COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY FINIAN CUNNINGHAM IN SPUTNIK
“Britain's Real Terror
Apologist”
Good summary piece.
In discussing the press attacks on Corbyn about being a
"terrorist sympathizer," the author neglects an even more insidious, unethical
set of attacks - those against non-existent anti-Semitism.
These latter attacks went on for months, starting not long
after he was first chosen as leader.
The barrage included innuendo or suggestions or outright
charges from Tony Blair, The Guardian (which sunk especially low on the
subject), The Independent, and someone even dragged in the leader of Israel's
Labour Party who wrote a self-serving, dishonest, nasty public letter to
Corbyn, much featured in the press.
It was a virtual repeat of the performance of old drunken American
Senator, Joe McCarthy, in the 1950s, standing in front of cameras, holding a
fistful of papers he never showed anyone, bellowing about how they contained
the names of a couple of hundred “communists” in the State Department. At that
time, you almost could not come up with a more inflammatory accusation than
calling someone communist.
The ethics in the effort against Corbyn were exactly the
same as those of McCarthy - who was in fact a hopeless drunk trying to fire up
a failing political career when he first hit upon his paranoid, dangerous, and
immoral game of innuendo and name-calling.
He, too, only succeeded for a while because other people in
power were able to use him for their own dark purposes - especially that sicko,
J. Edgar Hoover, notorious and utterly ruthless Director of the FBI.
The attacks on Corbyn morphed and changed to take several
different shapes, but they continued for months. He was forced to have another
leadership contest in the Party - owing to the filthy influence of Tony Blair
and his acolytes - again with the press, especially The Guardian, giving great
exposure to those running against him, especially Owen Smith, a man who never
stopped talking while saying almost nothing.
But Corbyn won again, and it was a great victory for this
decent man. The press and opponent politicians shut-up for a while but ended up
starting new attacks, such as he “just could not win.” There were considerable
human and financial resources put into these efforts. Tony Blair’s ugly
blood-stained face appeared periodically in a press still loyal to him, and it
was very satisfying in the end to see that smug murderer and profiteer ignored.
In politics in the Western World, good guys rarely win, and
that is because, in all cases from Parliaments to Congress, we have election
machinery – everything from rules, voting procedures, and gerrymandering – bent
against the emergence of leaders who really do represent the country’s people
or who oppose special interests or foreign influence such as that of the United
States upon national politics.
This bent political machinery is reinforced by the corrosive
influence of money in politics, especially in the United States where it is
totally dominant, but also in Britain and certainly in France, which sometimes
appears as corrupt as the United States in its politics.
Through all these means, the establishment and special
interests do keep a firm hand on the tiller of so-called democratic politics.
Many ordinary people are quite unaware of how limited the reality of their
democracy is. David Cameron, for example ruled a country and made big decisions,
including life-and-death ones abroad, based on the support of about 35% of the
people. Some democracy.
But sometimes circumstances conspire so that the good guys win,
do manage to cut through all the barriers and limits, and this British election
was one of those times.
Jeremy Corbyn is simply the most decent man leading a major
party in Europe today, and I think the people perceived that as he worked
tirelessly on the hustings, despite all the previous attacks. In similar
fashion, many saw Theresa May for what she is, a rather ineffectual person and
a rather nasty one, much resembling David Cameron in drag.
A couple more leaders of Corbyn’s caliber, and Europe could
emerge as the great, independent force in the world that it has the capacity to
be, rather than something resembling a perpetually-kowtowing house servant of
America’s ugly imperial policies. Were that new reality to emerge, I and many
others would definitely support the EU rather than efforts like Brexit.
