Hope denied— a look back at the British Establishment’s war on Jeremy Corbyn

As the old saw has it: “In France the elites are scared of the people, while in Britain the people are scared of the elites.”

Old saw it may be but nonetheless demonstrable fact when you take a moment to consider the difference between a militant French working class with the willingness to assert its rights on the streets when push comes to shove, and its benighted British counterpart that would rather remain tied to its master by bonds of subservience and deference.

How else to explain the fact that at the same time the French are out in the streets in their thousands creating havoc over the country’s state pension age being increased by two years, millions of Brits are preparing to get the bunting out and organising street parties in celebration of the coronation of King Charles on May 6?

Perhaps the most salient answer is enshrined in the fiery proclamation of the great Russian anarchist emigre to the United States, Emma Goldman:

That the mass bleeds, that it is being robbed and exploited, I know as well as our vote-baiters. But I insist that not the handful of parasites, but the mass itself is responsible for this horrible state of affairs. It clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify! the moment a protesting voice is raised against the sacredness of capitalistic authority or any other decayed institution.

The very cry of ‘Crucify!’ proclaimed by Goldman was levelled in Britain against the protesting voice of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn — and levelled with such intensity and aggression that it was a wonder he was not physically harmed.