Showing posts with label EU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EU. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Right-wing racists and the rank hypocrisy of the complicit establishment

The mainstream media are pursuing a narrative of anti-semitism within the Labour party. While there are isolated incidents and Naz Shah rightly paid for one, there is no evidence to support this is systemic within the Labour party. Anti-semitism is an issue for the whole of society and should be dealt with but right-wing mud-singling exceeds the reality of the issue. This is the 'dead cat' strategy of Lynton Crosby to distract from an endemic racism of the right, as the following shows.


The same right-wing that say nothing on the rise of Islamophobia. On any given day you can see keyboard bigots throwing racial insult after insult at any minority. The double standards and rank hypocrisy of the establishment has never been more obvious. It is not even confined to the aforementioned lunatics but brazenly flaunted in national debates without recourse.

The government ruling what many consider to be the most racially harmonious nations in the world has descended into Islamophobia, race-baiting & 'dog-whistle' racism, pandering to those bigots at the margins of society, who will do anything to target an immigrant.

This was evident in a Theresa May immigration speech that had echoes of Donald Trump, so much so that even the right-wing tax-avoiding Torygraph condemned it.


The Zac Goldsmith London mayoral campaign has demonstrated how the tories are not past neo-colonial divide & conquer to try and win an election. They'd probably run-over their own grannies too. Again many of their own have called out this desperate racism.


David Cameron even joined in. There have been constant insinuations that because Sadiq Khan is muslim he is not concerned about a terrorist attack in his own city. This is some of the worst gutter politics ever. The whole sorry scandal is neatly taken apart here:



So nasty are Goldsmith's methods, even a few on the right have called it out. This article summarises the poisonous campaign well, from ex-Telegraph writer and lifelong tory supporter, Peter Oborne:


Meanwhile the recent Obama visit and intervention in the EU debate caused outrage among paunching racists like Boris Johnson. The privileged clown has background of racial slurs and it is a sign of our corrupt system that any he is considered him fit for any public office let alone PM.





King's College university have reacted with ethics foreign to the tory party who are perpetually smearing Labour with anti-semitism. 



Far right elitist blowhard Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) is a self-confessed Zionist, essentially backing Israel's Netanyahu apartheid regime who attack Gaza disproportionately killing children, are silent when IDF soldiers execute defenceless Palestinians and systematically erasing their land.


Ignoring right-wing anti-semitism undermines their faux-crusade against racism. They are only interested in this issue as a political football to smear opponents and move closer to a one-party state based on flimsy lies.



'The Race Card'

Any attempt to oppose or highlight the racism of privilege is met with the audacious accusations of 'playing the race card'. This mantra of neo-colonial self-entitled white men just compounds the racism as they attempt to dictate to minorities how to feel and think when the evidence is so clear. They must be wishing for a return of the Empire.


Your insights on racism are really appreciated, media pundits:




Sunday, 28 February 2016

The EU referendum debate reveals a more sinister democratic deficit


Brexit campaigners have a point, the EU referendum debate reveals a democratic deficit - our collective ignorance and illiteracy.

On the 23rd June the nation will be asked to vote on an issue whose outcomes reach further than any general election while masses of voters are struggling to comprehend the issue. Our establishment resembles a totalitarian state in matters of public information. So much for a progressive enlightened western democracy? Also the same vested interests have prevented 16/17 year olds voting despite the enormity of the decision. Wouldn't want too many people getting involved in democracy would we?



We don't need conspiracy theories when at every turn we are kept ignorant of our governing system and it is no accident or oversight. Our political illiteracy is not confined to the wilfully ignorant or the uneducated. One can simply ask intelligent, knowledgeable people about the core EU institutions, what are they? how are they elected? how do they affect our lives? what is the troika?


Beyond the simplistic soundbites of our anti-intellectual debate, the European Parliament legislates on a number of issues like regulating banks and setting a bonus cap. It can maintain online privacy and uphold human rights, but it could also mean permanently privatised railways, austerity and the spectre of the profit-over-people TTIP trade deal. And so the EU economic war on the vulnerable continues as the gap widens between rich and poor.


The Brexiters offer nothing against neoliberal global institutions which wield more combined power than their continental nemesis. The undemocratic governance of the EU is replicated internationally. Anyone remember having a say in the G20? The G7? Or deciding the IMF board? Meanwhile the World Trade Organisation (WTO) oversees secretive trade talks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal involving the collective economic might of East Asia, Australia and the US. This pact is very similar to aforementioned TTIP in that it favours big business over citizens. Brexits want Commonwealth trade to replace EU trade, yet fail to challenge the anti-consumer TTIP terms. With the lack of profile given to this massive issue why should the public feel confident them as an alternative?

global governance

The simple framing of Remain or Brexit excludes a third possibility of a democratic EU with bottom-up sustainable economics, fairer competition, absolutely no TTIP and strengthened worker rights. This referendum issue is a complicated mix of national, regional and global debates. But you can't study their underlying neoliberal orthodoxy on any national curriculum, or understand it by watching the news. That is perhaps the greatest democratic threat of all.

ignorance is a choice


Instead we are distracted by the opium of personalities like Boris & Farage because the mainstream media gets revenue from the sensational over facts & insights. The day they and Brexiters highlight the importance of information about power structures is the day I'll believe they want ordinary citizens to reclaim democracy.

EU deal graph



Please support the JSFU Facebook Page here