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owen jones
Corbyn Expected to Run as Independent After Starmer's Move to Bar Him From Labour
"Blocking Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate is an affront to decency and a declaration of civil war within a party about to metamorphose from a broad church to a toxic sect," said Yanis Varoufakis.
Mar 28, 2023
Former U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn is expected to seek reelection as an independent next year after current Leader Keir Starmer and his establishment allies on Tuesday made good on their pledge to formally block the leftist member of Parliament from running under the party's banner.
After Starmer publicly declared last month that "Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election," the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) voted 22-12 on Starmer's motion to not endorse Corbyn's candidacy.
The Timesreported that Corbyn's allies say the MP has already decided to run as an independent, with one source telling the London newspaper: "It's become personal. There will be an announcement by the end of the week."
Our message is clear: We are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.
Corbyn has represented the Greater London constituency Islington North for four decades and served as an independent MP since he was suspended from Labour in 2020 due to a battle over allegations of antisemitism in the party.
After news broke of Starmer's motion on Monday, Corbyn charged that the party leader "has broken his commitment to respect the rights of Labour members and denigrated the democratic foundation of the party."
Noting that Islington North voters have elected him as a Labour MP 10 consecutive times since 1983, Corbyn said that "I am proud to represent a community that supports vulnerable people, joins workers on the picket line, and fights for transformative change."
Also calling out the ruling Conservative Party, Corbyn continued:
This latest move represents a leadership increasingly unwilling to offer solutions that meet the scale of the crises facing us all. As the government plunges millions into poverty and demonizes refugees, Keir Starmer has focused his opposition on those demanding a more progressive and humane alternative.
I joined the Labour Party when I was 16 years old because, like millions of others, I believed in a redistribution of wealth and power. Our message is clear: We are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.
Some other MPs, constituents, journalists, and leftists from around the world have, since Monday, blasted Starmer's "disgraceful" move and expressed solidarity with Corbyn.
Greek leftist MP Yanis Varoufakis warned that "Starmer's Labour Party is close to the point of no return. Blocking Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate is an affront to decency and a declaration of civil war within a party about to metamorphose from a broad church to a toxic sect."
Critics have highlighted that in February 2020, Starmer said: "The selections for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates. Local party members should select their candidates for every election."
In a joint statement Tuesday, officers from the Islington North Constituency Labour Party (CLP) denounced the move by Starmer and the NEC.
"We believe in the democratic right of all constituency parties to choose their prospective parliamentary candidate," the CLP leaders from Corbyn's area said. "Therefore, we reject the NEC's undue interference in Islington North, which undermines our goal of defeating the Conservatives and working with our communities for social justice."
Noting the CLP's statement in a series of tweets Tuesday, Guardian columnist Owen Jones, who identifies as a socialist and a longtime Labour voter, also took aim at Starmer:
While Starmer was seeking his leadership role, "I think he said a lot of things he didn't believe at all, because he thought that if he didn't, then he wouldn't be elected leader of the Labour Party. And he was absolutely right in that calculation," Jones asserted.
"A lot of Starmer's cheerleaders see themselves as upstanding liberals who believe in decency, honesty, and integrity in politics. They don't," he said. "They disregard the colossal deceit of Starmer because they hate the left, and they believe anything done to crush the left is a good thing."
"Anyway, I don't think it will end well for a Labour leadership which is founded on a load of lies, essentially believes in nothing, and is ahead in the polls solely because of Tory self-destruction," Jones added. "They'll win the election by default, then political reality will intrude."
The grassroots group Momentum, which has supported Corbyn since his successful 2015 campaign to lead the Labour Party, called Tuesday "a dark day for democracy."
While there was previously no appeals process for anyone blocked by the NEC, Sky Newsrevealed Tuesday as the party faces "accusations of fixing parliamentary selections for candidates who are preferred by the leadership," those "who wish to stand for Labour at the next election will be given the right to appeal if the party rejects their bid to become an MP."
According to the outlet, "Candidates will be provided with written feedback as to why they 'fell below the standards expected of a Westminster parliamentary candidate,' while an appeals panel will be convened to hear the claim."
Welcoming the development on Twitter, Momentum said that "socialists and trade unionists have been wrongly excluded in favor of those favored by a narrow London clique. The result has been a cohort of prospective MPs dominated by the professional political classes, making Labour less representative of the communities we seek to serve."
"This new process should mark an end to the Labour right's factional abuses of selections process," the group added. "In Islington North as everywhere else—let local members decide."
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Truss' Tories Plan to Slash Public Spending While Clinging to Chaos-Causing Tax Cuts
"When the IMF tells you, 'hang on guys, this is going to be so bad for inequality it needs a rethink,' you've got a serious problem," one U.K. activist said of the new mini-budget.
Sep 28, 2022
"So now the Tories are going to slash your already shredded local services because they crashed the economy because they want to cut the taxes of the top 1%."
"What was intended as mere bribery has turned out to be a gigantic financial bomb."
That's how socialist Guardian columnist Owen Jones on Wednesday summarized the recent revelations about U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss and other Conservative leaders' fiscal policies.
Following reports that U.K. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp will send letters asking government departments to identify potential "savings," the Tory confirmed on television Wednesday that they are being asked to "look for efficiencies wherever they can find them."
The push to cut public spending came as The Guardianrevealed Wednesday the National Health Service (NHS)--the U.K.'s publicly funded healthcare system--has admitted that "dangerous roofs that could collapse at any time at hospitals across England will not be fixed until 2035."
That admission came in response to a request from Liberal Democrats, whose health spokesperson and deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, took aim at Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng's "mini-budget," which was unveiled last Friday and includes major tax cuts for the rich, funded by extra borrowing.
"Kwasi Kwarteng's first budget prioritized slashing taxes on the big banks over fixing crumbling hospitals. There was a deafening silence from government on how it intends to deal with dangerous ambulance wait times or lack of local NHS dentists, let alone buildings at risk of collapse," Cooper told the newspaper. "This is a disaster waiting to happen and Conservative ministers just don't seem to care."
The tax plan--which caused the pound to fall to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in nearly four decades and ultimately led to emergency action by the Bank of England to calm the markets--has been criticized across the British political spectrum and around the world, including by the credit agency Moody's.
Even Tory members of Parliament are voicing concerns. BBC reports:
Few Conservative MPs are commenting publicly about Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's handling of the economic turmoil sparked by his mini-budget--but they are not mincing their words in off-the-record conversations.
Inept, humiliating, naive, and reckless are just some of the words that have cropped up.
Perhaps most notably, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), known worldwide as "a bastion of free market economics and fiscal austerity," on Tuesday delivered a rare critique of the policy--which Guardian economics editor Larry Elliott called "a global embarrassment for Truss and Kwarteng."
The mini-budget "will likely increase inequality," the IMF warned, adding that the next full budget announcement--which Kwarteng is expected to outline in November--gives the U.K. government "an early opportunity... to consider ways to provide support that is more targeted and re-evaluate the tax measures, especially those that benefit high-income earners."
Nick Dearden, director of the U.K.-based group Global Justice Now, tweeted Tuesday, "When the IMF tells you, 'hang on guys, this is going to be so bad for inequality it needs a rethink,' you've got a serious problem."
Economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the IMF and the U.S. Federal Reserve are concerned the United Kingdom "may trigger a financial crisis" by doing to the United States and other wealthy nations what "Greece did to the Eurozone."
"The particular focus of the concern... is the impact that the destabilization of the markets in Britain will have on the U.S. treasuries, in other words on the public debt of the United States," he said. "Because that kind of domino effect would have quite severe repercussions for the whole world."
\u201c"It is perfectly possible that this momentous error by the Truss government can create a domino effect"\n\nFormer Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis says "this is why the IMF stepped in"\nhttps://t.co/BLd7rfZH0a\u201d— BBC Politics (@BBC Politics) 1664372024
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said during a BBC radio interview Wednesday that Truss must urgently review the budget following "very serious" criticism from the IMF, noting concerns that November would be too late.
According to Starmer, Truss needs to explain: "How are you going to fix the problems that you caused ...on Friday? The government caused this on the theory, the ideology that the way we fix our country is to make the rich richer."
Other critics also delivered broader rebukes of Truss-aligned ideology, with some going as far back as former Conservative U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
"September 2022 will forever be remembered as the month in which the febrile fantasies of neoliberalism ran full-tilt into reality," saidGuardian columnist and author George Monbiot.
Referencing a London road that's home to various think tanks, one Twitter user dubbed this September "the month of the Tufton Street Massacre." Monbiot concurred.
\u201cThe Tufton Street Massacre is a perfect description of what they have done to us this month. The dark-money thinktanks got everything they wanted, and countless lives have been wrecked as a result.\u201d— George Monbiot (@George Monbiot) 1664385435
"This catastrophe isn't all on Truss and Kwarteng," Jones stressed Wednesday.
"This is the logical end point of a 43-year-long Thatcherite experiment--brought to us by Tory MPs, right-wing newspapers, and think tanks--which has brought nothing but stagnation, economic turmoil, and mass insecurity," he continued.
\u201cThis time round, the Tories don't even have North Sea oil to try and bail them out, and there's nothing left to privatise.\n\nAll they've done is wreck the economy for ideologically crazed reasons.\u201d— Owen Jones (@Owen Jones) 1664374011
Summarizing the chaos since last week, Guardian columnist and and senior economics commentator Aditya Chakrabortty wrote Wednesday:
What was intended as mere bribery has turned out to be a gigantic financial bomb. The pound dived so far that it won a new name: shitcoin. (One wag mused on Reddit: "Apparently britbongs use it to purchase crumpets and tea, but other than that doesn't have any usage.") Lending rates in the markets soared, so Halifax and other big mortgage firms had to pull some of their products. The Bank of England essentially lost control over interest rates, while pension funds and other investors began scrabbling around for cash. Finally, today, the bank started buying government bonds in a bid to quell panic.
A week is a long time in financial wreckage. Thanks to Kwarteng and Truss, you have just got a lot poorer. If you're a homeowner on a standard variable mortgage or looking to renew, your bills have spiraled. If you have a money-purchase pension or a nest-egg ISA, you probably don't want to check your balance. Prices for pretty much anything from overseas--from food to T-shirts to cars--have just gone up.
Institutionally, the Treasury's credibility has been ruined and the Bank of England's monetary policy destroyed.
"This is their crisis, not ours," Chakrabortty concluded of the Conservatives. "You didn't benefit from these big tax cuts, the Tory donors did. Truss can reverse her stupid, cynical budget, resign, and force a general election--and Labour should demand she does so."
Meanwhile, Tory leadership is showing no sign of reconsidering its path, with Financial Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith claiming Wednesday that the proposals were the "right plans" for the U.K.'s economy--despite the mounting evidence to the contrary.
As U.K. Conservatives doubled down on their controversial policies, a coalition of civil society groups launched the End Austerity campaign and warned that next year, 85% of the global population is set to live under "deadly" measures, from cuts to social programs to privatization of public services.
"This austerity recipe has been tried and failed many times," the campaign's website says, "and only inflicted hardship and pain on populations all over the world, supercharging the inequality crisis."
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On Possible Surprise Visit From Trump, UK Resistance Says: We'll Be Ready
'Any visit by Donald Trump on British soil will be met by nationwide mass protests.'
Jul 03, 2017
Amid reports that President Donald Trump may make an unscheduled visit to Downing Street in the coming weeks, protesters in the U.K. are saying--that "whenever and however" the U.S. president arrives--they will be ready to take to the streets.
The president is set to visit Poland Thursday, ahead of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, this weekend. He will also visit France for Bastille Day on July 14. U.K. government sources confirmed they had been warned the president could also visit Turnberry, his golf resort in Scotland.
"There is a window of opportunity for the president to visit Britain when he is in Europe later this month," a government source told the U.K.'s Sunday Times. "It is likely it will be hastily arranged and it is possible no official confirmation of his visit will be given until at least 24 hours before to stop any large-scale protests against his visit from being mobilised."
But time constraints aren't deterring anti-Trump organizing efforts in London and across the United Kingdom.
Guardian columnist and Stop Trump coalition co-founder Owen Jones urged his Twitter followers to "commit to protesting this bigot at short notice," adding "any visit by Donald Trump on British soil will be met by nationwide mass protests."
\u201cDonald Trump is planning to sneak into Britain to avoid protests. RT if you're willing to commit to protesting this bigot at short notice \u270a\u201d— Owen Jones (@Owen Jones) 1499015469
"This month's visit, if it happens, is a way of him sneaking in the backdoor in the hope that he can save face for himself and May. But we'll oppose him whenever and however he comes to the U.K.," said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, a Stop Trump coalition member. "We won't allow Trump's presidency to be normalised, and we'll make sure Theresa May pays a political cost for supporting Trump and his politics of hate."
A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday the U.K. government was not aware of any plans for Trump's potential visit, and declined to comment on whether May would meet with Trump if he makes a surprise stop in London.
"We expect him to go to his golf course. We are aware he might want to see the Prime Minister," a government source told the U.K.'s Daily Express. "The Americans haven't requested that he comes and we haven't invited him, but we aware it might happen."
May invited Trump to the U.K. when, in January, she became the first foreign leader to visit the White House during this administration. The U.K.'s Sun reported in February that Trump and May had agreed to delay his visit to avoid large-scale demonstrations, with a U.K. government source telling the paper, "Trump still really wants to come this year, but he wants the heat to die down a bit first."
Last month, just after the U.K. general election, an official state visit was postponed because fears of mass protests persisted, which Dearden called "an incredible victory." Trump had told May in a phone-call that he would hold off on an official visit until he had the support of the British people, according to the Guardian.
Before the June visit was postponed, some Brits had planned to greet the president by mooning him, and circulated the #ShowYourRumpToTrump social media campaign.
The White House has denied today's reports of an unofficial visit, with White House press secretary Sean Spicer telling the Financial Times, "While he looks forward to visiting the U.K., it will not be in the next two weeks."
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