{"id":5282,"date":"2017-06-18T12:29:50","date_gmt":"2017-06-18T19:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=5282"},"modified":"2017-06-18T12:30:24","modified_gmt":"2017-06-18T19:30:24","slug":"jeremy-corbyn-leading-left-wilderness-toward-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/06\/18\/jeremy-corbyn-leading-left-wilderness-toward-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremy Corbyn Is Leading the Left Out of the Wilderness and Toward Power (theintercept.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mehdi Hasan<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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THANK YOU<\/u>, Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

It is no exaggeration to say that the British Labour Party leader has changed progressive politics in the UK, and perhaps the wider West too, for a generation. The bearded, 68-year-old, self-declared socialist has proved that an unashamedly, unabashedly, unapologetically left-wing offer<\/a> is not the politics of the impossible but, rather, a politics of the very much possible. Last Thursday\u2019s election result in the UK is a ringing confirmation that stirring idealism need not be sacrificed at the altar of political pragmatism.<\/p>\n

In these dark, depressing times of Trump and Brexit, of the fallout from the Great Recession and the rise of the far right, Corbyn has reminded us that a politics of hope can go toe to toe with a politics of fear. Millions of people<\/a> will turn out to vote for a leader who preaches optimism over pessimism, who offers inspiration instead of enervation.<\/p>\n

Corbyn has proved that the much-maligned young can be a force for change. Younger voters are not lazy, indifferent or apathetic, as the conventional wisdom goes, but will in fact come out in their droves<\/a> for a leader who motivates and excites them; who gives them not just something to vote for \u2014 be it a scrapping of tuition fees<\/a> or a higher minimum wage<\/a> or a new house-building program<\/a> \u2014 but something to believe in. A common struggle, a better future, a more equal society. Because something always beats nothing.<\/p>\n

Corbyn has showed how it is possible for progressives to build a coalition between the young, people of color and cosmopolitan liberals on the one hand and, yes, those dreaded<\/em> white working class communities on the other. It is a fiction to claim that leaders on the left must choose between them, or play one marginalized group off against another. White ex-UKIP voters in the north of the country returned to Labour<\/a> last week in their hundreds of thousands.<\/p>\n

So socialists and social democrats no longer need be on the defensive. Yes, mainstream center-left parties may have been crushed in recent European elections<\/a> \u2014 think of France<\/a> or the Netherlands<\/a>. However, Corbyn \u2014 who spent 32 years toiling in obscurity on the backbenches before becoming leader of his party in a shock victory in 2015 \u2014 has now a paved a road out of the wilderness.<\/p>\n

To be clear: the Labour Party did not win the the UK\u2019s general election. Theresa May\u2019s Conservatives secured more votes and more seats. Yet it is difficult to overstate \u2014 as even Corbyn\u2019s biggest critics have now conceded \u2014 the sheer size of his electoral achievement. Labour\u2019s 40% share of the national vote is its highest since 1970<\/a>, with the exception of Tony Blair\u2019s two landslide wins in 1997 and 2001. Last Thursday\u2019s election also saw the the biggest increase<\/a> in vote share for Labour \u2014 nearly 10% \u2014 since the party\u2019s post-war blowout in 1945 under iconic leader Clement Attlee.<\/p>\n

All of this despite Corbyn having begun the campaign more than 20 percentage points<\/a> behind the Conservatives; having been written off by politicians and pundits from across the spectrum and relentlessly undermined by members of his own parliamentary party; and having endured an unprecedented campaign of demonization by the right-wing press. Corbyn, lest we forget, was smeared as a terrorist sympathizer<\/a>; ridiculed for forgetting<\/a> the details of various policies; dismissed as a crank<\/a> and an eccentric<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo take Labour\u2019s prospects seriously under Corbyn was to abandon being taken seriously yourself,\u201d wrote<\/a> the Guardian\u2019s Gary Younge on the eve of the election. \u201cThe political class imparted as much to the media class, and the media class duly printed and broadcast it\u2026 The wisdom was distributed to all who mattered. Those who did not receive it did not, by definition, matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, they proved once and for all that they mattered. And the quiet, unassuming Corbyn proved that he was indeed a serious and viable candidate for the highest office in the land \u2014 one analysis found that a mere 2,227 votes<\/a>, in seven swing seats, blocked him from becoming prime minister at the head of a \u201cprogressive\u201d coalition of Labour and the other smaller parties in parliament.<\/p>\n

As former critics<\/a> of his now help themselves to bigger and bigger slices of humble pie, the Labour leader may want to consider borrowing George W. Bush\u2019s famous malaproprism: \u201cThey misunderestimated me.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be honest, I \u201cmisunderestimated\u201d him as well. Full disclosure: I know Corbyn personally and share many of his political positions. I have never doubted his integrity or his honesty. Yet even I did not expect he would win 40% of the vote or prevent May from winning a majority in parliament. I did not imagine that Labour would win seats such as Canterbury, held by the Conservatives for the past 99 years<\/a>, or Kensington and Chelsea, the UK\u2019s richest constituency<\/a> and home of the Daily Mail. I would not let myself believe, as many others on the left did, that a Corbyn premiership was a very real and live possibility, rather than a mad fantasy, a progressive delusion.<\/p>\n

I was wrong. Completely, utterly, hopelessly wrong \u2026 but never have I been happier to be wrong.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I should have paid more attention. The much-mocked Corbyn had a very clear plan from the very beginning. \u201cThe politics of hope are not an inevitable reaction when politics fails,\u201d he declared in a speech<\/a> at the London School of Economics in May 2016. \u201cThe politics of hope have to be rebuilt.\u201d Rebuilding, the Labour leader explained, required three things. First, \u201ca vision to inspire people that politics has the power to make a positive difference to their lives.\u201d Second, \u201ctrust \u2013 that people believe both that we can and that we will change things for the better.\u201d Third, \u201cthe involvement and engagement of people to make the first two possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"LAS<\/a><\/p>\n

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally on Feb. 14, 2016 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Photo: Ethan Miller\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Corbyn, like Bernie Sanders before him, succeeded on all three fronts. He mobilized huge numbers of people to get organized, attend rallies, knock on doors. He upended the old political and economic orthodoxies, refusing to embrace austerity, or demonize immigrants, or push for foreign wars. And guess what? It turns out that you don\u2019t have to triangulate to win 40% of the vote. Nor do you have to kowtow to the reactionary and illiberal agendas of the Mail or the Murdoch-owned press to win marginal seats in Middle England.<\/p>\n

Neither Corbyn nor Sanders won their elections. But they came so close. Give them a bit more time. \u201cOne more heave<\/a>\u201d is no longer a political pejorative. With parliament hung, and Theresa May under fire from her own party, the next UK election could be held in a matter of months. The bookies have slashed Corbyn\u2019s odds on becoming the next UK prime minister and a new post-election poll shows the Labour leader is now tied<\/a> with his Conservative counterpart on the question of who would make the best prime minister. After last week\u2019s shock results, what were once Conservative safe seats are now marginals and what were once Labour marginals are now safe seats.<\/p>\n

Here in the United States, meanwhile, the Corbyn-esque Sanders has become the most popular politician in the country<\/a> and would probably win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination by a landslide if the contest were to be held tomorrow. Some polls<\/a> also suggest he might have defeated Trump last November, too.<\/p>\n

So: President Sanders? Prime Minister Corbyn? What were once progressive fantasies are now potential realities. The left may have finally awoken from its slumber \u2014 and, therefore, the attacks from the right will only escalate. But what was it Gandhi is said to have remarked? \u201cFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mehdi Hasan THANK YOU, Jeremy Corbyn. It is no exaggeration to say that the British Labour Party leader has changed progressive politics in the UK, and perhaps the wider West too, for a generation. The bearded, 68-year-old, self-declared socialist has proved that an unashamedly, unabashedly, unapologetically left-wing offer is not… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5282"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5284,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5282\/revisions\/5284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}