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.
