News Meanwhile, from left field - Jeremy Corbyn, UK Labour Party

[Astronuc]

I was listening to PRI's The World yesterday, and heard a piece about Jeremy Corbyn, UK Labour Party.
Britain's Bernie Sanders moment?
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-08-14/britains-bernie-sanders-moment

He promises socialist reforms vowing to take his party’s leadership further to the left than it’s been in decades. Huge crowds are turning out to hear his message. We’re not talking about Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — this is Jeremy Corbyn, the man in line to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party.

Labour leadership: Jeremy Corbyn completes the line-up
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-33127323

Jeremy Corbyn means trouble, and not just for UK’s Labour party
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/311c4e18-426e-11e5-b98b-87c7270955cf.html#axzz3iuwCFAAh (may need subscription)

Labour leadership: Don't back Corbyn, say Kendall and Cooper
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-33921047

Labour leadership: At-a-glance guide to the contenders
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32654262http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-33000155

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-33942238

It would be interesting if Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn were elected to prominent leadership positions.

 

[jedishrfu]

Or if they switched countries :-)

 

[Astronuc]

Jeremy Corbyn, the runaway favorite in a contest to lead the opposition Labour Party, opposes NATO and nuclear weapons, plans to apologize for the invasion of Iraq and wants to end austerity, heavily tax the rich and nationalize Britain's railways.

http://news.yahoo.com/60-something-socialist-britains-unlikely-political-star-094842757.html

"If Corbyn tops the leadership ballot when results are announced Sept.12, it will mark an abrupt left turn for a Labour Party that has been moving toward the center for decades."

Stay tuned - we'll find out next Saturday.

 

[mheslep]

Just how far left can a politician go and still be summarized as "interesting?" Was Venezuela's Chavez interesting? Castro? Because Corbyn is out there on the edge of the left. If elected leaders seize all the means of production, abolish elections and private property as bourgeois, and send off dissidents to reeducation, do they at some point make the label "interesting" into a mask for a fanatic?

Ian Birrell, contributing editor to the UK's mail, for comparison with Corbyn, in yesterday's paper recalled Labor's 1980 choice Michael Foot , who "demanded widespread nationalization and unilateral nuclear disarmament" in his 1980 election manifesto. The manifesto

...was called by one senior party figure "the longest suicide note in history.". Shortly after Foot took the reins [of Labor], 20 [MPs] defected to form a new centrist party.

The point, per Birrell, was that Foot was "moderate compared with Mr. Corbyn" and Foot was also an "admired author, orator and intellectual".

Also see Nick Cohen's essay in Standpoint:

Jeremy Corbyn encapsulated everything that was deceitful about his campaign to be leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition when he claimed he wanted to prioritise “the needs of the poor and the human rights of us all”. From the point of view of the poor and the oppressed, his words were a grim joke.

Like many from the Left’s dark corners, Corbyn does not believe in the human rights of “us all”. He is concerned only with the rights of those whose oppression is politically useful. If the oppressed’s suffering can be blamed on the West, he will defend them. If not, he is on their enemies’ side.

A short and far from comprehensive tour of the regimes Corbyn has supported includes the geriatric Cuban dictatorship, the corrupt and extraordinarily incompetent Chavistas ...