Peston’s War

Darren McGarvey, author and musician challenges the media narrative that Jeremy Corbyn is waging “class war”. The near hysteria about Labour’s manifesto betrays a media framing that is telling in its mass of contradictions and hypocrisy about class and power. Loki plays King Tuts, 23 December, tickets here.

 

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  1. James Ritchie says:

    Excellent comments. The Tories have been fighting the class war for centuries. Their war to ensure that wealth flows to the rich and the working class remain subservient to the status quo. The media don’t refer to this as class war because the rich owns the media. So when the left advance and make moves to change or even completely alter the status quo (revolution) they’re accused of being class war warriors. This is a class war and the working class must fight and win.

  2. David says:

    I remember in the early 70 and on a millionare owning multi national factories and unlimately a shipyard,with Vote Labour on his Aston Martin!!!…….Questions were asked . Was he a Labour Councillor? Were labour paying for his Business? Who knows!!
    It’s now after Blair and to a large extent Kinnock, acceptably to live high on the hog.
    Corbyn has had so many oppertunities, yet done nothing

  3. Alasdair Macdonald says:

    You have got right to the heart of the matter, Darren. You have expressed it as articulately, if demotically, as Karl Marx ever did.

    Well done!

    The class war is being waged daily by the mainstream media, with the BBC and ITN being significant weapons. And this has been going on since newspapers, radio and TV began. The wealthy and powerful class want to ensure that the rest of us – which includes most well-heeled, houseowners, such as I am now, people who by any definition would be considered middle class, and upper middle class, as well as the growing legions of people who are in poverty or ‘just about managing’, as Comrade Theresa May, described them.

    On a personal note: look after yourself, Darren – physically as well as mentally.

    We shall win! Venceremos! (I didnae jknow that word when I was growing up in Anderston in the 1940s and 50s)

    1. florian albert says:

      ‘We shall win. Venceremos.’

      This leads me to ask, who are ‘we’ and how shall we ‘win’ ?

      My response would be that the ‘we’ Alasdair Macdonald refers to is a tiny minority in Scotland. The class he belongs to – the comfortable, public sector employed middle class – has shown an appetite for looking after itself materially and little for embracing radical change of the sort that would help the least fortunate in our unequal society.
      The idea that the Scottish left is going to win is impossible to take seriously. There is an election taking place in which the Scottish left is, again, to all intents and purposes, marked absent. The experience of 2016 has led to the left abandoning electoral politics in favour of ……. nothing much; just as the dominant SNP moves right.

  4. w.b. robertson says:

    Rather unfortunate that so many of those politicians who currently profess to lead the fight on behalf of the poor have never faced an angry gaffer.

  5. mince'n'tatties says:

    ” The near hysteria about Labour’s manifesto ”. Oh really? Ask yourself [as a person asked Corbyn on QT] why a Government delivered universal broadband is at the very apex of the manifesto. Ahead of the NHS, social house building, climate change action and all else.
    The answer lies with Corbyns world experience. Simply put; big brother internet controlled access is seen as vital in projecting the cause.
    Lessons have been learned. Real power at work. Radical governments world wide who have not exercised internet control have lived to regret it. And not a single one who has applied draconian controls regrets it for a second.

    If that’s hysterical to you fair enough, Me? I’m a sea of little calm.

  6. sandy McBurney says:

    If Corbyn wins the general election it will be the start of a period of intense class struggle as the ruling class launch resistance to the pro-working class measures that labour is promising. The Blairite section of the PLP will support the attack on Corbyn by the ruling class and the Tories. They will probably try to remove him at an opportune moment.. The socialist left will have to fight to win the new youth vanguard who have voted for Corbyn to join the labour party and fight to democratise and open up the labour party structures so we can resist and overcome the ruling class offensive. If the labour government has to rely on the votes of SNP MPs this will simply strengthen the right-wing resistance to pro-working-class reforms. In policy terms, Sturgeon is a pro-Nato Blairite. She has signalled her support for the labour right with such comments as “Corbyn is not the leader of the labour party I would choose” The SNP group of MPs will be used as a fifth column of the labour right and the ruling class in resisting pro-working class reforms. After all, a labour government fighting against social inequality is the last thing that the SNP apparatus wants- it destroys their call for Scottish workers to support Scottish independence and the Blairite growth commission. All those leftists in Scotland who have voted for the SNP in the past should think more than twice this time. If you want to promote social justice and socialism in this island vote Labour and fight to win the pro-working-class reforms that labour is promising

    1. David says:

      The socialist left will have to fight to win the new youth vanguard who have voted for Corbyn to join the labour party and fight to democratise and open up the labour party structures so we can resist and overcome the ruling class offensive………Fair enough
      If the labour government has to rely on the votes of SNP MPs this will simply strengthen the right-wing resistance to pro-working-class reforms………. Again fair point ie they’ll be hopping mad
      In policy terms, Sturgeon is a pro-Nato Blairite. She has signalled her support for the labour right with such comments as “Corbyn is not the leader of the labour party I would choose” ……. Her statement is of little relevance given that large percentages of the Labour members who are none to pleased about Corbyn….Corbyn I coulda’ been a contender. and still might, One can only hope, the rub comes with the Independence question.
      In the constant barage of Brian Wilson’s pish and Gordon Brown’s excrement, plus all and sundry.Can Corbyn go against that internal manure and more importantly Where do we stand on his word?. He may well have good intentions.But?
      The SNP group of MPs will be used as a fifth column of the labour right and the ruling class in resisting pro-working class reforms. After all, a labour government fighting against social inequality is the last thing that the SNP apparatus wants- it destroys their call for Scottish workers to support Scottish independence and the Blairite growth commission………Tend to agree the SNP are supposed to be Social-Democratic , There seems an awful lot of folk on the benches who make me uncomfortably
      All those leftists in Scotland who have voted for the SNP in the past should think more than twice this time. If you want to promote social justice and socialism in this island vote Labour and fight to win the pro-working-class reforms that labour is promising……….Promising? Unfortunately that is not a guarantee

  7. Katie Nicol says:

    You are totally correct. It’s only ever described as a class war when the poor are trying to get a little bit more never when the rich are shafting the less well off and trying to line their greedy little pockets with a bit more. How much money do any of these “super rich” really need?

  8. George Gunn says:

    “In policy terms, Sturgeon is a pro-Nato Blairite.” With the greatest respect, this is hokum.

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