confront the multiple existential crises enveloping Labour,” Jones argues, “Then an agreement should be struck where he can stand down in exchange for the guarantee of an MP from the new generation on the ballot paper who is committed to the policies that inspired Corbyn’s supporters in the first place. It is up to both Corbyn and the parliamentary Labour party. They should both be aware that history is a savage judge.”
In other words, a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ between the Corbyn movement and the Blairites of the PLP, where the latter would promise upon their honour to lend their nominations to a second left-wing challenger. Given that the right spent the last leadership election trying to keep Corbyn off the ballot paper by an array of underhand methods, it seems at best unlikely that they might this time pass up the opportunity to regain control of the Party.
As a Marxist, I am far from uncritical of Corbyn, primarily criticising his compromises with the right wing that have allowed them to paralyse the Party, leading to the sorry polling Jones describes. But his solution is to offer more compromise, further concessions, in the hope that the honourable ladies and gentlemen of the PLP will reciprocate. But if Corbyn goes now, there will be no such olive branch. They will use the opportunity to crush the Left, as they would rather destroy the Party than see a government elected that threatens their privileges. They are the political representatives of the billionaire class, every bit as much as the Tories.
Critics of Corbyn who claim to be on the Left should propose a way forward for the movement. Jones’ suggestion is instead to suggest a full-scale retreat. Left-wing critics who sow illusions in the good faith of the PLP are, consciously or not, siding with the billionaire class and its representatives on the right of the Party. Owen Jones is one of the few self-described socialists with a prominent platform in the capitalist press, a platform which he now frequently uses to attack Corbyn and encourage retreat and compromise.
Instead, I suggest a rather different approach: we need to democratise the Party from top to bottom, removing the dead hand of the Blairite bureaucracy and opening it up to its membership. The so-called ‘McDonnell amendment’, which would lower the threshold of MPs nominations required to get a leadership candidate onto the ballot paper, is a step that would remove the PLP’s grossly undemocratic monopoly on who gets to stand.
The Labour Left must organise to get left-wing delegates elected to conference, where such motions can be passed. We must also push to deselect the right-wing MPs who have paralysed the Party, both through the existing ‘trigger ballot’ and a campaign for mandatory reselection. Most critically, we need to put forward a bold socialist programme, which will take on the parasitic bankers, rip-off landlords and profiteering bosses who have grown fat at our expense.
