If Corbyn Shows Fight, He Can Win

The following letter was published in today’s issue of the Leicester Mercury.

With the announcement of a snap general election earlier this week, it seems the time is up for the Blairite plotters. Labour will head into a general election with a socialist at the helm!

The main reason a general election has been called is because the Tories are hamstrung by a tiny parliamentary majority, and fear that they could be overwhelmed by forced U-turns – in their first year alone, they were compelled to make eleven.

If they are going to plough ahead with a hard Brexit and yet more brutal austerity it is essential for them, therefore, to seek a firmer mandate on which to carry it out.

The Tories are not necessarily approaching this election from a position of strength.

But this does not mean that a Labour victory will be in any way straightforward. It will be an uphill struggle, make no mistake.

The best thing Corbyn can do now is to silence the Blairites by campaigning on a socialist program which turns the 2015 manifesto on its head. Such a program should include the renationalisation of the NHS, Royal Mail, and the railways, a £10 an hour living wage, free education for all, mass council housing building, repealing anti-trade union legislation, and kicking the privateers out of our public services.

These demands should be linked to the need for fundamental socialist change – for a society run in the interests of the majority instead of the few.

With an election looming, the Tory press now has a legal obligation to cover the policies that Corbyn’s Labour put forward – something which they have studiously avoided over the past two years. Corbyn needs to exploit this rare opportunity!

But it is also essential that Corbyn’s election campaign is not defined by speeches and election broadcasts alone. The campaign to defend the NHS, for instance, should be linked to the mass movement which began with last month’s monumental national demonstration. Working alongside the trade union movement and health campaigners, Corbyn should now call a second demonstration, to be held during the election campaign. A mass fight to defend the NHS has the potential to unite millions of people against the Tories.

If Corbyn fights he can win!