For the first time in
decades, socialism is back on the agenda—and for the first time in
Labour’s history, it defines the leadership
In the 2017 general election,
Jeremy Corbyn pulled off an historic upset, attracting the biggest
increase in the Labour vote since 1945. It was another reversal of
expectations for the mainstream media and his ‘soft-left’
detractors. Demolishing the Blairite opposition in 2015, Corbyn had
already seen off an attempted coup. Now, he had shattered the
government’s authority, and even Corbyn’s most vitriolic critics
have been forced into stunned mea culpas.
For
the first time in decades, socialism is back on the agenda—and for
the first time in Labour’s history, it defines the leadership.
Richard
Seymour tells the story of how Corbyn’s rise was made possible by
the long decline of Labour and by a deep crisis in British democracy.
He shows how Corbyn began the task of rebuilding Labour as a
grassroots party, with a coalition of trade unionists, young and
precarious workers, students and ‘Old Labour’ pugilists, who then
became the biggest campaigning army in British politics. Utilizing
social media, activists turned the media’s Project Fear on its head
and broke the ideological monopoly of the tabloids. After the
election, with all the artillery still ranged against Corbyn, and
with all the weaknesses of the Left’s revival, Seymour asks what
Corbyn can do with his newfound success.
