18th February 2023
Jeremy Corbyn – victim of a witch-hunt of the Left by Kier Starmer
It may not say ‘New Labour’ on the label but Kier Starmer’s retreat from anything resembling socialism, to a European Social Democratic model for the Labour Party, took another step forward this week. Starmer made it clear that former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, would not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate at the next General Election.
Starmer left no room for equivocation in relation to his opinion stating,
“Let me be very clear, Jeremy Corbyn will not stand at the next General Election as a Labour Party candidate. The party is unrecognisable from 2019 and it will never go back. If you don’t like that, if you don’t like the changes we’ve made, I say the door is open and you can leave.”
Quite how Starmer’s view aligns with the actual selection rules for Constituency Labour Party branches is another matter, although the right wing in Labour have historically found ways of imposing candidates on branches in the past, through a variety of arm twisting methods.
Corbyn was expelled from the Parliamentary Labour Party in 2020 for suggesting that the findings of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation into anti-semitism in the Labour Party had been grossly exaggerated. There is little doubt that the EHRC investigation was part of the orchestrated right wing and media campaign to smear Corbyn in the run up to the 2019 General Election, paving the way for the ill fated victory of the Tories under Boris Johnson.
More important for the ruling class than putting Johnson in No10 however was ensuring that Corbyn was kept out and a programme which could begin to challenge the entrenched interests of capitalist corporations and the City of London would not see the light of day.
As a willing puppet, Starmer was complicit in the smearing of Corbyn and the subsequent backtracking on the policy agenda for change, which had been initiated under Corbyn’s leadership, and was reflected in the 2017 and 2019 election manifestos.
The prospect of a mass popular base developing, around policies which would begin to challenge the power of capital, through nationalisation of key sectors such as energy, rail and mail; investing in the development of green technology; and tackling the inequities in the tax system for wealthy individuals and companies, was a step too far for British capitalists to tolerate.
Though the proposals of Labour under Corbyn would only begin to make a dint in the power of capital in Britain, the fact that they were leading people to question the system itself, question the reasons for the scandalous rise in billionaires while others lived in poverty or on the street, was enough to worry the ruling class.
The ever willing state run media, through the BBC, enthusiastically echoed the positions adopted by those expressing concern in the ‘national interest’, about the prospect of a Corbyn led Labour government. Starmer weighed in as a vocal supporter of the so called People’s Vote campaign, pressing for a second referendum on Brexit, in contradiction to Labour’s declared policy of honouring the 2016 referendum outcome.
The anti-semitism campaign was the reactionary’s coup de grace, effectively accusing a lifelong anti-racism campaigner of racism and citing his support for the Palestinian people as evidence!
Starmer clearly wants to put the issue of Corbyn’s candidacy to bed well ahead of the next General Election and send a signal to the Left that the coup d’etat he helped engineer has been successful. However, he may find that things are not so straightforward. Quite apart from the Labour Party rule book issue there is that of natural justice. Added to that is the potential for fightback from within the Labour Party, by Left activists and trade unions, keen to see policies which will address the needs of working class communities.
Any Left wing leader behaving in as high handed a fashion as Starmer would be branded Stalinist by a baying media. Starmer will no doubt escape that fate but the inconsistency of a former Director of Public Prosecutions not being able to stick by his own party’s rules will be noted by many.
Distancing himself from Corbyn sends out a signal from Starmer to the ruling class that he has done their bidding and is making Labour safe for capital. The ruling class have certainly obliged in boosting his electoral chances by handing him a Tory Party in a state of disarray. In similar circumstances, in 1945, 1964, 1974 and 1997 the Tories have resorted to their tried and tested approach; retreat, regroup and return. In spite of their own internal difficulties there is every likelihood that they will look to do the same again, seeing Starmer and his front bench playing no more important a role than keeping their seats warm.
As things stand, Starmer is likely to get the keys to 10, Downing St in less than two years. The price paid though will have been a massive one and Labour’s commitment to real change quite possibly diluted beyond recognition, at least in the short term. Fighting for the right of Jeremy Corbyn to stand as a Labour candidate is not a case of fighting past battles. It is a fight for Labour’s future.
The mass extra parliamentary action which has developed in the current strike wave, challenging the government’s economic narrative that there is no money, or that wage rises fuel inflation, has kept the issue of challenging capitalism as a system on the agenda.
Organised working class resistance to attacks upon terms and conditions will erupt, whovever hold the keys to Downing St, but harnessing that energy into a political force for change remains the real challenge. That will require a focus upon the strengthening, not just of the Labour Party as a Parliamentary vehicle, but the whole Labour Movement as an expression of dissatisfaction with the class basis of British society.
Starmer may think that he is moving towards making Labour safe for capital but capitalism will never ensure the safety of the working class. The struggle to move beyond captalism and towards a socialist society, which can truly meet the needs of the people, rather than simply deliver profits to the billionaire few, will continue whether Starmer likes it or not.
The door is open. If he doesn’t like it, he can leave.
Avanti Populo 