Jeremy Corbyn comes to Leeds university


Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Socialist Students organiser

Several hundred students crammed into the Great Hall at Leeds university on Thursday 29th October to hear newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speak.

Rather than any of the inspiring demands he raised during his election campaign, of free education, of a £10 an hour minimum wage or others – Labour Students asked him to speak on the more mundane topic of voter registration. This reflects the right-wing and electoralist composition of Labour Students, many of whom backed Liz Kendall for Labour leader and seemed none too sympathetic to Corbyn in the queues outside.

Whilst the right to vote and other democratic rights are important, so are what you do with those rights and encouraging people to actively take up issues themselves. This, Jeremy Corbyn understood far more than those who invited him, and indeed made the focus of his speech.

Jeremy began with addressing the focus of the meeting – the redrawing of parliamentary electoral boundaries which at present would be done without taking into account a million or so potential voters who have come off the electoral register as a result of the government changing the way the register is compiled. These potential voters are mainly in Labour seats in inner city areas.

He contrasted this with the government’s plans to create more Tory peers, making the unelected House of Lords have significantly more members than the elected House of Commons.

Opposing the Tory government

But Jeremy quickly moved on to point out that while winning a majority Labour government was important to him, how they frame the debate in the here and now was vital too. He pointed to some of the U-turns that Labour, under him, had recently forced the government into, such as regarding the bid to run Saudi Arabian prisons, as well as the reversal by the House of Lords of the government’s plan to cut working tax credit.

His central message was that campaigning works, and if we are to change anything it has to be on that basis. Campaigning on things now has the potential to force the government to retreat and can prepare the basis for a subsequent government taking more radical action in the future.

Yet also evident in Jeremy Corbyn’s speech was some of the pressure of the right of his own party that he is coming under. For example, he featured the national student demonstration taking place on 4th November, saying he supported it campaigning against cuts to grants and urging people to attend. However, at no point did he mention that it had been called as a ‘Free Education’ demo.

Corbyn’s election has been welcomed by Socialist Students as putting socialist ideas back into the mainstream and offering hope for an alternative to many. However, one of the key tasks for socialists is to build support on the ground for ideas like free education, as Socialist Students has done in Leeds by playing a leading role in organising a successful demonstration last weekend.
This will both aid Corbyn in his fight against the right of his own party, but also help prepare the way for a wider acceptance of socialist ideas in society.