The

The Hello and welcome to another episode of Politics Theory Other.

My name is Alex Doherty and my guest today is journalist and author Andy Beckett.

We talked about Andy's new book, The Searchers, Five Rebels, Their Dream of a Different Britain, and Their Many Enemies.

The five rebels in question being Tony Ben, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, John Macdonnell and Ken Livingston.

Just a few weeks ago, the tradition of libertarian socialism,

with one foot inside and one foot outside of the Labour Party,

seems dead and buried,

and the political careers of Abbott, Corbyn and MacDonald essentially over.

But with the botched attempt to force Diana Abbott into retirement

or the House of Lords,

with Corbyn's prominence increasing with his independent campaign to become MP for North Islington once again,

and with the next Labour government likely to be very unpopular very quickly,

things now seem less clear.

In my conversation with Andy, we talked about the role of the global tumult of

1968 in the development of the politics of the five, the extraordinary racism that

Diane Abbott has faced since entering Parliament, and whether the current Labour leadership

think there are votes to be gained in joining in attacks on Britain's most important black

politician. We also talked about the importance of

Salvador Aende's popular unity government in Chile to the five and how their admiration for

Aende contrasted with their view of the Eastern bloc during the Cold War, and finally we touched on

the current conjuncture and what the future might hold for the remaining four rebels.

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