En Passant

The stunning election results of Jeremy Corbyn’s UK Labour Party prepare a path for the ALP, writes John Passant in Independent Australia

I was democratically elected leader of our party for a new kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters, and I will not betray them by resigning. Today’s vote by MPs has no constitutional legitimacy. We are a democratic party, with a clear constitution. Our people need Labour party members, trade unionists and MPs to unite behind my leadership at a critical time for our country.

I wrote this in September in response to the enthusiasm for change that Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for and stunning election to the leadership of the British Labour Party inspired. It compares that enthusiasm and upsurge in Labour Party membership to the insipid Labor Party here. I say in part:

‘Many of my readers will be hoping for a Jeremy Corbyn in Australia to move the Labor Party here to the left. There is no Corbyn in the Parliamentary Labor Party. The Labor left, such as it is, is thoroughly imbued with the logic of neoliberalism. In the main it is a tribal allegiance rather than an ideological ferment of ideas to challenge capitalism. You never hear the S word from these very models of a modern major general of capital. None of the possible contenders for Corbyn down under have the same track record as Corbyn in opposing austerity or fighting against social and political injustice. Indeed people like Albanese and Plibersek have been Ministers in Labor governments that have implemented neoliberal policies and attacked public services and workers’ rights and conditions. They are part of the very problem Corbyn is fighting against.’

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In light of the coup threats, Corbyn has to build the movement he has started into a genuine mass grass roots movement. In the community rallies he is holding or will hold across the country he could also begin discussing a people’s militia to defend the gains his election will bring and to radicalise the working class in its workplaces in defence of his incoming government. On top of that he could start agitating for democracy among the rank and file of the defence forces now.

The support for Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign is a very good sign but British Labour isn’t the answer, argues Charlie Kimber, national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in Socialist Worker UK

The election result in Britain is a disaster writes Charlie Kimber in Socialist Worker UK. Labour lost because it was too right wing, not because it was too left wing.