Is Labour Finally Coming Together to Fight the Tories?

In a shocking turn of events it seems the unthinkable has finally happened. Perhaps it’s too good to be true, but it seems most of the rifts within Labour are starting to close up, and many of those who once aimed their cannons at Corbyn are now aiming them directly at Theresa May’s Tory government. A sizeable amount of the PLP seems to have united behind Corbyn, and is taking the fight to the Tories (finally). Jeremy Corbyn – finally – has a full shadow cabinet that’s filled with familiar faces who stepped up to the plate when many MP’s resigned from the shadow cabinet, such as Angela Rayner who remains as Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Richard Burgon who remains as Shadow Justice Secretary, but is also filled with MP’s who were part of the mass resignation but have since accepted Corbyn won re-election against Owen Smith and have come back to the front bench to help fight the Tories and put an end to the divisions within Labour, such as Keir Starmer who’s now the Shadow Brexit Minister, and Nia Griffith who replaced Clive Lewis as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence upon him being moved to his new role as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. There was also more than enough MP’s for a few extra positions, including the highly anticipated return of the Shadow Minister for Mental Health position filled by Barbara Keeley the MP for Worsley and Eccles South. Corbyn also was able to make history by creating the most diverse shadow cabinet (or even cabinet) of all time after a particularly Xenophobic Tory conference, with many BAME shadow ministers & junior shadow ministers, including Clive Lewis, Shami Chakrabarti, Dawn Butler, Diane Abbott, Chi Onwurah, and Kate Osamor. As-well as making history with the biggest BAME representation on a shadow cabinet or cabinet, he also filled the shadow cabinet full of Northern MP’s to which he joked he’d now made his own Northern Powerhouse.

There’s been the usual criticism from the press as-well as the usual suspects within the PLP, such as Jess Phillips accusing Corbyn of attending an SWP event – Stand Up To Racism – which turns out isn’t an SWP event at all. Sure, there’s 1 or 2 SWP members who run it, as-well as SWP speakers, but there’s also Labour MP’s who chair it as-well, and the event actually grew out from “United Against Fascism” and not the Socialist Workers Party, despite an article from Writers of Colour, and criticism from Owen Jones, Aaron Bastani and a few others. Now if Corbyn had actually attended an SWP event – and not just an event where the SWP happen to be – then I’d be appalled, of course; however, it was the usual distortions of the truth we’ve come to expect over the past year, with some who normally point out these distortions taking part in creating them. Also, there was an attempt by Luke Akehurst and Richard Angell to stop Johnathan Ashworth – who’d been urged to resign off the NEC to finely balance it and restore some order after the shenanigans which took place at Labour Conference – from resigning. Barry Gardiner said what we all wanted to say when he told Richard that he was trying to cause trouble with his “#UnityNotUniformity” campaign to keep the NEC tipped in favour of the “moderates” after duping conference with promise of “autonomy” for Scottish Labour and Welsh Labour by having a Scottish rep and a Welsh rep on the Labour NEC which was later revealed by Akehurst to be nothing more than a power grab in favour of the so-called “moderates”. The proceedings at conference were rigged with speakers against the NEC package being refused speaking time, as-well as calls for a card vote – which is the rules – being ignored by the chair. Also prior to conference a significant number of Corbynite delegates were purged in an attempt to not only gerrymander the leadership election in hope of tipping the election in favour of Owen Smith, but also to fix the conference as I just mentioned, which has since backfired. So, Luke Akehurst gloating that he won at Labour Conference must be feeling really pissed off, right now.

Despite the party being in much better shape than they were throughout the Summer Labour has an enormous challenge on its hands. The Tories – due to the Labour coup – are now 17 points ahead of Labour. It will be quite the mountain to climb to win the 2020 General Election, but right now Labour has an ocean of opportunities, with the Tories seemingly falling apart over Grammar Schools, Brexit, and now even some Tories starting to question the prime-minister and Jeremy Hunt on the NHS under-funding crisis. Perhaps the tables will soon turn? Who knows? We can only wait and see if Labour will hold together and start to become a credible opposition (without compromising on their principles like in the past), and whether or not the Tories – who seem to be falling apart – will actually fall apart or not. The next few months will be very interesting indeed. Labour must fight for us, not fight each other. Onward to 2020.

The Battle For Labour’s Soul, and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of ‘Unelectability’

Since Corbyn was elected in 2015, he’s faced – almost instantaneously – a wave of harsh criticism from those who call themselves “moderates” or “centrists”. These people openly express their disdain for left-wingers in the party who they call “hard left”, and conflate social-democrats and democratic-socialists with revolutionary socialist parties, such as the SWP. They take it one step further in their marginalising of left-wing party members by referring to themselves as the “soft left”, claiming anything beyond that is “too extreme”. To me it reeks of egotism, and a desire to shutdown debate and discourse left of centre. Those who refer to themselves as “centrist” supported things like Tony Blair’s Iraq war, didn’t have any qualms with him supporting PFI which is now wrecking our NHS with a little bit of help from the Tories defunding it, and they were and still are cheer leaders for Tory-lite austerity! As a matter of fact, they frequently attack the party’s new anti-austerity stance/direction, claiming it’s “not credible”. “We need some cuts”, they say. Do we really, or are you just convinced only your ideology – Neoliberalism – which created the 2008 market crash “works”?

The disdain for left-wingers in the party has always been there – even as far back as the party’s inception. There’s always been politicians or even leaders of Labour who’ve strongly disliked the left, as-well as those embarrassed to be called left. Even Clement Atlee who’s heralded as one of Labour’s most left-wing Labour leaders distanced himself from the left by calling himself “centre-left” and spoke of his hatred for the “hard left” which was much more to the left than the so-called “hard left” is today which is more-or-less yesterday’s “centre”. Today’s “centre” is much more to the right than it was back then. Things like a fully National Health Service today are shot down as “utopian” by so-called “liberals” who insist we need some level of privatisation in the NHS. Hell, just the mention of the word “renationalise” gets you a negative response from the “moderates”, “liberals”, “centrists”, “soft left” or whatever the fuck they call themselves. Within the Labour Party I consider them “centre-right” compared to the left-wing of the Labour, consisting of genuine non-coopted social-democrats and democratic-socialists, not Neoliberals who call themselves “socialist” or “social democrats” who don’t even believe in the principles of what they claim themselves to be. These so-called “moderate centrists” who call themselves social-democrats or even democratic socialists seem to hate it when actual social-democrats or democratic socialists are in a position of power beyond theirs. There’s also an air of paranoia amongst the “moderates” who’re convinced that the left-wing of the party has infiltrators who’re trying to “invade” the party. They’re convinced that the left-wing of Labour’s answer to Progress “Momentum” is a vehicle to bring revolutionary socialists and Communists in to the Labour Party to then invade it and take it over from the inside, and have even gone as far as suggesting Momentum’s the reincarnation of Militant because it begins with the letter “M”, which is absurd because Momentum’s politics are more akin to Scandinavian social democracy than revolutionary Trotskyism, and Owen Jones – who’s far from revolutionary – was the one who helped name Momentum Momentum, so the “M” doesn’t really stand for anything except “Momentum”. It’s not impossible that some people from the far-left have made their way in to Labour, but not nearly enough to start an “invasion”, unless 50 – 60+ people is your idea of an army, considering the overall membership of the party is around 500,000+.

It’s strongly evident from the hysteria towards Corbyn, his supporters and Momentum that it’s not a case of Labour’s left moving further left, but Labour’s right moving further right – so right in fact that some are able to sympathise more with Tories than they are left-wing Labour members. Blairites (who hate being called Blairites, and even went as far as making it a term of abuse) are convinced that the social-democrats and democratic socialists on Labour’s left are all secretly Militant Trotskyites. Only they – the “sensible centrists” can save us from these “evil left wing invaders” who want to do terrible things such as FORCE a living wage on us, campaign to END fracking, and redistribute wealth to the many, not the few. These people are afraid of change, they’re afraid of alternative ideas, they’re afraid of becoming irrelevant because they have no ideas, they’re also afraid of principles, because they’ve got none, and believe the only way to get in to power is to copy your opponents worst policies whilst throwing a bone to the left every now and then, hoping that they can get votes from every ideological group; however, it generally just results in their long-time, left-wing voters, supporters or members feeling disenfranchised and disillusioned, and some eventually leave. What happens next? The party continues to shift to the right, chasing after the Tories and their voters, which is how Labour ended up embracing AWFUL Tory policies, such as austerity. These unprincipled people have no limit as to how far they’ll go for a taste of power, and they don’t care who they have to steamroll over to get it as long as they can remain looking good in the public eye.

The ongoing battle for Labour’s soul which the right-wing insist must continue is doing nothing more than giving the Tories an easy time. Whilst the Tories outline their draconian, racist agenda, MP’s like Jess Phillips would rather attack Corbyn by accusing him of something such as misogyny like she did last night when Corbyn sacked Rosie Winterton as chief whip, replacing her with Nick Brown. Jess; however didn’t bother to retract her tweet after Corbyn appointed THE MOST DIVERSE shadow cabinet with 5 BAME women and men on the front bench; Shami Chakrabarti, Dawn Butler, Clive Lewis, Diane Abbott, and Kate Osamor. Despite creating the most diverse shadow cabinet ever, there’s no doubt Corbyn will still be accused of being misogynistic or racist by those who want him gone. They’ll still run to the right-wing press, they’ll still criticise him openly on Twitter rather than just trying to sort things out face to face, and as such they’ll just make Labour’s poll numbers tumble. These MP’s who say “Corbyn’s unelectable” go out of their way to make it so. The more they say it, the more they try to get rid of him rather than work with him to defeat Theresa May, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s almost as if they want Labour to lose in 2020 just to prove a point whilst damning everyone to a Tory government they could’ve prevented by being more cooperative rather than destructive. Of course when this happens they’ll just blame the left-wing of the party, but it’s not the left-wing of the party who called for a pointless vote of no confidence, who blamed Corbyn for Brexit when it was actually New Labour’s policies which assisted in creating the political climate for something such as a Brexit to happen, who insisted we had to waste our entire Summer with a stupid leadership contest, rather than fighting hard against Theresa May. No, that was the right-wing of the Labour Party – the wing that can do no wrong, the wing that’s always right, the wing that’s always the victim and never the victimiser, despite them exploiting victims of anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny and homophobia to get back at Corbynites. Many in those communities have spoken up urging those who weaponise their oppression to attack socialists to stop, but the right-wing of Labour don’t listen, and instead only listen to members of those communities who agree with them, ignoring progressive Pro-Corbyn liberal Zionist or anti-Zionist Jews, LGBTQ, women and men of colour (BAME) etc

There seems to be signs of this internal struggle coming to an end, though it’s hard to tell. Some MP’s who were formerly critical of Corbyn have rejoined his shadow cabinet, like Nia Griffith and Keir Starmer. It’s hard to tell if they’re on board, or if they’ll just all resign again, triggering another pointless vote of no confidence, and triggering another pointless leadership contest whilst we could be fighting the Tories who recently outlined a TERRIFYING plan for their vision of a Post-Brexit British future that’s reminiscent of Nazi Germany. I have a feeling this isn’t the end of the Labour war yet, and I have a bad feeling that the worst is yet to come. Will we see a Labour government in 2020? God, let’s hope so!

 

[Revised on October 7th, 2016]

From a Hardcore Hillary Supporter: It’s the Voters Fault, Not Hillary Clinton’s [SATIRE]

The fault is entirely the blame of the voters. Hillary Clinton despite her denigration of millennials calling them “basement dwellers”, despite her gaffe saying she’d raise taxes on the middle class, despite her questioning why she’s not 50 points ahead of Trump whilst having some of the lowest favourables of all time for a Democratic presidential candidate, despite her saying “let’s get back to the issues” after she threw out a Black Lives Matter protester who was exposing Hillary’s racist past calling young black kids “super-predators”, despite her cosying up to every neo-con on the planet and supporting every regime change war as-well as being the architect for the Libyan war which turned Libya in to a bastion for ISIS, despite her being chummy chummy with Wall Street who targeted PoC communities who she claims she wants to help, despite ‘championing LGBT rights’ after a poll told her it was politically expedient to do so after years of being a strong supporter of DOMA and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and despite many other things which I could go on about all day, it’s not her fault why she’s so unpopular and why she might lose to Donald Trump, but instead it’s the fault of the voters.

Don’t trust her? That’s your fault, not hers despite her flip-flopping on so many policies; I mean is she for the TPP after calling it the gold standard, or is she against the TPP when she suddenly came out and said she was? Which Hillary do we have, right now? Is the Hillary we have right now the one who says she’ll be a champion on climate change, or the one who sold fracking to the world? Is this the Hillary who says Donald Trump stands with dictators, or the one who actually stands with her dictators herself like the King of Saudi Arabia? Despite all this, though, it’s not the fault of Hillary Clinton why so many people couldn’t trust her as far as they could throw her, but instead it’s the fault of voters – particularly “entitled” millennials who just want an end to crippling student debt, who she’s now pandering to for votes, but most-likely will not live up to her “debt free college” plans. I mean she’s said so much in the past, but done so different as have many pivoting politicians who lie for votes then renege on their entire platform for something more corporate-friendly. That’s your fault, though, not hers.

Don’t like that she pushed fracking on the world, was a key architect in decimating the Middle East, is an ardent supporter of Israel despite their gross human rights abuses towards Palestinians whom she will not even acknowledge, is a friend of neo-cons like Henry Kissinger and formerly US president George W. Bush, is a person who’s friends with Wall Street and every big multinational, tax-evading corporation out there? How about the fact she was once on the board of Walmart which treats its employees like shit, not paying a proper decent wage, resulting in so many of their employees having to go on food stamps and receive subsidised housing? If you think any of this is Hillary’s fault, it’s your fault because her supporters said so. Don’t agree? Well, you’re just a stupid sore loser Bernie Bro who is probably working for Putin, or is secretly in love with Donald Trump, according to her supporters and surrogates.

I could go on all day about how it’s never Hillary’s fault, but unfortunately this blog post can only take so much glorious Hillary goodness! She can’t do no wrong! She’s innocent! She’s never wrong! It’s always a right-wing conspiracy, even when it’s not. She’s not corrupt, you’re just jealous. She’s not a neo-con, you’re just a Communist, and she’s not a warhawk, because only Republicans can be warhawks because the Democrats are infallible, and will always be so much better than that Jill Stein person who thinks cell phones will kill us with radiation. Where did I get that fact from? Hillarysupportersaysomereallystupidshit.com/ImWithHer

So, make sure you Vote Blue No Matter Who in November or else you’re a KGB Trump supporter who’s racist, white privileged, misogynistic, a Bernie Bro who’s a sore loser, and not a real left-winger. I’m with her, and you should be as-well, even if you don’t want to be – you must! A vote for anyone but Hillary is a vote for Trump, and not voting is also a vote for Trump. Hillary will make America greater, because America’s already great! Look at all those people who still can’t afford healthcare, look at how North Dakota are treating the Standing Rock Sioux against the DAPL pipeline, look at our wonderful and objective media that’s totally not propaganda at all etc America’s already great! Shut up if you don’t think so, and vote for Hillary!

In Defence of John McDonnell

John McDonnell – the shadow chancellor of Labour more commonly known to his supporters as “the people’s chancellor” – has done a fantastic job on Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. He’s moved the conversation away from “how much austerity should we apply” to “we shouldn’t apply any austerity at all”! He’s radically changed Labour’s economic strategy from its Blairite neoliberalism to something more akin to Scandinavian social-democracy; however, despite the great things he’s done he’s been under fire for a serious of gaffes he’s made as-well as things he’s done/said in the past. He was berated by media and the PLP for saying he was a “Marxist” (which I don’t see an issue with), he was attacked for speaking his mind on the coup by calling the plotters “fucking useless” after they had said much worse things, yet acted all innocent and were like, “How dare he?! He should be ashamed!”! He’s also frequently attacked for his past stance on Irish Republicanism, as-well, which was a much more complicated issue than the plotters would have you believe. Now, the plotters have gone a step further in their assault on John McDonnell and are now blackmailing Corbyn by saying if John’s not sacked, they won’t come back, which is beyond the pale!

How do I feel about this? Appalled. Yes, John’s said some controversial things at times, but so has at-least half of the plotters who want him gone. Jamie Reed made fun of an autistic person on Twitter by shouting, “PASS THE BACOFOIL!”, Wes Streeting claimed Shami Chakrabarti had been bribed in to “whitewashing” the anti-Semitism report, Mike Gapes retweeted an image someone made implying he was gunning down Corbynites in Vietnam etc Yet despite all this the right-wing of the party are shielded from blame and scrutiny by the media who instead focus all their time and energy on Corbynites, giving even the most bitter and hateful anti-Corbynites a free pass to do whatever the fuck they wish, without consequence.

Despite John’s gaffes he’s been a wonderful shadow chancellor. I do agree his mouth needs to reined in at times i.e when he called the plotters “fucking useless” (which wasn’t entirely untrue), but so should the mouths of those plotters who act is if they have halos above their heads. Either way, I think John should stay, and in my opinion his position as shadow chancellor is non-negotiable. He’s done a wonderful job, he’s built an economic strategy that will help all of us, and he’s nailed the final stake in to the coffin of Neoliberal Blairism. It’s no wonder the Blairites want him gone so bad! I stand with John McDonnell, and so should you!

It’s Time to Come Together, and Look Towards the Future, Not 1997

Summer’s well and truly over, and so is the recent Labour Leadership contest. Jeremy Corbyn steamrolled his opponent Owen Smith and increased his mandate from 59% in 2015 to 62% in 2016 – a 3% increase. Jeremy Corbyn ran a very positive campaign that focused on the issues whilst Owen Smith ran a much more negative campaign, and spent more time personally attacking Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters, instead of outlining his policies which were – most of the time – very watered-down versions of Jeremy Corbyn’s. You can’t beat the real thing, and Owen Smith as hard as he tried at times to be like Jeremy just wasn’t able to beat the real Jeremy Corbyn.

Despite Jeremy’s resounding victory, the most hard-line of plotters are refusing to come together for the country to take on the Tories and instead are putting their own self-interests above the interests of a nation that desperately wants rid of this toxic Tory government. MP’s like Alan Johnson have called for continued dissent against Corbyn, and infamous Blairite Luke Akehurst of Labour First – who once said he was proud of the Iraq war and said he didn’t agree with Chilcot – was unfortunately victorious at this year’s Labour conference in Liverpool as his plans to gerrymander the NEC in favour of the right-wing of the party by using “autonomy” as a scapegoat to shift the balance of power in his direction sadly passed. Despite some former plotters coming back to the fray, the most hard-line of plotters remain adamant in ousting Corbyn by any means necessary, which is extremely disappointing.

Now’s really not the time for the right-wing of the party to continue their temper tantrum because they don’t have as much influence over the party anymore, it’s a time for coming together, taking on Theresa May, and fighting for a Labour government in 2020, which has real Labour values; fairness, equality, prosperity, opportunity, and the heart of socialism at its core, not the blackened heart of neoliberalism it had under Tony Blair. Yes, Blair’s Labour government did do some good things, but it did so many bad things as-well. Blairites will tell us we can’t ignore the positives of New Labour, but we also can’t ignore the many bad things New Labour did as-well, which – thankfully – Jeremy Corbyn will not repeat. So, goodbye PFI, goodbye Iraq war, goodbye 90 days detention, goodbye Tony Blair, and goodbye New Labour. It’s 2016, not 1997.

Corbyn’s vision isn’t a vision that’s “stuck in the past” like most of his critics say, it’s a bright, bold vision for the future. Digital democracy, National Investment Banks, a real crackdown on tax evasion, an end to fracking and the birth of a green industrial revolution, the National Education Service, a real National Health Service, public railways, a proper Brexit plan – unlike the Tories’, the right to a home, the right to collective bargaining, a road map for multilaterialism that’s not just rhetoric, a foreign policy platform of peace and justice, and so many more wonderful, bright, inspiring ideas that make me – and hopefully others – feel hopeful for the future. This is the future Britain deserves, and the only way we’re going to get it is if we annihilate Theresa May’s Tory government, and the only way to do that is to focus our aim on the Tories, not each other. Together we can build a Better Britain that works for all of us, and not just the privileged few.

The Power Over Principle Argument

On the hard-right of Labour it seems a lot are bleating that the only way Labour can ever win a general election again is if they pursue power over principle. “We must win Tory voters,” they say, without mapping out any plan on how to win them, instead suggesting we just ape the Tories on things like welfare and the prevent strategy, thus turning our backs on the most vulnerable in society for those who’re privileged and wealthy. This is not what Labour’s about at all, but it’s what the extreme hard-right of the party want it to be about – a party that values power over principle, and is merely “Labour” in name only.

The hard-right refer to those who want a combination of power and principle as, “ideological purists” or a “cult”. I was once told by a so-called “Labour activist” that I need to start looking out for the more wealthy instead of the “precious poor” as the wealthy are apparently where the “winning votes” come from. I strongly despite this kind of toxic rhetoric, because whilst power is indeed important, it should never trump Labour’s core values, such as looking out for the most vulnerable in society. At Labour conference yesterday, Caroline Flint implied that most voters who vote Labour aren’t poor or homeless, and that we must care about those who’re privileged and wealthy. This kind of unprincipled rhetoric is killing Labour, but those who’re unprincipled would argue it’s us who’re principled who’re killing Labour.

What is Labour if it doesn’t stand up for the working class? What is Labour if it doesn’t look out for the most vulnerable in society? What is Labour if it doesn’t oppose the Tories but instead has a close love hate relationship with them, instead? What is Labour if Progress/Labour First rule the roost, throwing away the party’s principles to easily obtain power by becoming Tories Mark II? Well, I don’t know the answer to that, but it’s certainly not the Labour that the founding fathers like Keir Hardie would’ve wanted, but more like a localised version of the corrupt United States Democratic Party – a party that continues to chase GOP to the right while it follows.

Labour must win power, but it can’t abandon or discriminate against those who need it. It can’t go on a power bender of UKIP and Tory votes, ignoring those core Labour voters who’d suffer from policies such as welfare cuts and the Prevent strategy. Labour must win power by principle, not by trying to out-Tory the Tories while throwing a couple of sprinkles here and there to say, “LOOK AT HOW PROGRESSIVE WE ARE,” because Labour’s right is not progressive at all – it’s not. You want to know who’s really progressive? Corbyn. We mustn’t let the unprincipled get their hands on the party of the people, or else it’ll no longer be for the people, but the privileged few, like it was during the Blair years.

The Masks Have Fallen: How an Out of Touch Political Elite Can’t Accept the Changing World Around Them

There once was a time in Labour past when those who we now consider “the enemy” were the good guys. They were the only viable alternative to the Conservatives at the time, but the Conservatives were nowhere near power, and at the time we thought that was a great thing. We accepted the good policies, we accepted the bad, we didn’t care because it was a Labour government! We cheered on Iraq, we cheered on academies, we cheered on PFI, because this wasn’t a Thatcher government, this was a Tony Blair government – a Labour government! We didn’t have a clue. Some of us did and warned us of the dangers of “New Labour”, but some of us didn’t listen and were like, “IT’S LABOUR, NOT THE CONSERVATIVES,” so it was automatically alright. If you spoke out against things like Tony Blair’s Iraq war, you were branded a TRAITOR. If you were a total sheep who couldn’t think for themselves, you were a hero! Ah, the good times, am I right? Fuck no, it was a period of mass brainwashing to get us to accept a terrible ideology, first peddled by Thatcher, then shaped and reformed by Blair. It was an experiment to make Neoliberalism seem acceptable, and what did it get us? The worst refugee crisis in decades due to people escaping war-torn countries Blair and others like him bombed, the worst financial crash since the 1930’s due to Bill Clinton’s bank deregulation of Wall Street, and the beginning of the end of the NHS due to PFI debt, which the Tories now exploit to chip away at what’s left of a dying National Health Service. Thank you Blair. It’s now that we realise how awful New Labour was. Sure, they did some good things, but they did so many bad things that we are now paying the price for dearly, and yet those who call themselves “moderates”, who were once the “good guys”, who’re now not good guys anymore, who’re fighting vigorously against the left who’re reclaiming Labour from the Blairite “centrists” rather than attacking May’s Tory government cling on to that legacy, and refuse to accept a changing Labour that wants to forget a moment in power that corrupted its very soul.

Ever since the day Jeremy Corbyn was elected, the “moderates” have refused to accept this fact. They have ran to the right-wing press armed to the teeth with a barrage of smears to use against him, they have manufactured false claims of antisemitism and homophobia to demonise Corbyn and his supporters, whilst a chunk of those supporters themselves are either Jewish or gay. I’m not Jewish, but I am gay, and when the media was accusing Corbynites of being homophobic for a fake smear made up by Tessa Jowell about Angela Eagle and her Wallasey CLP, I was not impressed – I was actually offended. I remember the “moderates” sneering at me, claiming I’m automatically homophobic because I’m a Corbynite, and then I’d point to the fact I’m gay only for them to block me. Can’t handle the facts it seems. These are the same people who bleat on about post-truth politics, claiming that their narrow-minded ideology that’s obsessed with bipartisanship and excess compromise is the only truth, and that wanting a society that works for all and not just the privileged few is some kind of utopian pipe dream. Why is it, though, that there are some countries where society works for all and not just the few, such as those in Scandinavia? If it can work there, why can’t it work here as-well?

There was once a time when the “moderates” would play a tune and the world would dance to it, but those times are fading quickly as the world’s being gripped by movements on both the left and right, who’re all about breaking the norms of neoliberalism we’ve experienced for the past 40+ years. The alt-right is the anti-establishment right-wing who reject crony capitalism, but unfortunately want very fascist and very exclusive anti-politically-correct nationalism, and then there’s the radical left who want to make society fairer for all, focusing on things like the minimum wage or universal basic income, radical environmental policies such as Jill Stein’s “Green New Deal”, opposition to austerity and pay to play politics, anti-war movements who’re growing in numbers day by day as we’ve seen what a mess war has created in the past decade and a half, the Black Lives Matter movement who’re fighting against institutional racism by showing us that racism never just “went away”, disability movements like DPAC in the UK who are fighting for disabled justice in times where the Tory government are treating the disabled and those with mental health problems like crap, radical trade-unionist movements who’re fighting for better deals for employees against their exploitative bosses, and many more movements which seek to shift the balance of power back in to the hands of the 99%, not the 1%. These radical times are too much for those who spent their entire life sitting on the fence, and telling others that they too must sit on the fence.

The “moderates” can’t accept the changing world around them. They fight back against those who campaign for a better world with sneers and contempt. They call us dreamers, they call us racists for discussing class issues which they refuse to discuss, and focus solely on social programs, ignoring the decaying economy around them. They believe in making small changes, which they’ll gloat about forever, but don’t last once a rivalling party gets in to government and undoes them as quickly as they were implemented. Incrementalists don’t believe in implementing big things for lasting change, but rather small things. Small things would be fine if they were to be in power forever, but we don’t have a one party system, we have a democracy, and you must make big changes that are hard to reverse, and safeguard the most vital things in society, such as the NHS, the welfare state, and the environment. Making small changes that can be easilly unravelled whilst at the same time neglecting problems such as a decaying economy can work in to the hands of the right-wing, who’ll worsen the problems far quicker than the inept “moderate” government, but either way neither is commited to sorting out the problems that really do matter, and that’s why sometimes we need “dreamers” with big visions, because they’ll make sure their progress won’t just be undone as quickly as it was implemented. They’ll create long-lasting change. They’ll also build a consensus which accepts the long-lasting change.

The “moderates” also have a problem with democracy. They cheated in the Democratic Primary against Bernie Sanders when he was catching up to Clinton by purging thousands upon thousands of voters in areas and demographics that were more-likely to vote for him. This gerrymandering of voters in favour of Clinton undemocratic, and sadly not a lot of the Democratic partisans believe it. Despite evidence, they insist we’re “sore losers”, even though – and there’s evidence to support it – there was a lot of dirty tricks against Bernie, whether it was the voter purges I just mentioned, his name being scratched out on ballots, misinformation given by polling staff to voters to make it less likely that their vote would count, such as telling Independents in California to use “provisional ballots” which almost never get counted. This gerrymandering of voting has also occured in the United Kingdom – and very recently as-well – in the recent Labour Leadership contest. Corbynites were unfairly purged from voting for the most ridiculous things whilst abusive Owen Smith supporters were let off the hook. This was of course because the NEC had people on it like Johanna Baxter who had a “Saving Labour” bias and supported Jeremy Corbyn’s opponent, Owen Smith. It’s no conspiracy that these anti-Corbynites abused their position of power to gerrymander the votes in an attempt to steal the victory from Corbyn, but alas it failed, and his mandate increased from 59% to 62%, although, it would’ve probably been much higher had the purge not happened at all. Those who purged Corbynites and those who purged Berners have the nerve to then complain when the GOP in America, or the Tories here gerrymander or use restrictive voting laws, or that Corbynites want to deselect MP’s, councillors etc who supported an undemocratic deselection process against members, as they themselves have done it, too. It seems true democracy, and “one person one vote” is far off in the distance, sadly. What we have is “one person one vote if I let you”.

Other problems “moderates” have when it comes to democracy is accepting mandates they don’t agree with. They vast majority of “moderates” have never accepted Jeremy Corbyn’s victory since day 1, and will not accept his 2nd victory either. The “moderates” in Progress/Labour First such as Luke Akehurst say they’ll work against Corbyn to oust him and install a Blairite leader, instead. Basically, they’ll get rid of a man who gives a damn about those less fortunate for a man who has “style” but no substance i.e Tony Blair Mark II. These people are obsessed with tribalism and being in control, even if their pettiness damns us to a perpetual Tory government, which they’ll insist is the fault of Corbyn and the “hard left”, not them constantly sabotaging the party and bringing it in to disrepute. These smug elitists of yesterday cannot accept democracy, their masks have slipped from being the “heroes” during the glory days, and now they are seen as petty, out of touch, smug, stuck up elitists. They couldn’t even accept that the majority of the public voted Brexit, and are trying to force us back in to the EU! I have a confession to make and it’s going to make me a lot of enemies, but I voted to leave the EU, it was my decision, and you should respect that. I respect your views, respect mine, respect the nations views, respect what the nation wants, and instead of working for something that’s now lost, work to make the most out of a situation we’re stuck in. As for Scotland and Northern Ireland, I respect their drive to want to stay in the EU as they voted “IN”, but due to “unionism”, London’s undemocratically forcing a decision upon them that they didn’t make. I don’t think that’s fair, just like I don’t think it’s fair that the “Remain” crowd forces a decision upon the majority of the nation that voted Leave, just like I wouldn’t like it if “Leave” disrespected a “Remain” victory mandate. I respect democracy, and you should as-well, because without democracy, what do we have? Dictatorship, fascism, oligarchy etc Instead of working so hard to get us back in to the EU on a mandate the majority of the nation didn’t vote for, we should be fighting hard against the Tories, and reclaiming Brexit from them. We should be working towards a people’s brexit for all, and not just the privileged few. You can’t just overturn a decision a majority made just because you don’t like it. I support Corbyn’s vision of a People’s Brexit, but the out of touch “moderates” in the party who blame Corbyn for Brexit – who don’t realise many voted Brexit because they have GENUINE concerns which these “moderates” have ignored for years, who claim that it’s US who don’t “connect” with the working class need to take a long, hard look in the mirror, and deflate that ego of theirs. This is a changing world, and those who’re afraid of change are going to have a really hard time. Too bad.

Exodus of the Undemocratic Democrats

On Saturday in Liverpool, Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected as leader of the Labour Party with an increased mandate from 59% to 61.8% (62%). It was a day for celebration as the left-wing of the party won this important battle against the right, but of course the right-wing of the party were doing anything BUT celebrating.

Some of the sore losers cut up their memberships and used the hashtag “#GoodbyeLabour” to say they were leaving Labour because “Corbyn’s unelectable” to join a party that was absolutely smashed at the last general election, the Liberal Democrats. There was no rational thought put in to these decisions, it was just a temper tantrum, because the self-proclaimed “moderates” can’t handle that they’re no longer in charge anymore. They tried to cheat to win by purging thousands upon thousands of Corbyn supporters for the most ridiculous reasons, such as liking the Foo Fighters or retweeting a Green Party tweet; however, MP’s like Liz Kendall and Lisa Nandy were recently at the Liberal Democrats conference, and John McTernan in the past has spoken at a Tory conference. Double standards much?

In Liverpool after Corbyn’s resounding victory, anti-Corbyn MP’s spilled out on to the streets of Liverpool, demanding the so-called “moderates” stay, and continue more-or-less sabotaging Corbyn, to force him to resign, as these so-called “moderates” are convinced that if we change the leader, then everything will be great, because it’s not about things like policies, or principles or anything, no. It’s all about style, not substance, right?

Voters want substance. They want politicians who speak for them, not for themselves. They want accountable politicians who really do work for them. All across Europe, and even in some parts of the world, people are rejecting the status quo, and turning to the radical left, or the alt-right. They want change, whether it be good change or horrific change. These are very dangerous times, and the more the “moderates” keep on attacking the radical left, the more they’re allowing the alt-right to grow. Now’s the time for the “moderates” to accept they don’t have what it takes to defeat the alt-right, and leave it up to the radical left, who have the policies and vision to fix what Neoliberalism broke, and restore peace to a very volatile world. Corbyn can do this if he’s given the chance.

We’re at a very important crossroads, right now. We either continue going down the same path, which will eventually lead to a hard-right turn due to economic collapse, allowing the alt-right to scapegoat immigration and “political correctness” as the causes of this, or we take a hard-left turn towards a more stable economy that will heal the wounds that neoliberalism has created. Also, the absence of wars for oil will result in far less refugees, which – the current refugee crisis – right now is the prime target for the alt-right who want to scapegoat it, blame the immigrants, not the bombs, not the neoliberal warmongers etc, so they can have their fascistic dictatorship without pesky “political correctness”. Is that the world you want? It’s not the world I want. Turn left, not right.

The Runaway NEC Came Down The Track, And She Blew Up The Labour Party!

The purge of Jeremy Corbyn supporters in this Labour leadership contest by the Labour NEC has taken a rather strange turn, as the plotters have LITERALLY HANDED OVER one of their councils to the TORIES. Campaigner spent YEARS earning a majority for the party to own the local council, and have now been spat in the face by a bunch of out of touch neoliberals.

Bristol City council is NO LONGER a Labour council as of today, thanks to the plotters expelling 3 Pro-Corbyn councillors. It’s hard to understand what these imbeciles are trying to prove or accomplish, but to me it seems like they’re burning the house down, ready to rebuild Labour as a pro-corporate “centrist” party, as opposed to a socialist party. In-fact, there may soon not be any socialists left, as they’re being aggressively purged day in day out, with no end in sight!

It’s now less than a week ’til we find out who’s going to be the new leader of the Labour Party. It’s highly likely with the volume & ferocity of the purges, that Owen Smith could edge it. If he won by cheating, it would be a democratic disaster. All trust would be lost in Labour forever, and the party truly would be unelectable forever. His anti-democratic Pro-EU forceful stance would also alienate those who voted for Brexit, expecting to get what they voted for. This would also put a significant dent in parliamentary politics, giving anti-establishment movements on left & right a major boost. If the “centrists” are worried about the far-left and far-right, then they better stop this ridiculous rampage/temper tantrum, because their worst nightmare may soon be a harsh reality.

Blairites: Out of Touch, and Out of Their Time

Many aligned with Labour’s right have more-or-less confirmed that they’ll be issuing yet another challenge next year to Jeremy Corbyn. They are not giving up, and journalist Sunny Hundall today implied they’ll be issuing challenges ’til he either dies or retires. This is absolutely disgusting. Bullies who cry bully, basically.

A recent YouGov poll points to a landslide for Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest, despite the wave of ridiculous suspensions by Labour’s traitorous NEC, who’ve suspended people for things as ridiculous as retweeting Green Party tweets YEARS ago! For some reason Labour’s right HATES the Green Party, but they love the Tories and UKIP it seems.

In my previous article I spoke about how the right-wing of Labour were acting like a bunch of Stalinists, but now they’re taking this further by issuing relentless challenges against Corbyn ’til he quits or dies, with David Miliband most-likely being his 2017 opponent. The fact they’re eyeing up Miliband to take on Corbyn proves the Labour right haven’t learned a goddamn thing from 2010 or 2015. They think the only way to win is to win Tory votes, and they think the only way to win Tory votes is basically to ape the Tories on many policies, but throw in a few left-wing policies here and there to try and sweeten the stinking pot, but of course none of these “bones” they throw to the left actually fix long-term crises, such as the inequality crisis which has been gripping the world since the inception of Neoliberalism, resulting in a seismic shift of wealth towards the top 10%, away from the bottom 90%, but the lions share of the wealth only goes to 1% of that 10%.

Labour’s right remain adamant on their “We must win Tory votes” strategy, completely ignoring the million+ who voted Green, who for some reason the Labour right hate, as-well as those who didn’t vote, particularly voters from my generation – Y. Labour’s right mostly consists of out of touch old people who say things like, “THEY ONLY DON’T VOTE ‘COS THEY’RE LAZY.” They also expressed recently how out of touch they were when they mocked Corbyn’s “digital democracy” announcement, which included a new way of campaigning via social media and on the phone via phonebanking. Members of Labour’s right immediately jumped on this with mockery and sneering making themselves look ridiculously out of touch to the younger generation (my generation). These right-wing “moderates” are a complete disaster when it comes to advance 21st century politics. They are stuck in the 20th century – in the 90’s – where they want to drag everyone else back to, and right now they’re so strongly for that that they’re trying to burn down the party and start again with their “Labour Tomorrow” plan, which won’t take us in to “tomorrow”, but back to a Blairites wet dream – stuck in the past – like they are.

Labour’s at a crossroads, right now. We have those on the left who’re trying to bring it in to the 21st century with modern, populist politics, and we have those who’re trying to bring it in to their idea of “tomorrow”, a party that’s a lot like the US Democrats, which puts people second and business first, makes promises they will not keep just to win votes, and puts the satisfaction of their donors over the lives they ruin with their inaction on issues that really matter. We don’t want to be stuck in the 1990’s forever.