He drew in one of the biggest crowds Glastonbury had ever seen. He inspired the politically disengaged to become interested in politics. He empowered others to believe in equality. Jeremy Corbyn's legacy will never be defeated.
Britain's Labour Party suffered a crushing defeat on Dec. 12, leaving supporters up and down the country feeling like they’d been punched in the gut. The party’s divisive leader might be on borrowed time, but, a world apart from the brutal critiques that equate Corbyn to the party’s worst ever leader, his legacy, aka Corbynism, lives on.
Not only has Corbynism, namely the quest for a fairer society, changed the political and social landscape forever, but with nothing now holding back the Johnson administration, Corbyn’s timeless legacy is more important than ever.
Step back to 2015 when, in the wake of a disappointing election result, Ed Miliband resigned as Labour Party leader and a hotly contested leadership race ensued.
Despite only being put on the leadership panel to create a more “broad debate” for the party’s future, there was something about the bearded, bespectacled 66-year-old ‘leftie’ and his uncompromising socialist beliefs that inspired Labour party members. So much so that Corbyn won the race in a stunning victory, dwarfing even Tony Blair’s leadership landslide in 1994.
No one seemed more surprised than Corbyn himself when he was named party leader and forced to give a victory speech under the glare of hundreds of TV camera lights. For those hoping for a more centrist leader to take Miliband’s place, such as the ‘Blairite’ candidate Liz Kendall, lessons from 2010 had not been learned.
At that time, Ed Miliband – labelled “Red Ed” by some sections of the press – pipped his more centrist brother David to the leadership post, and grassroots Labour members still craved the more radical left-wing platform Ed Miliband introduced.
Akin to many Blairite reproaches – which blamed Miliband’s shift to the left, during his 2010-15 leadership, for Labour’s worst defeat in more than two decades – Corbyn’s significantly more crushing loss in the 2019 election has whipped centrist factions of the party into a finger pointing, “I told you so” frenzy.
In the wake of two disappointing general elections for Labour in under five years – and divided by a near-breakthrough in 2017, when Corbyn’s party garnered an unexpectedly good result that squandered Theresa May’s plans to gain a majority – it could be easy to contend that Labour needs to revert back to its former “New Labour” glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s.
But getting in the way of a centrist reformation is Corbynism: a term coined to describe the powerful leftist ideology that Corbyn preached, namely a commitment to democratic socialism, an opposition to privatisation, an anti-war rhetoric and devotion to equality.
During his 32 years as a Labour MP, including four and a half years as party leader, Corbyn and his politics never waivered. He deeply opposes Blair, regarding him as a Thatcherite capitalist and an instrument of U.S. imperialism. Defining himself as a democratic socialist, Corbyn remains a huge advocate of reversing austerity cuts to welfare funding and public services.
A long-standing anti-nuclear and anti-war activist, Corbyn never kept his military non-interventionist attitudes a secret, earning him regular harassment from right-wing media.
Labour membership surges and Corbyn's 'youthquake'
Such doctrines centred on creating a more equal society struck a chord with the people of Britain; during Corbyn's tenure as leader, membership increased from 201,293 on the day of the 2015 general election, to around 485,000 members today.
This compares to the Conservative Party membership of just 191,000.
Not only had the principles of Corbynism inspired tens of thousands to join Labour, but they also awakened a political spirit among young people. The 2017 election witnessed a surge in young voters, with the election’s ‘youthquake’ reportedly a key factor in Corbyn’s advance in the polls.
In the 2019 election, Labour still dominated the youth vote, with the party winning all but three of the 20 constituents with the most 18- to 35-year-olds.
Energising people to get interested in politics
Corbyn’s pledges to do more to stamp out Britain’s growing homelessness, improve the country’s rapidly deteriorating public services, and make Labour the “party of equality” grabbed the attention of compassionate listeners. People who had previously been disinterested in the same-old elitist politics suddenly sat up and listened.
Previously apolitical Generation Xers, disengaged Millennials, and even Baby Boomers who realised there could be value in making the country fairer for everyone began to take note.
It could be said that the peak of Corbynism fervour was in June 2017, when the Labour leader walked on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, a platform reserved for the greatest, most legendary figures. The then 68-year-old managed to pull in one of the biggest Glastonbury crowds of all time as he spoke of unity and creating a fairer world to the deafening roar of supporters.
Reasons for Labour’s collapse in the 2019 election are complex and many, from right-wing media manipulation and harassment to the Tory-made Brexit mess. Corbyn might not have won the votes at the polling stations. His resolute politics founded on equality did, however, inspire a generation.
Sealing the majority the Tories craved, Johnson now has nothing holding him back. Consequently, the concept of Corbynism and the plight to invest in people to achieve a more balanced economy and fairer society will be more important than ever. Labour’s next leader has big shoes to fill.
