Mark Weisbrot - The Resurrection Of Jeremy Corbyn: Truth As An Effective Political Weapon
Observers have pointed
to various historical causes that have brought Corbyn to his leadership
position and kept him there, such as the failure of the centrist, neoliberal
project of “New Labour” to provide economic security or even much of a future
for the party’s working class base; or Tony Blair’s deeply unpopular foreign
policy, including the Iraq War and the lies on which it was sold.
Many have made the
comparison to Bernie Sanders, who despite losing his primary bid last year is
currently the most popular active politician in the US, and is
especially well-liked among younger people. The appeal of these two senior
citizens to youth is striking, and it bodes well for the future.
But one of the most
important lessons of the Corbyn comeback is that the truth, so often dismissed
as the first casualty of politics, can be an effective weapon. After the
Manchester terrorist attack, Corbyn said something that no party leader in the US would
say during an election campaign:
“Many experts,
including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed
to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other
countries and terrorism here at home.”
Corbyn opposed UK
involvement in the wars in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, and Syria.
British Foreign
Secretary Boris Johnson, a Trump-like buffoonish character with the moral
compass of a sewer rat, responded in character, saying that Corbyn’s statement
was “absolutely monstrous” and that it was “extraordinary and inexplicable in
this week of all weeks that there should be any attempt to justify or to
legitimate the actions of terrorists in this way.”
But these dishonest
attacks, echoed by some of the UK’s largest media outlets, didn’t stick because
people knew that Corbyn was telling the truth. A poll this week for The Independent in the UK found 75
percent in agreement that “interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have
made atrocities on UK soil more likely.” There is an important
lesson here: the only way to prevent the right from constantly capitalizing on,
and perpetuating, the cycle of terrorism and foreign military intervention is
to explain to people what is actually happening… read more:
