COMMENTARY:
Let's get directly to the subject: Why so much noise about the UK's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn? First of all, Labour Party is a bourgeois party which poses no threat to the capitalist establishment. We don't speak about a revolutionary party of Marxist-Leninist principles, but about one of the two pillars (the other is, of course, the Conservative Party) of the British bourgeois political system. There is nothing revolutionary in a purely social-democratic party like the UK Labour Party. Having said that, let's go now to it's leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
What is the kind of "Left" that Corbyn represents? Like his party, is he, or not, fully committed to the capitalist system? The answer is absolutely clear: Corbyn is a bourgeois politician, a social-democrat with some so-called "progressive" ideas. The fact that he is "more progressive" than Tony Blair or David Cameron doesn't make him a choice for the country's working class. In the history of the UK Labour Party we have seen numerous ‘left-wing’, ‘progressive’ members, scores of leaders and senior MPs who have had what they referred to as ‘socialist’ politics- even more radical than Jeremy Corbyn. However, that doesn't change the political nature of the party as a vehicle of Social Democracy.
Some Corbyn supporters argue about his radical youth. We don't disagree that in the past Mr.Corbyn has been on the right side of history: as a young activist he was against the racist apartheid in South Africa, he opposed Chilean dictator Pinochet, supported the miners' strike, he was against the Afghanistan-Iraq wars etc. And, indeed, maybe Corbyn is an honest supporter of an anti-austerity policy. However, the real issue is his stance on the question: Reformism vs Revolution.
Like Alexis Tsipras in Greece, Jeremy Corbyn has expressed his pro-EU stance. Even in the recent EU referendum he stood in favor of Bremain, thus clearing the path for right-wing conservatives (like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farrage) to politically exploit the Brexit vote. He was among those who fostered illusions that EU can change, that can- supposedly- become a pro-people Union. This is the role of Social Democracy; to spread illusions in the working masses.
Like Tsipras, Corbyn is a Social Democrat who presents himself as a "radical" but in the end of the day he is the best supporter of the capitalist establishment. The slogans about anti-austerity and opposition to war are empty words when you remain loyal to the capitalist mode of production and the imperialist unions, like EU and NATO.
The British working class has nothing to gain from supporting the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn. The working people of Britain does not need a UK version of SYRIZA- on the contrary, the need a strong working class movement, capable of organising working class fighters who can challenge the capitalist establishment. The needed transformation in society will not come from any change in the leadership of bourgeois parties, but from the continuous aggravation of class struggle.
In Defense of Communism ©.