In a strikingly different stance to leaders of the Australian Labor Party, which has backed the Coalition government鈥檚 support for the illegitimate coup 鈥済overnment鈥 in Venezuela, several leading members of Britain鈥檚 Labour Party have rejected the US attempt at regime change in the oil-rich South American nation.
Labour Party (UK)
The British Labour Party took a radical, anti-austerity manifesto to last year鈥檚 general elections and, despite polls and media commentators expecting an unprecedented disaster, came close to winning, denying the ruling Conservatives a majority. Despite this success, attempts to attack and sabotage Labour鈥檚 socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the ranks that support his vision, have continued. 惭颈肠丑补别濒听颁补濒诲别谤产补苍办聽takes a look at what took place and what it means for the party鈥檚 future.
Tory-supporting media have been portraying Britain鈥檚 socialist Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as a Soviet fellow-traveller. Meanwhile, 贬颈濒补谤测听奥补颈苍飞谤颈驳丑迟 notes, Labour鈥檚 shadow chancellor and close Corbyn ally sets out a vision that breaks with the old bureaucratic state model.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell can usually barely breathe a word about nationalisation without setting off a media frenzy, so it鈥檚 strange that his most interesting comments yet on the subject passed with so little comment.
British opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on April 14 that there was no legal basis for British strikes against Syria and such action would encourage others to behave in the same way. He has called for a new War Powers Act, which would require the British government to seek approval from parliament for any future military actions.
In a letter to British Prime Minister Theresa May, Corbyn explained why he opposed the coordinated United States, British and French strikes against Syrian government structures. The coalition fired more than 100 missiles into Syria.
In 1792, pioneering British feminist and social justice activist Mary Wollstonecroft wrote in聽The Rights of Women: 鈥淚t is justice, not charity that is wanting in the world.鈥
Now, 226 years later, Labour has anchored that fundamental truth in its vision for international development:聽.
Ever since his unexpected rise to British Labour Party leader, veteran socialist MP Jeremy Corbyn has faced sustained attacks and smears from the media, Tories and the right-wing of his own party. But over the past month, the attacks have become an unprecedented avalanche.
In the middle of the harshest winter for more than a decade, Britain finds itself still gripped by the icy fingers of neoliberal austerity.
Delegates to the recent Labour Party conference in the English seaside town of Brighton seemed not to notice a video playing in the main entrance.聽The world鈥檚 third biggest arms manufacturer, BAe Systems, supplier to Saudi Arabia, was promoting its guns, bombs, missiles, naval ships and fighter aircraft.聽聽
It seemed a perfidious symbol of a party in which millions of Britons now invest their political hopes. Once the preserve of Tony Blair, it is now led by Jeremy Corbyn, whose career has been very different and is rare in British establishment politics.
Everyone sensed the new energy at this year鈥檚 Labour Party conference, held in Brighton from September 24-27.
The reality of the conference was something not seen in Britain for a long time: thousands of determined and self-confident members of a Labour Party that boldly stands for what they believe in.
The strike at two branches of McDonald鈥檚 in Britain was 鈥渏ust the start鈥, Labour鈥檚 shadow chancellor John McDonnell said on September 4. Speaking at a rally outside Parliament the day before, the shadow chancellor hailed the striking workers as an 鈥渁bsolute inspiration鈥.
Workers at the burger giant鈥檚 restaurants in Cambridge and Crayford, south-east London, downed aprons in protest at the harassment of workers and the victimisation of union members.
In his September 2 article 鈥淩esponding on Sanders and reforming the Democrats鈥, Barry Sheppard fundamentally mischaracterises the position I outlined in 鈥淪ocialists and Bernie Sanders鈥. I specifically did not argue in favour of the far left in the US trying to 鈥渞eform鈥 the Democratic Party.
Disparaged and smeared by the Labour Party machine and corporate media for almost two years, Momentum 鈥 a grassroots group of Labour members committed to the socialist politics of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn 鈥 came out fighting during the campaign for the June 8 general elections.
Spurred on by a sense of idealism, this campaign came close to sweeping Labour into government on the most transformative manifesto for a generation.
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