ALB
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If the media are so powerful that they were able to stop Corbyn coming to power how come they weren’t able to stop the Scots Nats winning so overwhelmingly? After all, a breakaway by Scotland would cause more harm to the British state than any passing damage that a bungling economic policy by a Corbyn government would do.
But he seems to have linked up with the Communist Party of Great Britain Marxist-Leninist which can definitely be called Stalinist.
The article on the front was written by a comrade in the Indian party and used as the editorial in the September Standard. And also as a leaflet for some climate change events that month.
People in London don’t mind “foreigners” and get on with them. It’s people in the middle of nowhere that have never seen one that seem to see them as some sort of threat and even then change their mind when they do meet one.
And you’ve got to be over 50 to remember the 1970s. Given younger people a break ! Anyway most of the politicians of the period were eminently forgettable/ George Brown? Reginald Maudling? Who were they? Or were they the 1960s?
“Investors are sure the Tories promises are not going to be implemented but just didn’t know if Corbyn’s might have kept his pledges (unlike ourselves who did believe he would break them).“
Of course we didn’t believe that he would try to implement them but, rather, that if/when he did they wouldn’t work due the nature and operation of capitalism. So it would be more accurate to say “unlike ourselves who didn’t believe he could deliver them”. Mind you, investors were right to worry about the economic disruption that would result when a Labour government did try to implement them.
But you didn’t have to be a socialist to believe this. Workers have sufficient experience of the way capitalism has worked in the past to know that the Labour Party was promising something that they couldn’t deliver. Of course this will also be a reflection of the cultivated view that it is not capitalism but the way the world has to be that prevents things getting that much better.
Yes, the media did destroy and character assassinate Corbyn and they are still kicking him now that he’s down. I am not sure that this was entirely or even mainly due to Labour’s radical reformist programme, but will have had more to do with his pro-Palestine position. After all, Labour’s programme wasn’t the most radical they’ve had, even in living memory. And although they made fun of Michael Foot it wasn’t vicious as it has been in Corbyn’s case.
In any event the media are not all powerful. Otherwise how did the state-capitalist regimes in Eastern Europe collapse? In fact, how come we exist? If we can escape it, so can the rest of the working class. In fact, our whole case is based on this assumption.
An electronic copy of “World News” has been sent to the Internet Committee to put up at an appropriate place on this site.
That article by Jonathan Cook is, as usual, well written and he makes some valid points. However, his conclusions that the political system is rigged and that therefore the answer is to take to the streets is wrong and even dangerous.
Yes, the private and state owned media are biased and they do manipulate popular opinion, but there is no evidence that the electoral system does not accurately reflect the views of those who vote. After all, it didn’t prevent the election of over 200 Labour MPs. And there is no evidence that it could have prevented the election of the 326+ needed to for Labour to have become the governing party. It was that on this occasion not what a sufficient number of voters wanted.
The system that is “rigged” is not the electoral system but the economic system as all reformist governments have found and as a Corbyn one would have too. The working of the capitalist system require that priority be given to profit-making and that any government that doesn’t respect this will provoke an economic downturn.
The answer is certainly not to take to the streets and try to reform capitalism by “direct action”. That won’t be able to overcome the economic laws of capitalism either and, being the action only of a minority, would provide the state with the pretext to crack down with popular support. If such direct action had majority support it could use this to win an election, not that that would allow their reformist programme to be implemented given the nature of capitalism.
No, the lesson is that the battle that needs to be won is the battle of ideas, which is fought not on the streets but in leaflets, meetings, social media and even by contesting elections. Until a majority want to reject capitalism and replace it with socialism then it’s not going (to be able) to happen.
I would imagine that the Corbynistas will now play student politics to keep control of constituency Labour parties and that that will keep them occupied. Labour at least had one success — they saw off the potential LibDem challenge in the South. The LibDems are not going to be the new centre party they hoped to become and are irrelevant again in national level politics.
Here’s the results where we stood.
Cardiff North: Lab 25605 (61.2%) Con 8426 LD 6298 Brexit 1006 Gwalad 280 Ind 119 Soc 88 (0.2%).
Folkestone and Hythe: Con 35473 (60.1%) Lab 14146 LD 5755 Green 2708 Ind 576 SDP 190 YPP 80 Soc 69 (0.1%).
As can be seen constituencies in Wales are smaller than in England. In 2015 we got 68 votes in Folkestone and Hythe.
Yes, go ahead and draft something and send it to Head Office. Someone can send it from there and even if there’s no reply it can still be used in the Socialist Standard or on the blog.
What C.C.? We have an E. C. or Executive Committee that executes Conference Decisions but not a Central Committee that decides policy as in Leninist organisations !
Replies to the i paper insert have begun to come in. They are mostly from the West Country and South Wales. The explanation presumably is that, because we only inserted in 160,000 of the 190,000, they would have inserted them in the ones that went out first ie the furthest in distance from the distribution centre in Watford.
Some replies from the election leaflets delivered by the post office but hardly any by comparison. Which was our experience in the euroelections too. There may be a lesson to be learnt here. Something to do with getting a better response from targeted distribution as opposed to distributing to everyone. Having said that, the post office regulations mean that the leaflets they distribute can’t be so reply-friendly.
Two views on leaders and their debates. A useless gadget and the real-time reaction of socialists.
