July 16 looks back on July 15

Last July I wrote the words below. As I look at the spectacle of the Parliamentary Party I reflect on how proud I am that every Green candidate and Officer is elected either yearly or prior to the particular election they are contesting. What is wrong for Gods sake in selecting the candidate or MP every five years? Is there to be a class of politician above recall or accountability. Its no wonder that the electorate are cynical about professional politicians. The Parliamentary Labout Party is feeding it by their very actions. I wrote below the speculations I had a year ago and I draw your attention to them . From one July to another its an interesting reflection. I would also suggest you read Dan Boyle's interesting piece on his blog on the Corbyn Phenomena its called “He is not the Messiah

“I have read that a poll of Labour members suggests Jeremy Corbyn will win the Labour Party leadership election. Its amusing to look at the faces of the former Blairites ministers explaining it as being a result of the trauma of defeat . I thought about the excitement it is bringing and I began to associate, develop metaphors and analyse just what is happening.

We know that the labour party is electing its leader on the basis of one person one vote. This is enough to give the membership a real choice and move the party to the left. However within Labours constitution there is a mechanism by which 20% percent of the MPs can trigger a new election and that is just 47 of them. So here is the scenario Corbyn beats Burnam by 6 percentage points on September 10th . A new leadership election is triggered as the Parliamentary Labour party launches a coup. Do you really think then from the existing rules that they would allow a fresh election and give Jeremy Corbyn the thirty five necessary nominations. I don’t

Lets suppose that does not happen and that Corbyn becomes the Left Wing Leader of a Labour party with a policy book that is essentially Blairites and austerity lite. The constitution and structures of the Labour party would takes years to change and reform and so would the policies. Do you expect the Blairites to go quietly? I do not..there will be civil war.

Perhaps the right of the Labour party will leave and join up with Tim Farron as a new SDP and make it easy for a reforming Corbyn to change the Labour Party. Perhaps an out break of a new Left will force Corbyn and the labour left to leave and become a more successful Socialist Labour Party.

I have concerns that if this happens or Corbyn manages to reform the Labour party then many Greens and other radicals may seek to join it in the hope that we can build a new party of the realigned left. However it is my opinion that only a left break out of the labour party will make this possible. The constitution of the Green party is more malleable and flexible than the Blairite labour Constitution.

In Plaid Leanne Wood's victory as Leader gives us some historical reflections. A historic victory for the Ecosocialist wing of Plaid while capturing the party leadership has done very little to enable Plaid to move to the left. Jonathan Edward’s victory speech had him quoting Che Guevara , yet last time I read his thoughts he was defending Fox Hunting, John Dixon a former Chairperson of Plaid challenged their credibility on renewables. The Nuclear issue at Wylfa is the area they do not talk about and across Wales Plaid have patchy records on Green politics. They certainly never talk about certain things and Rhun Ap Nuclear lurks as the Blairite wing of Plaid Cymru waiting for Leanne to fall under a bus. There is much that a Corbyn victory could learn from Plaid’s experience.

Its only by a break out from the Labour party by the left and a similar move from the Ecosocialists in Plaid that a new mass party of the left can emerge. I suspect the relationship in the 1920`s and the 1930`s between the left of labour and the Communist party has distinct parallels between that of the Corbyn wing of the Labour party, the Ecosocialists in Plaid and the Green party at this point of time . The Greens have 70,000 plus members across the UK at its peak the Communist party managed 50,000 members . Lets hope there is no equivalent of the Nazi-Soviet pact around the corner.

Are we at the turning of the tide , when the Left will be renewed? Is the Corbyn 

revival a last gleam of the old Labour left? Are we about to learn that without the end of capitalism and the collapse of globalisation that no real change is possible. ? I have watched politics for many years and the possibilities seem never-ending.

Long ago Marx predicted that it would be in Germany France and England that the revolution would begin. He argued only there had the contradictions of capitalist production and capitalist society would lead to revolution. Perhaps the real base of historical materialism is the biosphere. Perhaps the revolution in Russia and China was too early and was a historic singularity. Perhaps a world wide revolt will lead us to a situation where Green politics shows us that sustainability and ecological politics cannot happen in one country alone and that it must be a world wide revolt. Perhaps Marx and Trotskywere precursors of Environmental politics. Perhaps that is what Rudolf Bahro was thinking about when he wrote his book from “Red to Green” . He once said the problem that Marxists and Socialists experienced in the modern world was similar to that of being a Christian in the Middle Ages. There are many sects, many messiahs, many interpretations, many parties and factions. And today I see more than ever that I cannot see clearly into the unknown history and the unknown country that is ahead of us all........”