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Hi Jamie, Again thanks for commenting. It is tea time in the cricket and I am up at an ungodly hour to cheer Pakistan onto victory against the *Sasanaigh* - the "aul enemy". You write "The real issue with your analysis is *still* the assumption that there’s a great mass against neoliberalism". I don't think I have written that anywhere. If I have, I would be wrong. What I do assume is that there is a fraction of the intelligentsia that are turning against neo-liberalism. That and the economic stagnation produced by neoliberal austerity is beginning to have an impact on politicians. Crabb in the Tory party seemingly is one. The Prime Minister of New Zealand is another. What I do explicitly assume is that there a a huge mass of people who are the victims of neoliberalism. But their level of consciousness is not such that they can move from being victims into being active agents of the overthrow of neoliberalism. You write that "*even*" Owen Jones is turning against Corbyn. I like Jones, as you know, but I do not regard him as a tough analytical leftist. He is not in the same league as Seymour, not at all. So I am not surprised that he has weakened given the shit that has been thrown at Corbyn. In any case, Corbyn's election, the Scottish referendum and the Brexit campaign were the most significant moments in recent UK history. They show that the tectonic plates are moving, and we are by no means at the end of the consequent instability. What will be the outcome of all this, I have no clue at all. It is still a work in progress. But, like Glen Greenwald, I am absolutely convinced that the struggle around Corbyn is of the level of importance as was the Greek crisis before the defeat of Syriza. comradely regards Gary On Sun, Jul 17, 2016 at 7:37 PM, jamie pitman via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > Everything you say about the PLP is completely true; in fact, there are > worse problems that the media have failed to report, e.g. the leadership > challenge of Eagle and Smith is against party rules but the NEC let it > slide. But that’s another thing and I don’t want to get bogged down in the > bureaucracy of all this. The real issue with your analysis is *still* the > assumption that there’s a great mass against neoliberalism. For me, this is > one of the biggest problems with Leninism in general (Lenin’s deterministic > notion everybody’s born a socialist). The Tories, under May, have already > committed to switching off austerity and have thus stolen the march on a > politically befuddled PLP. Add to this, Corbyn’s approval ratings are > consistently at record lows. It’s legitimate to argue this is because of an > almost universally hostile media – but also meaningless if it doesn’t > change anything. If Corbyn loses a general election, the party (small ‘p’) > is over. Even the likes off Owen Jones is now retreating from him. The > point is even winning the battle against the PLP could well turn out to be > a pyrrhic victory. > > Sent from Mail for Windows 10 > > From: Gary MacLennan via Marxism > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
