Un Swissroll

On Un Swissroll, my take on the British General Election (in French). I share here my views on the state of the Left and it’s future.

The 2015 surprise election of Corbyn as leader of Labour has been followed by a complete change of the party:

• The fraction of far left dinosaurs around Corbyn has taken over all the levers of control inside the party. They have no intention to surrender them despite their appalling result at the General Election: they want a corbynite after Corbyn.

• After 4 years the composition of the membership has been transformed, thanks to waves of younger and idealistic members: the party is now solidly out of tune with the aspirations of the voters and society at large, and revolutionarily proud of it!

Some people have started (re)joining Labour in order to take part in the election of the next leadership. But it will go nowhere without organising a proper campaign to transform the party again: now is not the time to trust some invisible hand! Basically, we need a drive for one million Labour (former) voters to join, but where is the potential leader with a clear program of renewal? I don’t really see this happening.

However, there is an alternative: accepting that we are at the end of an historical cycle for a Left based on class struggle (after all, Social-Democracy did win the argument for a regulated market economy with welfare provision!). Corbyn has destroyed Labour, but Johnson is also destroying the old Right.The next elections will be in 4 or 5 years. Now is the time to build anew the two main parties.

Better to abandon the politically, ethically and financially bankrupt remains of the Labour Party to the corbynites. We need the 120 or 150 pragmatic MPs (at the start) to breakaway and elect their leader, who will immediately take over as leader of HM Opposition and the Shadow Cabinet, then call on Labour members and all interested citizens to join and for Unions to stop supporting the corbynite party. They have nothing to loose and a few years to organise. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joining the new party could be a welcome boost…

#politix