A slap in the face of neo-liberal capitalism

Dear Editor
THIS week’s announcement of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory in the British Labour Party’s leadership contest with a landslide — almost 60% of the vote — and Tom Watson’s ascension to a position of Deputy Leader is a victory not only for the poor and marginalised millions in Britain, but for the poor and marginalised worldwide, and for all progressive and revolutionary forces resisting neo-liberal capitalism and its global march of death and destruction.
I first met Jeremy Corbyn many years ago in Libya, then Africa’s most prosperous country, now destroyed and left in chaos by the very people and policies that Corbyn has spent a lifetime resisting. I know him to be an ally of the poor and oppressed, not only in his own country, but throughout the Global South. He has consistently taken a stand against injustice — from Apartheid in South Africa, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the illegal invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria; to the inhumane treatment of the thousands of refugees that are streaming into Britain and Europe as a result of these imperial wars.
In an age when we are being bombarded with the concept of the ‘end of ideology’ by the defenders of capitalism and Empire, Corbyn’s win is a slap in the face of all proponents of this absurd notion that there is no alternative to neo-liberal capitalism. Imagine, they have even coined and circulated an acronym, ‘TINA’, which stands for ‘There Is No Alternative”.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, this ‘end of ideology’ argument was taken a step further by Francis Fukuyama when he declared ‘the end of history’. By this he meant that, with the collapse of Soviet style communism, we had witnessed the victory of one ideology, that is, western liberal democracy and its sidekick, neo-liberal capitalism. Fukuyama’s argument implied that this ideology had finally, absolutely and permanently won the conflict of ideas and would forever dominate human thinking. There was to be no other competing ideology, and sadly, many of our misleaders have fallen for this deception.
Jeremy Corbyn’s win points to the fact that this is absolute rubbish. Within 24 hours of his victory, 15,000 British citizens joined the Labour Party. Far from living in a post-ideological world, as the likes of Tony Blair would have us believe, the reality is that ideology must, by necessity, guide and underpin every social project. The battle is always a battle of ideas.
In his acceptance speech, Tom Watson told cheering crowds to be in no doubt that Labour is the last line of defense for millions of people who suffer in Tory hands. He told the room full of supporters that there is only one Labour, dismissing Tony Blair’s concept of a “New Labour”. He said that Labour must once again be “the guardian of decency and fairness, justice and equality in the UK”, adding, “That’s not the Tory way. They don’t play fair, they believe in the primacy of the market, but their market is arbitrary and unforgiving, whereas we believe in the wealth the market can create, but not in the unfairness that comes if it is not mediated.” This was a direct and bold attack on neo-liberal capitalism.
Jeremy Corbyn sent the crowds wild when he called for action on what he described as “grotesque levels of inequality in Britain”, and stated that the victory will be for the whole of society when Labour shows that, “we don’t have to be unequal, it doesn’t have to be unfair, poverty isn’t inevitable and things can and will change”.
Organisation for the Victory of the People (OVP) welcomes Corbyn and Watson’s victory. It can only strengthen the global resistance to the totalitarianism and tyranny of the so-called free market and those who enforce it worldwide. It is this same neo-liberal capitalist agenda — rejected by President Burnham and his government, and then accepted by Presidents Hoyte, Jagan, Jagdeo, Ramotar, Granger and their governments — that has Guyana in ruin. We in Guyana must understand that poverty and social inequality are not products of a natural order, something we must accept as a given, as proponents of neo-liberal capitalism so desperately want us to believe. Poverty and inequality are human constructs, and can therefore be deconstructed by humans. We live in one of the most resource rich countries in the Caribbean, with a population of less than a million, and yet, we are told by both external and internal forces that Guyana is too poor to offer its citizens economic justice in the form of livable wages, free healthcare and education, decent and affordable housing, adequate nutrition and dignity. Take sense out of nonsense. This is a lie. Of course a better Guyana and a better world are possible. It requires a redistribution of wealth and resources- – a democratisation of the economy- – and that is something that we in OVP will continue to fight for. The new acronym must be TIAA – ‘There Is An Alternative’. The Victory of the People is Inevitable!
Gerald A. Perreira
Leader,
Organization for the Victory of the People (OVP)

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