After the general election, I naively thought that we had reached the point of peak Corbyn and that elements of the left and other radicals would start to think a bit more independently again. Far from that happening, to all intents and purposes, the mania about Corbyn seems to intensified to the point where it has become a cult…a disturbing and weird one…

This was brought home to me on Saturday July 1st when, for the purposes of reporting the event and showing solidarity with any independently minded elements, I attended the Tories Out! Protest organised by the People’s Assembly. If you didn’t know anything about UK politics and saw the name People’s Assembly, you would assume that it was a left wing front representing a fairly broad range of opinions on that end of the political spectrum. Not a bit of it, the People’s Assembly is nothing more than the Jeremy Corbyn fan club. In fact it could well be argued that they do not represent the people in any way shape or form…

As for the Tories Out! protest, apart from a small autonomous block, a few other small, independently minded groups such as Class War and some individual renegades who all grouped together on the march, it was one massive Corbyn love-fest from start to finish. There were endless chants of ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ pretty much from the off. Thousands and thousands of people putting their faith in one political leader and pretty much abandoning any vestige of independent thought let alone, autonomous grassroots action that has some relevance to the daily experience of most working class people.

I can normally tell if a protest like Tories Out! is going to be a large, because when there are huge London protests, there will be people getting on at various points along the c2c line to go to it. I didn’t see anyone getting on at any point on my journey into Fenchurch Street who looked like they would be attending Tories Out! As per usual, the train pretty much emptied at West Ham as most people piled off to go up to Westfield at Stratford for some retail therapy…

My guess about the numbers on Tories Out! is that the attendance was around the twenty thousand mark. Most of the attendees were the usual suspects plus people who have been swept up by the cult of Corbyn. It felt like a very middle class affair with lots of well meaning people but apart from a few of us renegades, little or nothing in the way of anger. Apart from a small autonomous block, the anarchist presence was pretty much zero. The working class presence was also pretty low as well. It’s pretty obvious by now that Corbyn is pitching for the young middle class vote and that everyone else is expected to fulfil their allotted tasks in securing that to ensure his victory.

Halfway down the Haymarket, a few of us had reached the point where listening to one more chant of ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ would have pushed us over the edge so we departed for the pub. In the pub, the idea was hatched that a few people from Class War should go down to Parliament Square and get as close as possible to Corbyn to tell him a few home truths about the complicity of London Labour councils in social cleansing in the name of ‘regeneration’. Suffice to say, the plan was executed and not only did we manage to get the point across to Corbyn, prior to that we also encountered Len McCluskey as well – two for the price of one!

Needless to say, McCluskey and Corbyn weren’t best pleased at being called out on the dismal, anti-working class attitude of London Labour councils who are cosying up to the property developers. The Trots, stewards and Corbyn worshippers weren’t all that pleased at our intervention either. However, far from the metaphorical lynching I was expecting, there were people who were curious about what we had to say and there was a range of encounters and discussions with a few Class War papers getting handed out as well. All in all, it was a worthwhile intervention…

As for the cult of Corbyn, what has to be born in mind is that it is just that and doesn’t have a wide social base outside of the liberally educated, young middle class. The cult of Corbyn exists in a self reinforcing bubble that is apart from the day to day reality of most working class people. Hardly anyone on the estates in Thurrock and Basildon is talking about Corbyn – he’s simply not relevant to their lives. There’s still a massive political vacuum to be filled…

Dave (the editor)