First we had the Syriza coming to power through the ballot in Greece on a far left platform and now we have Jeremy Corbyn being elected leader of the Labour Party in England on an equally far left platform following the resignation of Ed Miliband who failed to win the recent elections in U.K. on a relatively lesser leftist platform. Given the fact that historically parliamentary left parties have not been able to stand up to the powerful Corporate entities that control the world, what are the chances of their being able to do so now. Especially as it is much easier for Corporations to shift their production and administration out of a particular country at the drop of a hat without much dislocation and leave the Government and the people in the lurch.
The Syriza in Greece for instance could not stick to its far left platform because the Government it ran very soon found itself broke after coming to power. Anticipating the popular mood and the very real likelihood of the left coming to power through the ballot, the corporates shifted their money out of the country before the elections and business which generates tax revenues came down to a trickle. The choice was either to bow to the demands of the creditors or isolate the country from the global economy and bear the extreme hardships entailed in doing so. Used to a comfortable lifestyle, the majority of the Greeks were not prepared for this latter course and so even though they had initially voted the left to power on an anti-austerity platform, when push came to shove they did not have the guts to cock a snook at the might of global capitalism and face the consequences.
The Labour Party in England has been trying to rebuild its traditional socialist platform again after the pro-capitalist stance that it had acquired under Blair and Brown earlier seemed to make it more and more a clone of the Conservatives. Ed Miliband, the earlier leader before Corbyn, had led a fairly leftist campaign for the U.K. parliamentary elections in May this year and was undone in the end by being wiped out in Scotland by the Scottish Nationalist Party. The difference in terms of vote share between Labour and Conservatives was not much - just 6.5 per cent with the latter getting only 36.9 per cent of the votes polled whereas those who did not vote constituted a whopping 33.9 per cent meaning that only 24.4 per cent of the electorate voted for the Conservatives and 20.1 per cent of the electorate voted for Labour. Since 50 per cent of the Labour party members voted for Corbyn's left platform one may safely assume that 10 per cent of the U. K. electorate or less are likely to be active votaries of such a left platform. Meaning that even though many people may be critical of the way in which the Corporates are squeezing their livelihoods, they are not really convinced that a socialist blueprint will solve their livelihood problems in a sustainable manner.
Corbyn celebrated his victory by going to a pub and singing the Labour Party anthem "Red Flag" with his supporters as shown below. The Red Flag is a panegyric to the heroism of the workers throughout the world who have fought and laid down their lives but while being heart rousing it contains little to convince the populace at large to lay down their lives for the socialist cause. What Corbyn will have to do is make the general populace believe that it will indeed be possible to tax the rich, preventing tax avoidance and evasion by them, cut down on military expenditure, especially the maintenance of a nuclear deterrent and nationalise British rail without making its running a burden on the exchequer given that nationalisation will immediately hike up the wage bill.
Contract labour, small businesses and self employment have become the order of the day throughout the world and very much so in the U.K. Many Government services, including the National Health Service run through outsourcing. Moreover, most of the people are under the spell of consumerism and aspire for the luxurious lives that the rich lead. Under the circumstances just slogan shouting and the singing of revolutionary songs will not do. Corbyn will have to get down to the drawing board and work out in graphic detail how exactly he is going to implement all that he has said and yet keep the British economy floating in the face of trenchant opposition from local and global capital. That is a credible plan catering for all aspects of the economy and society from the micro to the macro with responsibilities and resources at each level has to be mapped out if Labour has to get votes from people including from the large section that is not voting.
The unholy trinity of the Military-Industrial-Financial Complex which controls the world today has already begun planning in earnest to thwart Corbyn!!! It must be remembered that after being taken by surprise in the initial years by the victory of the Bolshevik party in Russia in 1917, capitalism has worked hard to stymie the possibility of further such revolutions and the post revolutionary socialist states in Russia and China too have later morphed into capitalist ones not a little due to the machinations of the Capitalists. Though, initially capitalists made some concessions to the working classes and agreed to welfare measures and better working conditions funded by the imperial and neo-imperial exploitation of the third world, later they used technology to roll back these concessions and so emasculated the parliamentary left and trade unionism from the late 1980s onwards. Today the Corporate entities are hugely powerful and devious, controlling the economy, universities and the media with a well chalked out plan. Any battle against them will involve being ready to bear huge hardships and commitment to change from the masses which are not there at present.
The Syriza in Greece for instance could not stick to its far left platform because the Government it ran very soon found itself broke after coming to power. Anticipating the popular mood and the very real likelihood of the left coming to power through the ballot, the corporates shifted their money out of the country before the elections and business which generates tax revenues came down to a trickle. The choice was either to bow to the demands of the creditors or isolate the country from the global economy and bear the extreme hardships entailed in doing so. Used to a comfortable lifestyle, the majority of the Greeks were not prepared for this latter course and so even though they had initially voted the left to power on an anti-austerity platform, when push came to shove they did not have the guts to cock a snook at the might of global capitalism and face the consequences.
The Labour Party in England has been trying to rebuild its traditional socialist platform again after the pro-capitalist stance that it had acquired under Blair and Brown earlier seemed to make it more and more a clone of the Conservatives. Ed Miliband, the earlier leader before Corbyn, had led a fairly leftist campaign for the U.K. parliamentary elections in May this year and was undone in the end by being wiped out in Scotland by the Scottish Nationalist Party. The difference in terms of vote share between Labour and Conservatives was not much - just 6.5 per cent with the latter getting only 36.9 per cent of the votes polled whereas those who did not vote constituted a whopping 33.9 per cent meaning that only 24.4 per cent of the electorate voted for the Conservatives and 20.1 per cent of the electorate voted for Labour. Since 50 per cent of the Labour party members voted for Corbyn's left platform one may safely assume that 10 per cent of the U. K. electorate or less are likely to be active votaries of such a left platform. Meaning that even though many people may be critical of the way in which the Corporates are squeezing their livelihoods, they are not really convinced that a socialist blueprint will solve their livelihood problems in a sustainable manner.
Corbyn celebrated his victory by going to a pub and singing the Labour Party anthem "Red Flag" with his supporters as shown below. The Red Flag is a panegyric to the heroism of the workers throughout the world who have fought and laid down their lives but while being heart rousing it contains little to convince the populace at large to lay down their lives for the socialist cause. What Corbyn will have to do is make the general populace believe that it will indeed be possible to tax the rich, preventing tax avoidance and evasion by them, cut down on military expenditure, especially the maintenance of a nuclear deterrent and nationalise British rail without making its running a burden on the exchequer given that nationalisation will immediately hike up the wage bill.
The unholy trinity of the Military-Industrial-Financial Complex which controls the world today has already begun planning in earnest to thwart Corbyn!!! It must be remembered that after being taken by surprise in the initial years by the victory of the Bolshevik party in Russia in 1917, capitalism has worked hard to stymie the possibility of further such revolutions and the post revolutionary socialist states in Russia and China too have later morphed into capitalist ones not a little due to the machinations of the Capitalists. Though, initially capitalists made some concessions to the working classes and agreed to welfare measures and better working conditions funded by the imperial and neo-imperial exploitation of the third world, later they used technology to roll back these concessions and so emasculated the parliamentary left and trade unionism from the late 1980s onwards. Today the Corporate entities are hugely powerful and devious, controlling the economy, universities and the media with a well chalked out plan. Any battle against them will involve being ready to bear huge hardships and commitment to change from the masses which are not there at present.
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