In declaring their support for Zionism, the three
contenders for Corbyn’s crown are offering only the
cynical politics of old
By Jonathan CookFebruary 22, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" -
In recent years the British Labour party has grown
rapidly to become
one of the largest political movement in Europe,
numbering
more than half a million members, many of them
young people who had previously turned their backs
on national politics.
The reason was simple: a
new leader,
Jeremy Corbyn, had shown that it was possible to
rise to the top of a major party without being
forced to sacrifice one’s principles along the way
and become just another
machine politician.
Politics of cynicism
But as Corbyn prepares to
step down after a devastating election defeat,
statements by the three contenders,
Lisa Nandy, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Keir Starmer,
for his crown suggest that his efforts to reinvent
Labour as a mass, grassroots movement are quickly
unravelling. A politics of cynicism – dressed only
loosely in progressive garb - has returned to
replace Corbyn's popular democratic socialism.
Leadership candidates are once again carefully
cultivating their image and opinions – along with
their hairstyles, clothes and accents – to satisfy
the orthodoxies they fear will be rigidly enforced
by a billionaire-owned media and party bureaucrats.
Labour’s lengthy
voting procedure for a new leader begins this
weekend, with the winner announced in early April.
But whoever takes over the party reins, the most
likely outcome will be a revival of deep
disillusionment with British politics on the left.
The low-point of the candidates' campaigning, and
their betrayal of the movement that propelled Corbyn
on to the national stage, came last week at a
"hustings" jointly organised by the Jewish
Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel. These
two party organisations are
cheerleaders for Israel, even as it
prepares to annex much of the West Bank,
supported by the Trump administration, in an attempt
to crush any hope of a Palestinian state ever being
established.
Leadership candidates are once again carefully cultivating their image and opinions – along with their hairstyles, clothes and accents – to satisfy the orthodoxies they fear will be rigidly enforced by a billionaire-owned media and party bureaucrats.
Labour’s lengthy voting procedure for a new leader begins this weekend, with the winner announced in early April. But whoever takes over the party reins, the most likely outcome will be a revival of deep disillusionment with British politics on the left.
The low-point of the candidates' campaigning, and their betrayal of the movement that propelled Corbyn on to the national stage, came last week at a "hustings" jointly organised by the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel. These two party organisations are cheerleaders for Israel, even as it prepares to annex much of the West Bank, supported by the Trump administration, in an attempt to crush any hope of a Palestinian state ever being established.
Asked if they were Zionists, two of the candidates –
Nandy, the climate change secretary, and
Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, who is
widely touted as representing
"continuity Corbynism" –
declared they indeed were.