I told you so

In the UK, the Nine Percent are making history.

But power is not the only factor instrumental in creating change. In fact it’s what one does in “opposition” that has historically paved the way for real change. Humanity’s progress has resulted primarily from the struggles of those who fought for change against entrenched power.

Salim Lone Letter to the Guardian May 2016

I told you so.

If you read my columns on the nine percent, you will notice that I am using the UK to explain what all this all about.

To recap:  all  progressive change comes from a committed minority on the left,.  When this minority reaches about 9 percent of the general population, the consensus of majority opinion will gradually shift leftwards to accept change.  For this happen, however, the majority must first lose confidence in their situation, with their comfort zone eroded by events.

The basic rule, "If it aint broke, don't fix it".  Their has to be a general feeling that something is "broke".

Clearly, predatory capitalism and inequality -- the "Wealthfare State" are destroying the social contract.  Neoliberalism and Neoconservativism have failed, with their associated definitions of "globalism".

For ordinary people that translates with unemployment, lower real wages, higher levels of personal debt, diminished social services and a generally "precarious" future.

In the UK, Brexit undermined the status quo. But even before that there was realization that things were wrong.  The defeat of Labour under Brown and then Miliband opened the way for what can only be regarded as a "accident".  The Labour Party needed money and it decided to open up its membership to get more people -- and therefore more money in  It was really a PR stunt -- but it backfired because people took Labour af face value and they elected as their leader Jeremy Corbyn, a modest, rather simple man who is not only honest but principled.

The Blairites in the PLP were shocked.  How un-British.!  Democracy.  I mean.  Ordinary people thinking they can call the shots.

The Media didn't like it either.  They are owned by a few very, very rich people, who made their money by exploiting everybody else and hire wannabe rich people.

So Corbyn was labeled / libeled as a "loser".  And all those people who joined Labour looking to change something and make England a better place were sneered at as "ultra-leftist extremists" and "Trotsky-ites".

Leftwing extremists / proto-terrorists

But the Blairites and the Media attacks merely showed the  bias of the Snob Class and undermined its non-existent credibility.  This is the arrogance of what Salim Lone calls "entrenched power".

The Labour Party is now just 6 points shy of the Tories, doing very better under Corbyn than under his two predecessors, Brown and Miliband.  

Corbyn will not win the election. -- that would be difficult given the UK's undemocratic electoral system. But it doesn't matter.  As Salim Lone says -- what matters is the Struggle.  And Labour has already won the argument, more or less by default. A big win later is preferable to a narrow now.