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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Are we ready to make a declaration of independence from capitalism?
Whilst Corbyn fights Brexit battles at home, there's been unexpected vote of confidence for the left from the US - where 65 per cent of Democrats now view socialism positively

SOCIALIST ideas are enjoying something of a revival. Here too. The prospect of a Labour government — even with the party in the midst of intensely destabilising struggle with a sizeable section of its MPs and party establishment — has the ruling elites, big business and the banks intensely anxious. But in the United States socialist ideas are also challenging the official consensus.

The US party system is crafted precisely to prevent the emergence of a political vehicle that might challenge the dominant corporate power which has, in the Democratic and Republican parties, two powerful political machines.

A Soviet leader once quipped — in response to criticism that political power in the USSR was exercised in a one party state — that the United States too was a one party state but, with typical American extravagance, it had two such parties.

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