Keir Starmer’s Labour: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here
Let’s save the pleasantries and cut to the chase, although don’t be too shocked if I plug my chat with the legendary Noam Chomsky several times along the way. I mean, wouldn’t you?
The Labour Party is no longer a democratic socialist party. The centre-right might like to call themselves “social democrats”, because they still believe they are the centre-left, but in reality, the dial has moved so far to the right they now find themselves firmly in Tory territory, competing for the flag vote.
Looking back, the proposals put forward by Jeremy Corbyn were relatively mainstream.
Now, I know a number of you Red Tory-enablers will read that last sentence, foaming at the mouth, screaming some old twaddle about the “hard-left”, as is your right to do so.
But you don’t have to take my word for it, just ask Noam Chomsky - because he told me Corbyn’s proposals were “relatively mainstream” - that’s Professor Emeritus Chomsky, the father of modern linguistics.
You can come at me with two general election defeats if you wish, but you will be wasting your time, and allow me to briefly tell you why, for the umpteenth time.
In 2017 we denied Theresa May of a parliamentary majority and came within a whisker of causing the biggest shock in the history of British politics. The establishment didn’t know what had hit them.
Following the election our support increased and Theresa May’s position began to look more precarious by the day. Mr Corbyn went on to inflict more parliamentary defeats on the government than any other opposition leader, in history, his own approval ratings were up, and more than 100,000 people sang his name as he addressed the Glastonbury festival.
And then the campaign to put an end to the chance of a democratic socialist government went into overdrive.
An orchestrated campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn at all costs was launched, and by the time the 2019 general election campaign got underway the biggest smear campaign in the recent history of British politics achieved exactly what it set out to do.
Did you notice how the vastly exaggerated antisemitism ‘crisis’ suddenly disappeared when the sap Starmer began his quest to turn the Labour Party into the shameful wreck that it is today?
That’s because the smear had served its purpose. Antisemitism was no more prevalent in the Labour Party as it was in wider society. It was a manufactured crisis. It was a scam.
The biggest difference between 2017 and 2019 was Labour’s Brexit position. Jeremy Corbyn wanted to maintain the 2017 position - the ‘soft Brexit’, if you like.
But Starmer wanted to pursue a second referendum, not because he wanted Britain to remain in the European Union - that was just standard Starmer opportunism - but because he wanted to lose the next general election, which meant getting rid of Jeremy Corbyn, and paving the way for the arrival of the age of beige.
The Labour Party that you remember has gone. It ceases to exist.
We come to this week, and Labour’s National Executive Committee ruled against a motion calling for the parliamentary whip to be restored to Jeremy Corbyn, to the surprise of very few of us.
The result wasn’t even close. Unions such as the GMB voted against Mr Corbyn. The Labour right has full control of the Labour Party and it is no longer a credible alternative to the Conservative Party.
This Labour Party is an enemy, just like the Lib Dems - also led by a Knight of the Realm the last time I bothered to check - and yes, just like Boris Johnson’s criminal and corrupt Conservative Party.
Red, yellow or blue, the rosette colour is utterly irrelevant. What really matters is what and whom they stand for. Will any of them make your life any better? Will any of them introduce the progressive agenda that we so desperately need as we attempt to recover from a global pandemic and the permanent quagmire that is the Tory Brexit?
I hate to tell you this, but Starmer and Johnson honestly couldn’t give a shit about your struggles. The cost of living crisis means no more to them than words. They won’t be forced to choose between heating and eating for the foreseeable future.
Keir Starmer actually had the brass neck to complain that the government didn’t cut the VAT on your energy bills by a ‘whopping’ 5% while you’re getting a letter through the door saying your gas and electricity is going to cost you at least another £50 a month.
This is just an indicator of how useless and ineffective that bandaged plank of wood Starmer actually is. He has no purpose beyond maintaining the status quo, where inequality and poverty has continued to thrive for decades.
It has never been clearer that a new political party is needed to accommodate and represent the politically homeless and unrepresented of the left, because this Labour Party makes Change UK look like Marxists.
Splitting the left vote is no longer a problem, because there is no left vote to split. Any illusions of a socially conservative Starmer sitting on the benches of the ‘soft-left’ were shattered some time ago now.
Jeremy Corbyn feels some loyalty towards the Labour Party. He has been a member of the party for some decades. It’s simple for me to push for a new party because I do not have that attachment.
I have always voted Labour at every election, until the last local elections when I voted for the Green candidate, simply because they identified as a socialist.
A vote for the Labour Party is a vote for the establishment. It’s your way of telling the ruling class that you are absolutely fine with being their compliant punchbag, as long as you’re just about managing.
Well I simply do not accept that, and neither should you. We used to have hope, now we wallow in despair. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Things are starting to happen on the left, at last.
The creation of the People’s Alliance of the Left - it’s easier to call them “PAL” - is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
I won’t pretend I think the Breakthrough Party is the obvious place for a socialist to call home, because it isn’t. I don’t have any criticism of their policy agenda, as it’s roughly a copy and paste of what Jeremy was proposing, but credibility is of paramount importance, and your political party will be judged - fairly or unfairly - by the people that attach themselves to it.
But put Breakthrough, NIP, Left Unity and TUSC together with other groups and you begin to bring something different to the table. If the Green Party can ditch neoliberalism they should also be invited to work with PAL.
Many of the activists that used to knock on doors for Jeremy Corbyn have fractured into these various party’s, so bringing together their various talents makes absolute sense.
But what if Jeremy Corbyn does walk away from the Labour Party? I certainly wouldn’t rule it out now the Labour Party has made it abundantly clear there is very little prospect of the party whip being restored.
The Peace and Justice Project already has a large number of supporters. Turn that into a political party and you could be looking at the third largest political party membership in Britain within days.
I don’t think anyone supporting the possibility of a new political party believes we will win seats. FPTP makes this incredibly difficult, and the need for proportional representation is stronger than ever.
I believe we can lay the foundations for the next generation, starting with the TUSC candidate for the Birmingham Erdington by-election, Mr Dave Nellist.
Will anti-austerity Dave win the seat? Possibly not. Will we mobilise to ensure he gets votes? Absolutely. Will it split the Labour vote? I couldn’t care less.
I first wrote about the Peace and Justice Project back in December 2020. I called the blog “Mighty Oaks From Little Acorns Grow”, and here we are now.
At the time I said:
“While most sources will insist the Peace and Justice Project isn’t a new political party - and they would be right to do so - you do have to wonder just how useful it would be to have a huge army of supporters already signed up to your new movement, should you find yourself permanently excluded from the political party that you’ve been involved with for more than five decades.”
Why wait to be permanently excluded, Jeremy? You’re so much better than Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
You have spent more than fifty years fighting against all forms of racism, Jeremy, but this Labour Party is an absolute cesspit, unworthy of a decent and genuine man such as yourself.
Let me remind you, BAME members have abandoned the party in their droves. The Labour Muslim Network released a damning report into the disgraceful Islamophobia that is encountered by British Muslims. The leadership has been quietly suspending left-wing Jews, in fact, his Labour has suspended more Jewish people than every other Labour leadership, combined.
But you don’t hear about Labour racism on the news, you won’t have Margaret Hodge preparing to flee the UK, you won’t even see a Panorama hatchet job, or a 14 page Daily Mail smear, because haughty Starmer poses no threat to the wealth of the rich and powerful.
A friend of mine Chelley Ryan, has started this petition - asking Mr Corbyn to consider setting up his own party. I have signed and shared this because I believe it is the right thing to do.
We have to start somewhere. We need some hope more than ever before. Hope is being able to see there is light, despite being permanently surrounded in darkness.
The left cannot swim for new horizons until we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
The Labour Party serves no purpose whatsoever to the millions of us that still believe in compassion, community, and solidarity.
We believe in equality, social justice, peace and tolerance. We believe in socialism.
Now we need a figurehead, a movement, and a political party that believes in us.
“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.” – Orison Swett Marden
Take care.
Rachael
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, if you want to chip in towards improving my ongoing campaign, and it would cause you *no hardship*, you can do so here:
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