By Gideon Polya
The re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the British Labour Party with an overwhelming 62% support of Labour Party members is a victory for decency and sanity over the US lackey, pro-war, pro-nuclear weapons, pro-Apartheid, pro-Zionist and neoliberal Blairite pragmatists led by about 80% of the UK Labour Party MPs and who are traitors not just to the Labour Movement but to Humanity.
The Blairite Labour argument is that the socialist policies of Jeremy Corbyn will keep Labour out of power for a generation. The counter-argument is that it is better to have a sane and humane Labour Opposition than an unprincipled, dishonest, anything-goes, inhumane, pro-war, nuclear terrorist, pro-Apartheid, neoliberal, Tory-lite Labour Government.
In the wonderful words of the King James Bible (Matthew 16:26) : “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” [1].
As outlined below, from a national and international perspective, Jeremy Corbyn is a voice for humanity, sanity and equity in a neoliberalism-dominated world acutely threatened by nuclear weapons, climate change and poverty.
Socialism not deadly neoliberalism.
The greedy and inhumane ideology of neoliberalism – espoused by the anti-Corbyn, Blairite New Labour MPs – seeks to maximize the freedom of the smart and advantaged to exploit the human and natural resources of the world in order to maximize personal profit, compounding this with an utterly dishonest claim of “trickle down” benefits for the less smart and less advantaged. In contrast, social humanism (socialism, social democracy, democratic socialism, eco-socialism, the welfare state) – espoused by Jeremy Corbyn and the 62% of the British Labour Party membership that support him – involves sustainably maximizing human happiness, opportunity and dignity through evolving national and international social contracts for the betterment of all people and the irreplaceable Biosphere (biodiversity) on which they depend [2-4].
Neoliberalism kills and poverty kills – thus each year 17 million people die avoidably from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease in a Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust on Spaceship Earth with inhumane and remorselessly greedy, neoliberal, First World One Percenters in charge of the flight deck [5]. It has been estimated by DARA that 0.4 million people die from neoliberalism-driven climate change each year [6, 7], but it is clear that climate change impacts the horrendous Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust. Thus pollutants from carbon fuel burning kill 7 million people annually (WHO) and have killed 105 million people thus in the 15 years since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity in 2001 that killed 3,000 people – there have been 3 million US air pollution deaths versus 53 US political terrorism deaths since the 9-11 atrocity (3,000 deaths) [8, 9].
However, even in the rich Anglosphere countries of Australia, Canada, UK and the US where avoidable death (avoidable mortality, excess death, excess mortality) on a global comparative scale is almost zero, one can identify hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths annually from major killers such as such as adverse hospital outcomes, smoking, obesity, air pollution and alcohol down to relatively minor killers such as homicide and illicit drugs. Annual preventable deaths from such causes in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US total , 85,000, 101,000, 150,000 and 1.7 million, respectively [10-14]. Such preventable deaths in Australia, Canada, UK and the US have thus totalled 1.2 million, 1.5 million, 2.2 million, and 24 million, respectively, since the American (and Apartheid Israeli and Apartheid Saudi?) 9/11 false-flag atrocity in 2001 that killed about 3,000 people [9].
Climate change action not terracidal climate change inaction.
The worsening Climate Emergency, driven by neoliberal greed, is such that it is now extremely unlikely that the world will avoid a catastrophic plus 2 degrees Centigrade temperature rise, and the worst culprits in this catastrophe in terms of “per capita income weighted annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” include the rich Anglosphere countries of Australia, Canada, UK and the US [15, 16]. Thus revised annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution for all countries in units of tonnes CO2-e per person per year is 366.7 for Belize (the world’s highest), 21.5 for the UK, 8.9 for the World, 7.4 for China and 2.1 for India [15]. In terms of “per capita income weighted annual per capita GHG pollution”, the score is 924.3 for Qatar (the world’s highest), 92.9 for the UK, 5.2 for China and 0.3 for India, Pakistan and Bangladesh [16]. Of course, the UK would have even greater score in this regard if it had not exported much of its GHG-polluting manufacturing to places like China. It is estimated that failure to address man-made climate change will wipe out much of the Biosphere and kill all but 0.5 billion people this century i.e. kill about 10 billion people this century [17]. Indeed Professor Lord Nicholas Stern has described climate change inaction as the greatest market failure in human history [18].
In 2015 Jeremy Corbyn released a “Protecting Our Planet Manifesto” detailing plans for a “Green Investment Bank” that would invest in renewable energy. Corbyn wants to ban “fracking” for natural gas, wants to phase out all fossil fuel extraction and wants to maximize clean and efficient public transport for energy efficiency and to improve air quality [19]. Urgent action is certainly needed along these lines because it is now likely that the lower limit (1.5C) of the 1.5C – 2C limit to global warming agreed to by all nations in Paris will be exceeded within a mere 4-10 years [20-22]. It has been recently expertly estimated that about 10,000 people die annually from air pollution in London [8].
Nuclear disarmament not nuclear terrorism.
A nuclear exchange would wipe out most of Humanity (current population about 7.4 billion) , successively through the initial instantaneous destruction of cities, subsequent deaths from burns and radiation sickness from radioactive fallout, and finally through a “Nuclear Winter” decimating agriculture, photosynthesis and photosynthate-based life in general. The upper estimates of stored nuclear weapons are as follows: US (7,315), Russia (8,000), Apartheid Israel (400), France (300), UK (250), China (250), Pakistan (120), India (100), and North Korea (less than 10) [23].
Jeremy Corbyn wants sanity i.e. nuclear disarmament and a nuclear weapons ban. In this he is supported by 127 sane countries who have signed up to a nuclear weapons ban pledge [23]. Does the UK really think it is threatened by invasion from Russia or China? Jeremy Corbyn voted against the renewal of the UK Trident nuclear submarine system. A possible outcome of Brexit is that the British Empire on which “the sun never set” may finally be reduced to a tiny rump of Wales and England, and making this tiny patch a nuclear target could well be seen as lunacy by even died in the wool British jingoists.
Peace and human rights, not war.
Jeremy Corbyn has a decent and long record of opposition to war in general and to recent US Alliance wars in particular. Unlike the Blairite Labor MPs, Jeremy Corbyn is opposed to the war criminal invasions of Iraq, Libya and Syria by the UK and the US Alliance, and to NATO and US warmongering in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe [19]. Corbyn is also opposed to UK ‘blood trade” linkage to the illegal and war criminal Saudi invasion of Yemen [19]. For his opposition to Israeli Apartheid and support for Palestinian human rights Jeremy Corbyn has been falsely vilified as an anti-Semite by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic racist Zionists and by the Zionist-perverted Tories and Tory-lite Blairites. Jeremy Corbyn’s pro-Apartheid Israel opponents are anti-Arab anti-Semitic through their support for the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and the US War on Muslims (32 million Muslim deaths from violence, 5 million, or from war- or hegemony-imposed deprivation, 27 million, in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity) [24-29].
These anti-Arab anti-Semitic US Alliance latter-day Nazis are also anti-Jewish anti-Semitic for falsely conflating nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel with all Jews (including anti-racist Jews) and for falsely defaming the many decent anti-racist Jewish people who oppose Israeli Apartheid, the ongoing Palestinian Genocide and the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide [24-29]. Jeremy Corbyn wants war criminal Tony Blair to be investigated for war crimes over the illegal UK invasion of Iraq that was associated with 1.5 million violent Iraqi deaths and 1.2 million Iraqi deaths from war-imposed deprivation [28].
Jeremy Corbyn is remarkable for a British politician in wanting a peaceful settlement of the Falkland Islands issue with Argentina, and wanting the return of the US- and UK-violated Chagossians to their former Indian Ocean paradise [19].
Equity and equal opportunity.
Jeremy Corbyn has espoused numerous pro-equity social and economic policies for the UK including re-nationalising of rail transport, a strengthening of trade union rights, support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning (LGBTIQ) human rights, opposition to “austerity”, opposition to tax avoidance, free university education (20 countries around the world have free university education) [30] , and strengthening of the National Heath Service (150,000 British citizens have died preventably in the UK each year this century as successive Tory-lite Blairite New Labour and Tory Governments have spent billions of pounds on killing Muslims abroad rather than keeping British citizens alive at home) [12].
Concluding comments.
Decent pro-peace, pro-equity people around the world were delighted with the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the British Labour Party with an overwhelming 62% support of Labour Party members, a great victory for decency and sanity over the US lackey, pro-war, pro-nuclear weapons, pro-Apartheid, pro-Zionist, neoliberal Blairite pragmatists led by about 80% of the UK Labour Party MPs. Jeremy Corbyn’s social humanist policies are hardly radical . Thus, for example, Jeremy Corbyn’s policy of free university education is now a reality in 20 variously rich and poor countries around the world [30]. Jeremy Corbyn’s sane policy of nuclear disarmament is supported by 127 countries around the world [23].
Actually Jeremy Corbyn could go much further and indeed was rhetorically upstaged by his Blairite opponent, Owen Smith, who has advocated an extremely modest £3 billion (US$3.9 billion) annual “wealth tax” on the rich [31]. Professor Thomas Piketty in his seminal book “Capital in the Twenty-first Century” has cogently argued that the worsening huge disparity in wealth between the rich and poor is bad for the economy (the poor cannot afford to buy much of the goods and services they produce) and bad for democracy (Big Money owns Mainstream media, determines public perception of reality and hence buys votes and political power). Professor Piketty suggests an annual wealth tax of up to 10% to address this ever-growing and damaging inequity [32-35]. Indeed France has an annual wealth tax of up to 1.5% and Islam has had an annual wealth tax (zakkat) of 2.5% for 1,400 years [34].
According to the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) “In July 2012 to June 2014: Aggregate total wealth of all private households in Great Britain was £11.1 trillion. The wealthiest 10% of households owned 45% of total aggregate household wealth. The least wealthy half of households owned 9% of total aggregate household wealth. Private pension wealth was the largest component of aggregate total wealth. Half of all households had total wealth of £225,100 or more. Households in the South East had the highest median wealth (£342,400)”. A French-style 1.5% annual tax applied to the top 10% would collect 0.015 x 0.45 x £11,100 billion = £75 billion = US$97.5 billion each year i.e. 25 times more than the measly US$3.9 billion per annum proposed by Corbyn’s opponent, Blairite but self-asserted “socialist” Owen Smith.
Of course an effective annual wealth tax is predicated on what Professor Piketty calls “a genuine world register of assets” [37]. Thus in relation to the huge wealth disparity in post-Apartheid South Africa, Professor Piketty has written: “Some also envision the establishment of a progressive tax on capital, to gradually redistribute economic power. Such a plan was on the table between 1994 and 1999 before finally being abandoned by the ANC. According to former president Thabo Mbeki, the police and army, then still led by whites, wouldn’t have allowed it” [37]. One supposes that the violent, manipulative, Mainstream media-owning, genocidally racist, and war criminal British Establishment – Britain has invaded nearly every country on earth and is still at it [38] – wouldn’t allow it either.
A corollary to an effective social humanist agenda for Jeremy Corbyn and his Corbynistas is a socialist Labour newspaper free of the One Percenter Big Money pressures that have turned the UK into a Plutocracy, Kleptocracy, Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy, Corporatocracy and Dollarocracy in which Big Money purchases people, politicians, parties, public perception of reality, political power and thence more private profit [40- 43]. In Chapter 25 of Voltaire’s novel “Candide”, entitled “Visit to Lord Pococurante, Venetian nobleman” we find : “Martin noticed some shelves laden with English books. “I trust”, he said, “that a republican must take pleasure in the majority of those books written with so much freedom”. “Yes”, replied Pococurante, “it’s a fine thing to write what one thinks; it’s the privilege of man. In all Italy people write only what they don’t think; those who inhabit the native land of the Caesars and the Antonines don’t care to have an idea without permission of a Dominican. I would be happy with the freedom that inspires the English geniuses if party feeling and party spirit didn’t corrupt everything estimable in that precious freedom” [44].
References
[1]. Matthew 16: 26, King James Bible.
[2]. Gideon Polya, “Canadian academic: “F— neoliberalism””, MWC News, 14 May 2016: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/58847-f-neoliberalism.html .
[3]. Brian Ellis, “Social Humanism. A New Metaphysics” , Routledge , UK , 2012.
[4]. Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Social Humanism. A New Metaphysics” By Brian Ellis – Last Chance To Save Planet?”, Countercurrents, 19 August, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190812.htm .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes succinct histories of all countries from Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the Web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/ .
[6]. DARA, “Climate Vulnerability Monitor. A guide to the cold calculus of a hot planet”, 2012, Executive Summary pp2-3: http://daraint.org/climate-vulnerability-monitor/climate-vulnerability-monitor-2012/ .
[7]. DARA report quoted by Reuters, ”100 mln to die by 2030 if world fails to act on climate”, 28 September 2012: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/26/climate-inaction-idINDEE88P05P20120926 .
[8]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
[9]. “Carbon terrorism: 3 million US air pollution deaths versus 53 US political terrorism deaths since 9-11 (2001-2015)”, State crime and non-state terrorism: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/carbon-terrorism .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “Australian State Terrorism – Zero Australian Terrorism Deaths, 1 Million Preventable Australian Deaths & 10 Million Muslims Killed By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 23 September, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230914.htm .
[11]. Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist, Pro-war, Pro-Opium, War Criminal Canadian Government Defames Iran & Cuts Diplomatic Links”, Countercurrents, 10 September, 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100912.htm .
[12]. Gideon Polya, “UK Terror Hysteria exposed – Empirical Annual Probability of UK Terrorism Death 1 in 16 million”, Countercurrents, 16 September, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya160914.htm .
[13]. Gideon Polya, “West Ignores 11 Million Muslim War Deaths & 23 Million Preventable American Deaths Since US Government’s False-flag 9-11 Atrocity”, Countercurrents, 9 September, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090915.htm
[14]. Gideon Polya, “Corporate terrorism is state sanctioned, kills over 30 million people annually and dooms humanity by lying”, State crime and non-state terrorism: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/corporate-terrorism .
[15]. Gideon Polya, “ Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January, 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .
[16]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm
[17]. “Climate Genocide”: ”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .
[18]. Sir Nicholas Stern, quoted in “Climate change: “the greatest market failure the word has seen””, New Economist, 30 October 2006: http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2006/10/stern_review_2.html .
[19]. “Political positions of Jeremy Corbyn”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Jeremy_Corbyn .
[20]. Laurie Goering, “Climate change could cross key threshold in a decade: scientists”, Reuters Global Energy News, 22 September 2016: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-impacts-conference-idUSKCN11S1FE .
[21]. “Fossil fuel reserves would crush climate goals”, Phys.org, 22 September 2016 : http://phys.org/news/2016-09-fossil-fuel-reserves-climate-goals.html .
[22]. Liam Wagner, Ian Ross, John Foster and Ben Hankamer, “Trading off global fuel supply, CO2 emissions and sustainable development”, Plos, 9 March 2016: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0149406 .
[23]. “Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .
[24]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm.
[25]. Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[26]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[27]. “Palestinian Genocide” : http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[28]. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[29]. “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .
[30]. “Free university education”: https://sites.google.com/site/freeuniversityeducation/home .
[31]. Michael Settle, “Smith promises “socialist revolution” as he denounces Corbyn for his weak leadership”, Herald Scotland, 28 July 2016: http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/14646290.
Smith_promises__quot_socialist_revolution_quot__as_
he_denounces_Corbyn_for_his_weak_leadership/ .
[32]. Thomas Piketty, “Capital in the Twenty-first Century”, Harvard, 2014).
[33]. Gideon Polya, “Key Book Review: “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” By Thomas Piketty”, Countercurrents, 01 July, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya010714.htm .
[34]. “1% ON 1%: one percent annual wealth tax on One Percenters”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/1-on-1 .
[35]. Gideon Polya, “4 % Annual Global Wealth Tax To Stop The 17 Million Deaths Annually”, Countercurrents, 27 June, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270614.htm .
[36]. UK Office for National Statistics, “Chapter 2. Total wealth. Wealth in Great Britain, 2012 to 2014”, “Wealth in Great Britain Wave 4, 2012 to 2014” : http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/was/wealth-in-great-britain-wave-4/2012-2014/rpt-chapter-2.html .
[37]. Thomas Piketty, “Capital in South Africa”, October 5 , 2015, pages 168-170, in Thomas Piketty, “Chronicles On Our Troubled Times”, Viking, 2016.
[38]. Gideon Polya, “British Have Invaded 193 Countries: Make 26 January ( Australia Day, Invasion Day) British Invasion Day”, Countercurrents, 23 January, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230115.htm .
[39]. “Stop state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/ .
[40]. Gideon Polya (2008), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2008 edition that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ .
[41]. Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, “Manufacturing Consent”, Pantheon, 1998, 2002.
[42]. “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/home .
[43]. “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home .
[44]. Voltaire, “Candide”.
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript
) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
29 September 2016