Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a policy announcement. Photo: Picture by: Jane Barlow / PA Wire/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.What is Labour for?
Labour is facing the greatest crisis in its history. So it is understandable that very little of the commentary coming from the Labour Right makes any effort to understand what is going on or what the motivations of Corbyn’s supporters might be. Most of that commentary simply pathologises those supporters, trying to attribute psychological rather than rational political motives for their behaviour.
Labour is facing the greatest crisis in its history
Of the commentary that has tried to understand what is happening, one of the most thoughtful and reasonable objections to the politics of Corbynism has taken one particular form. The (occasionally hostile) objection runs as follows: Why doesn’t Momentum just form its own party? Why try to ‘take over’ an existing one; which, as anti-Corbynites tend to assure me has never been anything but a centrist, pro-capitalist party, ‘moderate’ party? There are different aspects of this argument and they warrant different responses. Let’s deal with one of the most popular first.
