Britain's traditional political stability is falling apart. Ex Foreign Secretary Captain Boris, is not stepping out of the Tory Cabinet to become a sage in his dotage, commenting only from the edges of Parliament. Once he had checked that his own particular Brutus was in no position to stab him the back for the second time (poor Gove has stayed with Prime Minister May's sinking ship) he made his move. There is not the slightest question but that Mr Johnston will be looking at the first opportunity to destroy Prime Minister May and take the leadership of the Tory Party.
In a recent article (27 June) in the British political magazine 'New Statesman', left journalist Paul Mason laid out a sombre future. His article, 'Ukip’s turn to the alt-right is a warning sign - we need to fight back', spells out the extra-parliamentary, proto-fascist movement that is trying to associate its racist package with working class discontent and the more flamboyant versions of Brexit, now coming under Boris's command. In his argument Mason lines up Tories, extreme Brexiteers, the large, discontented sections of the working class that voted to leave the EU and the new fascists. But that is simply an unhelpful muddle. Nevertheless, the rise of (new) British fascism, re-equipped by the US far-right weaponry, is definitely one, expanding, response to the general political crisis in Britain - albeit not yet substantially rooted in any of the major social classes in UK society.
The key issue in the here and now is Corbyn's Labour Party.
It has been patently obvious for some years that Britain's political crisis - the inadequacy of the countrys' main political institutions, including the traditional parties, the national divisions in the UK and the overgrown and underpowered Westminster Parliament - will go through as series of stages. And although the Tory Party looks most vulnerable just now, it is the Labour Party that is first going to bear the brunt from Britain's EU dilemma. While a right wing faction of the Tory Party, encouraged by Trump, are facing down most of the big Corporations based in Britain when it comes to Brexit, they are exactly that; a political faction of the ruling class. They want to reorganise capitalism in Britain in new ways. However, when it comes to the Labour Party, we have two distinct and contradictory class contests in its (mainly Parliamentary) ranks. We have a large group of Labour MPs and their apparatus who share exactly the same views as the pro-EU Tories. At the same time we have a smaller group (in Parliament) - larger outside Parliament - who want an across-the-board push against Britain's capitalist system, that want to make inroads against capitalism.
A political faction fight within the ruling class party is very dangerous for the City of London, the big corporations etc. It is already going at least to lead to an early and rancorous General Election. But a class to class battle, potentially led by a Labour Party Prime Minister, is far more dangerous. Of course, were Corbyn to win a General election for Labour, initially big Capital would seek to put all its pressure behind Labour's right-wing, or more accurately its pro-capitalist wing - with some possible left decorations to soothe some of the Corbyn left, under the cosy charm of 'Labour Party unity.' But not only Corbyn, but a huge section of his party will push in the other direction. In office, Labour will not face a factional war, but rather an irreconcilable class war.
Today, the marches and strikes and campaigns are brewing. But it is the crisis of the Labour Party, of a potential Labour government, that will begin to provide the focus and coherence for the battles, great and small, that working class people are waging. And it is then that the relationship between mass action, demonstrations, strikes, mass organisations, ad hoc meetings and conferences, protests, movements and the burgeoning of new hope and a new way of life, will have a platform and will have a sense of its way forward.
This goes way beyond Brexit. None of the versions of Brexit offered thus far, 'soft' or 'hard', deal at all with the critical problems facing millions of working class people. While leaving the EU, because it is one of the barriers to socialist economics and politics makes sense, at the moment the Brexit issue is, like all of the fundamentals of Britain's present society, an issue of this sort of capitalism or that sort of capitalism. The crisis of any new sort of Labour government will require a left leadership that dumps the current Brexit argument, root and branch. For or against the current Brexit as presented in Britain's politics cannot possibly be the axis for any radical change - at least for the millions who work to live. Defending new state industry and building new services, controlling banks and deciding the major new state investments Britain needs will inevitably break through the EU's rules and demands. Brexit is not the answer to anything. Indeed, in the hands of the right it becomes a dangerous, racist, reactionary tool. Brexit must take its place as simply one of the many steps that have to be taken in order to get somewhere else entirely.
Nothing in history was ever proved to be automatic. For example it is vital not to confuse Brexit as an abstract measure that is somehow good for its own sake. It exists in a context. That context will decide its value or its danger. However, it seems to be common sense that a social class will move most against its conditions if there is a focal point, a binding prospect for change, an opportunity to make progress. In the process the struggle itself creates new visions and turning points - that are not obvious at first. Corbyn's Labour left are not at the end of the process that they might inspire, but the very beginning. The more profound the connection between mass movement and actions in society and Corbyn's Labour left in a government under siege, the more the old Labour Party will break up and dissolve - as traditional politics convulse.
A new stage of Britain's political crisis is underway; a stage which potentially wakes with the thunder of the direct intervention of the working class - first in defence of Corbyn - then in defence of a new type of future.
No comments:
Post a Comment