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The latest news is that over 180k people enrolled to participate in leadership election for the British Labour Party. the vast majority of them will be Corbyn supporters. This is devastating news for the Right and the Blairites who have provoked the leadership crisis. Corbyn will now win and his campaign risks becoming a tide that will clean out the Augean Stables that is the Labour Party establishment. Already there is sign that the anti-Corbyn push within the party is weakening. For example, the rebels launch of their campaign was boycotted by 80 members of the parliamentary party. Yet, Corbyn's hard core support is just 40 MPs. The fear of deselection is weighing like a nightmare on the brains of the opportunists who have been elected to represent the people. The dirty tricks launched by Deputy leader, Tom Watson, have seemingly backfired. Increasing the participation fee from 3 pounds to 25 pounds, banning recent members from voting, and suspending meetings and some branches have served to shift the moral balance back to Corbyn. The twitter sphere is full of stories of people selling furniture and taking out loans so they could pay the fee and support their leader Jeremy Corbyn. There is no way of knowing how many or how true these stories are, but the narrative is real and powerful. This is one of the little people rising up against the establishment. The struggle for the control of the Party is well and truly on. the candidate standing against Corbyn, Owen Smith, is forced to campaign as a "radical leftist". He is of course nothing of the sort. His attempt to present himself as a radical on the Left, are the dog walking on two legs. Not well done, but remarkable to see it done at all. The memes of him declaring himself "normal" will haunt his campaign. He was, of course, dog whistling against the gay woman Angela Eagle who had not at that stage dropped out of the contest. Despair and rage will now grip the Old Right and the Blairites. If we throw in the element of fear of deselection, we should see very interesting developments. The smart opinion is not to split, but the Blairites have gone so far that there simply might be no alternative to them. The Old Right and the Soft Left that are ensconced within that formation, will sue for peace, I think. Though Watson's tactics have made him something of an anathema. Smith's chances of victory depended heavily on despair gripping the current membership and additionally of keeping Corbyn's supporters away from the vote. I loved Richard Seymour's tweet at the news that 180k had registered in 48 hours to vote. It is so full of the black humor of the Ulster Irish. Seymour tweeted *Richard Seymour* @*leninology* <https://twitter.com/leninology> Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Etc. comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ 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
