Corbyn, 66, is determined to return the labor movement to its socialist roots. He sees the Labour Party as the collectivist expression of the hopes and dreams of the majority of the working class. [Courtesy: Heiko Khoo]
By Heiko Khoo: When David Cameron's Conservative Party won the British General Election in May, Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, accepted responsibility for the defeat and resigned. Now, elections are underway for a new Labour leader and the process has been electrified by the surprise entry of a lifelong outsider to mainstream politics, left-wing activist Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn, 66, is determined to return the labor movement to its socialist roots. He sees the Labour Party as the collectivist expression of the hopes and dreams of the majority of the working class. His vision for the future of the party and his program for change are radically different to the other three candidates -- Liz Kendal from the Blairite right-wing of the party (least popular); and Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham, members of the shadow cabinet and who served as ministers in the last Labour government. Publicly, they are seen as boring, stereotypical politicians -- evasive, power-hungry, and defenders of austerity -- supporting a basic social structure that reproduces the existing inequality of wealth and power. At the start of the campaign, Corbyn was seen as something of a joke candidate. He was helped to get into the ballot paper by MPs who do not support him, in order to "expand the debate." Now, however, he has leapt from a 100-1 outsider to being the odds-on favorite. If he wins on September 12, it will be one of the biggest political upset in the history of the British Labour Party and drastically change the British political landscape. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Labour supporters soon discovered that Corbyn represents something refreshing and fundamentally different. Consequently, some of his opponents have reacted strongly. For example, former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was visibly irritated when he made a speech in which he said that anyone whose heart tells him or her to vote for Corbyn needs a "heart transplant." Little did Blair realize that his intervention would actually increase support for the man he was reviling. Blair has been somewhat discredited by his role in allegedly misleading the British parliament into supporting the Iraq war in 2003. The Labour MP John Mann initially embarked on a one-man mission to smear Corbyn, by falsely implicating him in a cover-up of pedophilia, but when this failed, he changed tack and demanded that the election be halted because too many new people were signing up to vote! Mann is horrified because the party's new electoral system -- introduced this year -- gives equal votes to members of the party, members of affiliated trade unions, and a new category of party "supporters" who can register to vote for a nominal fee. The tens of thousands who have registered through trade unions and as "supporters" mostly favor Corbyn. The largest trade unions, "Unite" and "Unison," with over 2.6 million members between them, have also thrown their weight behind his candidacy because of his unwavering defence of workers' rights and his uncompromising opposition to austerity. Corbyn differs from the other candidates in both policies and personality. He joins demonstrations, strikes and protests. He has raised the flag of socialism in the Labour Party and thereby struck a deep vein of support for his ideas -- to invest in healthcare, education, and housing -- instead of managing capitalism for the wealthy by imposing austerity on the poor. He is bold, making proposals ranging from sweeping renationalization, to an investment bank for economic planning; from free education and grants for students, to rent control and a massive program to build affordable public housing with secure tenure. Many see him as consistent, plain-speaking, determined, principled, a candidate of integrity and hope. He is now mobbed by cheering fans at meetings -- a phenomenon which the media have called "Corbyn-mania!" Corbyn speaks in plain and simple language and answers questions directly clearly rather than evasively. He champions the rights of the oppressed and downtrodden. He has a knack for linking local, national and global issues into a unified concept that challenges the capitalist world order. He underlines injustice by posing questions: "Is it right that a million people rely on food banks every week? Is it right that millions of children live in poverty? Is it right that in the fourth richest country in the world that we see homeless people in every city?" There will certainly be a desperate campaign to stop Corbyn from winning this election, but so far everything points towards landslide victory. Heiko Khoo is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn, Source: Article
