Craig Murray — A Moment in History

Jeremy Corbyn represents the only realistic chance the people of England and Wales have been given in decades, to escape from the neo-liberal economics that have impoverished vast swathes of the population. But he leads a parliamentary party which is almost entirely comprised of hardline neo-liberal adherents.

The majority of the parliamentary Labour party are the people who brought in academy schools, high student tuition fees, PFI, who introduced more privatisation into the health service than the Tories have, and who brought you the Iraq and Afghan Wars. They abstained on the Tory austerity benefit cuts and on May’s “hostile environment” immigration legislation. They support Trident nuclear missiles. Many hanker after bombing Syria, and most are members of Labour Friends of Israel.…

Craig Murray Blog
A Moment in History
Craig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

Richard Murphy — The New Statesman: making up stories about modern monetary theory

Richard Murphy reports another hit job on MMT and him as well along with the progressive wing of the Labour Party that supports MMT. The attack is stepping up.

And, my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. And that, is what is going to happen to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. — Nicholas Klein, 1914 (This quote or a paraphrase of it is often misattributed to M. K. Gandhi.)

Tax Research UK
The New Statesman: making up stories about modern monetary theory
Richard Murphy

UK Labour’s Fiscal Credibility Rule: Neoliberal Orthodoxy Dies Hard — Joe Emersberger interviews Bill Mitchell

MMT!

The problem is that when you just define these fiscal aggregates within their own financial terms you’re really losing the purpose and meaning of fiscal policy. The purpose of fiscal policy isn’t to achieve any particular fiscal outcome whether it be a balanced fiscal position, or a deficit of whatever percent or even a surplus of whatever percent. The purpose of fiscal policy as a tool is to advance wellbeing in the economy, to engage in government spending programs which are consistent with its electoral remit, and taxation to manage total expenditure in the non-government sector so that there is space – and what I mean by “space” is real resource space – for the government to basically buy those resources and conduct its programs. Taxation creates that space by depriving the non-government sector of the use of resources...

This is the purpose of fiscal policy. In a cyclical sense – in other words in the variation of economic activity – fiscal policy should play a very important role in being able to offset any fluctuations in non-government spending that would either cause unemployment if it were not offset, or would drive inflation if it were not offset. Fiscal policy has to be flexible enough to allow the government to meet that purpose. If you start imposing rules that are independent of purpose then you are likely to end up not meeting that purpose but also failing to meet your rules....

Excellent!

Counterpunch
UK Labour’s Fiscal Credibility Rule: Neoliberal Orthodoxy Dies Hard

Joe Emersberger interviews economics professor Bill Mitchell about the British Labour party’s fiscal credibility rule

See also

More MMT.

Arcade
The Unheard-of Center: Critique after Modern Monetary Theory

Scott Ferguson | Associate Professor and co-director of the Film & New Media Studies Track in the Department of Humanities & Cultural Studies at the University of South Florida. a Research Scholar at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity), co-founder of the Modern Money Network: Humanities Division), and co-host of the Money on the Left podcast

Ramanan — Fine Jeremy Corbyn Speech From 2010

I came across this fine Jeremy Corbyn Speech in which he explicitly talks about the ideology of the working class which is utterly deflationary to output. It’s from 2010, and shows how clear his understanding of the way the world works, is. It is extremely rare and in my opinion, no politician has come even remotely close to it....

The Case for Concerted Action
Fine Jeremy Corbyn Speech From 2010
V. Ramanan

Jonathan Cook — Long Read: The neoliberal order is dying. Time to wake up

Analysis from the left mostly about British politics but inclusive of all aspects of neoliberalism as the policy, strategy and tactics of elite power.

Says "long read," but it is not that long. Worth a read even if you are not British since it is also an analysis of elite power as it relates to national politics and neoliberal globalization.

Let's hope Cook is correct in seeing the wave cresting. The question then becomes will the breaking of the wave result in world war as the elite desperately tries to hang on to its waning power and control.

True Publica
Long Read: The neoliberal order is dying. Time to wake up

Jonathan Cook, award-winning British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel; author, and public intellectual as a voice of conscience

Bill Mitchell — Build it in Britain is just sensible logic

After my day in the sun as a poet, I am back to being an economist. I have been researching operational issues relating to how a society can take back control and Reclaim the State, as part of the work I am doing for our follow up book (with Thomas Fazi) that I hope to get out next year sometime. The current book Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World (Pluto Books, 2017) is very conceptual. The Part 2 follow up will be conceptual in part but also operational. How to do it rather than what needs to be done. More specifically, I have been examining public procurement policies and how they have been captured by neoliberal interests to benefit capital at the expense of broader objectives (regional development, skill development, productivity growth, investment, employment, wages growth, etc). Over the last 3-4 decades, the way governments spend their money (contracting etc) has changed dramatically and governments have been bullied into acting as if they are ‘profit-maximising’ firms with no other agenda when making multi-billion dollar market purchases. However, in Britain this might change if British Labour are elected. Jeremy Corbyn announced this week that he was going to dramatically change the way the British government spends if he is elected. His ‘Build it in Britain’ strategy will scrap the narrow, neoliberal approaches to public procurement policies and instead use the spending capacity of government to advance broader goals. So while it might end up that a contract to a local firm requires higher government outlays, if that contract also delivers other benefits to the nation (as above) then the local firm would not be disadvantaged. Under the current ‘value for money’ hype local firms cannot ‘compete’ in many cases and these broader benefits are thus not generated. I see the ‘Build it in Britain’ strategy as an exercise in sensible logic and a major statement that the neoliberal command on British Labour is in retreat – for now anyway.

Dynamic efficiency instead of static efficiency. "Grow the pie" rather than "save money."

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
Build it in Britain is just sensible logic
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Robert Stevens — British Army against Corbyn! Imperialism needs to Destroy Democracy in the West

Forget the Deep State. There's talk of a military coup in the case of  a leftist leader being elected. No, we are not talking about Venezuela. Rather Britain.

This is not a joke either. It's actually being floated seriously. This is the way that the unthinkable gets normalized. It's a tactic.

Written by Paul Carter for the de facto house organ of the Conservative Party, the article makes clear that discussions on such a course of action in the event of a Labour victory under Corbyn are ongoing.

The article begins by noting, “Only one week after Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, a serving general of the Army warned of a direct and public challenge if a future Prime Minister Corbyn jeopardised the country’s security: ‘The army wouldn’t stand for it … people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul, to prevent that.’”…

Carter refers to an article published by the Sunday Times in September 2015, after Corbyn had routed his Blairite leadership opponent with the backing of hundreds of thousands of Labour members and supporters. The newspaper cited an anonymous “senior serving general” that in the event of Corbyn becoming prime minister, there would be “the very real prospect” of “a mutiny.” Elements within the military would be prepared to use “whatever means possible, fair or foul,” the officer declared. He warned, “ You would see a major break in convention with senior generals directly and publicly challenging Corbyn over vital important policy decisions such as Trident , pulling out of NATO and any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces.”...

At the time, a Ministry of Defence source said that it was unacceptable for a serving officer to make political comments about a potential “future government,” but rejected mounting any investigation, claiming there were too many generals to investigate....

Makes the US look good. There may be a soft coup in the works, but at least no one has floated the ideal of a hard coup — yet anyway.

Robert Stevens shows that this is not a aberration in British history and cites evidence from the 1960-170's labor unrest and rise of Harold Wilson to power.

Defend Democracy Press
British Army against Corbyn! Imperialism needs to Destroy Democracy in the West

Robert Stevens
crossposted from WSWS, Military coup against a Corbyn Labour government discussed by Daily Telegraph

Daniel Margrain — For how long will corporate media vilify Mr Corbyn?

In 1978, the Australian social scientist, Alex Carey, pointed out that the twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: “the growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”

In order to defend their business interests against the forces of democracy, the corporations that now dominate much of the domestic and global economies recognize the need to manipulate the public through media propaganda by manufacturing their consent, largely achieved through coordinated mass campaigns that combine sophisticated public relations techniques.

This is the context of the political and media establishment’s vilification of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and their plot to oust him....

If Donald Trump is any indication, "they" will attempt to block his rise to power and will try to oust him should he gain office.

Renegade Inc.
For how long will corporate media vilify Mr Corbyn?
Daniel Margrain

See also

At the very beginning of the of the Skripal incident, the security services blocked by D(SMA) notice any media mention of Pablo Miller and told the media not to look at Orbis and the Steele dossier on Trump, acting immediately to get out their message via trusties in the BBC and Guardian.…

We still have no idea of who attacked Sergei Skripal and why. But the fact that, right from the start, the government blocked the media from mentioning Pablo Miller, and put out denials that this has anything to do with Christopher Steele and Orbis, including lying that Miller had never been connected to Orbis, convinces me that this is the most promising direction in which to look.

It never seemed likely to me that the Russians had decided to assassinate an inactive spy who they let out of prison many years ago, over something that happened in Moscow over a decade ago. It seemed even less likely when Boris Johnson claimed intelligence showed this was the result of a decade long novichok programme involving training in secret assassination techniques. Why would they blow all that effort on old Skripal?

That the motive is the connection to the hottest issue in US politics today, and not something in Moscow a decade ago, always seemed to me much more probable. Having now reviewed matters and seen that the government actively tried to shut down this line of inquiry, makes it still more probable this is right.…

Steele, MI6 and the elements of the CIA which are out to get Trump, all would have a powerful motive to have the Skripal loose end tied.

Rule number one of real investigative journalism: look where they tell you not to look.

Craig Murray Blog

Where They Tell You Not to Look
Craig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

Bill Mitchell — The New Keynesian fiscal rules that mislead British Labour – Part 1, 2 & 3

The British Labour Party is currently leading the Tories in the latest YouGov opinion polls (February 19-20, Tories 40 per cent (and declining), Labour 42 per cent (and rising). They should be further in front, given the disarray of the Conservatives as they try to negotiate within their own party something remotely acceptable about Brexit. When there is this degree of political capital available, in this case for the Labour Party, a party should use it to redefine policy agendas that have gone awry. To build a narrative that will advance their cause for the future decades. British Labour has a chance to break out of its recent Blairite neoliberal past and present a truly progressive manifesto to the British people that will force the Tories to move closer to the centre and squeeze the extreme right-wing elements. In part, under Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, Labour is making progressive noises on a number of fronts. But ultimately, where it really matters – the macroeconomic narrative – they are remaining firmly neoliberal and this will blight their chances of pursuing a truly progressive agenda. One of the glaring mistakes the Labour Party has made is to accept advice from neoliberal economists (so-called New Keynesians) who have instilled in them a need for fiscal rules. This is a three-part analysis of the sort of advice that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are getting and why they should ignore it....

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The New Keynesian fiscal rules that mislead British Labour – Part 1

The New Keynesian fiscal rules that mislead British Labour – Part 2

The New Keynesian fiscal rules that mislead British Labour – Part 3Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Jeremy Corbyn — The Corbyn Doctrine

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed United Nations officials in Geneva this Friday in a speech outlining his vision for a twenty-first century internationalism.

The speech, scheduled to mark International Human Rights Day, examined the roots of global economic inequality, the developing climate crisis and the impact of war across the world. These “threats to our common humanity,” it argues, can only be overcome with “a global rules-based system that applies to all and works for the many, not the few.”

Quoting from late socialist leaders Salvador Allende and Thomas Sankara, Corbyn offers a blueprint for a fundamentally different world order based on international cooperation and solidarity.

The speech is reproduced below in full.

A shot across the bow of neoliberalism and Thatcher's TINA ("there is no alternative").

There is an alternative to this damaging and bankrupt order. The world’s largest corporations and banks cannot be left to write the rules and rig the system for themselves. The world’s economy can and must deliver for the common good and the majority of its people. But that is going to demand real and fundamental structural change on an international level.

Awesome speech. American progressives should familiarize themselves with it.

Jacobin

The Corbyn Doctrine

Jeremy Corbyn

See also

Have you heard of SLAPP lawsuits? You soon will.

SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.” It is a lawsuit brought by big corporations intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the overwhelming costs of a legal defense until they’re forced to abandon their criticism or opposition. And it may be the biggest threat to the resistance you’ve never heard of.

The Evil Empire strikes again.

AlterNet
Robert Reich Reveals the Biggest Threat to American Democracy You've Never Heard Of

Robert Reich

also

Truthout
Trump Takes a Stand for Corruption -- by Withdrawing the US From Anti-Corruption Pact

Emily Ludolf, Occupy.com | News Analysis

Joe Mellor — Ex-PM Gordon Brown has backed…Jeremy Corbyn

In a full about turn, Gordon Brown, has now decided that Jeremy Corbyn is a the right person to lead the UK out of it’s troubled times....

Brown, whose leadership of the country was fraught with setbacks, said that Corbyn’s war on rising inequality and stagnant wages was “absolutely right.”

The London Economic

Ex-PM Gordon Brown has backed…Jeremy Corbyn
Joe Mellor

Chris Dillow — Centrists - become Marxists

Chris Leslie tweeted yesterday that “Marxism should have no place in a modern Labour Party.” You’d expect me to disagree, and I do. But I want to point out that a Marxist point of view might be an asset for non-Marxists within the party. I say so for three reasons.

First, Marxism draws our attention to the fact that politics is shaped by an economic base – by the nature of capitalism....

Herein lies another use of Marxism. It reminds us that the state in capitalism must fulfil two functions: legitimation (keeping voters happy with capitalism); and accumulation (providing the conditions for growth)....

There is, though, a third reason why centrists should adopt a Marxian point of view. It’s that Marxists understand class....

Cutting to the chase, contemporary politicians in developed countries need to understand that the struggle of populists on both the left and right with the bipartisan establishment is a classic example of class struggle described by Marx and Engels. 

Ordinary people — the "little people" as budget arsonist US Senator Alan K. Simpson called them, meaning the people that don't matter —are struggling with and against the ruling class (aka "the ownership class") based on asymmetrical distribution. Reciprocally, the struggle of the ruling class with ordinary people is over dominance and and power-sharing in setting the rules.

Ignoring Marxian analysis won't make it go away. 

Stumbling and Mumbling
Centrists - become Marxists
Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle

Bill Mitchell — There is a true oppositional Left forming and gaining political traction

Bill sees some "green shoots" politically. 

My theory is this. The younger voters have no life experience with old Labour (pre Thatcher). So all the bad things that New Labour-ites and the Tories might have said about Corbyn’s Labour would have had no meaning to them.

What do they care about the Winter of Discontent, Harold Wilson’s exchange rate crises, the bullying trade unions and all the rest of the narratives that are wheeled out to degrade the image of Labour – especially Corbyn’s ‘blast from the past’ policies (as depicted by the Tories and Blairites)?

What young people are searching for is hope for the future. And they have determined that neo-liberalism is not a source of optimism for the future.

Neo-liberalism and austerity has blighted their educational opportunities, undermined the health system, created chaose in the privatised transport system.

It is mean and nasty.

Moreover, while the mainstream media put out daily bile attacks about Corbyn, the young people don’t really buy or read the newspapers anymore.

The young people, increasingly connected by social media, and that is making all the Murdoch and Guardian-type hysterics irrelevant.

Conclusion

The British election, and to some extent, the French election shows that there is a new oppositional Left forming – finally.

The challenge for the left is monetary, financial and economic competence. This has been the big weakness that has resulted in leftist governments underperforming and failing to deliver on their promises.

Bill Mitchell – billy blog
There is a true oppositional Left forming and gaining political traction
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Editorial — Corbyn’s foreign policy speech reveals his principled commitment to achieving peace

It is not Corbyn who “shares platforms with Middle Eastern fanatics,” as the Daily Mail accuses — it is Theresa May, who sucks up to the world’s biggest sponsor of Islamist terror, Saudi Arabia, the land where conversion from Islam is punished by death, where women are stoned to death and where people still have their heads chopped off for “sorcery.”

It was not Corbyn who backed the provision of logistical assistance and weapons to religious extremists seeking to overthrow the Libyan government, or later the Syrian — it was the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, with shameful collusion from too many on Labour’s benches.…

Defend Democracy Press
Corbyn’s foreign policy speech reveals his principled commitment to achieving peace

Ollie McAninch — This Facebook comment about Jeremy Corbyn is going viral

You will like this.

The London Economic
This Facebook comment about Jeremy Corbyn is going viral
Ollie McAninch

Ramanan — Jeremy Spoke In Class Today

In this brilliant speech, Corbyn talks about how the West’s foreign policy is responsible for terrorism....

Of course, none of this doesn’t mean that this is the only factor responsible for global terrorism. But via deceit, western governments and the media has prevented this main reason from being discussed.

The Case for Concerted Action
Jeremy Spoke In Class Today
V. Ramanan

See

Osama asks two questions.

The first is why do we attack you. The answer is you attacked us first and it is a Muslim's obligation to come to the aid of the community.

The second is what do we want. This is based on Wahhabism, the official religious doctrine of Saudi Arabia, which it seeks to promote among Muslims.

The obvious response is to ask, first, whether it is is worth it to continue to aggress in Muslim lands and, secondly, whether the Western support of and alliance with Saudi Arabia is good policy.

The Guardian (24 NOV 2002)
Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America'

Osama bin Laden

Glenn Greenwald — Jeremy Corbyn Accused of Being Russian “Collaborator” for Questioning NATO Troop Build-Up on Border

The crazy.

The response to Corbyn’s call for better relations and de-escalation of tensions with Moscow was swift and predictable. The armed forces minister for Britain’s right-wing government, Mike Penning, accused Corbyn of being a collaborator with the Kremlin:

The Intercept
Jeremy Corbyn Accused of Being Russian “Collaborator” for Questioning NATO Troop Build-Up on Border

Glenn Greenwald

Julia Mead — Why Millennials Aren’t Afraid of Socialism

So we will be the opposition—but we’re not starting from scratch.... Heterodox economists like Ha-Joon Chang, Mariana Mazzucato, and Stephanie Kelton are reshaping their discipline.

Julia Mead is a 22 year old.

The Nation
Why Millennials Aren’t Afraid of Socialism
Julia Mead

The Guardian — Corbyn hits back after Obama suggests Labour is 'disintegrating'

More evidence that President Obama and the New Democrats have lost the plot.

Outgoing US president suggests in interview he is not worried about potential ‘Corbynisation’ of Democrats because party is grounded in ‘fact and reality’

Next the New Democrats will publicly distance themselves from FDR?

The Guardian
Corbyn hits back after Obama suggests Labour is 'disintegrating'

Rowena Mason and Peter J Walker

Elpida Papoutsaki — Corbyn’s economic policies

Labour Party Economic Policy – An introduction to New Economics

Defend Democracy
Corbyn’s economic policies

Elpida Papoutsaki