The extent of anger at austerity in Britain — and desire for an alternative to the pro-corporate politics of Britain's major parties — is being exposed by the scale of enthusiasm and support for the campaign of veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn for leadership of the Labour Party.
Sparking panic in the corporate media and among Labour's establishment, Corbyn is ahead in polls for the September ballot of Labour parliamentarians, members, supporters and affiliated trade unions, on a left-wing platform to reverse austerity, renationalise privatised industries and protect and extend social welfare.
Below, Socialist Resistance, an English group affiliated to , which was formed in 2013 to create an anti-austerity force to Labour's left, look at the phenomena and its impact on British politics. It is reposted from .
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The Jeremy Corbyn campaign for Labour Party leader is a remarkable phenomenon. He stands a very good chance of winning unless the Labour Party establishment can turn around the tide over the next six weeks.
As things stand, the tide remains with him. Labour leaders are like rabbits in the headlights. Large numbers of people, young people in particular, are joining Corbyn's campaign and people are flocking to his rallies and campaign events.
Many are signing up to Labour as registered supporters or as affiliated supporters through their trade unions. According to Labour List in late June, the figures were 9115 registered supporters and 3788 affiliated supporters, while the number of full members has also grown significantly since the general election.
Union support
The support from inside big trade unions for Corbyn’s candidacy has been extraordinary.
Labour has always been different from many of its fellow social-democratic parties in having the direct affiliation of trade unions. Fourteen unions are affiliated. Historically, they have tended to act as a force against the left and in support of the party establishment. But the two largest trade unions affiliated to the party — Unite and Unison — have now endorsed Corbyn.
Unite, led by Len McCluskey, was not a particular surprise as the union had been following a more left-wing line in recent years. But the nomination of Corbyn by Unison is a big change. Unison is a big public-sector union that has often spoken against austerity and cuts to benefits and services, but has rarely organised action.
In the recent past, Unison had the largest affiliated membership of Labour and more than one third of its million-plus members are on its “Labour Link” mailing list. A consultation exercise over the leadership election of Unison’s 12 regions showed that nine of them wanted Corbyn nominating.
The Communication Workers Union is also a big national union with more than 200,000 members. It not only nominated Corbyn, but its general secretary Dave Ward took to YouTube to motivate its members to register to vote for Corbyn. Ward called for support on the grounds of Corbyn's policies and to signal a move to the left and against austerity in the party.
Corbyn has also been backed by several smaller unions, such as the Bakers Union, transport union TSSA and the train drivers' union ASLEF. Labour's other large affiliate, the general union GMB, has declined to nominate any of the four candidates — a blow for the right.
After a review into Labour's procedures last year, trade unions no longer have the say they used to have in electing Labour's leader. But Corbyn also has a huge lead in nominations over his rivals from local party branches — Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) — with more than 130 nominations out of more than 600, compared to about 100 for other challengers.
Corbyn’s campaign has made major inroads into three areas – traditional party members organised in constituencies, affiliated trade unionists and new, overwhelmingly young, members and supporters of the party. This is a profoundly radicalising development, whichever way the vote goes.
New possibilities
If Corbyn wins and sets off in an anti-austerity direction, big new possibilities will open up. These include a probable split by the New Labour Blairites.
If Corbyn loses, he will have encouraged and radicalised a lot of young people and trade union activists, strengthened the left in the Labour Party and exerted leftward pressure on whoever does win.
Left-wing Labour figure Tony Benn, who died last year, only just failed to win the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 1981. He was backed by a huge campaign with a big and vibrant Labour Left and a large and militant trade union movement in a period of industrial militancy.
Now Corbyn is on the cusp of becoming Labour leader with a, more or less, non-existent organised Labour Left, a very weak trade union movement and historically low strike levels.
Some of the factors involved are clear. Labour lost an election that it clearly could and should have won because it tail-ended the Tory cuts agenda.
This was followed by acting Labour leader Harriet Harman’s appalling decision not to oppose the Conservative government's budget. This led to Labour being outflanked to the left by the Liberal Democrats and far right parties.
All other contenders for Labour leader not only supported her, but have toed the line that Labour had lost the election because its campaign had been “too far to the left” and argue that what progressive policies that it did adopt should be dropped.
“Conviction politics” is playing a role. For people inside and outside Labour, it is a breath of fresh air to find someone in the leadership contest who says what they mean and mean what they say in a non-egotistic way.
Scottish impact
It is also clear that Scottish politics are also a part of this development. This is not just due to the radicalising influence of the independence referendum and rise of the Scottish National Party (SNP), but also the role of the SNP MPs in parliament since the election.
The SNP, which reduced Labour to just one MP in Scotland in the May elections, have acted as the real parliamentary opposition to the Tories. The vote of the 55 SNP MPs against benefit cuts outweighed the 47 Labour MPs — led by Corbyn — who defied their leaders to vote against the cuts.
In the recent maiden speech in parliament by SNP MP Mhairi Black — at 20, the youngest MP for centuries — challenged Labour to oppose Tory cuts and declared Benn one of her heroes.
The video of Black's speech became one of the most watched parliamentary speeches in Britain ever. It clocked up millions of hits on YouTube, many from young people.
This is not to say that everything Corbyn says is right. He seems to have nothing to say on the environment or on electoral reform — huge issues since the last election.
A few months ago, it seemed unlikely Corbyn would even get on the ballot paper. He only secured the needed 35 nominations of MPs with two minutes to spare and after several right-wing MPs agreed to nominate him. This was seemingly only to give Andy Burnham the chance to appear as a middle-of-the-road candidate rather than the most left-wing person in the race.
Of those who nominated Corbyn, only 18 followed him in voting against the benefit cuts. The gulf is huge between the parliamentary party and its base among members in the party and trade unions.
As leader, Corbyn would struggle to fill the shadow cabinet meeting room with his handful of MP supporters. There is a danger he would become a hostage to the parliamentary party if he did not extensively organise his supporters in the party at large.
Labour's Left has created a strong united challenge, but the Right is in disarray. Their allegations against each other descend into puerile abuse, such as calling each other “morons” in public.
Right-wing MPs are openly talking about a “coup” — having the parliamentary party overturn Corbyn as leader. There is even talk of a split modelled on the creation of the short-lived Social Democratic Party (SDP) of the 1980s.
Victory for the whole left
A Corbyn victory, or even a close second, would be a victory for the whole of the left. It would create a new political situation and radicalise a lot of people — particularly young people. Whether it splits the Labour Party or not, it would create completely new conditions for anti-austerity politics in England.
Left Unity has rightly welcomed Corbyn’s campaign from the start, understanding its significance and its progressive dynamic. The conditions for creating a new left-wing alternative in Britain exist now more than ever.
A key task of the coming period will be to unite all those forces that believe in challenging austerity, climate change and the Tory government.
A change in Labour's leader would have a huge effect. But to become really significant and sustainable, it also needs to reach out and link up with the millions of people who voted Green, SNP or the left-wing Welsh nationalists of Plaid Cymru in the May elections — and especially the millions of young people resisting austerity.
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