UK Election: Vote Labour

23/11/2019

The Labour Party, under Jeremy Corbyn, could have a real chance to defeat the Conservatives. I don’t know all that much about UK politics, so I don’t know what third parties or alternatives there may be, but Corbyn’s Labour Party, whether you love the man or not, is undeniably better than giving the Conservatives under Boris Johnson another term to screw up the UK and Brexit negotiations.

I feel like a broken record these past few years. In the US, if you refused to vote for Clinton for whatever reason, you were a fool. In Australia, if you refused to vote for the Labor Party, or at least preference them, you were a fool. In the UK, if you refuse to vote for the Labour Party and Corbyn, you are a fool. Even for someone like me, who in principle believes in the abolition of State power, the choice when it comes to elections are clear – either you participate and try to get results, or piss off and stop complaining.

I’ve not heard of him before, but it is what Alan Moore has recently come out and said too. He says that he, an anarchist, will be voting for the first time in decades, and he will be voting for Labour. Labour, Labor, and (definitely) the Democrats are not perfect parties and do not have perfect members. But Moore sums it up by saying that his choice is “principally against the Tories rather than for Labour”. That is what so many of these elections are about – you don’t have to love the people you vote for, you need to vote for them so you don’t end up with the Trump’s, Morrison’s, and Johnson’s of the world.

The Guardian article linked above says Moore “dropped” his anarchism to support Labour, but that is an incredibly dull assumption. It is quite likely that he still very much believes, like I do, that there are greater alternatives out there to State power. It is possible to hold that belief alongside the belief that there are political parties and leaders that are worthy of our support, if at least to turn the tides against the rising chaos of the Conservative, Coalition, and Republican parties.

There are undoubtedly many other places where one can find detailed analyses of UK matters, so I won’t go into a “pros and cons” list of Labour other than to repeat another quote from Moore: that Corbyn’s Labour Party has introduced “the most encouraging set of proposals that I’ve ever seen from any major British party.” The media will most certainly rip them to shreds, including the Guardian, who still drag out the “Labour is anti-Semitic” line. The Conservatives will do the same, accusing Labour of various wrongdoings whilst peddling their own propaganda to boost themselves.

So even if you’re an anarchist, or simply hate both major parties and think neither of them can do anything for you, vote Labour. Tell friends and family to vote Labour as well. To not do so risks re-electing Boris Johnson and the party that has crashed the UK over the past few years. Once Labour is in, then you can work towards getting a little more radical – Corbyn appears to agree.

Liked this? Read Brexit Will Never End: What About a Global Community Instead?

Previous piece: Reflecting on Old Reflections: Lenin and the Russian Revolution