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I thought I’d write about what Corbynism meant to me - if you’ve followed me for even a short amount of time, you’ll know I tend to rail on Labour a fair bit, so though no one has asked and even though honestly, my political takes are probably terrible, here goes:
Corbyn was the only leadership contestant who appeared almost not to care if he won or lost - his appearance was to challenge the rest of the candidates who were strongly of the New Labour era. He was, essentially a wild card contestant.
No one expected to him to win - but his lack of formal media training, his views on austerity and the status quo, that maverick swagger for the lack of a better term, well it was deeply affecting - here’s a guy saying you don’t have to be poor, you don’t have to be afraid.
I mean, back then, deep into austerity, the hostile environment, disabled people being treated as inhuman - it felt so engaging to hear this old fella say no, fuck all that noise and then literally wink to the camera.
There was literally nothing to lose. I was thrilled when he won. I didn’t understand what socialism or social democracy was - I didn’t care. I still don’t, really. It just meant there was real hope for people like me.
Ironically, the person who I was most hopeful for - my mother - hated him. She had lived through Militant Tendency in Liverpool. I actually even knew Ben Hatton at the time and never even made the connection.
She had seen this before - she had seen the gesturing, the prejudice and corruption in that era.
“Better to break the law than break the poor”.
“For the many and not the few”.
“Better to break the law than break the poor”.
“For the many and not the few”.
Militant sunk Liverpool into enormous debt. Rather than helping the poor, they bullied, coerced and deceived. Hatton swaggered around Liverpool like a gangster. If you weren’t with him, he’d make it so you were.
“Hitler tried to destroy Liverpool. Hatton succeeded”.
“Hitler tried to destroy Liverpool. Hatton succeeded”.
I was oblivious to this. I hated the Tories. I hated the Liberal Democrats. I hated the people who voted for them. I just wanted people not to have be dragged to court to prove they were entitled to a small payment every two weeks to ensure they could eat.
Here’s Corbyn and Momentum - this isn’t right, there’s another choice. It wasn’t about specific ideology back then. They understood they’d lose people like me - mostly apolitical with a strong Labour or nothing background - if they came on too strong.
Then you hear stuff - Press TV appearances, meeting the IRA immediately after a bombing which killed an MP, the wreath laying for Black September...and you know, something isn’t quite right, that something doesn’t add up - but you attempt to justify it.
“We need to engage people on both sides of a struggle”, “he was present not involved” - though you know this is all rubbish. You know he never engaged with *both* sides. You know he laid that wreath for people who were behind an attack on Olympic athletes, who were tortured.
You’re clinging on for something, something to make this man and his underlying ideology to be more palatable. So, you in turn inwards. It’s a smear, life long anti-racist, mother was at Cable Street.
All the while, a fierce fight has taken hold in Labour for control of the party apparatus. The NEC. The LOTO. Entryism - flooding the ranks of people who are not Labour with the aim of shutting down any internal opposition to Corbyn.
Then come the votes of no confidence - it’s a coup to rid us of the democratically elected leader! Rather than a desperate last ditch attempt at removing the ruinous individual who will drive Labour into major political loses.
At this point, Corbyn is nothing more than a Useful Idiot for people with the real ideology - Milne, McDonnel, Murray, Murphy and McCluskey.
Then the train seat debacle. Here’s the man you pinned your hopes on, being fooled into a pathetic little stunt. You forgot about this though, all politicians lie, I mean, c’mon.
Then accusations of antisemitism - he spent New Year with a group of Jewish people, what nonsense!
That group of Jewish people was, of course, Jewdas.
That group of Jewish people was, of course, Jewdas.
Then, well, Brexit. People who had been engaged in politics for years before me knew Corbyn could not muster any enthusiasm to campaign for remain - this was the point I realised ideology was more important than attempting to ensure Britain didn’t succumb completely to populism.
Because Corbyn himself is a populist. The party spent an entire summer, which should have been dedicated to dismantling a weak government on defending it’s position on the IHRA.
I myself, I’m ashamed to admit, was one of those (privately) condemning those who accused Labour of intolerance, of antisemitism. I didn’t care, I wanted life to be better for all of us, why couldn’t these people see that?
Why couldn’t they accept that Corbyn was a life long anti-racist, a man of peace? But eventually, after reading threads from @RachelRileyRR, after doing my own research - I realised to my horror what this man had defended all these years. What the IHRA actually said.
Then another piece I read - from @nicolelampert - it put everything into a horrible, screaming context. It seemed so...arbitrary that Corbyn, the left would have a problem with Jewish people. I mean, why?
But there it all was in Nicole’s article. The history of blood libel, the mural - all these things that seemed *silly* to me to be offended - they all made sense now. I thought I knew and understood racism. I did - but I did not understand the oldest form of hate.
