Although not unexpected, this is really big new for Britain.
At One America News, "
Marx Admirer Corbyn Elected UK Opposition Labour Leader."
Corbyn's indeed a "Marx admirer."
Shoot, he's a freakin' Marxist. See the Express UK, "
Labour despair as Corbyn refuses to deny being Marxist."
Well, he was elected in a landslide vote today as the next leader of British Labour. See the Guardian UK, via Memeorandum, "
Jeremy Corbyn wins Labour leadership race in stunning victory - live updates," and at the New York Times, "
With Jeremy Corbyn Elected as New Leader, Britain's Labour Party Takes a Hard Left Turn."
If you're not already, you should be following
Louise Mensch on Twitter, who's the absolutely essential source on all things British politics. She's got a post up at her blog as well, "
Corbyn and Why Labour Lose."
And then check this don't-miss essay from Robert Colvile, at Politico, "
Quasi-Communist Corbyn":
Now aged 66, Corbyn was first elected to parliament in 1983. That year, Labour stood on a far-left platform promising unilateral nuclear disarmament and the nationalization of swathes of British industry. It was described by one of its own MPs as “the longest suicide note in history.”
Over the next decade, Labour embarked on a gruelling march back toward the center ground. That reached its apogee in 1994, when Tony Blair rebranded the party as “New Labour” and declared it the natural home of the aspiring middle class. His MPs shaved off their beards, stopped singing “The Red Flag,” revoked their symbolic commitment to “the common ownership of the means of production” and promised not to raise taxes. The result was three landslide victories.
A handful of MPs, however, kept both their beards and their beliefs — chief among them Jeremy Corbyn. And where Miliband promised in 2010 to “turn the page” on New Labour, Corbyn wants to go back and tear out the entire chapter.
The result is a policy platform which makes Hillary Clinton look like Grover Norquist. Corbyn would nationalize the railways, most of the energy companies and at least one of the banks. He would abandon austerity, raise taxes on the rich and force the Bank of England to print money to pay for houses, railways and wind farms. He would return schools to state control (undoing Britain’s version of the charter school program, set up under Blair). He would slash defense spending and abolish Britain’s nuclear deterrent. He might bring in a “maximum wage” to cap executive pay, or reopen the coal mines, or withdraw from NATO.
Then there are his views on foreign policy. Corbyn is one of those Europeans who blames the West for the bulk of the world’s evils — and who therefore believes that anyone who hates America or Britain or Israel probably has something going for them. He befriends Venezuela, Bolivia, Russia, Iran, Palestine, Hamas, Hezbollah. He blames the Ukraine crisis on NATO. He befriended Sinn Féin, the IRA’s political wing, even as it was blowing up British civilians. He opposed the Falklands, Kosovo, the first Gulf War and the invasion of Afghanistan — and, of course, Iraq. He was recently asked if there were any circumstances under which he would deploy British troops abroad. “I am sure there are some,” he replied. “But I can’t think of them at the moment.”
What does all this mean for Labour’s future? Some people have argued that Corbyn will need to make some accommodation with his enemies. He has, indeed, spoken of the need for unity and inclusiveness. But at the same time, he is not a man who compromises on his beliefs. His first wife went five years without a date — his evenings were devoted to party meetings or photocopying at headquarters. His second left him because he insisted on sending their son to the (appalling) school allotted to him by the state.
He is also not alone. A central plank of his platform is that the party needs “real democracy” — which means MPs doing what they are told by members, as in the old days. Some of his allies, meanwhile, have talked darkly of the need to de-select MPs who fail to fall into line. His opponents fear that even if Corbyn loses the next election (or is turfed out before then), he will use his control of the party machine to wrench their party irrevocably to the left...
That leadership style, where MPs do "what they are told" by party members, is the "vanguard" party model that Vladimir Lenin deployed as the Bolshevik Party took power in Russia in 1917.
Make no mistake. Corbyn's a communist. He's the real dyed-in-the-wool (red) thing.
Photo Credit:
Wikimedia Commons.
