I have noticed a considerable amount of distress and anger in some ‘Left’ quarters that Kier Starmer has been elected Labour Party leader. Having been expelled from that party for reasons that I have discussed extensively and am willing, if asked, to discuss again I see it for what it is – a part of the establishment. For a brief moment, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn it seemed that it would become something more and aspire to change the system fundamentally rather than simply attempt to ameliorate the most predatory aspects of that system. But the Party’s own ‘immune system’ treated Corbyn and ‘Corbynism’ like a virus and produced antibodies to eradicate it. All of the leader candidates took positions indistinguishable from each other on many positions and in particular all accepted that the charges of widespread antisemitism within the party were justified and they publicly agreed to the propositions that:
1. To describe Israeli policies that have a ‘discriminatory impact’ as ‘racist’ is antisemitic.
and
2. It was a disgrace for Corbyn to suggest that it is not antisemitic to describe discriminatory Israeli policies as racist.
Once these and other propositions that are clearly contrary to both empirical and logical truth have been accepted by particular individuals then nothing of what those individuals say can be trusted. It is not just that they are wrong it is that having abandoned a commonsensical use of language it is no longer possible to engage with them in a discussion regarding whether and why they are wrong or right.
Corbyn’s leadership might be called a ‘system error’. That error has been corrected. The relationship between Power and Truth has returned to that which pertained during Blair’s era and his lead up to the Iraq atrocity.
I feel no personal stake in the outcome of the Labour Partyelections and offer these observations from a perspective of puzzlement that anyone really cares. I may of course be mistaken in my observation and I am happy to be corrected but somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen.
By
1 thought on “Within the System”
BillZ
From afar, a return to business as usual, correction of the system error.
When I first became a little conscious of politics, it was when there was Heath and Wilson. What I recall is that Wilson wore a raincoat and smoked a pipe, Heath played the piano, and electoral power oscillated between the two without any apparent change in how government worked. That is the essence of the electoral wing of neoliberalism, an apparent voting drama to focus the minds of the electorate to give them an illusion that their democratic vote meant power, but the vote being to most intents the essence of powerlessness practically as it was business as usual for the bourgeoisie whoever won.
The system error in recent times has been the emergence of Corbyn and Sanders as viable candidates, both of whom have now been negated. For me this is a reaction to the emergence of the far right, but neoliberalism now has regained full control.
People who don’t understand this electoral aspect of neoliberalism always blame the Labour leader for lack of control. Throughout his time in office there were always people standing up against him, you know this far better than I. From outside people saw a turmoil in Labour, for me this was just opportunists (Blairites) doing their neoliberal job – how they earn their beanos once out of office. Through the neoliberal lens it makes easy sense, from the point of view of getting Labour into power logic asks why these people were so publicly traitorous.
During my relatively short but informative political activism in Brighton, my focus was trade unionism and not the Labour party – although for the grass roots activists were closely connected. Decision-making in trade unionism was dominated by two dynamics. On the right of the class, there was greed and little interest in broad working-class struggle. The other was the struggle between the commies and the trots. For the trot groups the commies were seen as a clear enemy as they were politically aware, tried to restrict the more extreme action, and attempted to bring a unifying organisational sense into the rhetoric of the trot groups such as Militant. Unfortunately this dynamic often meant the CP did not argue for the socialist ideals they represented. The commies are a political party so that dynamic does not exist within the Labour party.
For an even shorter while, maybe two years, I joined one of the fractured CP. There is an amusing irony that one of the key CP points is that the Trots were always split over idealism, and yet the CP itself was split. My time in the CP meant I made enemies of the Trots, and in terms of organisational effectiveness it was a tactical mistake. But the education I gained within the CP was excellent. From what I recall of the Labour party there is only campaigning, education about campaigns, and limited education about the struggle. Factions within the Labour party have education about their own positions, but these don’t always include an understanding of Marxism, socialism and class struggle. Of course stuff is picked up on the way.
That education has always helped me with understanding even when I am short of daily information.