Reading Festival just proved the anti-Corbyn smears ain't sticking

Reading Festival just proved the anti-Corbyn smears ain’t sticking

Reading Festival has offered another sign that the smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn is failing. During his set at Reading’s silent disco on 24 August, DJ Dan recorded a huge pro-Corbyn chant erupting:

More incredible @UKLabour @jeremycorbyn chants DJing last night at @OfficialRandL Reading Festival Silent Disco for @PropagandaClub & @SilentDiscoKing! Across the country the voices for change can’t be ignored! pic.twitter.com/nmP9Avl8J0

— DJ Dan (@DjDanPropaganda) August 25, 2018

Earlier in the month, DJ Dan documented another pro-Corbyn chant at Boardmasters festival in Cornwall. 18,000 people were reportedly in the crowd:

The chants of @UKLabour @jeremycorbyn were deafening last night at @boardmasters Festival where I DJed for @PropagandaClub & @SilentDiscoKing! It was the biggest Silent Disco ever in the world! 18k people! pic.twitter.com/nZHosP8Zbm

— DJ Dan (@DjDanPropaganda) August 10, 2018

In June 2018, the chant also broke out at Bongo’s Bingo in Liverpool. The show of support, sung to the tune of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, rose to nationwide prominence during the 2017 general election.

It’s failing

The chants come despite the smear campaign against the Labour leader. More broadly, polling shows the anti-Corbyn campaign has not eroded the support Labour gained during the 2017 general election.

Pro-establishment media and political figures have long been weaponising the real issue of antisemitism to damage the Corbyn movement. A Jewish study into antisemitism in 2017 puts the debate into perspective. While the report from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research emphasised that antisemitism is prevalent across society, including on the left, it concluded that:

On the political spectrum, levels of antisemitism are found to be highest among the far-right

Corbyn youth support

The Labour leader has widespread support from young people in this country, particularly students. Student support for Labour has leapt to 55% under Jeremy Corbyn, according to 2017 research from the Higher Education Policy Institute and YouthSight. This is a huge increase. Towards the end of Ed Miliband’s leadership in 2015, student support for Labour sat at 35%. Under Tony Blair in 2005, only 23% backed Labour.

The Corbyn chant at Reading Festival and elsewhere is a reflection of this. But the establishment smear campaign is only going to intensify. Everyone who wants to change the country must be ready.

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