Re: <nettime> Corbyn as a medium is the message

[Richard Barbrook <richard@imaginaryfutures.net>]

Hiya,

> Corbyn is a true Black Swan moment. 

The timing of this Labour Left resurgence might be unexpected, but
it was inevitable sooner or later. Because of our First-Past-The-Post
electoral system, the various attempts to create an English version of 
Syriza or Podemos have always resulted in humiliation at the ballot box.
As a 1980s veteran, I knew that the Left's advance from direct action to 
state power in this country would have to begin *inside* the Labour party. 
Unlike the acolytes of fetishised ideologies, the people at Jeremy's rallies
who I've talked with have all had a commendably pragmatic attitude to this 
revival of English Social Democracy. As one of them said: "If nothing else, the 
mainstream media will no longer be able to exclude the anti-austerity case 
from the argument!" 

Of course, Jeremy winning the leadership is only the first step in the Left's 
long campaign to democratise and revitalise the Labour party. No one can 
have any doubt that the British establishment will fight viciously against this 
mortal threat to the neoliberal consensus. Whatever the future might bring, 
I'm savouring this wonderful moment when the Left's determination to hold
on to its forward base *inside* the Labour party created the breach for the
Corbynistas to break through the enemy's defences ...

Richard

Labour Representation Committee: http://l-r-c.org.uk/
People's Parliament: http://thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/

p.s. The Scottish Nationalists were successfully able to outflank Labour from the 
left in the 2015 general election because they'd already inherited the anti-Labour 
vote after Thatcher in the 1980s destroyed the Tory party in Scotland, i.e. 
First-Past-The-Post now works in their favour as 50% of the votes gave them 95% 
of the seats!

=======================

Dr. Richard Barbrook
Dept of Politics and IR,
University of Westminster
32-38 Wells Street
LONDON W1T 3UW
England

+44 (0)7879 441873

Skype: richard.barbrook
Facebook: Richard Barbrook
Twitter: @richardbarbrook

http://www.classwargames.net
http://www.politicsandmediafreedom.net
http://www.imaginaryfutures.net
http://www.cybersalon.org
http://www.theclassofthenew.net
http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/other-works

âThe proletarian revolution is that critique of
human geography through which individuals 
and communities will begin constructing places
and events suitable for the re-appropriation not
only of their labour, but also of their total 
history. By virtue of the resulting mobile 
spaces of play, and by virtue of freely chosen
variations in the rules of the game, the 
autonomy of place and the authenticity of life 
will be discovered.â

Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle.


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org