By Daviemoo
Yesterday afternoon, prominent leftist RMT leader Mick Lynch was quoted in the UK Guardian as stating that leftists in the UK need to “grow up a bit” and accept that Starmer is the most likely to win and that we should accept that. This morning, the RMT – along with Lynch- are quoted as confirming that they would back Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming general election, should he decide to run a political campaign. And yet I’m told wait for manifestos and hope and pray that Starmer isn’t like he’s saying he is and all of that wishy washy garbage from everyone else.
I cannot be the only one who is fed up of the inconsistency of leftists in the UK on these points. I can’t even enjoy the public sacking and humiliation of disgusting bigoted fool 30p Lee Anderson…
I certainly appreciate Mick Lynch as a figure many on the left came to revere, for his straight talking and absolutely unparalleled knowledge on the issues of British workers and the failings of the Tories, plus being a sensible voice for more socialist values in modern Britain. I didn’t agree with everything he said- as a lexiter, Lynch has made clear he thinks brexit was the right thing done handled badly- and yet I do admire a brexiteer who understands the actual nuts of the issue and lexiters seem to have a more solid grasp on the issues with our EU membership and of our leaving. We don’t agree about leaving (yet- more on that further down) but we do agree it was mismanaged horrendously. But it’s on these perceived inconsistencies that I get absolutely frustrated with British leftists.
Firstly I don’t think any of us are under any illusions on Starmer. He is going to win. There is no doubt in my mind that he will. My frustration is in peoples continual dual threaded responses to people like me, telling me Labour absolutely need my vote, and when i respond that they do nothing to draw it but not be on the conservatives team, I’m immediately told my vote doesn’t matter. In further leftists spaces this isn’t the issue so much as this inconsistent line. Stick to your leftist values but vote Labour and don’t be angry but stand for what you believe.
I’ve tried as hard as I can to eke out a space in labour. I’ve asked for my views to be affirmed, argued for them, demanded they be respected, threatened to withdraw support based on the treatment of the issues. Finally I elected to do as Starmer himself requested in the article he wrote in the Telegraph requesting that leftists who “still believed in the project of Corbynism” use the door.
I don’t want to not stand with our best chance of beating the Tories, nor am I one of the doomsayers who think that Labour will immediately be as bad as the Tories. If you want my more hopeful thoughts, i think Labour will do a lot to diffuse the issues we face. But I do not see any proof from their actions, their promises (the ones they stick to…) etc that they will actually attack the problems at their root and stop them from hurting people who then fall to the radical streams of thought that give people an enemy to attack, even in the face of the common sense of the Tories being responsible. I see Labour as a gateway to the worrying scenario America faces- Joe Biden whose leadership hardly inspires or fascism.
I really do think America will fall to Trumpism this year. And i think, given America’s position in global influence, it means dark times for all of us. But I also think that situation isn’t unique. People America wide are so defeated by the paltry choices that they’re failing to show up for democrats because they don’t see them as effectual and that is paving the way for Trump’s undebatable radicalism. We’re watching people so disaffected by politics they’re refusing to vote against their own utter, inescapable misery again.
I can see that utter disenfranchisement heading here under Starmer vs- who knows, Braverman, Badenoch… Tice?
Perhaps I’m wrong. I find myself really hoping i am lately. It’s weird to have a deep and abiding fascination with geopolitics and to pray I’m wrong constantly. My vision of the future is disturbingly dark. But I can’t see this ending any other way. I’m told that labour absolutely have to become this moderated iteration to win, my politics are leftist and that I can’t be annoyed by not being offered the politics I believe in. I’ve spent two days being called “student politics” by a labour supporter too scared to show his own face.
Yes, if you are so reductive, labour is the better choice. Even if you aren’t reductive yes they will do things that will lessen some issues.
But listening to key left figures constantly arguing for moderation is driving me insane. This moderation approach doesn’t solve the very issue that’s leading to the radicalism of crazy Tories and Trump supporters. How is not pushing for better politics further from their insanity solving things? It’s a long game, yes, this I grasp- but what does skipping our turn solve?
I don’t understand what anybody in the main sphere actually wants.
Here I am, a leftist who wants leftism who is told I cant have it and that I have to pick from two options I don’t like and complaining about it is wrong, then people who feel the same as me argue the same mind numbing fucking point; that we just have to settle. If you want to settle then settle but this avoidance of the plethora of views outside the forced binary is absolutely headache inducing. If you want me to vote down the ticket for a party who just won’t fulfil the hopes i have, do you also expect my silence? That’d be why the right are so comfortable ironically throwing the fascism label at liberals, I guess- because liberals don’t say it but they want your abiding loyalty, your vote, and if they can’t compel it through the worst case scenario argument and force you to be quiet about your feelings they’ll just besmirch you as equal to the right wing fools who want to vote for everyone’s misery including their own. Why ever did i call my blog politically enraged- because politics is absolutely enraging.
On the whole brexit debacle, I’m currently asking myself if we might have actually accidentally lucked out by leaving the union when it’s increasingly likely that hard right and even far right populists seem to be taking hold of the bloc in many countries. If the EU does become swallowed by Le Pens, Melonis and more perhaps we’re better off not mucking in with them. So when people I often agree with on big issues sometimes shock me with a curveball I can manage. But watching this flippancy about the long term repercussions of giving in to this eternal capitulation to less leftist politics play out through the minds of prominent UK politics figures really is eating my brain. I don’t want to continuously whinge about the options on the table, but it’s how i feel and the determination of others to shut it down is exhausting. I’ll be dragged to the polls in this country kicking and screaming at this point, because i don’t see the options given as pointful. If you don’t agree that’s your right. I hope I’m wrong- because if I’m not, we’re merely at the threshold of suffering to come, and all because people see leftism as an impossibility in a country that rolls over for the right at every single turn, creating their own self fulfilling prophecy and venting their rage at those of us concerned enough to raise the alarm.
Politically Enraged 