Paul Embery, “The Demonisation of the Working-Class Shames Our Nation,” HuffPost Politics, 1 July, 2016.Except the new class war is being waged against the working class by an arrogant, metropolitan, snobbish, middle-class leftist elite that rules the left at the moment, with hordes of young university-educated leftists in tow.
The elite is, to a great extent, influenced by economic neoliberalism (think: New Labour).
The mass of supporters and especially the young are steeped in Postmodernism and all its rotten ideas (cultural relativism, truth relativism, moral relativism, identity politics, etc.). Their core beliefs stand in stark contrast to an older generation of leftists like Noam Chomsky, who in his heyday had utter contempt for their ideology. The worst elements of them are what can be called the regressive left.
A core element of this leftism is its quasi-religious faith in open borders and mass immigration, which is becoming politically toxic all over the Western world, for its deleterious economic and social consequences. Nor can you ignore the cultural problems caused by mass immigration either (though, admittedly, it does tend to bring out the far right and so-called “Alt Right” bigots and needs a diplomatic and light touch in discussion).
Even self-identified, university-educated Marxists are mostly part of the regressive left these days, because – let’s face it – Marxism seems to have been taken over by cultural leftism and to have succumbed to the cult of open borders as well.
Ask yourself: when was the last time a middle-class, university-educated Marxist made the principled, socialist case against mass immigration?
Of course, there are people who have an irrational view of immigration per se or an irrationally bigoted attitude to foreigners. But the correct response here is to quietly and even politely but strongly disagree with such people, and carefully and respectfully point out why they are wrong, rather than simply scream abuse at the top of one’s lungs.
The issue of such people shouldn’t be allowed to dominate the discussion and the best tactic of the left is to boldly seize the issue of mass immigration, take it away from the right, and urge sensible policies that will satisfy voters while crippling support for the right on this issue.
Excellent piece by Embery.
ReplyDeleteThe debate I am now having with a friend who is arch Remain is the the vote is illegitimate because under 50% of the population voted for it. I pointed out this amounts to saying an abstain (did not vote) must count as a Remain vote. He's so deep in cognitive dissonance he can't see this. But consider 10 voters. 4 say leave, 6 abstain. Under his rule remain wins because leave did not get 50% of the population, only 100% of the votes. And this from an engineer who thinks himself part of the cognitive elite.
About the situation in spain unemployment and bloomberg neoliberal mantra the jobs bloomberg article described are export led jobs (in this case its most likely multinationals which have workers around the world to compete with spainards so they keep demands on workers high ).
ReplyDeleteIts just show how much capital and financial control and heavy capital financial regulations are needed and how much international monetary clearing union (aka bancor is needed as well) in this case it will finally end all the neo mercantalist begger thy neigbhour race to the bottom policies and it will end the neoliberal mantra of globalization give us no choice which infested most of the modern left movements.
"international monetary clearing union (aka bancor is needed as well)"
DeleteIt's not needed at all. You just ban banks from lending for currency settlement.
In a floating rate exchange, one in one out. And in a world short of demand and full of export led fools you get additional imports.
1.if you ban it countries will not able to import as much as needed its equal to austerity actually thats why international clearing union is a better option.
Delete2.devaluation of floating currency by its own dont necceserliy balance the current account (there is countries which have current account for 30 years and there is countries with current account deficit for as long with chronic stagnation).
Thats happening because of thirlwall law
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirlwall%27s_Law
' The authors conclude:
Delete"By disentangling the impact of exchange rate changes on trade results, we have shown that the underlying assumption of the ‘currency wars’ discussion – that devaluations bring about substantial export gains – may be severely flawed."'
http://nakedkeynesianism.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/exchange-rate-depreciation-and-exports.html?spref=tw
Similar phenomenon in the United States re:Trump, where elite pundits on both sides of the spectrum are advocating a form of political eugenics, arguing against democracy on the grounds that the uneducated working class will prefer dangerous demagogues to status-quo politicians like Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush. Their pandemonium stems from the realization that they have no control over their constituencies.
ReplyDeleteThe left needs sensible ideas on economic stability and social cohesion. You can't win an election without gaining the majority of both working and middle class votes. The right are more vigorous with their marketing and branding. Constant and aggressive media campaigns against left wing ideologies and the working class have divided the electorate and set them against themselves. Divide and conquer, The left needs a measured approach to dethrone the tories. They need a clear understanding of the problems mass immigration causes for their voters. Mostly, it is not racism. It is a fear of losing cultural identity with a fomented opinion projected by the media that has tried to justify severe austerity against the lower elements of society. Class struggle is here and it is now, the working classes were unaware it was happening but they are awakening and there will soon be mass petitioning and demonstration against the excesses of the elite.
ReplyDelete