Recent weeks have shown how limited, distorted and precarious democracy is in our society.

When one politician on the national stage steps outside of the accepted neoliberal consensus, all hell breaks loose and politicians, business and the media start predicting the complete collapse of society if we don’t reign in our sights immediately.

Jeremy Corbyn has been subjected to allegations and attacks which range from slightly disingenuous to deeply offensive to frankly bizarre, the latest being allegations he wants to introduce segregated trains across Britain if elected.

It is easy to laugh at some of the more ridiculous stories — Blair’s heart transplant and Louise Mensch’s search history — but there is a much more disturbing side.

There are already hints that the Burnham campaign will seek to challenge a Corbyn victory in the courts. There have been suggestions by Yvette Cooper supporters that, even if Corbyn wins, he would soon be ousted by MPs and replaced by her.

Not to mention the exclusion of thousands of Labour Party members and supporters from the vote itself, the latest high-profile figure being PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka, someone it would be hard to accuse of not believing in the values of the labour movement.

These and many other actions show the extent to which non-state actors play a key role in reinforcing neoliberal hegemony. Step outside of “common sense” politics as defined by the ruling elite and you will be silenced. This is no grand conspiracy, it is simply the class nature of society reasserting itself as the economically dominant class uses its hegemony over the state and the political arena to ensure it remains the politically dominant class.

By setting the very terms of debate, big business and their supporters in politics and the media ensure the outcome they want from the political process.

Of course, this is not just about Corbyn’s campaign for the Labour leadership. It exposes the extent to which ideas which challenge neoliberalism, even those which are actually supported by the majority of the electorate — such as nationalisation of rail transport or energy production — are completely excluded from “mainstream” politics.

At the same time, while the limited political democracy we have does not extend into the workplace, the state has increasingly been used to intervene on behalf of the employer. The proposed Trade Union Bill joins a host of other legislation which makes up Britain’s anti-trade union laws — the most restrictive in the western world — as Tony Blair once boasted in a piece for The Sun.

We cannot simply rely on our limited political democracy to fight back against this fundamental attack on our rights. We must use every tool at our disposal, which is why it is so encouraging so see trade unionists in Scotland taking a lead in talking about joining up co-ordinated industrial struggle with utilising every political avenue we have, through devolved government, local government and elsewhere.

If this legislation cannot be defeated in Parliament, it will need to be fought battle by battle to make it unworkable in practice.

At the same time, political and industrial struggle will not be enough unless they are backed up by a true mass movement rooted in working-class communities up and down Britain. We need to rediscover the solidarity which is the foundation of our movement and reach out beyond those who hold a union membership card.

We need to mobilise them around an agenda which seeks to do more than simply tip the balance a little less in the bosses’ favour and instead proposes a fundamental and radical restructuring of society.

This is both the challenge and the opportunity we face.