Days before Britain’s historic election, the UK’s military-intelligence apparatus is turning to the corporate media and US government-funded NATO cut-outs to smear Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn with evidence-free Russiagate allegations.
by Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal
Part 3 - Using literal Nazi blog posts to smear Corbyn as a terrorist sympathizer
One of the most shockingly dishonest smears of Jeremy Corbyn was published in the British tabloid The Sun on December 7.
The story, hyperbolically titled “‘HIJACKED LABOUR’ Ex-British intelligence officers say Jeremy Corbyn is at the centre of a hard-left extremist network,” claimed the “Labour leader’s spider’s web of extensive contacts stretch from Marxist intellectuals to militant groups and illegal terror organisations.”
The piece uncritically echoes the opinions of a right-wing lobby group called Hijacked Labour, which was founded by former military intelligence officers with the express goal of ousting Corbyn and purging the Labour Party’s anti-imperialist faction.
In lieu of any actual evidence, the report relied on a graphical web created by these conservative disgruntled ex-spies, which attempts to link Corbyn to terrorism through many degrees of separation — and cites neo-Nazis to do so.
The conspiratorial web does not show any tangible ties between these figures, and impugns Corbyn with vague far-right buzzwords like “global Marxism” and “postmodern neo-Marxism.” The latter term is a non-existent and paradoxical concoction of ultra-conservative pundit Jordan Peterson, based on the fascist anti-Semitic myth of “Cultural Marxism,” which is itself rooted in Nazi Germany’s propaganda on “Cultural Bolshevism.”
In fact, the Hijacked Labour website directly references the right-wing pundit, recommending a Jordan Peterson lecture titled “Postmodernism and Cultural Marxism.” The Peterson screed was published by The Epoch Times, a right-wing media outfit run by the fascist Chinese cult Falun Gong, which maintains that science and race-mixing are demonic and insists Donald Trump was sent by God to destroy the Communist Party of China.
The anti-Corbyn group of British spooks also implored readers to watch a video by Thomas DiLorenzo, a right-wing neoliberal economist at the libertarian Mises Institute, which Hijacked Labour claims “works against the deconstructive and destructive effects of Cultural Marxism.”
The anti-Corbyn group of British spooks also implored readers to watch a video by Thomas DiLorenzo, a right-wing neoliberal economist at the libertarian Mises Institute, which Hijacked Labour claims “works against the deconstructive and destructive effects of Cultural Marxism.”
Given the conspiratorial web’s reliance on far-right terminology, it might not have been a surprise that it also cited literal Nazis as a source.
Critics on Twitter quickly pointed out that the Hijacked Labour website used by the British media to attack Corbyn cited a neo-Nazi website called Aryan Unity.
Critics on Twitter quickly pointed out that the Hijacked Labour website used by the British media to attack Corbyn cited a neo-Nazi website called Aryan Unity.
Together with this white supremacist page, the former British military intelligence officers cited a critique of antifascists published by the far-right website The Millennium Report. This blog has run blatantly anti-Semitic posts with titles like, “Why are the Jews so reviled worldwide? Have they brought this judgment on themselves?”, “New World Order Pledged To Jews,” and “This is how the ‘Court Jews’ have been strategically placed into power families over millennia.”
After facing backlash on social media, The Sun article was removed from the website. And the new URL for the post includes the term “legal-removal,” suggesting that the publication may have been threatened with legal action for publishing the absurd story.
But this was far from the only corporate media attack on Corbyn that relied on military intelligence apparatus as a source.
British journalist Mark Curtis has expanded his colleague Matt Kennard’s tally and shown that some 40 media stories have been published in major corporate media outlets smearing Jeremy Corbyn with the unsubstantiated claims of British spies.
British journalist Mark Curtis has expanded his colleague Matt Kennard’s tally and shown that some 40 media stories have been published in major corporate media outlets smearing Jeremy Corbyn with the unsubstantiated claims of British spies.
The UK’s military intelligence apparatus has demonstrated a striking ability to influence the mainstream media, stirring pseudo-scandals almost every week. Desperate to prevent the election of the first authentically left-wing British prime minister, it is no longer disguising its role in the assault on Corbyn.
But there is one weapon Corbyn boasts that this unelected, opaque element can only hope for: the hearts and minds of masses of British people. And this December 12, the people get to decide.
But there is one weapon Corbyn boasts that this unelected, opaque element can only hope for: the hearts and minds of masses of British people. And this December 12, the people get to decide.
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