MY LIBERTY RIGHT OR LEFT

Students at Cardiff University protest to try and prevent Germaine Greer
from giving a lecture
I don’t think it would be accurate to call me a ‘socialist’ anymore, though it is a term I have used to describe myself for more than five decades. It is not that my fundamental worldview has altered greatly, I still believe in equality, economic and social justice and a political system that eschews privilege and preferment based on class. I also still believe in free speech, civil liberties and free assembly.  These latter two principles used to be associated with the left, no longer. When I was growing up the prohibiters and censors all came from the right, these days they are more likely to come from the left. Would a contemporary Oz trail now have the left supporting the publishers of the Schoolkids edition? I doubt it. We have moved from a culture of freedom and diversity of opinion to one of offence. Rather as a backbench MP can stop a private members bill by shouting ‘object’ so any argument can be stopped in its tracks by the cries of those claiming to be offended. The censor is called in, the speaker ‘no-platformed,’ the article deleted. The smug censors of the left then move on, in search of another forum in which they can be offended. Free speech is not dead but it is on its knees. There can be no form of ‘socialism’ worth the sacrifice of free speech, for as Rosa Luxemburg understood such a society could hardly be described ‘socialist.’

This trend alone would give me much pause for thought, but the problem of left-wing politics does not stop there. One doesn’t have to be a regular user of Twitter to sense that the prime motivation of significant numbers of those attaching the label socialist to themselves is hate and intolerance. Twitter, however, does provide a microscope in which to examine the phenomenon of left-wing intolerance. I suggest that if you look at the timeline of Jess Phillips, Mike Gates, or Lucien Berger to name but three, you get a peek at some of the abuse aimed at moderate socialists by people sure of their righteousness and socialist credentials. Warning, you will need a strong stomach.
Now it will, and has been, argued that these people only represent a small minority of supporters. This may be true, but they are growing in strength and confidence, and, much more concerning is that many are openly antisemitic and see this not only as no barrier to joining the party but rather a plus, for they see in the leader a sympathetic fellow traveller.
For, on a purely local UK level, when it comes to the rot that has infected the only electable left party all roads lead to Corbyn. The man likes to exude an air of innocent sainthood, but behind the mask lies a deeply duplicitous soul, enamoured of terrorism, so long as it is couched in terms of ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘resistance to oppression,’ [as if the Birmingham pub bombings or murdering Israeli athletes were the acts of the Marquis]. His distaste for the state of Israel is as palpable as his fondness for the Cuban dictatorship, and tolerance of Iranian theocratic fascists. As for antisemitism, he is willing to go that extra mile to exonerate those found guilty of this poison.  A party of the left with such a leader is a party I want no part in.
Which leads me, somewhat sophistically, back to me and my own sense of political homelessness. Though I am far from being alone in this respect, for Corbyn’s ascent, and the rise of a culture of lies and deceit, in which ‘truthiness’ has replaced truth, have hand in hand represented the greatest assault on progressive politics since the demise of Stalinism.  Every day that Corbyn and his mirror image, the hard right Brexiteers remain in the ascendant the gap in UK politics for a decent left progressive party grows wider. Though, the victory of the right of the Lib Dems and the way they embraced the Conservative party in 2010, has ruled them out of contention for this role, opposing Brexit is not enough. Only a breakup of the existing two-party system offers hope and that prospect now feels enticingly close as Corbynism and Brexit tears at the fabric of party unity from left to right.


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