A critical moment for Britain

The British Prime Minister, Teresa May, shuffles towards her Brexit deal with the EU (see Blog 28 September. 'The British Prime Minister May will probably agree some half-baked plan from Brussels that supposedly will continue to be discussed after next March.')

Among a series of concessions, May will accept the EU Customs Union - which allows the EU control of all of Britain's trade matters - on a 'temporary basis.' Tory cabinet members are turning themselves in knots trying to define 'temporary' without suggesting a definite ending. But, in the end, everything is temporary. A predictable upheaval in the Tory Party both inside and outside Parliament is now underway (again.) We have apparently reached 44 letters against May, handed over to the ridiculous Tory 1922 Committee, and only 4 more are required for her to have to face election for the leadership of the Party. But May's future is not the key question.

The critical issue for British politics, now, is what is going to happen to the Labour Party.

The British newspaper 'The Independent' published a story on the internet (Sunday 14 October) that, if true, will begin the real destruction of the Labour Party. Here is a selection of quotes from its news.
'Multiple Labour MPs have told the Independent they are prepared to support the Brexit agreement Teresa May hopes to bring back from Brussels, boosting the PM's chances of forcing it through parliament.' ... 'even if, as expected, Jeremy Corbyn orders his party to oppose it.' ... 'at least 15 could rebel against Mr Corbyn ... enough to tip the balance on the Commons in favour of the deal.'

Gareth Snell, MP for Stoke Central, Ruth Smeeth MP, from Stoke North and Carolyn Flint, MP for Don Valley are all mentioned in the article as holding these views.  Other Labour MPs, the Independent continues, are considering abstention.

The Labour Party as a whole, together with its membership, its union affiliates and its MPs, has taken a position at its September conference. Conference voted to reject any Brexit deal without the 6 conditions the Party sees as essential for the well being and rights of the majority of people in Britain. In the (up to now likely) event of the defeat of May's dismal plan in Parliament, Labour would force a General Election against austerity.  If the Tories decided to hang on to prevent a General Election, Labour would then call for a new Peoples' vote, with 'all options on the table'.

If a group of Labour MPs vote for May's EU deal they are breaking from their Party's decision, they are supporting an anti-working class 'deal' with the EU and they are ensuring the continuation of a vicious, pro-austerity government. Why? Because they put their continued presence in Parliament before the desperate need to put an end to the destruction of millions of peoples lives and future. But that goes without saying. More accurately, they will be definitively attacking the working class base of the Labour Party at the precise moment when its potential in society is opening out.

The Labour leadership across Parliament and the unions have systematically sought to bring any working class rebellion back into the system's fold, across the entire history of the Labour Party. What is different today is that the new, working-class base of Labour have broken into Labour's traditional leadership and begun a new movement that potentially challenges capitalism. This is a major political advance in British society. If/when Labour MPs vote for the May's poisonous mess with the EU, they will reverse that process, maintain an austerity government, further dividing the working class on Brexit, sewing nationalist seeds of disorientation as a result - and likely usher in a new radical right wing under Boris Johnston.

The fundamental class division between the the historical base of Labour support and its traditional leadership will then explode. The upheaval will take the form of the Parliamentary disassociation of Labour MPs from the Party's leadership and its new base - create the inherent inability of establishing a Labour government in that context - and thereby dissolve Labour's current formation.

What, as some socialists in the past have asked, is to be done?

The current base and the current leadership of the Labour Party must not be sucked back into the Parliamentary melee that will boil and bluster away in Parliament following the May deal and its Labour defenders. On the contrary; the new and critical Labour forces must sharpen their political edge by rallying the working class - in and across society. Whatever happens, the austerity government must fall. And that means it must be torn down by any and by all means necessary. Leavers and remainers, trade unionists and 'casual' workers, north and south have to be brought together, to regroup, bring down the government and stop the right wing chaos created by the new Tories. Success (or otherwise) will now have to come from society, not from Parliament.  

Brexit, the economy, immigration and the Labour Party

The hysterical pitch of Britain's public 'debate' about remaining in the EU or 'Brexiting' has had no room whatsoever for those on the left who argue that Brexit is in the interests of working class people of Britain and Europe and neither have the left who argue for remaining in the EU had any space. The only 'progressive' points on the side of Remain that surfaced at all in any of the large scale media were hyped up comments from Labour leaders about the merits of EU legislation on working hours, etc. (All of which are under attack in their own countries from the current European leadership!) Sadly, it would appear from the remarks made by those who follow it, that the on-line discussion has, on this occasion, largely taken its cues from the previously despised 'middle aged men' now in blue (not grey) suits.

Besides reflecting on the realities of the political relationship of forces in the UK and the wretched domination by billionaires and their frightened toadies that run the traditional British media, this absence of the voice of the left, and especially its most radical part, in Britain's European debate shows two things.

First, much of the left in Britain has no purchase on either of the two key questions on which the European debate has now centered. The Labour and the trade union leadership, while supporting Remain, have spent most of their time gleefully keeping out of what they immaturely believed was simply Tory bloodletting. Finally and belatedly, realising that a huge section of their traditional social base is in danger of being lost to a new right wing led by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, they have simply defended the economic status quo 'for fear of something worse'.

There has been a call for 'more' reform in the EU, but nothing about the need for the root and branch overthrow of its leadership and structure as a loathed, unaccountable symbol of the worst of capitalism. Where are the economic arguments for anti-austerity; for a new equality, across Europe? Where are the demands for driving deep inroads into the power and wealth of the great corporations that, together with the banks, bestride it? Britons, like the inhabitants of many individual countries, are regularly told that if they do not continue with austerity then they will be punished by international capital. How is the call to remain in a European alliance used by the Labour and trade union leadership to offer the hope of a bloc of countries that might use their power to break the chains on labour and the poor across Europe, being forged by globalisation and the power (political and otherwise) of the super rich?

Similarly, but with one honourable exception, the left and its more radical component has had little to say on immigration. The honourable exception is the action mobilised by the Peoples Assembly to rally for Calais, in defense of the rights of those who are in the camps barring entry to Britain. This is already a hugely successful response to the terrible terms of the public debate about immigration in the UK. Otherwise and again, the Labour and trade union movement has been rehearsing the old mantras about the contributions made to the British economy by immigrants and reinforcing the view that British employers need cheap foreign labour! Labour's Deputy leader is now calling for a 'review' of the EU's policy of free movement.

This utterly defensive approach by Labour and the trade unions is a failure (rapidly) waiting to happen. It is already established that some of the greatest antipathy to immigration in the UK comes from areas like Sunderland in the North East of England - where immigration is small. In London, which has the highest levels of immigrants as part of its population, there is the least antipathy. What this shows is the fluidity in society and the potential weight of a fierce anti-racist policy; a policy to pull together a working class movement that unites against poor wages, which demands organisation and fair living standards for all, employed and unemployed, across the whole of Europe.

Ultimately, the timid failure of the leadership of the Labour and trade union leadership to give its own unique lead on the economy and on immigration, despite Jeremy Corbyn's (delayed) efforts, dramatically illustrates why Corbyn's victory in Labour's leadership elections is nothing like enough. In fact it shows that even Corbyn's leadership is, by itself, not even sufficient to rally what was Labour's traditional base before Blair destroyed it, much less to create a 'new politics' different enough to challenge our society. The huge numbers of British people and the large parts of the population who now oppose austerity and reject Britain's fear of immigration have not been brought together or nurtured by Labour or the unions and that is a failure that further opens the door to a more rabid right wing in British politics.