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Despite centrist stitch-ups, the left struggles on in Labour
We must salute those who decide to 'stay and fight' — but what we can reasonably expect to win now after three years of Keir Starmer's onslaught is much reduced, says NICK WRIGHT
THE SPIRIT REMAINS: Jeremy Corbyn with members of the NEU at rally, on February 1 2023, against plans for a new law on minimum service levels during strikes

WHEN last week, a reconstituted Labour Students called for an end to student fees it signified a return to serious student politics thus disproving Henry Kissinger quip: “The reason that university politics is so vicious is because the stakes are so small.”

The former Labour student organisation was wound up during the Jeremy Corbyn era after university Labour clubs disaffiliated in great numbers. It had an unsavoury reputation for neoliberal posturing and rampant careerism and even campaigned against free education. Its leadership were vicious precisely because the issues are important to these wannabe Blairites.

Last week the left won the Socialist Health Association’s leadership elections — beating the shadow health secretary’s team — and placed Labour’s health affiliate firmly in opposition to the slow-motion NHS privatisation that the party leadership favours.

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