steelcityman

Yesterdays news, yesterdays comments…. but Oh! so welcome and joyous… As a long time Labour party supporter and member up until 1985, It broke my heart to see the Labour Party self destruct over the issue of the ‘Militant Tendency’ I.e. Getting rid of the ‘Bad Influence’ of Socialist Ideals. The Labour party was restructured to prevent the surfacing of Socialist ideals…can you believe that ???  A party formed from the very heart of the fledgeling Trades Union Movement with Socialism at it’s very heart, wanting to move to the right and ditch the attachment and support of the working class and the Socialistic ideals it promised to uphold !!! Bah !! Humbug indeed !!

As a life long supporter of these ‘Socialistic Ideals’ I of course resigned from the Party. I could no longer support a political party on it’s journey to the right wing of the political spectrum … along came Tony Blair and the party was firmly established as a watered down version of the hated ‘nasty party’, the Tories. Today, or should I say the day before yesterday, the labour party was advocating carrying on with the Austerity Politics of the Tories and all the cuts, which are designed to hurt the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society….Aneurin Bevan once said of the Tory party,

       …“No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred of the Tory party. So far as I am concerned, they are lower than vermin.” (Aneurin Bevan) …

….Any party that gets close to the Tory ideology deserves these harsh words

Jeremy Corbyn’s promise to return to the Socialistic ideals which the Labour party held so dear prompted me to rejoin and vote for the man who, I believe, will lead the party back to it’s roots…the working people of this once great nation…and what a landslide victory it was too, 62% of the votes cast  in the first round and the bonus is that much of the landslide victory is not down to ‘Old School Socialists’ like my aged self, but to a massive influx of Young people who have grown up under the ‘Nasty Party’ rule or the old ‘Nearly Tory Labour Party’ and have quite obviously ..had enough.

I am HAPPY…I am THRILLED…I wept when the result  of Jeremy Corbyn’s landslide victory was announced and I’m EXCITED at the prospect of the Labour Party forming, first a credible opposition, and then in 2020 a real alternative to Austerity Politics and unfairness.

I’ll leave you with these words of the Labour Party’s Hymn, which when heard, make my heart swell and my eyes shed a tear……

To the Tune of ‘Oh Tannembaum’

The workers’ flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead;
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their life-blood dyed its every fold.

CHORUS:

Then raise the scarlet standard high;
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

Look ’round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise;
In Moscow’s vaults its hymns are sung,
Chicago swells its surging song.

CHORUS:

Then raise the scarlet standard high;
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

It waved above our infant might
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We will not change its color now.

CHORUS:

Then raise the scarlet standard high;
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

It suits today the meek and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place;
To cringe beneath the rich man’s frown,
And haul that sacred emblem down.

CHORUS:

Then raise the scarlet standard high;
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

With heads uncovered, swear we all,
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark, or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn!

CHORUS:

Then raise the scarlet standard high;
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the red flag flying here.

(James Connell 1889)