A Socialist Party press release, 30.6.16
Conference of the labour movement to defend Jeremy Corbyn urgently needed
‘Now it’s civil war’ declared the front page of today’s Mirror. The nine month nascent civil war in the Labour Party has been escalated in earnest. The majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party has never accepted Jeremy Corbyn’s democratic election as leader and is now determined to get rid of him by any means necessary.
This is not, as they claim, because Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable but because they fear he could win a general election. Blair himself said that Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister would “be a very dangerous experiment”; an experiment his acolytes are determined to prevent.
Jeremy Corbyn was thrust into power by an uprising against austerity. If he was to win a general election the 1% are terrified that the hopes of millions of working class people would be raised and, as a result, that government would be pressurised to take radical measures which would threaten their system and gargantuan profits.
Now that war has been declared by the PLP, the worst possible response would be to capitulate. It is much to Jeremy Corbyn’s credit that he has so far stood firm. Now the labour movement, together with all those who are opposed to austerity, needs to mobilise to support Jeremy against the Blairite onslaught.
We call on left trade union leaders to initiate an urgent labour movement conference, to be convened now, involving all those who support Corbyn: the trade unions, Labour Party branches and including all left and socialist organisations inside and outside the Labour Party.