Jeremy Corbyn inspires real fear in the elites; this is why he must win

Chris Hedges, in his latest piece for Truthdig — The Courtiers and the Tyrants — writes,

And if you lose the capacity to make the power elites afraid, you become their plaything.

This is relevant, of course, to Jeremy Corbyn, with the polls now closed in the latest leadership election he has had to fight. Not just to Corbyn but to the movements of hope, including Momentum, that have sprung up in the wake of his first Labour Party leadership victory.

The response, to both Corbyn and the people inspired by his victory, of those in hock to the elites — and, tragically, this appears to include a vast swathe of the PLP — has been predictable. Corbyn and his supporters are calling out the accepted ‘truths’ of neoliberalism. The fact that the PLP are unhappy with this only reveals the paucity of their thinking and how far the party under ‘New’ Labour travelled along the path of rejecting their founding principles and the very people who look to the party to deliver justice for them.

Corbyn has himself been accused of betraying Labour Party principles, most recently by a former Nato General Secretary. This is an example of double-speak that Orwell might have felt too ridiculous even for 1984. Such defamation is reported widely as the wisdom of serious and experienced men casting doubt on the childish beliefs of someone suggesting change is possible. Tony Blair, no doubt, will be telling us next that the Tories are the real progressives.

Change is possible, of course, but it is change that scares the neoliberal elite shitless. This is why change and its proponents must be mocked and denied at every opportunity. Change would, by definition, threaten the five pillars of neoliberalism, which Hedges lists in his article as: austerity, de-industrialisation, globalisation, endless wars, and the destruction of the unions and organised labour.

These pillars have been promoted to the people as necessary for establishing prosperity and keeping us safe — from a series of evolving and changing terrors — and building a future for our children. In truth, not only do they deliver the opposite, they also ensure increased wealth and privilege for the elite.

That Corbyn’s policies are seen as both radical and dangerous — although they are policies less ‘socialist’ than those widely accepted as essential for the country’s growth and prosperity between 1945 and the coming of Thatcher and her attack on the post-war consensus — only proves how successful neoliberal propaganda has been over the last forty years.

We have, in the space of those four decades, seen society transformed from one in which inequality and poverty levels were lower than at any time previously to become a stratified nation where poverty is creeping back to Victorian levels, the NHS is under attack, and the gap between haves and have-nots continues to widen and the middle class shrinks at an increasing rate.

The time for change is now. Jeremy Corbyn is a sign of hope and whether he continues as Labour leader or not, his message is inspiring for those of us who hope for a return to a fairer and more equal society and a better future for our children.