To
my friends in Bosnia Herzegovina. I think this is the right moment to
explain to you what is going on in my country – the misnamed
“United Kingdom”.
You and I know – you much more than me –
the terrible results of corrupt political practices and how staged
nationalism, manufactured racism and fascist nostalgia are threats to
our humanity, to our lives.
My
father used to joke that, “You can always tell the honest
politician. He is wearing a pink hat.” There have been few pink
hats in your country. In mine too, but weirdly, and against the odds,
there has been one in recent years. His name is Jeremy Corbyn.
He
became leader of our Labour Party and with him came 400,000 new
members. Me included. Most were young and eager to support a
Corbyn-led party that would defend the weak, reverse the Neo-Liberal
privatisation of our National Health Service and national utilities,
promote peace in place of war and ensure the richest 1% at least
started paying their share of taxes.
As
in your country the odds against him, and us, were too great. Not in
terms of numbers, but in terms of who had the most money and could
shout the loudest - The billionaire Press and broadcast media, (I am
sure many of you will be shocked that the BBC led the way here), and
the influence of foreign states.
But,
as in your country, the good overwhelms the bad. I may be too old and
ill to have the chance to witness our victory, but it will come.
Across the Adriatic from you a victim of an earlier fascism, Antonio
Gramsci, said from his prison cell, “Pessimism of the spirit.
Optimism of the will.” DA, SI, YES
Just after MPs pocketed a 10% pay rise they voted for yet more social security cuts. The only Labour Party leadership candidate to oppose the cuts is Jeremy Corbyn. Unsurprisingly he is now ahead in the polls and likely to increase his lead after these comments. From Tony Blair, “I wouldn't want to win on an old-fashioned leftist platform … If your heart is with Corbyn get a transplant” From Blair's former adviser, John McTernan, “These figures are disastrous for the Labour party, disastrous. Corbyn supporters are “suicidally inclined … They need their heads felt … They are morons.” Today I am going to join the suicidal and the morons. As someone who has always argued that participation in the parliamentary road is tantamount to disturbing the dead, this is a big decision for me. But Jeremy is my local MP and has always stood against neo-liberalism, against war, Trident and for Palestine. Anyone can vote in the Labour Party leadership election, which is now run on the basis of one-person-one vote and is open to a new category of Labour supporter. Registration as a supporter costs just £3. Join me. Then read more about what I think about disturbing the dead in 'Left Field'.
