Why is Jeremy Corbyn silent on the protests in Iran?
A cynic might say that the Labour leader could hardly be expected to bite the hand that fed him £20,000 for appearing on the state’s propaganda channel. But Corbyn’s motivations are not financial. He and those who share his worldview simply cannot stomach being on the same side as the United States, even if that means abandoning Iranians crying out for democracy, justice and human rights.
That may shock soft-left indulgers of Corbyn but it shouldn’t. When the socialist journalist James Bloodworth contends that left-wing politics ‘has become so solipsistic that much of the time it operates strictly negatively’ he could be providing a character assessment of Corbyn or a neat summary of his outlook. America is the greatest source of evil in the world; other regimes may approach its wickedness but none can surpass it; resistance to American ‘imperialism’ takes priority over every other principle and precept. As Bloodworth puts it, ‘serious analysis on the left has given way to crude anti-western sentiment rooted in a peculiar – and class-bind – fetishisation of anyone who points an AK47 at Britain or the United States’.
Stephen Daisley 