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Corbynism – where has the mass movement gone?

Despite the fighting talk, Corbynism has wasted the opportunity to transform Labour – and democracy – in a way that would be essential to deliver a radical programme in the face of opposition from capital.

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people's assembly.jpg
people's assembly.jpg

Image: Britain is Broken - General Election Now! protest called by People's Assembly, 12 January 2018. Credit: Facebook/People's Assembly.

In mid-January as the contradictions of Brexit left Parliament in gridlock, Labour supporters attended a small demonstration in London to call for a General Election. After three years of Jeremy Corbyn as leader and the almost unrivalled hegemony of the left at Labour Party conference in 2018, only a couple of thousand turned out - despite the general election call being the main demand of Momentum and others in the Corbyn camp. Where were the hundreds of thousands of members of Labour who joined because of change of direction?

In the midst of the Brexit debate and the grinding to a halt of Parliament, perhaps now is a good time to take stock of where the Labour left is at, asking a few simple questions we can try and discover just how transformative has Corbynism been.