Marxism Today
Ian Birrell wrote a thoughtful piece for The Independent the other day in which he reported that 'wannabe' Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is coming across all coy about whether or not he is still a Marxist.
Now there's nothing wrong about being a Marxist, just as there's nothing inherently wrong about being a Mormon or a Jehovah's witness, although what puzzles me is how a 66-year old Labour MP who's been in the House of Commons for 32 years can suddenly be so vague as to where his political aims and values lie.
So, of course, Jeremy is a Marxist, in fact he is a good old fashioned Trotskyite Marxist, as opposed to a Stalinist Marxist or a Eurocommunist Marxist, and if you ask me he is still stuck in the same political position that saw him elected to the Westminster parliament back in 1983.
Broadly speaking, Jeremy's brand of Marxism means that he is opposed to a market-based economy while supporting much more nationalisation and public ownership, he is in favour of stronger trade unions but not more representative trade unions of course, he supports the repeal of trade union legislation on pre-strike ballots, for example, but opposes Scottish independence and the UK's continued membership of the European Union, while in terms of foreign policy Jeremy is avowedly anti-American, or anti-American imperialism as he would probably prefer to say.
Broadly speaking, Jeremy's brand of Marxism means that he is opposed to a market-based economy while supporting much more nationalisation and public ownership, he is in favour of stronger trade unions but not more representative trade unions of course, he supports the repeal of trade union legislation on pre-strike ballots, for example, but opposes Scottish independence and the UK's continued membership of the European Union, while in terms of foreign policy Jeremy is avowedly anti-American, or anti-American imperialism as he would probably prefer to say.
In other words Jeremy Corbyn is carrying an awful lot of political baggage and that's without delving into Marxist Leninist dogma about 'vanguardism' or the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' justify the practice of democracy through highly organised political elites who see themselves as more enlightened than the 'masses' whom they claim to represent.
Trade unions are often regarded as 'vanguard' organisations in the language of the Marxist class struggle, the central aim of which is to overthrow capitalism, as we know it today, and hand power over to workers representatives who would make decisions through appointed committees while generally running the bosses and bankers out of town.
Trade unions are often regarded as 'vanguard' organisations in the language of the Marxist class struggle, the central aim of which is to overthrow capitalism, as we know it today, and hand power over to workers representatives who would make decisions through appointed committees while generally running the bosses and bankers out of town.
Yeah right, as they say, it's a bit like Lanarkshire Labour writ large while enjoying the support on unrepresentative trade union representatives.
And while this kind of idiot leftism may appeal to a hollowed-out Labour party where all the big beasts have left the stage, the Corbyn message of protest will go down like a lead balloon if Jeremy leads Labour into the 2020 general election.
No wonder Jeremy Corbyn is reportedly running scared to doing a serious interview with the likes of the BBC's Andrew Neil because Neil, unlike Corbyn's rivals to become to become Labour leader, has the experience and depth to expose some of the nonsense which stands behind Corbyn's anti-austerity soundbites.
You can read Ian Birrell's article in The Independent for yourself by following this link:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/vote-jeremy-corbyn-if-labour-does-it-will-soon-get-over-its-leftwing-fantasy-10433855.html
