The decision of the Oxford University Labour Club's leadership to support Jeremy Corbyn, for which they have publicly been thanked by MP Andrew Smith in helping him make his decision to do the same, is just the latest in a series of events showing the doublethink of the leadership of the Oxford Left, and the behaviour of the leadership's supporters in the aftermath further shows the problems with the premises on which much of the student Left's arguments are based.
Jeremy Corbyn's views are openly socialist to the point of absurdity, shown by his infamous split with his wife over whether or not to send their child to a top grammar school as opposed to a failing comprehensive school; when a child's future is subordinated to the personal preferences of the parents, even when those will harm a child's prospects, it should be a source of shame, rather than pride. His blind support of socialism supra omnem also manifests itself in his devotion to solidarity with Venezuela, a country widely considered to be on the brink of collapse, plagued by hyperinflation, rationing and rising murder rates.
Yet these examples of the absurdity of his doctrinaire socialism pale in comparison to his foreign policy stances. Much like George Galloway, Corbyn has a very interesting relationship with anti-Semitic elements in the Middle East, infamously inviting Hezbollah and Hamas into Parliament, and describing them as his 'friends'; to reiterate, he described anti-Semitic terror groups as his 'friends'. When Hezbollah's leader has publicly stated that all Jews should make aliyah to Israel to make it easier to kill them all, and Hamas's Charter still publicly declares a goal of Jewish genocide, any reasonable individual should surely be distancing themselves from these organisations rather than hosting them in Parliament.
The support of Oxford University Labour Club's leadership, and other sections of Oxford's Far Left, for Jeremy Corbyn should not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the state of politics at Oxford, with OULC's leadership moving further and further to the Far Left as the latter continues to become more vocal in its attempts to drown out all other voices on the University-wide student stage. Nor, too, should anyone be surprised by the hypocrisy evident in doing so. The same Oxford Left which protested the appearance of Marine Le Pen in Oxford last term with balaclava-clad violence, allegedly because she was a fascist and an anti-Semite (explaining, of course, why Jewish votes for the FN are on the rise), is now supporting a candidate for the Labour leadership who counts open anti-Semites and fascists as his allies on the global stage.
Perhaps more shocking than the endorsement itself was the behaviour of one of the supporters of the endorsement when Corbyn's alliance with anti-Semites was questioned (pictured above). I would hope I'm not alone in saying that such a statement is truly shocking, but sadly it is not overly surprising to anyone familiar with the apologism of much anti-Israel activism in Universities today, and indeed the general discourse of the Far Left, obsessed as it is with its (unquestionable) ideas of 'privilege' and 'oppression'. Its obsession with the former means it is incredibly reluctant to acknowledge the problem of anti-Semitism, and leads it to an absurd position that the relative economic advantage of Jews in the West somehow trumps the horror of the Holocaust when we consider whether Jews really are a 'privileged' group, and indeed whether Israel has a moral right to exist. Meanwhile, its obsession with the latter generates the level of utter moral turpitude inherent in declaring that 'oppression' allows for the mass killing of Jews in appropriate circumstances.
A further obsession of the student (Far) Left was also evidenced in the reaction of an OULC ex-officer to Andrew Smith's thanking of OULC for their input, namely - yet again - pretending that their views are those of the general student population. Ex-Co-Chair Nikihil Venkatesh (also of ironic Marine le Pen protest fame), as well as a current Co-Chair, described the decision as evidence of the political power of students - not just OULC members, but students in general. Yet as long as the Far left drown out every dissenting voice through screaming the loudest and most often, such people will continue to pretend that they do indeed represent ordinary students.
However, there was one silver lining to the whole affair, namely the reaction of ordinary OULC members to the decision of its leadership, and the anti-Semitic alliances of Corbyn (also evidenced above). This should only serve as further evidence that our self-declared student leaders are utterly disconnected from the opinions and view of ordinary students. It is certainly pleasing in one respect to see the ordinary membership of OULC openly dissent from their leaders on this issue, so if one positive can come out of this endorsement, it may be that it serves as a rallying cry for the grassroots student Labourite to express their opposition to an increasingly disconnected and extremist leadership.