Join us today!
Printable version
Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/886/22101
From The Socialist newspaper, 27 January 2016
The dark arts of Labour's right
New Labour's arch-right winger Peter Mandelson, photo by Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)
Derek Macmillan
Having been decisively routed in the last year's Labour leadership contest the party's Blairite MPs and Lords, such as Peter Mandelson, continue to wage a guerrilla war against Jeremy Corbyn.
Mandelson (a former disgraced Blairite minister who once said he was "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich") had derided the Labour leader as a 'quasi-Marxist trying to con the public into voting him into Downing Street'.
Mandy and his acolytes continue to snipe, most recently claiming that the party is haemorrhaging members due to Corbyn's policies.
However, a recent detailed Guardian survey of the Labour Party refutes Mandelson's claim and "shows overwhelming support for him [Corbyn], a decisive shift to the left and unhappiness with squabbling among MPs" (the Guardian, 13 January).
The survey also reports : "Membership jumped from 201,293 on 6 May last year, the day before the general election, to 388,407 on 10 January" and continues to increase.
Any sane person would say that it is the surge in members seeking a new kind of politics which thrust a socialist into the leadership of what was a capitalist party hell-bent on war and privatisation.
But while new members are overwhelmingly on the left, democratic control over the party machine is not guaranteed.
Those deepest in the counsels of New Labour have obeyed the instruction of Blair, Mandy and "dodgy dossier" Alistair Campbell to be more Tory than the Tories. The right aim to defeat Corbyn and the membership and maintain Labour as a capitalist party.
Small wonder that grassroots members are fed up to the back teeth with squabbling Labour MPs. The party's election system was supposed to prevent anyone on the left becoming leader. It failed. Now, instead of kicking themselves the Blairite rump is kicking Jeremy Corbyn.
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 27 January 2016:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill
Davos summit: a broken capitalist system
Google pays pittance for avoiding £2bn tax
Red doors and wristbands scandal
Steelworkers may face benefit cut-off for not seeking bar jobs
Oscars snub black artists: fight racism and austerity in the arts
Labour councillor smears TUSC policy as 'BNP'
Top tweets: #TraditionallySubmissive
Teachers under attack
Teaching: a perfect storm is brewing
Teachers need national strategy for a national struggle
A day in the life of a teacher and mother
International socialist news and analysis
New wave of protests in Tunisia
India: student death exposes caste oppression
What we think
Tories 'Prevent' civil liberties
Council cuts and the fight in Labour
Labour councillor suspended for fighting cuts
Dave Nellist's byelection appeal to Jeremy Corbyn: 'let's discuss how to fight the cuts'
Labour election post-mortem: nothing to report!
The dark arts of Labour's right
Councillors must fight to defend our services
'People's budgets' and local democracy
Lewisham: no backsliding in council cuts fight!
Workplace news and analysis
"I have left work many times in tears" - a council worker
Trade union bill will stretch resources and limit action
Birmingham teachers strike to resist academy attack
Care services under threat in Haringey
Readers' comment
The end for deep coal mining jobs in Britain
Obituary: Dean Meehan 1962-2016
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Protesting against closure of Huddersfield A&E
Coventry children's services closure protest
New Socialist Party branch fights against St Austell austerity
Socialist Party discusses the fight for socialism
Home | The Socialist 27 January 2016 | Join the Socialist Party
Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook
2020