The last of the People’s Brexit Brigade, Counterfire, attacks John McDonnell and Left Internationalists.
Still Crazy for a People’s Brexit: John Rees and Lindsey German with friend.
Don’t overestimate Boris Johnson…
John Rees, today, on the site of the groupuscule Counterfire, which runs the People’s Assembly (which held an ‘anti-coup’ rally a couple of days ago – who distinctive sectarian message was drowned out by the internationalist anti-Brexit clamour) and the Stop the War Coalition.
Rees is now keen to stress his own faction’s distinctive politics.
Some, like John McDonnell, seem to have become such fervent converts to the EU that they think that Brexit is more important than getting rid of the Tories. This is a mistake.
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This is indeed a problem, and one of the Labour leadership’s own making. If they had not tied themselves so completely to the Remain bandwagon they could have appealed to Leave voters more convincingly and undercut Johnson, especially in the wake of the crisis over proroguing parliament in which the prime minister’s Machiavellian plan ended in shredding his credentials as a democrat.
But when the shift to an unequivocal Remain policy took place a while back we were told that it would unlock a huge reservoir of support for Labour. If the polls are to be believed that simply hasn’t happened.
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On Brexit Labour should stress that it will negotiate a People’s Brexit, its unwisely abandoned original policy, and put that forward as a realistic alternative to Remain. That would cut the ground from under Johnson’s appeal to working-class Leave voters.
Unkind people may suggest that the conclusion to this puffery just about sums up the politics of Rees and his mates in Counterfire.
The Bullingdon Boys have got by all their lives on bluff and bluster.
Like their mate, this posturing puffer:
Looks like Tariq has more than a soft spot in his head for the Leavers…
As a person of peace I would not endorse this language, but in view of their participation in ‘anti-coup’ rallies, some are now calling the likes of Rees and Ali, the Brexiteers’ fifth column.
No, they are the left-behinds, l’angleterre
Has beens all of them. The traditional Marxist left has been totally eclipsed by a newer type of activist and activity based around environmentalism and whole range of related issues. Marx, Lenin, Trotsky and all of those people and issues are of no interest at all to this new generation.
Dave Roberts
September 6, 2019 at 7:16 am
You may ave missed it, but the CPB are back off holiday and saying !Prorogation was not a ‘coup’ and the central question still remains transforming the Labour Party – not a general election.”
David Walsh
September 6, 2019 at 1:33 pm
Indeed, Dave. ‘Living Marxism’ not only as a publication but as an ideology is well and truly dead.
Mrs Roberts
September 6, 2019 at 3:14 pm