I VIVIDLY remember what I was doing when I heard Jeremy Corbyn was standing for Labour leader — delivering my sister’s handmade jewellery to a Brick Lane boutique. My first thought was: “This is my best chance of ever seeing a proudly socialist prime minister in Britain.” My second was: “What odds can I get on that happening?”

The answer was 100/1. Definitely worth a punt, I thought, as did the local Ladbrokes old-timer who asked about my “novelty” bet. After Jeremy made the ballot with seconds to spare, I watched his odds tumble first to 33/1 and then 25/1. Now he’s the 1/3 favourite.

Going to the bookies got me hooked — and it was time to put my mouth where my money was. I lobbied friends and family hard to become supporters, then discovered the Corbynistas’ natural habitat, Twitter.

Soon I was tweeting and following like there was no tomorrow. Top of the agenda was finding 35 Labour MPs ready to risk Blairite wrath by signing Jeremy’s nomination papers — no mean feat. I remember the bitter disappointment eight years ago when his closest ally John McDonnell fell at this hurdle because Gordon Brown strong-armed colleagues into stitching up his no-contest coronation.

But as a relentless optimist I enthusiastically joined the online army firing torrents of tweets at my local MP Catherine West. When that worked I moved on to every other Labour MP who hadn’t nominated, frantically retweeting hundreds of JezWeCan-tagged pleas for help.

On deadline day we were still a fair few signatures short and only the Morning Star was calling it for Jez. I prayed parliamentary correspondent Luke James had some inside info.

He did! There was a steady trickle of nominations, and as Big Ben rang in the noon deadline the final three dithering MPs saw sense and signed, triggered a massive earthquake across the political landscape.

I started making “memes” — simple graphics with words and photos to be emailed or posted on social media. Subediting the Star for five years helped me find punchy headlines to pair with Jez fan pics.

I volunteered at the vibrant campaign office in TSSA headquarters, making official memes and calling up Labour members before crucial local nomination meetings. Phone banks were at bursting point until Unite and Unison came on board with more floors of office space.

When we heard Jeremy had pulled ahead in constituency party nominations the packed room of veteran activists couldn’t believe it. I started on a meme celebrating the news, but was told not to sound too triumphalist — with good reason, as the temptation was strong.

The success escalated. Jeremy was winning the hustings hands-down and speaking to packed halls across the country. Blairites went from insisting he couldn’t possibly win to wondering out loud whether it might happen, to screaming that he was going to come top unless “moderate” Labour united behind ABC — anyone but Corbyn. Ironically every desperate New Labour intervention just cemented Jeremy’s “true Labour” status — a backlash against Blairism that’s been building 20 years.

So in my self-printed #JezWeCan t-shirt I handed out leaflets, spoke at local Labour meetings, signed up supporters at the school gates — anything I could do to raise awareness of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Along with thousands of others I helped swamp social media, debate doubters and defend our candidate’s record.

The attacks focused on his “friends from Hamas,” but backfired when people learned he had built bridges with the IRA and help lay the Good Friday foundations way before Blair claimed the credit.

He’s also attacked for his friendship with late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, but this feeds the inspiring narrative that Corbyn might be our Chavez, our leader who unites the left and disrupts the corrupt consensus.

Regular Star readers are familiar with Jeremy’s pure socialist views and solutions for building a better world. But millions more people are now hearing them for the first time in the mainstream media and at mass rallies. If he wins, his reach will be even wider, bringing many more to the cause. The party has doubled in size since its defeat in May, and a Corbyn-led Labour could fight the 2020 election backed by over a million members — a mass movement.
Already my sister can’t keep up with demand for her #JezWeCan necklaces. Hopefully we will be wearing them for years to come.

nYou can follow Charley on Twitter via @charleyallan or see @MadeByVenice to order your own necklace (pay what you want, £3p&p, all profits to the campaign).