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Ideology Political Eh-conomy Radio UK

The improbable rise of Jeremy Corbyn

So far this week, Jeremy Corbyn has caused over 100,000 new members to join the UK Labour Party he leads, has apologized for a war he opposed from the beginning and appears to have survived a coup attempt on his leadership. And despite his backstabbing MPs, he’s one of the few party leaders left standing after the Brexit referendum.

Given all this mayhem on the British political scene, I figured it would be a good time to speak with the writer Richard Seymour, author of the recently-released Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics. Richard regularly publishes in major UK and international media; his  previous books include Against Austerity, Unhitched, and The Liberal Defense of Murder. He’s long been one of the best voices on British politics on the left.

Our conversation focused on the roots of Corbyn’s sudden rise to power, both within the Labour Party and politics in the UK more broadly, the failure of today’s Blairite coup plotters and the prospects of a long-term shift in ideology effected by Corbynism.

Corbyn other 2

2 replies on “The improbable rise of Jeremy Corbyn”

Nothing strange about Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders. They represent the politics of the enormously successful post-war era founded on Keynesian ‘New Deal’ economics which created the wealth of the first-world nations.

What’s strange is that we’re still putting up with the radical politics/economics of Thatcher and Reagan after all of the economic destruction their neoliberal reforms have wrought over the past three decades.

With all the rockets exploding on the launch pad and bridges falling into the river, the world these economic engineers of destruction have created can only be described as Kafkaesque. From fraudulent bankers, to looting robber barons, to rent-seeking monopolists, to bribe-taking politicians: it’s a freaking circus!

im up north of brisbane listening to the guardian the canary the ndependent and then this, this fresh to my ears this whys and wherefores of corbyn. Seriously good stuff.

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