Wednesday 21 October 2009

Pot And Kettle In Row Over Colour

Pot




Kettle



The Daily Mail today ran a large story attacking Nick Griffin as a "bigot". This is a bit like Adolph Hitler slagging off Benito Mussolini as a fascist!!! Were it not for papers like the Daily Mail, the Express and other gutter publications, spewing out bile, day in day out, for the last several years, in attacking Asylum Seekers and Illegal Immigrants, then its likely that the BNP would not have gained much of the traction it has. In fact, its a classic example of the contradictions that run throughout Capitalist society.

The Daily Mail is caught between trying to be a profitable newspaper, whose readership are the largely backward and ignorant sectors of society, the disgruntled middle classes and so on, whose general powerlessness leads them continually to look to someone weaker than themselves, some scapegoat on which to vent their frustration. To such people, stories about someone supposedly getting something they are not entitled to are red meat. If that someone is Johnny Foreigner, then, often, all the better. In order to keep such people happy, then papers like the Mail pump out a steady stream of stories, usually of the kind that any intelligent person would immediately call into question, but, which feed the bigotry and paranoia of Mail readers. Yet, at the same time, the Mail, like all the other Capitalist press is a part of the complex machinery of Capitalism's headfixing industry, and has to remember that it has to look after the interests of Capital, and in particular Big Capital, as well as pandering to the reactionary notions of the small businessmen and middle classes who make up its readership.

The small back street businessman might feel he is quite happy in his insular world on this "septic isle" to quote Del Boy, without need to relate to the wider world, and still less to the impositions of the Brussels bureaucracy, but the real Capitalists, the people to whom papers like the Mail are ultimately responsible, cannot afford to go along with such fantasies. To them, there is no existence outside the world of Global Capitalism, or outside their integration into the bloc of European Capital. And, for these Capitalists, the reality has been, over the last decade, that the British economy needed a steady stream of imported cheap labour. As unemployment fell, it became impossible to force indigenous workers to take on the low paid, low status work that needed to be done, and which was only profitable at such low wages. The alternative would have been to engage in the creation of mass unemployment and an almost complete dismantling of the Welfare State in order to force workers to take whatever job, and under whatever conditions, the bosses deigned to give. That would have caused a massive amount of social unrest, which would have been counter-productive for Capital.

Yet, importing cheap labour also caused social unrest, and papers like the Mail profited from it, by selling papers on the back of the unrest, just as the BNP grew on the back of that unrest. So long as the BNP remained just some small organisation that acted as a release valve for that unrest, so long as it was just a few immigrants getting beaten up by racist thugs, like those on this week's Panorama, the Mail and its clones could continue to feed the bigotry, and continue to sell more papers on the back of it. But, it has become clear that the growth of the BNP, the fact that it now has two MEP's has become uncomfortable for Capital. Capital has decided to rein it in. Hence the invite to Griffin to "Question Time", where the bosses agents hope to snare him - though on past performance they may have overestimated their own abilities in that regard - hence the newspaper attacks, hence the attacks on the BNP by the ex military top brass, hence the anti-BNP campaign launched by a number of prominent ex servicemen like Simon Weston, which is apparently being organised by some Tory activists, hence the leaking again of the BNP's membership list, probably by agents of the State working on the inside, and also probably hence the EDL.

The Capitalists only need fascist parties like the BNP when there back is against the wall. At the moment it is not. Capital is strong, bourgeois democracy is strong, despite all the broo ha ha over MP's expenses, whilst the working class is still yet weak, and its leaders almost non-existent. For now, the BNP represent a bigger danger for Capital than does the working class. During the 1970's and early 80's that was not the case. Then, it was the working class that was strong, and Capital was on the back foot. In a Programme a few years ago about the Secret State, an ex Special Branch officer recounted how, they alone, had 250 Trade Union leaders on their books as paid informants. Every Left organisation was riddled with police spies, or spooks of one form or another. Those of us, on the Left, took it for granted that our phones were bugged, and all my post arrived already opened. One comrade who worked at the Post Office told me that Special Branch had their own facilities for engaging in such action.

Its pretty certain that the State is engaged in similar actions inside the BNP and other fascist groups now.

The Daily Mail's attack comes on the back of the BNP responding to the Generals by comparing them to Nazi War Criminals. They have a knack for irony if nothing else. They argue that the Generals were as guilty as Blair and co for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. To an extent, of course, they have a point. When most people think of the idea of "Defending Britain", they think of defending the people of Britain. Of course, that is not what Capital means by that term, nor what its State means either. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were nothing to do with defending British people, but were to do with defending the global interests of British Capital! But, the row, in part, erupted over the BNP's use of WWII imagery, and, of course, WWII was just as much about defending the global interests of British Capital as was the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Britain did not declare war on Germany because Britain had been attacked. Indeed, during the 1930's the negotiations and machinations between the various powers was such that Britain and Germany could easily have been fighting on the same side! We now know that the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, who nearly became Prime Minister, even after the War had begun sent representatives sympathetic to Germany, to discuss with Hitler, a proposal that if Germany left the British Colonies alone, Britain would leave Europe to Germany!

And, of course, during the 1930's, that same Daily Mail was an enthusisastic supporter of Hitler, and of Mussolini, praising them both for their efforts in crushing the working classes of their respective countries. Indeed, that other WWII icon used by the BNP, Winston Churchill, was himself a well-known and rabid anti-semite. Finally, the remaining icon used by the BNP was the Spitfire. Living only a a mile from where the inventor of the Spitfire, Reginald Mitchell, was born, I feel some pride in the machine as a piece of technology. But, although its imagery is closely associated with the Battle of Britain - wrongly because the Hurricanes played a much larger role - the fact is that the same Spitfire was used by the British State to also keep in chains millions of British Colonial slaves throughout the Empire.

The reality is that in terms of Nationalism the BNP are probably more consistent in their ideas than are the Daily Mail, or even the military top brass. For them Nationalism is merely a tool to be utilised to further the interests of Capital. If the BNP want these Nationalistic images I say let them keep them, the interests of the working class lie not in such Nationalism and warmongering, but in Internationalism and the solidarity of workers against the bosses whatever their Nationality, colour or creed. The BNP and the Daily Mail and their ilk all deserve each other. They are all the enemy of the working class.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

A year ago I would have written this off as too conspiratorial but your prediction of a coordinated onslaught against the BNP by the establishment has come to fruition.

How else could the Daily Mail be so shameless, nothing else explains it.

Fuck me, you will have me believing in long wave theory next!

Anonymous said...

One striking problem with your theory Boffy is that attacks by the establishment against the BNP will backfire because the people hate the establishment!

The question time fiasco highlights this, as the public now feels sympathy with the BNP.

And what have you to say of the latest economic data which shows Britain still in recession. Pumping money into the economy has not fuelled inflation as people don’t have the money or confidence to spend in the first place.

Boffy said...

You under rate the power of Capital and its media to shape Public Opinion. There is no evidence that the Public's hostility to the "Establishment", which I think is in any case questionable, translates into sympathy for the BNP other than for a small minority.

Antipathy towards the establishment did not translate into support for say Tony Benn, when the State and media gave him far more grief and over a far more prolonged period than Griffin or the BNP have so far faced. Sustained attacks and revelations the fact that these attacks are coming and will come more so from people who are not seen as the establishment, like the soldiers and ex soldiers such as Rob McNab and Simon Weston, the running of stories like those saying even Griffin's wife thinks he's a nutter will slowly isolate them. Meanwhile the State will be operating inside the BNP to ferment dissent, and division.

Of course, for the reasons I have set out in my latest blog, the State and bouregois politicians will be constrained in what they can say in attacking the BNP, because of the limitations of their own politics. But, for now the undermining and begative publicity will almost certainly suffice to undermine BNP support.

As for the British economy and the recession, the fact remains as I said a while ago that the recession is over. Whether it is over for individual economies like Britain is largely besides the point, as they are just fractions of Capital. Its like saying Britain is booming, but there's a recession in Tyneside!

Like most economists I was surprised by the figures, and they don't seem to tally with other economic data that has come out over recent weeks and months. The ONS has got things wrong before, and we might find that its got things wrong now. In any case these are preliminary statistics that are subject to at least two revisions in coming weeks.

The data suggests strength in manufacturing, but weakness in services. Given the preponderance of the services sector, weakness there clearly could have a more pronounced effect. As I said before, I envisage in any case a plateauing of the recovery early next year as the effect of restocking subsides. But, the reality is that the driving force of the world economy in China is growing again at around 9-10% - in fact in the previous quarter it grew at something like 20% as an annualised rate - and the rest of Asia is growing strongly too. The EU's two biggest economies Germany and France were grwoing even in Q", and that growth is accelerating. The US is also likely to show growth for Q3. At worst the UK is a quarter behind.

Boffy said...

Ironically, also its the fact that the locus of world development has shifted inexorably Eastward that will ultimately undermine fascist groups like the BNP, at least in respect of their reliance on racism as a populist means of garnering support. You can hardly proclaim the sueriority of the white "race", when for all to see the world's leading economic powers, and increasingly social and military powers are those of the yellow and brown "races".

US IT workers are already migrating to India, because that is where most of the jobs are now located. Just as many Poles have gone home as the Polish economy was the only one in Europe not to go into recession, so now many Indians are returning home as the Indian economy develops rapidly. The problem will icnreasingly be how British Capital can recruit enough low paid labour when the relative decline of Britain means that many migrant workers have plenty of other better places to go to sell their Labour power.

Its likely then that the BNP if it is to serve its purpose for Capital would have to turn its attention to attacking domestic workers on Benefits etc. i.e. those very same backward elements from which it currently garners votes.

Boffy said...

i didn't deal with the point about inflation. Inflation arises with a two year land of increases in Money Supply. As the increase in Money supply and QE only began as the Credit Crunch really struck at the end of last year, we are still a year away from that effect manifesting itself.

But, if you doubt its in the pipeline look at the rise in the price of Gold, look at the rise in the price of Oil, which has virtually doubled since last year and reached the level I predicted of $80. look at the rise in prices of other commodities such as Copper. Look also at the falling value of the dollar and pound, and pressure for a rise in the RMB. Some Commodity currencies like the Aussie Dollar are already seeing increases in interests rates to combat inflation.

Rising prices of consumer goods from China, together with rising commodity prices as currencies fall will inevitably result in inflation. Depressed economic activity is no prevention for that as the phenomena of stagflation has previously demonstrated. Already we see in Britain rising house prices one again, and rising asset prices as the massive icnrease in money supply has not yet fed through into demand for consumer goods as savings rates have risen.

Anonymous said...

But where is this massive amount fed into the money supply? It’s certainly not in my pocket.

And does the price of oil tell us anything significant, it seems to be up and down like a yoyo no matter what happens in the real economy. In fact didn’t I read somewhere that when researchers were seeing if Labour values equated with prices of commodities, they did equate near to a factor of 96%+ but only if oil was excluded from the analysis.

Isn't it true that while some sectors are seeing small increases, overall the pressure is downward still?

Boffy said...

I don't know your pesonal circumstances so I can't comment on whether you have more money in your pocket, and if not why not. What is clear as I pointed out in my post Aftershock?, the vast majority of people DO have more money in their pocket in real terms.

The point is that individuals are responding to the situation by saving and paying down debt, and businesses are also paying back large amounts of debt too. That is an inevtiable consequecne of de-stocking as I have said.

The oil price has risen steadily in the last year. I don't know where your idea of it bobbing up and down comes from. Oil Futures ARE subject to speculation as happened last year when the price rose to $147 a barrel, but the speculation itself, is an indication of where the market expects the price to go.

I don't know what piece of research you are referring to in equating Exchange Values to prices of commodities. The only work I am vaguely familiar with is some work done many years that sought to equate Exchange values with GDP figures.

Overall, no its not true that there is continued weakness or downward pressure. The prices of pretty much all primary products are continuing to rise again as world demand picks up. This is one reason that commodity currencies like the Aussie have strengthened, and why on the back of the boost to its economy and already rising prices the Australian Central Bank has raised interest rates.

Falling currencies like the Pound and Dollar will consequently face higher import prices pushing up costs and final prices, which on past experiecne will be monetised by the authorities rather than face a consequent reduction in economic activity. In fact, the money already in the system and sitting in the banks is more than adequate to fulfil that role.