Trotskyite Tribute Act

The NewStatesman magazine has pulled of something of a coup by unearthing an interview that John McDonnell gave to the Trotskyist Alliance for Workers' Liberty back when he was campaigning, unsuccessfully, to become the leader of the Labour Party back in 2006.

The magazine attributes the following quotes to Labour's shadow chancellor:

“We're trying to win the battle of ideas on the basis of a really thorough, democratic debate.

“So we're trying to win hegemony within both the party and the country. And then, use that battle of ideas to make sure we can reflect that in the battle of organisation within the movement overall.”

Warming to his theme McDonnell goes on to explain which political thinkers have had the most influence on him: 

“If we go through it... the fundamental Marxist writers of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, basically. In terms of the ability to mobilise spontaneously, Rosa Luxemburg.

“Interestingly enough, for a long time I was quite interested by the writers of the New Left who appeared in the 60s. Williams, Miliband, Griffiths, E.P. Thompson and others, particularly around the historical issues themselves.”

Now that sounds to me like good old-fashioned political gobbledegook rather than a new kind of politics.



http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/03/exclusive-john-mcdonnell-named-lenin-and-trotsky-his-biggest-influences-2006

John McDonnell named biggest influences as Lenin, Marx and Trotsky

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell once cited Trotsky and Lenin among his “most significant” influences, it has emerged