Jeremy Corbyn and the war machine: Assemblage and affect in the 2015 UK Labour Party Leadership Contest

Abstract

In September 2015, the once obscure left-wing MP for Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn, became the UK Labour Party’s leader following the party’s defeat at the 8 May 2015 General Election. Corbyn came from the position of outsider, going from barely getting a place on the leadership ballot in the first place, to winning an outright majority. In this paper, I argue that Corbyn’s campaign reveals how elections and electoral campaigns are affective events, and highlights an issue with much existing electoral geography literature: elections are seldom written about as social, affective experiences. Through interviews and an ethnographic approach to Facebook, I examine the experiences within the party and on social media during the Labour leadership campaign. I argue that we might understand his campaign’s success better through the Deleuzo-Guattarian concept of the war machine. I conclude by considering the implications and questions that this theory provides for the future of his leadership, as well as the political geography of the state.