Jeremy Corbyn is about to transform the Labour party – again

Not many people will have noticed the news, reported on Monday morning just as Theresa May’s ill-fated reshuffle began, that Jeremy Corbyn has set up a “community campaign unit”, a small but growing department in his office that will focus on organising with communities and groups of employees, helping them to campaign on local and workplace issues.

This sounds pretty innocuous, but it might turn out to be one of the most transformative political decisions of the Labour leader’s career, because it could change how we think about political parties. If Corbyn gets his way, when you think of Labour, you won’t imagine rows of MPs on green leather benches, or a smartly suited minister chatting to a reporter. Instead, you’ll think of activists reinvigorating their estate’s tenants association, while others organise their co-workers and stand with them on picket lines.

Some Labour stalwarts would like the party’s newbies to come to more constituency and branch meetings, but among the incomers are highly experienced campaigners whose talents may lie elsewhere. Like the members of Greece’s Syriza, the Corbynistas are drawn both from the trade unions and from the social movements: environmentalists, students, feminists, anti-racists, disability campaigners and LGBT activists. Many of these people have been organising in communities and in work places for decades, and if the new unit does its job, they’re going to start doing so under the Labour party banner.

The unit’s creation is also, however, a very tactical move, intended to make Labour more popular in the post-industrial and seaside towns where it has made fewer gains in recent years. “In 2018,” Corbyn predicted in the Sunday Mirror, “we will win by organising with communities that have been held back.” A government led by him would, in turn, bolster the rights of those organisers – unions and civil society groups. While the Conservatives warn this will create chaos, Corbyn hopes it make it easier for ordinary people to engage in grassroots politics and this, he hopes, will further strengthen the left.

independent.co.uk/voices/corbyn-labour-community-campaign-unit-transform-the-labour-party-again-a8149886.html

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/BzuKaTuk_lw
twitter.com/Survation/status/937086479347605504
blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/in-defence-of-blairism-by-tony-blair/
myredditvideos.com/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Corbyn just alienated a shitload of votes by saying Britian shouldn't stay in the EU common market, and that he wouldn't be attending that meeting in Scotland.
Not really a surprise to me as he's pretty much always been against the EU, even if he hasn't said it outright, but a lot of labour voters chose Remain, and were hoping he'd respect their position.

Except, Labour won more seats in leave areas: I think most voters care about an NHS that runs rather than the varying degrees of solidity our brexit could take.

Also this community unit might have a far deeper role: supplanting the power of parliament and even local government by merging the labour party with civil society directly. Think about it, you have a problem and you write to your MP. Instead of them dealing with it a Labour MP turns and refers you your local community unit, or if you have a blairite or non labour MP the community unit approaches you: then they deal with the problem instead of your MP. Suddenly you have the labour party and civil society acting together behind the backs of the government. Now if Labour are in government, why wouldn't this be a bad thing that undermines them? No, for you see westminster is far easier corrupted by porky, far easier for Blairite MPs to launch a coup and block some policy or what have you. Instead, this is organised direct action, using local groups to subvert porky's power directly. Now why does this sound familiar???

Oh yes, because this is exactly what Lenin's dual state doctrine prescribes: the creation of extra governmental structures to subvert the bourgeois state and draw the proletariat closer towards the party. If anyone still thinks Corbyn is some socdem Hollande-tier wank, you're so so wrong.

Perfect.

the situation is excellent

Not seen that one, collectivised.

Also I just realised one thing: a party-coordinated group of civil society actors would be the perfect means to organise resistance to a military coup…

Uphold Marxist-Leninist-Corbynist thought

So to all the people who have been doubting Jezza for the last three years:

APOLOGISE

tbh they really need some kind of crash course for labour mps and members, schooling them in left wing thought and the relevant info regarding capitalist economics, foreign policy etc
most labour mps on tv seem thick as pig shit. pidcock, williamson, lewis. they're the only intelligent sounding ones who aren't centrist melts.
even mcdonnell chats shit half the time.

Okay I am like 200% sure this is a means to organise counter-coup measures. I guess Corbyn did learn something from his idol Allande. I salute thee, whomever in head office thought this was a good idea, you are the best kind of comrade.

Jeremy Corbyn, aka Jez or Jezza.

Literally all Corbyn has to do is promise Brexit. Brexit 100%. Brand his campaign as "rebuilding BRITSH industry" and shit on the EU at every turn. Union Jacks everywhere.

He'd handily win and would have a blank check for nationalising major parts of the economy. Nobody could stop him, since he'd have rebuilt Labour's original LABOUR coalition.

He's won a lot of voters too. Brexit might have won by a small margin but it still won. Right now the Tories have no legs to stand on as not even Blairites will touch them due to Cameron and May being retarded about Brexit. All Corbyn has to do is promise working voters Brexit and he wins. That's it.

And ultimately Remainers, no matter what party, can move to the EU at any time. If they are so upset with the state of things they don't have to live in the UK and in doing so would make more space for Leavers. This ultimately makes pro-Brexit candidates more popular by default.

inb4 burgers start shitting on Jezza in this thread.

You'd think that labour would be miles ahead in the polls, especially since this is easily the worst conservative government in living memory.
But the Tories are still poling ahead.
I just don't get it.

for making a left-liberal party back into a succdem party that will probably fail the workers in their most fundamental issue, that of seizing power?

no thanks

Brits didn't buy quite as hard into the socialism=stalin meme that Americans did, but enough of them do to keep the Tories ahead in the polls.

most pollsters are still using pre 2017 general election statistics to weight the polls. This leads to an unfair increase in the older voters and a decrease in youth voters. Some don't and they are currently showing labour 8 points ahead
twitter.com/Survation/status/937086479347605504

It's because May is still at least saying she'll do Brexit, Lab is still perceived as being the loyal opposition aka Remain in this situation. Corbyn can flip this by saying he'll deliver a better, harder Brexit (one with British Industry aka why Leavers voted Leave in the first place) and wreck the Tories who would be torn between the M25istan bankers who want the softest Brexit possible and kippers who would absolutely vote for a dirty socialist if he promises them what they want.

What I'm saying is that Brexit voters have proven themselves to be a huge bloc (about 51%) and they are especially mercenary about their issue. Those who seize it win. This is where Lab can shift into high gear and burn the Tories who are stuck in neutral auguring over what gear to shift into next.

Eh intra-election polls are useless: prior to 2017 he was 20pts behind.The day an election is called look at the polls and see what they mean.

Also one reason Corbyn has no topaz stance on Brexit is that old Napoleon quote "Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake". Letting the tories fight it out is the best thing to do here, it will tear the party apart.

Did you read the article? Have you seen the labour party over the last 3 years? Also Corbyn is not a socdem, he is NAZBOL.

Labour haven't really explained themselves very well. If they could thoroughly debunk "how can we afford i we're skitnt", "muh balanced buget" and other shite people have been fed by the media for god knows how long they could gain another 5 points easy.
Thing is Corbyn did all that at his leadership election, but not since.

I think it's a dumb tactic tbqh. Best to go all out for Lexit, then when the Tories implementation of Brexit fails you could always claim you would have done a better job and actually be able to back it up somewhat. That said the anti Brexit side is a growth area, it also makes sense to go that way. Yeah you're going to sacrifice a lot of leave voters but most of those wouldn't labour anyway, they left in 2010 and haven't returned. They're the IRA/Marxist/Hamas spouting dickheads.
2/3 Labour voters are pro remain.

Sure, but about half the Tory base is pro Leave. Why not steal them? Lab Remainers have no choice unless they vote Tory.

they wouldn't vote labour because hurr venezuela.
if they were likely to do that they would have voted lib dem last time.

The Lib Dems.

They can forgive and forget if Corybn is promising them a hot steamy hardcore Brexit.

so basically the Tories but even more useless

LibDems will copy the Democratic Party’s “strategy” and go full celebrity spokesperson campaign.

no they won't lol. it's such a small, disloyal, mostly right wing group of people, it's not worth bothering with. getting off the fence in a discernable way would be a massive strategic error.

Almost a century of cold war propaganda about socialism and the ideological remoulding of the proletariat into atomised utility-maximising consumers tends to make people cling to capitalism.

Sounds like the Blairites to me

Remember when we used to be called New Labour and we would win elections by a landside? Rather than doing really poorly and then celebrating anyway?

Perhaps not now, but eventually there will come a time to pick a side of the fence. The Tories won't pick because the Tories are stupid, and they'll be shoved into a soft Brexit by their backers. Why not go the other direction, especially when the other direction sits flush with a larger leftist policy anyway?

Spoiler this filth!
reported

That was a unique political, economic, social, and cultural moment that can't be recreated. It's not 1997 any more, get over it. Blair is totally unconvincing in todays environment.

"Look, if you want to be a part of a party that declares illegal wars you can get out."

Because that is a tiny constituency. Better to keep a distance and be ambiguous. Let the Tories own Brexit 100%.

SYRIZA 5.0
WHEN WILL SOCDEMS EVER LEARN???

Tbh Syriza were a good thing.

heh, look at this fuckin nerd

Worker ownership isn't socdem

This only works when you have a real Communist Party that criticizes Syriza the whole way.

That was the KKE and they failed to capitalize on the advantage.

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Rose? wyd?

hah…HAH

In the infantile mind of the leftcom, everything is socdem.

Corbyn I'm sorry for doubting you. Please, please be a legit Socialist.

Except the KKE Literally is
tell me how they aint?

I hate to agree with the ☭TANKIE☭ but jesus christ.

If every party trying to get elected is inherently tainted then why even comment on it? I mean fuck I don't exactly think a democratic coup for socialism is likely but is it really more unlikely than a military one? Isn't it possible that some parties aren't just made up of careerist politicians who don't care about anything but getting elected?

Thats Literally what every European communist/socialist party post Soviet Union IS
Just a bunch of old Soviet funded opposition and ex Soviet Politburo members just attempting to keep their pockets filled no matter the cost

So what's your alternative? Somehow seize power by taking no steps to seize power? And don't say 'my marxist sect of 7 people will build a parallel support base outside bourg democracy', because, fuck off, you know that will never work. Elections are politics to normal people and no matter how corrupt and fixed and unfair they are, you still have to play the game because there is no other alternative.

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In case of a conflict we will support Comrade Corbyn by providing arms to Labour militants.

LeftCom never changes. Any cooperation with USSR automatically disqualifies the movement.

Funny thing: there was "real Left" (KKE Interior) which split off from KKE in 1968 and declared that it wants nothing to do with USSR. What happened later? This KKE Interior split into EAR and AKOA by 1987 and later both became part of SYRIZA and dissolved.

Also, I'd like to clarify that KKE rejects the idea of government being able to execute revolutionary reforms.

American here. Why do left wing Europeans support the capitalist superstate known as the EU?

Pretty much it seems like you guys are leaving the EU but will also vote in full corbynism now.

What "left wing" are you talking about?

1: liberals aren't left wing. Actual somewhat not idiotic full cucked socdems and socialists are anti-EU or EU reformists at least (Corbyn, Mélenchon etc)
2: In two party system liberal democracies (see: all of europe) the only way to win elections is by throwing around meaningless buzzwords. So most of the time it just looks like this: Conservatives and reactionaries: UHHH EU LE BAD XDDDDDDD, liberals and other centrists: UHHHHHH EU LE GOOD XDDDDDDDDDD (see French elections)
All over Europe leftist parties acknowldge the flaws of the eu.

Liberals like it because muh feelings.
Most legitimate socdems (not blairite stooges, the Wilson kind) support it as a means for universal social democracy.
Actual socialists are at least soft eurosceptics.

To be fair: Where will they go?
It's a line of thought that can hole you beneath the waterline taken too far (see Scotland building up resentment during the Blair years.) but here there's less to worry about. In Scotland, sure, they can go to the SNP - but in England? Do you really think they'll go Lib-Dem?

tbh it's also worth considering as a tactic in the SocDem playbook, creating a closer integration between dominant socdem party and state. (I don't know if Sweden's SAP did anything like this, but Labour should aspire to SAP tier dominance of the British political scene.)

Corbyn isn't exactly a forceful television personality, in terms of pulling the camera towards him. People are regularly reminded that the Conservatives exist by merit of them being on television as the government - but Labour's fallen into the background after party-conference season. In an election period, news teams have to give parties roughly equal coverage so Corbyn can just talk and the cameras are forced to stick something up, but outside that period if he's not saying something major (and appropriately baiting the news teams into coming along), they just don't show up.

Remember when we oversaw turnout collapse to levels not seen in the history of universal suffrage?
Remember when we were so cravenly terrified of appearing left-wing that we tried to save RailTrack, the most incompetent organisation in the history of capitalism, rather than announcing the renationalisation of the railways in 1998?
Harold Wilson did more with a 3 seat majority than Blair did with a 170 seat majority.

tbh co-ops within an overall capitalist economy is totally socdem.
which i guess is partially reflected in the co-operative party being totally integrated with Labour.

In Britain, it was largely settled as a result of the 1980s.
Thatcher pushed British integration into the EEC, then turned around and decided she didn't like it after all. Meanwhile Labour called for withdrawal in 1983, but then their new leader Neil Kinnock found himself in love with the EEC because in Britain he was "Neil Kinnock, a joke" and in Europe he was "Neil Kinnock, potential prime minister." and the EEC was prepared to push some workers rights legislation. I believe at this point, the EEC was still dominated by France instead of Germany, so it had a sort of soft-Dirigisme to it. (Even if Mitterrand still betrayed his promises.)

What's more condemning from a political perspective (and also possibly largely why we have Brexit) is that Blairite types who genuinely loved and believed in the European project in both parties were afraid to articulate this because they didn't think the public also liked it. They elected to follow public opinion instead of trying to lead it - they rarely came out and made a passionate case for the EU, it was always cynical "oh you'll be so many pounds a week worse off outside", so it's never been an emotive thing in Britain the way it is in say France or Germany where there's a higher European ideal at play. Blair had more than enough political capital to make "Britain, A European nation" his legacy and he didn't do so. Instead his legacy will probably be allowing the woodrot that caused our eventual withdrawal to spread to an unmanageable degree.
(Not that I'm saying withdrawal is a bad thing. I'm just pointing out that those against it were completely inept because they thought they were being cynical and could brush it under the rug rather than going and making a genuine case for something they believed in.)

For the people shitting on Syriza I just want to remind people that the party lost 25 members, various resignations and had a party split because Tsipras sold out. It was by no means the entire parties fault.

Where do I sign up for the blairite purge units?

do they exist at all even?
I thought big man Jezza put them all into a metaphorical gulag

We don't, the EU was founded as a literal cartel, and has only ever served (nominally) European capital. That said, a political, military and economic union needn't be a bad thing in itself, so there is some disagreement on destroy the EU - reform the EU, with sucdems and some socialists believing in the latter. Of course, some people here don't even consider those to be properly left, so there's that…

no socialism is about stopping a door to door canvasing campaign because certain disabled people can't do it.

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burgers are really dumb and ruin a lot of threads
t. burger

I've always though this is the only way social democracy can work as a transformative strategy. If the politicians working within the bourgeois state are dedicated to building alternative bases of power than it doesn't matter if the state machinery resists ending capitalism, the mechanisms built outside the state will continue with the transformation on their own momentum.

??? This from a game?

we need an actual socialist European united states, everyone is self sufficient and trades in their abundance, free from all coercive forces.

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He's been way too soft on them imo, I would estimate more than half of Labour MPs are still Blairite wastes who hate Corbyn.

I agree, I term it a part of something called "Pessimistic Reformism". This is combining the electoral praxis of classic demsoc practise, with backing up with boots on the group. Now in the UK you can not get away with forming a paramilitary, but these kind of community groups that can act against the bourgeois state if it tries to get Junt-tier. The one ting this strikes me as is a group that could serve as a counter-coup measure: Corbyn goes on about how Allande is his hero, maybe he learnt from his mistakes.

Yes, Kaiserreich (For either Darkest Hour or Hearts of Iron IV).
BREAK THE CHAINS

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blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/in-defence-of-blairism-by-tony-blair/

Holy shit actually read it:
FUCK BLAIR

To play Devil's advocate, in America is what the "New Democrats" thought about moving to the right in the 90s, and the answer is that the voters don't go anywhere, they just stop voting. As you point out in your reply to the Blair troll, this same turnout collapse happened with New Labor in the UK
That said, I don't think Corbyn's opinion of the EU common market will be that big a deal, he's not turning his back on his core values like the center-left did.