Here’s a collection of thoughts and analysis from revolutionary Marxists all over the country:
Last night Jeremy Corbyn concluded seven weeks of General Election campaigning with his 90th rally, in front of hundreds of people in Islington – his home constituency. Football-style chants filled the air in the Union Chapel on Highbury Corner before, during and after his speech. And the electric atmosphere extended outside where hundreds more people, unable to get a seat inside, gathered in the rain to catch a glimpse of the man they hope will be the next Prime Minister.
Corbyn set out his vision and ideas for a Labour government, he poked fun at the media for thinking this election was a foregone conclusion, and he attacked the Tories as the party of the billionaires and the elite.
The biggest cheers were for Corbyn’s quote from Percy Shelley, the great socialist poet:
“Rise like lions after slumber,
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew,
Which in sleep have fallen on you,
Ye are many – they are few”Vote Labour! Fight for socialism!
Ben Gliniecki (London)
In 2015, I had to drag myself to the polling station to vote Labour. It was a vote against the Tories – I had no support for Miliband’s embarrassing programme of apeing the Tories in order to look like a serious politician – a vote of despair, not one of hope.
Today I am proud, actually proud, to be voting for a labour government. If we win – and if the youth turn up and vote we will – I will be proud to fight to hold this government to account and to force it to take the measures necessary to implement its programme.
These last few weeks have been the most significant weeks in British political history in generations. Regardless of what you think of Corbyn personally, this election has led to a significant shift to the left in British politics, especially amongst the active layers. This cannot be put back in the box. It is the starting point of a mass movement. The task now is to organise and educate this movement, to teach it the realities of the class struggle, of the limitations of reformism, of the lengths we must go to in order to win a decent future.
This is only the beginning.
No to the Tories! No to austerity!
For a socialist Labour government!
For the many, not the few!
Mordecai Levi (Cambridge)
General Election! In Scotland we have to be god damn awkward! In England and Wales today is pretty simple. Vote Corbyn! Sorted! If I lived south of the border I’d join the LP and campaign for him with all I had. Here, however, we’ve not had thousands rallying and millions registering to vote. Corbyn has shown to be popular and may win some votes from SNP to Labour. However this hasn’t so far been anywhere near enough to reverse the huge shift that’s occurred in Scotland in recent times. The SNP is where most people are voting to oust the Tories. I think the best result would be a Labour-SNP deal.
Why? For 7 reasons. 1. It’d allow Corbyn to be Prime Minister and push some, if not all SNP MPs to support his programme. 2. Any SNP MPs who didn’t support his programme would be exposed and it would likely cause more questioning, rifts and disputes in the SNP along class lines. 3. There would be internal plotting to undermine Corbyn from the right wing of his own party. As well as calling on the Labour rank and file to back him, he could also call for support from the Left in the SNP, including its trade unionist members. 4. The points where the SNP programme is to the left of Labour, like opposing migration controls and trident, they could call Corbyn out on. 5. A Corbyn government would be like Syriza times ten in terms of pressure, slanders, and everything else thrown at it. It would rely on mass mobilisations and eventually strikes and appeals to solidarity of workers abroad for it to survive. A deal could would give Corbyn more authority to call out to the Scottish working class and could possibly force SNP MPs and leaders to mobilise their members and support. 6. Any SNP MPs who didn’t support him against the huge pressure from within and outside his party would face many questions and potentially rebellion within the SNP. This would accelerate the splitting of the party along class lines which I believe would be a very dramatic step forward for class struggle in Scotland. 7. A deal along with possible effects stated above could lead to a higher sense of unity between Scottish and English workers, particularly if Corbyn defended Scotland’s right to separate, allowed a referendum and stood clearly against any media and establishment bias against a YES vote (repeats of the 2014 project fear). This could cut across any national tension and bitterness which the ruling class tries to whip up. It would give us something to talk about in the cells after Saturday’s match at Hampden.
I’m no Nostradamus. The above isn’t a prophesy. Just my thoughts on what could play out and why I think it’d be a good result. It would depend a lot on decisions that corbyn and other individuals would make but still I think its always necessary to point out the objective revolutionary potential of a situation even when your forces are still too small to influence it.
That’ll change. Our day will come regardless. Regardless of what happens things wont be the same after today. The task of socialists and Marxists isn’t just to vote Left or even just to get active but its also to critically support and point out the need for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism in order to even achieve and maintain the modest demands that most people want and such ideas are getting more palatable by the day. For today however, I’m voting Tommy Sheppard. He seems to be a somewhat influential left-wing voice and could very well play a positive role in the future.
Ross Walker (Edinburgh)
One final time: go and vote. If you’re thinking of voting for a smaller party I’d advise highly against it. I’m no advocate of lesser evilism but this electoral system has granted us one choice. A vote which isn’t for Labour is a vote for the Tories, the majority is so slim. The NHS is truly on its last legs. Terror has been unsuccessfully combated under 7 years of May (a whole other kettle of fish). Do you want to be able to afford your rent? Choose very wisely (vote Labour, for the many)
Maya Hafid (London)
