Quoting Engels and smashing kneecaps; the violent words of John McDonnell

chris hayter
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read
Source- Metro/ REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

Reactions to the horror of the Grenfell tower fire have been predictably and rightly strong. From a particular section of the left in this country, the desire to firmly lay blame on the tragedy on the part of Austerity and general policies of the conservatives has characterized such reactions. The most powerful of these voices was that of the Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell. During a debate at Glastonbury’s Left Tent, McDonnell claimed that the victims of Grenfell were murdered, stating they were “Murdered by political decisions that were taken over recent decades”. McDonnell on subsequent media appearances and occasions has unrelated from this position, asserting that not only was Grenfell murder but that Britain has witnessed such atrocities before in the form of Social murder; Grenfell was just another instance of this concept. A Marxist term coined by Engels, social murder, is to quote the man himself: ‘when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live’. Grenfell was thus to the Shadow chancellor, a slaughter of the proletariat via funding cuts and neglect. By using such a term as this, McDonnell has done two things. Firstly, he has sought to politicize a tragedy and create a beneficial narrative for his interests despite there yet being any results from an Independent inquiry to confirm his view. Secondly, by deploying such a term in the political discourse of the tragedy McDonnell has yet again indulged in his penchant for violent language. Social murder may be a legitimate and non-emotive term in the arena of academic political science or a term to be used in debate by followers of Marx, but for the wider public the meaning of such a term is lost, but the word murder is certainly not misunderstood. Unlike obscure Marxist sociological jargon, murder is an established social and legal term that practically everyone understands. Thus when one of the most powerful men in British politics make frankly unsubstantiated claims about Grenfell being in any way ‘murder’, the potential Chancellor tells millions of Britons that its government actively murders and or assists in such crimes. The nuances of ‘social murder’ are lost on many, and the result is more and more people who already distrust government, will be under the persuasion that their state and its public servants aim to annihilate them.

Divisive, inappropriate and violent language is not new to McDonnell. At the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, at a political meeting the future Shadow Chancellor ‘joked’ about shooting the kneecaps of Labour councillors who were resistant to meeting with Sein Fein, and declared that Ireland would be united by “ballot, the bullet and the bomb”. He called former Tory MP for Wirral, Esther Mcvey a “Stain on Humanity” and quoted a constituent who called for her to be “lynched”. The shadow chancellor also expressed admiration in violent protest and rioting, describing those who in his own words “Kicking the shit out of Milbank” as the “Best of the movement”. From these snapshots alone, one can tell that the subtleties of political discourse and the immense importance of civility and respect in politics are either lost on McDonnell or deliberately cast aside. One could argue that such language and gestures are part of the debate, more over extension of passion than being anything more insidious or harmful. However, I would argue that as talk of bodily mutilation and bombs and bullets were both tasteless and irresponsible at a time when real carnage was being unleashed upon British people and its armed forces, it is as tasteless and irresponsible now. At a time when the abuse of MPs of both the Conservative party and Labour moderates by the Corbyn/McDonnell branch of the party is endemic in British politics, talk of murder, lynching and general violence is at its best- unhelpful and offensive, and its worst- poisonous and shattering. In a country that is at the present moment, more divided than ever, I personally think the shadow chancellor should respectfully consider the power of his words and ponder on how he wants the discourse and norms of this country to be.

Political Communication at the University of Sheffield

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