Like many former Labour Party people, I went to see The Big Lie last weekend. It had already had two public showings in my town, and this was the third. I didn’t go to the first one because – well, I was a CLP officer when all this happened. I knew all too well what happened. Why would I want to be reminded? I didn’t go to the second because the first one was booked out, and I thought right, good, there are lots of people who don’t know, but need to so I’ll leave a space for one more of them.
By the third one, I thought heck, I’d better go see it. We had a talking time afterwards, and I thought I’d put a hand up to say a few words, to acknowledge all the people who tried so hard to bring us a win in 2017, to reassure them that most people are decent, that most people were playing straight, to tell them that we’re all still out there, and that if we trust each other, rather than those professional, parachuted-in suits, we will win in the end because – well, we are many, and they are few.
Trouble is, I was more emotional than I thought. I had forgotten how dreadful it was, being in charge of organizing that wonderful, selfless, fearless, determined mass of people and, as a CLP officer, getting regular glimpses of the grey, self-serving, fearful suits that were working round the clock to nullify all their efforts.
Then of course, when I tried to slip out afterwards, I accidentally let the door slam ear-shatteringly on a roomful of quietly distressed people. Oh dear, being emotional is so emotional!
If you haven’t seen it, the film will be released on YouTube soon, and when it is I’ll put a link to it here. Meantime, here’s a trailer…
So, the “big lie” was – well, which one? That Labour under Corbyn in 2017 was anti-Semitic? That Corbyn was unelectable? Or that he lost in 2019 because he was a Brexiteer, or wasn’t clear, or something?
Anti-Semitism?
Well, we know that Labour in 2017 was anti-Semitic, because the party admin, the Starmer types, were sitting on complaints about anti-Semitism, just refusing to deal with them and, when prompted by Corbyn and McDonnell to get on and clear the air, they complained about leadership interference. It is those same people now who spend their time suspending and expelling Jewish socialists why would they do that? There’s a book that unravels that mystery, if you’d like to understand it…
Click here to read my review of the book
Unelectable?
We know now that Corbyn was unelectable. We’ve seen it played out – the career politicians, the establishment media, business and military leadership will move heaven and earth to avoid an election win by a politician who’s not dependent on business donors. Here’s a book that details how that goes…
Click here to read about SABOTAGE
Brexit?
We also know that Corbyn was, in effect, a Brexiteer. He believed that as the result of David Cameron’s referendum was that the majority thought we should leave, we had to respect that – and he also thought that because team Starmer had persuaded Conference to vote for a second referendum, we also had to do that, once we’d agreed the shape of a leave deal. If he was guilty of anything, it was a determined commitment to democracy.
Dangerous stuff, democracy, in a country where people aren’t brought up to be politically aware, and their politicians and media keep lying to them.
Who are the most marginalized, oppressed people?
This is the most common way politicians spread nonsense – what’s known as ‘DARVO’ – swapping the bully for the victim. A simple, ‘find the lady’ con trick.
Who are the most marginalized, oppressed people? Well, if you look at Israel and Palestine, it’s not Israel, and judging by the way they succeeded in destroying the largest and most successful anti-austerity, democratic socialist movement in Europe, it’s not Starmer’s Zionist team.
It’s not refugees. I live on the south coast, and am currently hearing a lot from our government about how at risk we all are from those poor, cold, desperate people who keep washing up on our beaches, having escaped from refugee camps in Calais. Maybe we’re the most oppressed people in the world, and it is asylum seekers who are marginalizing us? I don’t think so, do you?
And judging by the fact that women keep losing sports trophies, political and trade union roles, and even peerages to them, it’s not transwomen.
Click here to read about the latest outbreak of male entitlement.
Click here to watch a film about women’s experience of that particular conflict.
Is it all those people (as legend has it, the northern working class) who voted Brexit because they were fed up of being ruled by bankers and bureaucrats? If they didn’t want that to happen, could not the politicians and the BBC and all the rest of them actually have told people something about the EU, what it is and is not? Actually given us some information, some pros and cons to think about? They didn’t, did they?
You know what, I think we’re all having a hard time
It doesn’t feel right really does it, to say we’re ALL the most oppressed people, everyone except the billionaires but you know, I think it’s true. There are of course, marginalized groups that have a particularly hard time because the force of big money uses them as scapegoats. That’s why socialists always bash on about sex, race and class or, as the Marxists have it, the “axes of oppression” (that’s the plural of ‘axis’, not a load of choppers).
If you confuse people, they get confused
Maybe the biggest lie in all of this is the one that goes…
Politicians – they’re all the same
If there is one thing I’d really like to get across in the middle of all this mess it is that there is a simple way of judging which politicians you can trust. Look at their donors and political allegiances. If they are involved in big, capitalist international organizations; if they’re getting sizeable donations from big business, especially the international companies that have ambitions to take over former public services like our NHS; if they came into politics from corporate jobs, and were parachuted into constituencies where they were formerly unknown, those politicians are not your friends, and will not help you.
The media will generally help them lie to you.
If they have a track record of trade union and anti-austerity campaigning, if they are internationalists who seek peace and fair play everywhere, if they are funded by small donations from their own constituents or campaign organizations they openly support, they may well be your friends, and may well help you, even if every word they say is not in line with every belief you have.
The media will generally amplify every word they say that might annoy you.
It’s not actually that hard to tell the difference between a corrupt politician and an independent one, it’s just that there are so few independent ones left that people keep just trying to choose between this or that corrupt one. What we lack is a population who know where to look. Currently, I’m looking here…
Sam Coates ‘the Westminster Accounts’
It’s always worth looking at Al Jazeera’s award-winning investigations on YouTube
But in short, all the confusing flah I list above, about small boats and Brexit and what have you, has been whipped up for a reason. As Steve Bannon famously said, “first, flood the zone with shit”. In other words, if you want to con people, you have to confuse them first. That’s what most of those panics and disputes are about. Noise thrown in to create division and distraction, to make people pay attention to anything but what our politicians are actually doing. “Follow the money” always was, and still is, the way to check out who’s working for you, and who’s working for someone else, someone who will harm you. If that’s too much like hard work, a good second is to just resolve not to get in a state about the things that the politicians and the media are telling you to get in a state about.
When they say “look over there!” look the other way.
Keep your mind firmly on what we all want and need. That’s always the same things, isn’t it. Boring things. Our NHS, decent housing, decent education, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, affordable food and transport, and someone to please help us stop big money wrecking our environment. When you’re thinking politics, keep your mind on those, and insist that politicians find a way to provide them.
The biggest lie of all
Because the biggest lie of all is that the good, honest politician is the one who comes off best in a television, newspaper or social media interview. We need to work really hard to persuade each other, the neighbours, and that man and his dog in the park that no matter how good their acting, their suits and their repartee, politicians who are funded by corporations who profit from war and destruction are not going to provide us with a safe, healthy country to live in.
We still need to learn that, and it really is our job, and we do it, simply by paying attention and talking to each other more, by talking to people we disagree with as well as those we agree with, by staying calm and listening to each other, because their best trick is to divide us, to make us so suspicious of each other that all we believe is the telly, the newspaper and the social media memes.
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Dear Reader,
Times are hard, and so the articles on this site are freely available but if you are able to support my work by making a donation, I am very grateful.
Cheers,
Kay
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Kay Green 