Jeremy Corbyn is Labour's first radical socialist leader, but he came to power at a time of grave inherited weaknesses for the Left. It is clear that his leadership represents the beginning of a process, rather than the end. It will take time for the promise of his win to bear its most important fruit. The Left needs to be cognisant of the serious impediments in the way of success, and take seriously the need to war-game failure in the short-to-medium term so that it can make the most long-term advantage of this unique, fragile moment. This talk will address the sources of Corbyn's unlikely win, in the context of social-democracy's crisis, the difficulties he will inevitably face, and the most effective ways for the Left to intervene.
Richard Seymour is a writer, broadcaster and socialist, raised in Northern Ireland and currently based in London. He is the author of The Liberal Defence of Murder (2008), Unhitched: The Trial of Christopher Hitchens (2012), Against Austerity (2014) and Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics (2016). A contributing editor of Salvage, he also writes for The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and many other publications. He currently presents a programme, ‘Media Review’, for TeleSur, and has previously appeared on BBC, Al Jazeera and C-Span. He is finishing a PhD at the London School of Economics, where he also teaches.
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