(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.
Showing posts with label Will Labour split?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Will Labour split?. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 September 2018
Wednesday, 11 July 2018
Britain's political crisis deepens.
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.
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.
Monday, 8 February 2016
Should (and will) Labour split?
Removing the part of the heading in brackets, this question formed the title page of the British magazine 'New Statesman' (29 January - 4 February 2016.) A series of Labour Party politicians and various journalists linked to Labour, plus Dr Owen, from the 1980s Social Democratic Party split from Labour and Carolyn Lucas, the only Green MP, commented on the prospects of a schism in Labour.
With one exception, nothing very novel or imaginative emerged. Old arguments were rehearsed. The SDP split and now the Parliamentary failure of UKIP showed that without a fair voting system a new mass party could not be launched - at least a party that focused on Westminster. Therefore both the left, represented by Diane Abbot and the right, represented by most of the other contributors, regarded a split as unlikely. Only one journalist suggested that a split might be in order if Corbyn could not be removed in two years because the electorate were far less congealed by the traditional political parties as had been the case in the 1980s and a new party with the bulk of Labour MPs would start from a far stronger position than the old SLP or indeed UKIP today.
A couple of Labour's erstwhile officials argued that Labour MPs, who had an electorate of 9 million voters in 2015, never mind Corbyn's internal Labour Party membership mandate, should separate themselves from Labour in the country and instead elect their own leader in Parliament. This 'dual power' arrangement would turn the traditional Labour Party into another pressure group and Corbyn into an 'outsider.' Most however focused coming on electoral results. The London Mayoral vote, the Council votes and the Scottish Parliamentary vote in May would begin the determination of Corbyn's leadership.
Carolyn Lucas MP (all too briefly) offered a very different perspective. She argued that a great opportunity had opened up the British politics with Corbyn's election as Labour leader. For her the point was not whether there should be a split in Labour. It was rather what should Britain's new and radical left do with the leading role that they had now won. Lucas sketched in the lines of a new left coalition that was now posed across Britain. From her comments it is possible to imagine an alliance inside Parliament but with its roots among those who build the movements in the country to end Trident, to end Austerity, to make anti-austerity words in Scottish politics into a set of broad principles on agreed and progressive priorities of taxation and public expenditure by reaching out to the SNP's radical wing. It would stand for fair votes to get the new and unrepresented into Parliament and it would call for an end, now, to the current dismal Tory mess. This and more would create the foundations for a new political movement, spearheaded by Labour's new leadership, going towards the 2020 General Election.
What is blindingly obvious is the the 'old' Labour Party cannot be resurrected. Any notion that it will be possible simply to chop off its current head and then return to Blairism mark 2 and 'good old days' when the working classes knew their political places and gave the correct and inevitable Pavlovian response to the whistle, is the equivalent to refusing to open your eyes. A new working class movement has to be built, of which Corbyn's election is a positive sign. But this alone is nothing like enough. Vital trade unions need to be fought for (again) and the mass movement against Trident and austerity doubled, trebled, quadrupled. A new left inside and outside the SNP and the Scottish LP needs to be initiated and the utterly undemocratic Parliament needs to be torn down and rebuilt with fair votes. Lucas is right. A great new political alliance needs to be built across the country. Speculation about Labour spits (and any hesitation or retrenchment out of fear of such threats) will add to their weight and begin to mesmerise those who need to see the future clearly. Enough. There is work to do!
With one exception, nothing very novel or imaginative emerged. Old arguments were rehearsed. The SDP split and now the Parliamentary failure of UKIP showed that without a fair voting system a new mass party could not be launched - at least a party that focused on Westminster. Therefore both the left, represented by Diane Abbot and the right, represented by most of the other contributors, regarded a split as unlikely. Only one journalist suggested that a split might be in order if Corbyn could not be removed in two years because the electorate were far less congealed by the traditional political parties as had been the case in the 1980s and a new party with the bulk of Labour MPs would start from a far stronger position than the old SLP or indeed UKIP today.
A couple of Labour's erstwhile officials argued that Labour MPs, who had an electorate of 9 million voters in 2015, never mind Corbyn's internal Labour Party membership mandate, should separate themselves from Labour in the country and instead elect their own leader in Parliament. This 'dual power' arrangement would turn the traditional Labour Party into another pressure group and Corbyn into an 'outsider.' Most however focused coming on electoral results. The London Mayoral vote, the Council votes and the Scottish Parliamentary vote in May would begin the determination of Corbyn's leadership.
Carolyn Lucas MP (all too briefly) offered a very different perspective. She argued that a great opportunity had opened up the British politics with Corbyn's election as Labour leader. For her the point was not whether there should be a split in Labour. It was rather what should Britain's new and radical left do with the leading role that they had now won. Lucas sketched in the lines of a new left coalition that was now posed across Britain. From her comments it is possible to imagine an alliance inside Parliament but with its roots among those who build the movements in the country to end Trident, to end Austerity, to make anti-austerity words in Scottish politics into a set of broad principles on agreed and progressive priorities of taxation and public expenditure by reaching out to the SNP's radical wing. It would stand for fair votes to get the new and unrepresented into Parliament and it would call for an end, now, to the current dismal Tory mess. This and more would create the foundations for a new political movement, spearheaded by Labour's new leadership, going towards the 2020 General Election.
What is blindingly obvious is the the 'old' Labour Party cannot be resurrected. Any notion that it will be possible simply to chop off its current head and then return to Blairism mark 2 and 'good old days' when the working classes knew their political places and gave the correct and inevitable Pavlovian response to the whistle, is the equivalent to refusing to open your eyes. A new working class movement has to be built, of which Corbyn's election is a positive sign. But this alone is nothing like enough. Vital trade unions need to be fought for (again) and the mass movement against Trident and austerity doubled, trebled, quadrupled. A new left inside and outside the SNP and the Scottish LP needs to be initiated and the utterly undemocratic Parliament needs to be torn down and rebuilt with fair votes. Lucas is right. A great new political alliance needs to be built across the country. Speculation about Labour spits (and any hesitation or retrenchment out of fear of such threats) will add to their weight and begin to mesmerise those who need to see the future clearly. Enough. There is work to do!
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