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As Oborne and Hearst explain, Jeremy Corbyn faced an unprecedented level of media hostility and dishonesty. Denying this is not a serious position. But more interesting & important is to ask who participated, why, how etc.
[/a thread on anticommunism] https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/killing-jeremy-corbyn
[/a thread on anticommunism] https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/killing-jeremy-corbyn
For some Corbyn supporters, the answers are simple: this was a highly coordinated conspiracy by a cabal of Blairites, Tories, “Zionists”, “the MSM” etc, who were in constant communication, coordinated their attacks, drew on the same funding & were all knowingly lying all along
There is, of course, always some degree of personal coordination in any collective political project – and I believe many diverse actors shared the common objective of bringing Corbyn down. But are narrow goals and personal relationships really what drove & held them together?
No! Much more important was a shared ideology: anticommunism. This is belief in the overriding priority of destroying the radical left. Of course Corbyn is not a communist. But his treatment is reminiscent of attacks faced by leftist electoral candidates in other times & places
Although anticommunism was the underpinning ideology of the post-War settlement in Western Europe, we have largely forgotten about it in Britain. It is a powerful force that can bring together political adversaries, diverse organisations and different social classes
In Latin America, where anticommunism produced murderous dictatorships rather than democratic welfare states, & in some countries never really went away under democracy, it is far fresher in the memory. In Brazil (where I work) the left has regularly faced what Corbyn did in 2019
Anticommunism under formal democracy manifests as a huge ramping up of attacks–in both scale & intensity–against the left, from across the political spectrum & the media. (It can also eventually involve the threat/use of state or paramilitary violence as a last resort)
Attack lines are not restricted to the threat of “communism” itself. In Brazil, they have mainly focussed on accusations of corruption against the Workers' Party. This was a real issue, but coverage became completely detached from reality & wrongly framed it as unique to the left
Against Corbyn, we saw "red scare" attack lines (soviet spies, comparisons to the 1970s, Venezuela etc) & personal ones (his clothes, the value of his house etc). Eventually the temporary anticommunist alliance stumbled on "left antisemitism" as one of its primary lines of attack
Like corruption in Brazil, this was a genuine issue, but was systematically misrepresented. Specific patterns of antisemitism on the left (which DO exist) were magnified & conflated with other –more explicit & violent– manifestations of AS far more prevalent on the right
Ie. This was a real, specific issue with its own autonomy & complexities. But it was instrumentally and simplistically co-opted into the cause of a temporary anticommunist alliance. It was a *contingent*, not a structuring or necessary, feature of the anticommunist project
Of course, hyper-partisan Corbynites did not get this. They mistook the accusations of AS –& those making them– as the sufficient cause for the attacks. They became obsessed with the idea that “Zionists” were sabotaging Corbyn, throwing fuel on the fire of the contingent conflict
The point here is that recognising the obvious fact of astoundingly unfair media treatment of Corbyn, including on the issue of AS, does not require accepting a “witch-hunt” was carried out on behalf of particular interests. It requires understanding how *anticommunism* functions
Again, this is a powerful ideology & structure of feeling that can unify diverse forces & contingently co-opt different (often quite separate) issues into its orbit. It forms a machine that continuously tests attack lines against the left & escalates those that are effective
Any future leftist electoral project needs to understand and prepare for this by developing the institutions to both contest and bypass mainstream attacks (& also educate supporters about serious issues like AS), rather than become embroiled in its logic
