Response to Owen Smith in Oxford Labour leadership rally, 16 August 2016
In general, it seems to me, I have no real reason to doubt that Owen Smith is sincere in what he says. Apart from Trident and the Snoopers Charter, his voting record is pretty good. As far as they go, the policies he espoused at the meeting yesterday will benefit society.
Smith's role as lobbyist for private pharmaceutical company Pfizer does not help his case as an NHS advocate; there again, who am I to throw stones: I work for a private college that has tax-reducing charity status (shame!), with top executives on six-figure salaries yet teachers on "flexible" (i.e. convenient for the employer) casual contracts, some struggling on intermittent work, earning far below the national average; likewise, some big-name actors do popcorn movies to finance independent films or I suppose just to keep in work.
Overall, although in socialist terms, Smith's policies are only mildly reformist, if he were the only candidate, I would think he could do some good and vote for him.
Smith in yesterday's meeting denied a contradiction between policies and power, claimed that with him, policies would not need to be sacrificed to win a general election. From his repeated insistence of the urgency of Labour getting into power ASAP, the danger is that he will adopt the Tony Blair excuse, which I bought into at the time, essentially that once in government, we can change the system from the inside, that the end justifies hobbling our policies, that to win elections, Labour must do what is necessary to get into government. To win general elections, we must appeal to the wider electorate. If it is assumed now that these are UKIP-attracted Little Englanders, to get them on board at the next GE, Labour will need to soften its social policies. Above all, Labour will need to present a set of "credible" economic policies, i.e. ones favourable to current invested interests of business, finance and wealthy property owners, otherwise the media and press will be used against us.
Jeremy Corbyn's campaign has given hope for much more radical, truly socialist changes in policy and that is what has brought so many, like me, (back) to the party. Would I be right in thinking that the argument that a radical socialist platform cannot win an election has not been tested in the UK for a very long while, e.g. since before Thatcher's reign?
I believe that if people really understand democratic socialism and how it benefits everyone, the vast majority of people, even quite a lot of ethically-minded people in privileged sectors, will vote for it. (Take Emma Watson, feminist, for instance: in what world would she not vote for a fair society?) The current socio-economic system is not a meritocracy: as Owen Jones argues in "Chavs" (2011), people are not rich or poor because of individual merit but because of the system; removing a financial reward system (salaries, wages, bonuses) from productive activity would not cause people to become apathetic - beyond basic needs financial rewards function mainly as a convenient bragging-rights status-flagging system that could be substituted for a more acceptable social kudos-acquiring system. What social system is more ethically defendable than "from each according to his abilities; to each according to his needs"?
The challenge for us is how to get the message out there, in ubiquitous accessible persistent high-impact persuasive forms. Suggestions?
Wednesday 17 August 2016
Sunday 7 August 2016
Jeremy Corbyn supporters, take heart when they call you a cult: look how it turned out for the Apple faithful!
Hadley Freeman (6), amongst others, has accused Jeremy Corbyn supporters of being a cult. For many years the customers of the tech company, Apple, have likewise been accused of being a cult. They even got a New York University professor to confirm the label (2).
The characterisation of cult is intended to minimise the credibility of the group. Cult members are portrayed as blindly unreasoning followers. Apple rival Samsung mocked Apple cultists for enduring long periods of waiting in line to get the latest Apple product (8), according to Samsung failing to notice that a superior product (Samsung's) was available elsewhere without the aggravating wait. Similarly, anti-Corbyn commentators dismiss the grass-roots support shown for Jeremy Corbyn's campaign, evidenced by the huge crowds of supporters (e.g. 5,000 in Liverpool, 9) who turn out to hear the Labour leader speak at political rallies as "puffed-up" and "self-congratulatory", limited to unrepresentative political activists and ignoring the millions of "ordinary working people on their doorsteps" (1).
With the introduction of its consumer-oriented famously easy-to-use graphical interface, Apple offered a way into computing and digital creativity "for the rest of us" (5), the non-techy types. With its unwritten rule that technology should "just work", as in the promotion of how easy it was to connect to the Internet using its iconic new (1998) iMac computer - "there is no step 3" - Apple democratised computing. Likewise, with his 10 simple pledges (3) to combat the five big evils of our time, Jeremy Corbyn offers hope for a better future for the citizens of this country, a fairer, more egalitarian society, where no person or community is left behind.
Apple had its legendary leader, Steve Jobs, who unexpectedly returned from the wilderness in 1997 (10) to rescue the company from near bankruptcy of economic viability and almost total bankruptcy of vision, delighting the Apple faithful, who had typically continued to buy "beleaguered" Apple products in the face of overt ridicule and covert discrimination (I remember!). Likewise, Jeremy Corbyn, with his left-wing democratic socialist campaign, emerged as the surprise popular choice of leader last year ("Corbyn was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off", 7), inspiring a massive surge of membership amongst those who felt unrepresented by more centrist Labour initiatives. Both men have been criticised for certain aspects of their leadership, but their dedication of vision and personal integrity are generally undisputed.
Freeman (6) claims cults "rarely survive - they combust from their own internal pressures". Alternatively, it must be said, with enough supporters, they become mainstream. With billions of customers worldwide, the Apple cult has developed, metaphorically, from an 8-stone weakling who had sand kicked in his face into the 800-pound gorilla of the tech arena: Apple is no longer a cult but arguably the most successful company in the world (4).
It remains to be seen if Apple's success story can be mirrored by Jeremy Corbyn's political campaign. But to my fellow Corbyn supporters, I say, keep the faith. We have the policies to make a better Britain. We just need to get the undiluted message out there to the millions of less politically-minded working people on their doorsteps (and on their computing devices and phones).
Geoff Taylor
UK Labour Party member, Momentum volunteer
07 August 2016 (references minimised, 09 August 2016)
The characterisation of cult is intended to minimise the credibility of the group. Cult members are portrayed as blindly unreasoning followers. Apple rival Samsung mocked Apple cultists for enduring long periods of waiting in line to get the latest Apple product (8), according to Samsung failing to notice that a superior product (Samsung's) was available elsewhere without the aggravating wait. Similarly, anti-Corbyn commentators dismiss the grass-roots support shown for Jeremy Corbyn's campaign, evidenced by the huge crowds of supporters (e.g. 5,000 in Liverpool, 9) who turn out to hear the Labour leader speak at political rallies as "puffed-up" and "self-congratulatory", limited to unrepresentative political activists and ignoring the millions of "ordinary working people on their doorsteps" (1).
With the introduction of its consumer-oriented famously easy-to-use graphical interface, Apple offered a way into computing and digital creativity "for the rest of us" (5), the non-techy types. With its unwritten rule that technology should "just work", as in the promotion of how easy it was to connect to the Internet using its iconic new (1998) iMac computer - "there is no step 3" - Apple democratised computing. Likewise, with his 10 simple pledges (3) to combat the five big evils of our time, Jeremy Corbyn offers hope for a better future for the citizens of this country, a fairer, more egalitarian society, where no person or community is left behind.
Apple had its legendary leader, Steve Jobs, who unexpectedly returned from the wilderness in 1997 (10) to rescue the company from near bankruptcy of economic viability and almost total bankruptcy of vision, delighting the Apple faithful, who had typically continued to buy "beleaguered" Apple products in the face of overt ridicule and covert discrimination (I remember!). Likewise, Jeremy Corbyn, with his left-wing democratic socialist campaign, emerged as the surprise popular choice of leader last year ("Corbyn was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off", 7), inspiring a massive surge of membership amongst those who felt unrepresented by more centrist Labour initiatives. Both men have been criticised for certain aspects of their leadership, but their dedication of vision and personal integrity are generally undisputed.
Freeman (6) claims cults "rarely survive - they combust from their own internal pressures". Alternatively, it must be said, with enough supporters, they become mainstream. With billions of customers worldwide, the Apple cult has developed, metaphorically, from an 8-stone weakling who had sand kicked in his face into the 800-pound gorilla of the tech arena: Apple is no longer a cult but arguably the most successful company in the world (4).
It remains to be seen if Apple's success story can be mirrored by Jeremy Corbyn's political campaign. But to my fellow Corbyn supporters, I say, keep the faith. We have the policies to make a better Britain. We just need to get the undiluted message out there to the millions of less politically-minded working people on their doorsteps (and on their computing devices and phones).
Geoff Taylor
UK Labour Party member, Momentum volunteer
07 August 2016 (references minimised, 09 August 2016)
References
- Akehurst, L. (03 August 2016) "New Labour showed the party can be a social movement and an electoral force", The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/03/new-labour-brought-hope-jeremy-corbyn-has-brought-despair
- Cervantes, E. (07 October 2015), "Is Apple a cult? New York University Historian says 'it obviously is'", Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/10/07/is-apple-cult-new-york-university-historian-says-it-obviously-is.html
- Corbyn, J. (August 2016) "10 Pledges to rebuild and transform Britain", JeremyForLabour.com http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/10_pledges
- Elgan, M. (14 February 2015) "Why Apple is the most successful company in history", Computerworld http://www.computerworld.com/article/2883747/why-apple-is-the-most-successful-company-in-history.html
- EveryAppleAd (18 October 2012) "Apple iMac ad - Three Steps (1998)", YouTube https://youtu.be/TrE6M5dj8V0
- Freeman, H. (30 July 2016) "From Labour's hard left to Donald Trump, it's been the summer of the personality cult", The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/30/donald-trump-labour-personality-cult-hadley-freeman
- Jones, O., Sich, A. and Heywood, M. (28 July 2016) "Clive Lewis: 'Corbyn was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off'", The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2016/jul/28/clive-lewis-jeremy-corbyn-labour-owen-jones-smith-video
- Matyszczyk, C. (22 November 2011) "Apple cult mocked by Samsung in Galaxy S II ad", CNET http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-cult-mocked-by-samsung-in-galaxy-s-ii-ad/
- Perraudin, F. (01 August 2016) "Thousands turn out in Liverpool city centre for Jeremy Corbyn rally", The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/01/jeremy-corbyn-labour-liverpool-leadership-police-close-roads-crowds
- Preimesberger, C. (11 August 2013) "Steve Jobs Returns in 1997 to Revive a Moribund Apple", eWeek http://www.eweek.com/mobile/eweek-at-30-steve-jobs-returns-in-1997-to-revive-a-moribund-apple.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)