Why I've decided to rejoin the Labour Party -
As a SSP member and activist, you may think rejoining the Tory party in red paint is a strange thing to do but I have good reasons.
As many a young socialist does, when I awoke my political consciousness I immediately threw myself at the Labour Party. Keir Hardie. Tony Benn. Nye Bevan. Michael Foot. George Galloway. Dennis Skinner. Those were the people I thought the Labour Party was all about. I attended party meetings. I delivered leaflets. I tried to get my local candidate elected in 2010.
Then came the referendum. They may have won the referendum but they lost Scotland. Labour stabbed Scotland in the back. Many members left. I burned my Labour Party membership card and sought out something new just like so many. That's when I joined the SSP after just starting uni. People with Marxist tendencies, real socialists, and democrats just like Labour used to be like.
After nearly a year of being a paid up SSP member I have rejoined the Labour Party. I've paid my £3. And I'll tell you why - to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.
Just last night out of 232 Labour MPs only 48 defied the party to vote AGAINST the Tory welfare bill. Yes only 48 voted AGAINST. The other MPs must have been busy. Tending to important matters concerning their constituents obviously. Too busy to vote against a Tory bill that'll push even more people - already 13 million in the UK are in poverty - into the dark depths of poverty. What does the party actually stand for these days? The MPs that stayed at home and abstained the bill should be ashamed of themselves.
One of the MPs that did vote against the bill was Jeremy Corbyn. Defying the whips and standing up tall with his head held high. The only candidate for the leadership to vote against it. I've rejoined the Labour Party to vote for Corbyn. He belongs to a dying breed of labour MPs we want to be at the helm of the party. Whilst we are waiting on the next referendum when we can eventually break free from Westminster and hopefully the EU, the only way to deliver UK wide socialism is through a parliamentary Labour Party. Tony Benn said that I think.
Corbyn is anti poverty, anti tuition frees, anti austerity, anti war. He advocates the living wage. He's anti nuclear. He's anti monarchy. He's pro Greek cancelation of debt. He's pro Palestine. He may not be 'hard left' as the Tory press like to portray him as but he's adequate. Broadly speaking, what he believes in, I believe in. And the SSP believe in. That's why I'll be voting for him. Only Corbyn will be an opposition to the Tories plans to destroy Britain. Only Corbyn will stand up for unprivileged alongside the SNP until we're able to break free from Westminster in the next referendum. Indeed Angus McNeil has said -"The one UK Labour leader we would fear is Jeremy Corbyn" because Corbyn could win back Scotland, the Young, the anti EU, and ultimately the Left.
As an SSP member I seek to endorse Jeremy Corbyn for Labour Party and I think the rest of the party should do too. Mon the Corbyn!
By Robbie Young.
Read a response to this article by another SSP member here.