This brief blog is not part of the series on modern revolution.
The political crisis in Britain is about to hit its first wall. There are many to come but the six months ahead - ending with Britain's removal from the EU on March 29, 2019 - will begin Britain's political avalanche with a vengeance.
Here is the logic, but not of the Sir Kier Starmer's legalistic variety offered in Liverpool at the Labour Conference.
The British Prime Minister May will probably agree some half-baked plan from Brussels that supposedly will continue to be discussed after next March. (She has ruled out any extension of the EU leave date.) The Labour Party and a couple of dozen Tories cannot do anything but vote against or abstain. That ends May. The gung-ho Tory Brexiteers see this as a positive step to 'no deal' (read no restrictions) and will begin to set up more of their off-shore wealth funds etc.
At this stage Labour will ask for a General Election. But none of the Tories (they are after all in a faction fight and not a class-war with their colleagues) will vote for a new election. And neither will the pumped up DUP who have literally never had it so good. But (sooner rather than later) the Tories WILL seek another sort of election; an election for a new leader. Boris is the only possible candidate to navigate the Tories through the No Deal by March scenario. A couple of Tories will leave. There will be pools of Tory 'remainer' tears. The overwhelming majority of Tory MPs will support Boris (Not to mention the ancient Tory Party members.) A vicious right-wing government will be in the saddle.
Without any Election, this leads Britain to a No Deal war with the EU and the only way to conduct such a war, with the slightest possibility of any success, is the Trump way. Slash business taxes. Open the door to US 'investment'; first in Agriculture then the NHS. Sell anything that can be priced. Tear down any legal limits that restrain the market. Etc.
Consequently, the next political step by the Labour Party cannot centre on an appeal to the British to have a new referendum over Brexit. To appeal to the majority of the British people, and it has to be the majority, led by the working class, it is the fire sale of Britain that has to be stopped. We need a General Election not because we want set up another 48% v 52% vote in reverse over Brexit. A move that can only be supported by half the voting population. No. The Tory led Parliament has to be brought down because they are about to destroy the living standards and conditions of millions - and accelerate the yawning gap between the rich and poor.
Labour MP Laura Smith called for a General Strike to bring the Tories down. She has been ticked off by senior Labour leaders for her well received remarks at the Momentum conference. Laura Smith has the right of it. There IS a big majority in Britain opposed to Johnson and his British version of the Alt Right. But it has to be mobilised. New millions are needed on the streets. Last year's leavers and remainers across the working class and the youth must link arms to break the extreme right domination of what was a hung Parliament. The government must be broken and fall. They are not legitimate. The have to stand down.
This, radical and extensive mass action including mass strike action where possible, is surely the coming test for the Labour Party. They have to break through to a new Election by all means necessary. And they will find that they will have to break through Labour MPs who would rather support the Tories than fight them.
Wednesday 26 September 2018
Thursday 13 September 2018
Is a Corbyn government possible?
(This blog is exclusive. It is not a section of the on-going series on Revolution. The fourth part is shortly to be published.)
The significance of the intensity and length of the 'anti-semitic' charge against Labour in general and its leader Corbyn in particular suggests the obvious point that should Corbyn's Labour win a General election and come into government it would face the greatest and most venomous hostility of any previous British government in the modern age.
This fact alone gives pause for thought regarding suggestions from some of the left that a Corbyn led government, perhaps parallel to Syriza, is actually seeking a new settlement with the country's ruling classes via a meek Brexit and some economic reform! Indeed Corbyn's 2017 Manifesto is a a temperate document. It is not as radical as Attlee's 1945 program. But, despite the nod in a reformist direction offered by Britain's Church of England's Arch Bishop, an ex oil executive, Britain's (remaining) ruling class do not sense that the relation of social forces in society requires even the most gentle reform. On the contrary. They are opposed to Corbyn's Labour Party in order to prevent the current shift to the left in the working class becoming, in anyway, dominant. Indeed, rather than accept a Corbyn government they are doing their best to destroy the Labour Party - at least as a Parliamentary and thereby as a governmental, force. They are much more frightened that a Corbyn government would, whether officially recommended or not, build up a new social tidal-wave, and that is of greater concern than the prospect of big British Capital missing out on a half-baked Labour Brexit. For now.
The attacks on Corbyn's Labour confirm two other realities.
First is the direct appeal to Jewish and now to Black voters not to vote for Corbyn's Labour Party. The 'anti-semitic' row is not an internal battle. The self-styled leaders of the campaign are speaking as far as possible to millions of voters who are a large part of Labour's political base in the country. Their message could not be clearer. Don't vote for the Labour Party led by Corbyn. The (Labour) MP Chuka Umunna has tried to extend the anti-semitic insult to a Labour Party that in his words has become 'institutionally racist.' Umunna hoped this was an abuse designed to move another, much larger, section of the traditional Labour constituency among people of colour. (Consequently his clever little move has bounced back at him and Umunna has had to scrabble around with letters to his constituents claiming that he has no intention whatsoever of supporting an alternative party to Labour. Apparently he is entirely dedicated to stay with an institutionally racist party.)
Second is the difference between the arguments in the two main parties as we go to an impeding General Election.
The gung-ho Tory Brexiteers held a recent meeting to explain their approach to the Irish conundrum. They were at pains to avoid ex Foreign Secretary Boris Johnston's assault on Prime Minister Teresa May. They insisted that they were not (yet) for a change of Tory leadership. Of course the battle will come over leadership if/when Parliament fails to vote for any Brexit 'solution' - or a General Election is called because that has already become clear. But despite the historic implications of removing Britain from the EU (or fudging it) the fight in the Tory Party is not a class struggle. It is a faction fight within a class about the general interests of that class: whether to turn the UK into the biggest (capitalist) tax haven in the world or join the EU bloc in the (capitalist) fight with the US and Asia.
The fight in the Labour Party is a class struggle. (Albeit by proxy.) A hundred serious Labour MPs want to break, even from Corbyn's relatively timid Manifesto. Further; if elected they will form their own party in Parliament against Corbyn's Labour and join together with others that seek to defend their version of liberal capitalism and its associated restraints on the working class and their services.
Is a Corbyn government possible? Yes. But the crisis of government is only just beginning. If it wins (as the polls still show it should) Labour (unlike the Tories) will split in Parliament - albeit with the split keeping away from a definite alternative party in the country - for the moment. A Corbyn Labour government will then depend on two factors. The movement of the working class and its allies across the country mobilising around the the critical requirements that society needs. Unlike President Obama, the mobilisation of the people comes first, not just before, but most importantly after, a formal government takes office. If Corbyn's Labour wins then it is the people who will achieve and force their democratic victory on Parliament. Parliament will have to follow the action of the people in its stalemate.
There will of course be more elections, more crises as Britain's ruling class deepens their already long term investment strike and begins to fiddle around with the new Alt Right as a political 'solution' for 'stability'. And then second aspect emerges in its full and urgent course. It will be nothing less than the building of a new (Labour?) Party - and a new political system. A system that is willing and able to decide and act on whether decaying and failing capitalism is to be our future rather than a system that takes the economics of the country for granted.
The significance of the intensity and length of the 'anti-semitic' charge against Labour in general and its leader Corbyn in particular suggests the obvious point that should Corbyn's Labour win a General election and come into government it would face the greatest and most venomous hostility of any previous British government in the modern age.
This fact alone gives pause for thought regarding suggestions from some of the left that a Corbyn led government, perhaps parallel to Syriza, is actually seeking a new settlement with the country's ruling classes via a meek Brexit and some economic reform! Indeed Corbyn's 2017 Manifesto is a a temperate document. It is not as radical as Attlee's 1945 program. But, despite the nod in a reformist direction offered by Britain's Church of England's Arch Bishop, an ex oil executive, Britain's (remaining) ruling class do not sense that the relation of social forces in society requires even the most gentle reform. On the contrary. They are opposed to Corbyn's Labour Party in order to prevent the current shift to the left in the working class becoming, in anyway, dominant. Indeed, rather than accept a Corbyn government they are doing their best to destroy the Labour Party - at least as a Parliamentary and thereby as a governmental, force. They are much more frightened that a Corbyn government would, whether officially recommended or not, build up a new social tidal-wave, and that is of greater concern than the prospect of big British Capital missing out on a half-baked Labour Brexit. For now.
The attacks on Corbyn's Labour confirm two other realities.
First is the direct appeal to Jewish and now to Black voters not to vote for Corbyn's Labour Party. The 'anti-semitic' row is not an internal battle. The self-styled leaders of the campaign are speaking as far as possible to millions of voters who are a large part of Labour's political base in the country. Their message could not be clearer. Don't vote for the Labour Party led by Corbyn. The (Labour) MP Chuka Umunna has tried to extend the anti-semitic insult to a Labour Party that in his words has become 'institutionally racist.' Umunna hoped this was an abuse designed to move another, much larger, section of the traditional Labour constituency among people of colour. (Consequently his clever little move has bounced back at him and Umunna has had to scrabble around with letters to his constituents claiming that he has no intention whatsoever of supporting an alternative party to Labour. Apparently he is entirely dedicated to stay with an institutionally racist party.)
Second is the difference between the arguments in the two main parties as we go to an impeding General Election.
The gung-ho Tory Brexiteers held a recent meeting to explain their approach to the Irish conundrum. They were at pains to avoid ex Foreign Secretary Boris Johnston's assault on Prime Minister Teresa May. They insisted that they were not (yet) for a change of Tory leadership. Of course the battle will come over leadership if/when Parliament fails to vote for any Brexit 'solution' - or a General Election is called because that has already become clear. But despite the historic implications of removing Britain from the EU (or fudging it) the fight in the Tory Party is not a class struggle. It is a faction fight within a class about the general interests of that class: whether to turn the UK into the biggest (capitalist) tax haven in the world or join the EU bloc in the (capitalist) fight with the US and Asia.
The fight in the Labour Party is a class struggle. (Albeit by proxy.) A hundred serious Labour MPs want to break, even from Corbyn's relatively timid Manifesto. Further; if elected they will form their own party in Parliament against Corbyn's Labour and join together with others that seek to defend their version of liberal capitalism and its associated restraints on the working class and their services.
Is a Corbyn government possible? Yes. But the crisis of government is only just beginning. If it wins (as the polls still show it should) Labour (unlike the Tories) will split in Parliament - albeit with the split keeping away from a definite alternative party in the country - for the moment. A Corbyn Labour government will then depend on two factors. The movement of the working class and its allies across the country mobilising around the the critical requirements that society needs. Unlike President Obama, the mobilisation of the people comes first, not just before, but most importantly after, a formal government takes office. If Corbyn's Labour wins then it is the people who will achieve and force their democratic victory on Parliament. Parliament will have to follow the action of the people in its stalemate.
There will of course be more elections, more crises as Britain's ruling class deepens their already long term investment strike and begins to fiddle around with the new Alt Right as a political 'solution' for 'stability'. And then second aspect emerges in its full and urgent course. It will be nothing less than the building of a new (Labour?) Party - and a new political system. A system that is willing and able to decide and act on whether decaying and failing capitalism is to be our future rather than a system that takes the economics of the country for granted.
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