General Election 2017 – Half-Time Report

Last week’s general election killed off ephemeral identity politics and brought back the reality of class politics. The Yes/No and Leave/Remain referenda results were emphatically upheld and calls to deny the public their expressed will were resoundingly squashed. The return to avowedly class positions squeezed the Nationalists and Liberals into political insignificance.

The fundamental battle-ground between labour and capital is within the Labour Party, between its left and right wings, with the Tories cheering from the side-lines, while the Nationalists and Liberals huff and puff outside the stadium.

Evidence of the demise of the nationalist-bourgeois shibboleth was personified by the usually hubristic, but this time, lachrymose, crestfallen Salmond mounting the results platform. Evidence of the demise of the liberal-bourgeois EU love-affair was personified by various “luminaries” of the commentariat bewailing the UK loss of single market/custom union inclusion.

The “leading” turn-coats inside the Parliamentary Labour Party initially expressed surprise at, and support for, Corbyn’s leadership skills and political acumen, only to recant some hours later and cast further aspersion on a man with a rod of steel for a back-bone and whose boots they could not lick!

Tory gains from both UKIP and the SNP signify the return of “natural” Tories to their political home, while Labour gains from both UKIP and the SNP signify the return of socialists to the party of organised labour. Labour gains from the SNP would have been much greater had the Scottish leadership whole-heartedly endorsed Corbyn’s radical movement, thus overcoming the residual small SNP majorities in many central-belt constituencies. Further Labour gains could have been won in the rest of Britain if full-time HQ apparatchiks had used Party funds to support left candidates as well as their favoured right-wingers!

Media attention has turned to the parliamentary effect of both May’s dismal leadership skills and the desultory contents of the Tory manifesto, with such attention restricted to “soft/hard” Brexit and the timing of yet another election. Such infantile rambling about Brexit is simply a desperate attempt to sow confusion and overturn the decision of 17 million voters. This manoeuvring will fail, we are leaving the EU and all that it entails. This, for the working class, means no single market, no customs union and no subjection to European Court of Justice anti-trade union/ working class judgements. Although the timing of the next election is more problematic, it will not be in 5 years, it will not be in 5 days, it will not be in 5 weeks, but in 5 months is a distinct possibility.

The new, but very much weakened Tory government - with DUP support, will rise not as a phoenix from the flames, but rather as a blue-bottle from a steaming turd! Parliamentary and media apologists for the new government are calling for stability and an end to uncertainty, which is code for no change and shoring up the status quo! The ruling class will attempt to resuscitate, and sustain, a May/Tory Government for as long as possible, using the excuse of Brexit negotiations for that purpose.

Five months is sufficient time for Corbyn’s insurgent movement, and resurgent Labour Party, to hold a full parliamentary candidates selection/reselection process, to hold at least one annual conference to re-instate clause four, to change eligibility criteria for the election of leader/deputy leader, to remove intransigent, obstructive full time apparatchiks and to admit/re-admit expelled/suspended members.

It is also plenty of time to allow for the defeat/amendment of the Queen’s Speech, events which will produce further strains in the Tory Government (Committee of the Ruling Class), Tory Government defeat, Royal invitation, to Corbyn, to form a minority Labour Government, defeat (and fall) of the Labour Government by anti-working class Parliamentary forces and the declaration of another General Election - the start of Second-Half.

The ruling class will procrastinate, prevaricate and frustrate any, and all attempts by the Left to gain power in this country. That is why we cannot afford any let up in the struggle to seize, and secure, working class power. The movement against austerity, launched by the Peoples’ Assembly, supported by Corbyn and others on the left, taken up by the Corbyn-led Labour Party and which demands are reflected in the current Labour Party manifesto, must continue with renewed vigour to win lasting support.

The recent general Election campaign has proved beyond doubt that Labour can win from the left. We, on the left, always had confidence that was the case, but this time around we have exposed and defeated the traitorous and timorous elements within our ranks and by expelling this Tory fifth column, we can seize and secure working class power.