Corbyn's election as Labour leader transforms UK politics
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 17, 2015
The landslide victory of Jeremy Corbyn in Britain's Labour Leadership election marks a fundamental change in the country's politics.
The Labour Party that Tony Blair claimed to have transformed into a modern electoral machine – occupying the so-called middle ground, defending big business, and supporting U.S.-led military interventions around the world – is no more.
READ: • What Jeremy Corbyn's victory means for China
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The scale of Corbyn's victory, despite a huge campaign against him, means he now has time to take initiatives that can anchor new ways of working and thinking into the party DNA. His allies are the grassroots members, while his enemies command the party machine and constitute the overwhelming majority of the parliamentary party.
The weakness of socialist ideas in the parliamentary Labour Party and media hostility to Corbyn means he has to establish his own channels of communication not only with party members but also with the wider public he must win over to become prime minister eventually.
Corbyn wants to develop systems of economic planning to meet social needs. Areas of particular interest are public investment in infrastructure, housing, healthcare and education.
For decades, British trade unions were docile in the face of changing power-relations favouring the employers, producing a long-term decline in union membership.
Although there are several unions led by militant socialists, to date they have been unable to mobilise worker unrest effectively enough to challenge the employers' domination.
Emboldened by Corbyn's election, the unions will now beef-up their support for a struggle against austerity based on combining extra-parliamentary demonstrations, protests and strikes with political work to democratise the Labour Party and prepare it for the next general election.
The influx of hundreds of thousands of new party members will provide the foot soldiers needed to ensure there is mass participation in the process of policy debate and in the planning of policy initiatives. It is through formulating the details of new policies for growth that Labour can initiate the revitalisation of community life and the construction of a modern and efficient national infrastructure.
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