Only a few months after the Labour Party’s
defeat in national elections in May 2015, the socialist, left-wing Jeremy
Corbyn was elected as the party’s new leader carried by a wave of enthusiasm in-
and outside the party. The book Corbyn’s
Campaign (Spokesman, 2016) provides interesting insights in crucial
aspects of this campaign and reflects on the possibilities for a socialist
renewal in Britain today. In this blog post, I will report on the book launch
with three of the authors, Tom Unterrainer, Adele Williams and Tony Simpson,
which took place at the Five Leaves
Bookshop in Nottingham on 27 January 2016.
Nottingham played a crucial part in this
victory, as it was here on 28 June 2015 that Corbyn spoke at his
first campaign rally. As he ‘later told the BBC’s Robert Peston, “we knew
something was happening when a hundred people turned up on a Sunday lunchtime
in Nottingham at 24 hours’ notice”’ (Corbyn’s
Campaign, P.9).
Opportunities
to re-define Socialism
In his contribution at the book launch,
editor Tom Unterrainer argued that the ground for Corbyn’s victory had ultimately
been prepared by the ongoing anti-war and anti-austerity campaigns across the
country. It is the consolidation of this political movement, which had provided
the basis for a successful campaign. Importantly, the idea behind the book is
not only to analyse the campaign itself, but to address the tough question of
what should come next in order to fulfil the promises of Corbyn’s victory and
the hope of activists rallying around his campaign.
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| Photo by Ivan Wels |
This situation now offers the
opportunity to reflect on how to re-build the idea of socialism, understood as
consisting of fairness and freedom, Unterrainer continued. Fairness in the
workplace has clearly been lost in a situation, in which workers on zero hours
are super exploited by companies such as Sports Direct, which names and shames individual
workers for ‘not working hard enough’ and has them body searched after every
shift (see Sports
Direct, Stop your shameful work practices). Freedom at the work place, in
turn, signifies the right of workers to determine themselves their ways of
working. In other words, it is time to re-open the discussion about economic
democracy at the work place and workers’ control.
Transforming
the Labour Party
Adele Williams, secretary of the
Sherwood Labour Party, told the meeting how the campaign had energised existing
party members to become active again as well as attracted a whole range of new
activists to the party. As a result of the grassroots campaign’s support of
Corbyn, it is now again possible to talk about politics in a different way,
focusing on the day-to-day problems, which really matter to people.
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| Photo by Ivan Wels |
Building on and strengthening further
these deep foundations of the party is essential in the months and years ahead,
Williams argued, to keep the political right inside the party at bay. Working
groups on education, private rent and other related topics are being set up, as
are local street meet-ups of the Labour Party in order to harness the power of
party activists and help developing policies, which resonate with people and the
wider public.
Corbyn:
Internationalist at Work
Tony Simpson, editor of the Spokesman,
journal of the Bertrand Russell Peace
Foundation, concluded the presentations by pointing out that the importance
of the current wave of democratisation energising the Labour Party, had already
been discussed by Ken Coates and his book Democracy
in the Labour Party, written in 1977. Back then, as now, inner party
democracy and workers’ control at the work place became topics for discussion.
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| Photo by Ivan Wels |
Moreover, Simpson highlighted key
moments of Corbyn’s internationalism. First, his assessment of the problems in
Syria and how British policy has contributed to the ongoing war provides an
important corrective to the official government position. Second, Corbyn’s
clear and principled opposition to the renewal of Trident, the spending of vast
sums of money on superfluous weapons, mark him out as a politician, keenly
aware of the need to think about international relations in novel ways.
The meeting ended with a call by
Unterrainer to continue building the movement for socialism. It is not enough
to work for a new government and expect that it will carry out drastic changes
on its own. Ultimately, transformation will depend on a mass movement
supporting Corbyn’s policies for social justice, fairness and freedom.
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| Photo by Ivan Wels |
This is clearly a significant book, covering most remarkable events. I strongly recommend it for reading to everyone interested in transforming Britain into a fairer and more just society.
Prof. Andreas Bieler
Professor of Political Economy
University of Nottingham/UK
Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk
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