The establishment have milked it for all it’s worth but
tomorrow, after the last stage-managed event surrounding that diamond jubilee
is over, for the vast majority of the population it will be back to reality
with a bang.
For the jobless teenagers bussed
in from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth to sleep rough and work for nothing as
stewards during the Thames procession on Saturday, it will be back to grinding
poverty and a total absence of a worthwhile future.
For the unemployed it will be another week of fruitless
searches for jobs; for those with disabilities, it will mean fending off intrusive
medical tests (run by a private company on a pay-by-results contract) intended
to force them into menial jobs.
For tens of thousands of homeless households tomorrow will
mean another night in temporary accommodation, disrupting children’s education
and making it impossible to bring up a family in a sustainable way.
For public sector workers, it’s the start of another month
of jobs cuts and increased pension contributions deducted unilaterally on the
orders of the ConDem government. And another year of a pay freeze while food
prices, in particular, continue to soar.
For those lucky enough to have jobs, Wednesday will for many
see a return to a hostile work environment where management makes sure everyone
knows their place, getting to work on an overpriced, overcrowded transport
system.
An unprecedented, co-ordinated state operation, incorporating
the media and led by the BBC, has driven reality into a corner in favour of
relentless pomp and pageantry that has gone on for hour after hour, day after
day.
No matter that people are being slaughtered by the Assad
regime in Syria , or that the
Obama administration is using drones to execute at will in Pakistan , or
that the global economy is irreversibly heading for a second, far worse crash.
More important, beacons are being lit across Britain ,
loads of boats are struggling down the Thames and some pop stars are holding a
concert outside Buckingham
Palace
The last few days have seemed virtually authoritarian in
atmosphere, with a contrived “celebration” organised to mark what? The fact
that a privileged woman, a huge landowner with several palaces, immense wealth,
including a hidden collection of masterpieces, has held an unelected position
for 60 years.
Discredited politicians have tried to use the occasion to
create a sense of flag-waving Britishness that died with empire and is not particularly
supported by the citizens of Wales
and Scotland , let alone the
minority population in the north of Ireland .
The ConDem government, perhaps the most despised in recent
history, no doubt hopes that the queen’s diamond jubilee has taken some of the
attention away from its austerity policies which have helped to deepen the
recession triggered by the financial crisis of 2007-8.
Of course, the monarchy is not the all-powerful ruler who
cites divine authority from God. That period of history ended with the
execution of Charles 1 by Cromwell’s parliamentary forces in January 1649.
But it symbolises the fraudulent nature of what passes for
democracy despite the immense struggles of the Levellers of the English Civil
War, the radical movement of reformers of the late 18th century, the
Chartists of the 19th century and the Suffragettes of the 20th
century.
Present democracy is little more than a show, a façade
behind which corporations and financial institutions, markets and bond dealers,
call all the shots. The monarchy is part of that theatre, with Her Majesty’s
government the accomplices who direct the state to give big business what it
wants and needs.
A fresh constitutional settlement is urgent to meet the
aspirations of a disenfranchised majority of working people, replacing the
power of the corporatocracy. Such a democracy could never include an unelected,
hereditary head of state but would instead express the power of those whose
labour actually makes society possible. Tomorrow is as good a time to start on
this project as any.
Paul Feldman
Communications editor
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