The recently published book on the British Establishment by the political commentator Owen Jones is an excellent read and he is to be very much congratulated for his work. However it is essentially about the new establishment that has grown up in Britain and the rest of the world after the neo liberal counter revolution since the start of the 1980,s. The establishment have always been with us and have always been generally nasty however this has increased considerably since the Thatcher counter revolution. The people who make up the establishment have become much more individually narcissistic and seem to have no regard for society at all.
Owen Jones shows the establishment in Britain has done well since the privatization of the 1980,s and the lifting of capital controls. Also the introduction of draconian anti Trade Unions laws which along with a deregulated economy has led to the creation of a vast low paid often temporary contract work force. They maintain their hegemony in society through control of the media. They use their control of the media to get low paid working class people to focus their anger on other poor people such as ‘social security scroungers’ and immigrants. He also shows how the establishment receives vast amounts of corporate welfare. For instance low wages paid by employers are subsidised through tax credits. Wealthy landlords receive housing benefit to subsidy the high rents that they charge.
Owen shows quite clearly how the establishment is usually self selecting attending the top public schools and the elite universities. The same applies to Britain political class and also the a certain extent the ‘Labour Party’
Clearly the modern establishment in both Britain and the world as a whole are quite nasty. As far as I am concerned the person who is the most representative of the modern international establishment is Jeff Bezos the owner of Amazon who does recognise trade unions and whose workers work in slave like conditions.
However getting back to Britain Owen Jones points out opinion polls show that their is a majority in favour of progressive policies such as public ownership of utilities, energy companies and the railway. This even applies amongst UKIP voters. So there is hope for the long term future.
Towards the end of his book he calls for a Democratic revolution in Britain. Such as higher taxes for the rich. Public ownership of utilities and other industries. Also limits on media ownership and the repeal of anti trade union laws and rent controls for private landlords.
However while I agree with the proposals that he puts forward I take issue with Owen about how the fight back against the new neo liberal establishment is going to take take place. Firstly it is likely to be long and difficult drawn out process. The ruling class at present have hegemony over society through their control of the media. However most people realist that there is something wrong with the present world so as I have previously said there is some hope for the future.
What is required is building a new mass political movement in this country to change society. Qwen is a member of The Labour Party,s left wing and he is obviously in favour of winning the Labour Party back for socialism. However my 21 year membership of the Labour Party has shown to me that this is not possible the right wing have too tight a grip on the parliamentary Labour Party for this to happen. Also many newly elected left wing Labour members of parliament quickly defect to the right wing after a few years in parliament. So in my opinion a new disciplined type socialist organization is needed to bring about the socialist transformation of Britain.
However in conclusion Owen Jones is very much to be congratulated on writing an excellent book.
kevinclarion 