The Digger

Excerpt : Why I Don’t Support Corbyn Anybody who has read my earlier essays on Corbyn will probably have already sussed my views on the man and more especially, the political party that has been his life-long domain (35 years or so in Parliament as a Labour back bencher).[2] Before that, a full-time trade union worker. The major reason that most of the left advance for supporting Jeremy Corbyn appears to boil down to the fact that there is simply no alternative, that Corbyn is the best we’ve got to offer. That even a bad Labour government is better than a Tory one. But is this really true? This is, after all, the argument that has been used to justify voting for Labour, literally for decades. If true, then there is no alternative to the endless, first this then that approach to (no) real change. The end product of this view is an endless spiral downwards to the bottom, with the idea of socialism receding ever further into the distance with every election that passes. At the e...

The Russia collusion narrative is on its last legs. Brexit has vaguely shown up in the MSM while the ‘gilets jaunes’ movement has been unceremoniously buried. As expected, Theresa May has survived Corbyn’ no-confidence vote in her government by 19 votes. Of the 256 Labour MPs 81 (the neoliberal Blairite wing) support a fresh Brexit referendum. The Maastricht model rules their undemocratic World Order.   And two socialist strategists; “pragmatic” reformist Leo Panitch and revolutionary socialist Costas Lapavitsas’ diverging tactics indirectly butt heads on Labour’s socialist path to socialism in the Brexit context. The differences in their respective understanding of the fierce and indomitable power of the anti-democratic, liberal-illiberal, neoliberal EU technocracy confronting socialists seem to lie at the core of their irreconcilably divergent opinions. If socialism in its final democratic form is to have a chance socialists must come down from their lofty ac...

What, if anything, is wrong with this picture? Excerpt: "I’m English, which means I have European blood and believe that my country ‘belongs’ in Europe. And I’m interested in our history. It is a matter of record that for millennia Europeans have continually fought each other, culminating in two devastating world wars. There’s a lot wrong about the European Union; most EU citizens, including myself, want to see some reforms. But this, for me, is the most precious thing about the EU - that since its foundation we have had peace. And of course, the EU is the largest trading bloc in the world. It makes no sense for a small country (admittedly far too self-important) to leave it. The very thought frightens me. And this increases my fear: that we will be at the mercy of the rise of populism, right-wing politics and corporate bullying. I’m left-wing; I want politics that put people first. But the Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, the man who put together a Party ma...