...
and why it is vital to get massive support from the British people
Speaking to Sharmini Peries and
the Real
News, Michael Roberts who has been working in the
City of London for over 30 years, described briefly how the forces of
the neoliberal regime will fight against Jeremy Corbyn in his attempt
to implement socialist policies in favor of the majority of the
British people.
As he said:
These measures will be a big step
forward if they're implemented by Labour government in the future,
things like making sure that NHS is operating in the interest of
taxpayers and the people working in it and the patients and not just
being leeched on by the profitable companies which are leaking out
that system and reducing it. All these measures will be a tremendous
step forward, and they're not very radical. They're very modest
measures to restore our transport system, our utilities, our
hospitals, and our National Education Service, which he's proposing.
All that's very modest, and I can't see how anybody could really
oppose it, but interestingly, such modest proposals are now very
difficult to get through the powers that be, the capital, big
business, and the City of London, who oppose them all the way down
the line, and the conservative government too.
Maybe 30, 40 years ago, such
measures were regarded as pretty modest and were standard in many
countries, particularly in Europe, but even in the US. Now, to return
to such, what used to be called a social democratic or welfare state
is regarded as really radical. That shows how bad things have
deteriorated for the average person.
It's going to be a major struggle.
If we have a Corbyn Labour government, say in the next year or two,
or three, attempts to implement that will be a major struggle to get
that through, and there'll be tremendous opposition by the media, by
international capital, not just the City of London and the banks
here. Also, down the road, the real problem, I think, is that, will
the British economy not suffer as big business and capital tries to
take its money abroad and cause an economic crisis?
First observation here is what
Roberts describes as a dramatic shift away from socialist policies in
the last 30 to 40 years. Indeed, what has been taken almost for
granted 40 years ago - social state, free healthcare and education,
etc. - in all the Western democracies, has now been described as
'radical' by the apparatus of the neoliberal establishment.
Corporate media propaganda managed
to transform the minds of entire societies, especially in the West,
through logical leaps that pictured the state as an evil force.
Anything related with public ownership has been connected with
communism, or even authoritarianism. The forces of financial
capitalism were promoting privatizations in every field by buying the
corrupted politicians in power. The big irony is that these
politicians were using the state institutions to rescue the financial
mafia, every time that a major crisis erupted, always at the expense
of the working class.
But
the story is not that young. The US plutocracy
would erase Franklin Roosevelt from the collective memory if it could
really do it. That's because Roosevelt is one of the most successful
presidents in the history of the US, since he managed to restart the
economy against the corporate interests after the big crash of 1929.
Roosevelt did it through public investments, something that is
considered almost a sin today by the neoliberal priesthood,
worldwide.
Back in
1933, when FDR got elected, he had to face the attack of the
corporate establishment, which was trying to fight his initiatives to
put the state in the front line for the restart of the US economy.
FDR was aware of this type of propaganda by the corporate
establishment and the associated political elite. A quote from a
Roosevelt's speech is characteristic: “A few timid people, who
fear progress, will try to give you new and strange names for what we
are doing. Sometimes they will call it 'Fascism,' sometimes
'Communism,' sometimes 'Regimentation,' sometimes 'Socialism.' But,
in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical
something that is really very simple and very practical.”
Despite its
imperfections, Roosevelt's "New Deal" created millions of
new jobs and new infrastructure for the benefit of all American
citizens, boosted some sectors such as agriculture, strengthened
social security and boosted the economy in general. The response of
Roosevelt, "of course we spend money", to his opponents,
captures the perception of his government, giving importance to the
prosperity and relief of people and not to the strict austerity for
the sake of economic indexes. Indeed, while in 1933 the national debt
was 20% of GDP, by 1936 this figure almost doubled, but what mattered
for Roosevelt was to relieve American citizens and give them hope and
perspective.
It seems
that, today, we are experiencing a second big ideological turn
towards moderate socialist policies, even inside the motherlands of
neoliberalism. British people have seen the failure of Reaganomics in
almost every aspect, and seek a real change through another New Deal
to be implemented for the UK.
Indeed, as
Roberts describes:
Recent
polls have shown, for example, that 70 to 80% of people asked are in
favor of bringing back into public ownership the water utilities, the
electricity utilities, the gas utilities and that there's massive
support for getting the profit motive and the market out of the NHS.
90% of people are in favor of making sure that that happens. There's
even up to 50% of people asked are in favor of taking over the major
banks in the UK, which have been shown to have been totally rotten
and unfit for serve a purpose over the period of the last 10 years,
speculating in derivatives and all kinds of other exotic and
dangerous, what Warren Buffett used to call "financial weapons
of mass destruction," rather than providing a public service in
loans and deposits for households and businesses. These measures that
Corbyn and the Labour Party are advocating have massive public
support, and that's always a powerful weapon against the desired and
motives of just big business and the elite. As long as we have a
parliamentary democracy in the UK and Labour has a majority in
Parliament to carry these things through, then they can and will be
implemented.
Therefore, as the neoliberal
apparatus senses that it starts losing the ideological battle, Jeremy
Corbyn should expect a fierce and dirty war by the forces of the big
capital inside and outside the UK, as described previously by
Roberts. Through decades of neoliberal politics the private big
capital has taken all the power, controlling almost every aspect of
the economic activity. The UK financial oligarchy will use that power
to crush the economy once Corbyn will 'dare' to start implementing
even moderate socialist policies. The Greek case could become a
useful example for Corbyn, not to make the same mistakes as Tsipras
did.
Recall
that, the Greek political
establishment collapsed with the rise of SYRIZA in power, and the ECB
was forced to proceed in an open
financial coup against Greece
when the current PM, Alexis Tsipras, decided to conduct a referendum
on the catastrophic measures imposed by the ECB, IMF and the European
Commission, through which the Greek people clearly rejected these
measures, despite the propaganda of terror inside and outside Greece.
Due to the direct threat from Mario Draghi and the ECB, who actually
threatened to cut liquidity sinking Greece into a financial chaos,
Tsipras finally forced to retreat, signing another catastrophic
memorandum.
The biggest
mistake made by Tsipras and SYRIZA is that they didn't have a plan to
drive Greece out of the monetary union, what is called, Grexit. Such
a plan would require two critical conditions: first, the overwhelming
majority of the population would have to support the new national
currency, and, second, the central bank would have to become
exclusively a public institution, under the complete control of the
Greek state.
While for
five years the banking-media dictatorship in Greece brainwashed the
middle class with a propaganda of terror in case of Grexit, Corbyn
doesn't have to worry about such a matter. The UK has its own
currency, and in fact, the British people defied already a similar
propaganda launched by the neoliberal globalists and 'dared' to vote
even to leave the EU, what is called, Brexit.
Therefore,
the most crucial move by Corbyn would be to nationalize the central
bank. Such a move should be done methodically and fast, leaving
little room to the oligarchy to respond. Imagine if both Jeremy
Corbyn and Bernie Sanders proceed in such an action. The rapid
destruction of neoliberalism will start in its motherlands. Above
all, the most crucial factor will be the public support. It is true
that Tsipras in Greece didn't get enough popular support as he was
forced to co-operate with a minor right-wing party to form
government. So, Corbyn and Sanders should be overwhelmingly supported
by the British and the American people in the next electoral
opportunity in order to confront the neoliberal regime with good
chances.
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