All Organisations subcategories:
Committee for a Workers International
Nationalist and National Liberation
Pro capitalist and Imperialist
Left and radical keywords:
International Socialist Resistance (54)
Revolutionary Communist League (1)
Socialist Peoples Party (Denmark) (1)
Momentum
Highlight keywords |
Print this article
Search site for keywords: Labour - Election - Socialist - Government - Socialist Party - Momentum - Jeremy Corbyn - Anti-austerity - Brexit
Socialist Party and Young Socialists members and supporters demonstrating against Tory party conference, 1.10.17, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Corbyn must end false unity with Labour's right
- Tories and Blairites must go
- General election now
Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Party executive committee
There is no rest for the wicked. Theresa May had to cut short her Italian holiday to visit the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at his Mediterranean castle retreat.
May's hope is that he might help her resuscitate the so-called Chequers deal for leaving the EU - at least in some form - and thus assist in holding her crisis-ridden Tory government together.
Meanwhile, the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, issues dire warnings about the dangers posed by the increasing likelihood of a no-deal Brexit.
Jeremy Hunt, the new foreign secretary, talks of 'no deal by accident'. Environment Secretary Michael Gove - theoretically in the camp of the hard Brexiteers - moots the idea of 'parking' the UK in the neoliberal single market and customs union until a deal is worked out at some indefinable point in the future. Police chiefs even claim “a significant loss of operational capacity” would result from no deal.
The Tory party is in a desperate state, deep in the grip of a potentially terminal crisis. May's government teeters so close to the edge that - especially if it were faced with a mass movement, headed up by Jeremy Corbyn along with the trade union and labour movement as a whole - it could be forced out within no time.
Yet what has dominated the headlines over the past week? A call to action from Corbyn and the trade union leadership? Labour boldly demanding a general election? Nothing of the sort.
Instead, the Tory crisis has often been relegated to inside pages. In its place is a barrage of poison, slander and vicious abuse directed at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour party.
The trigger for this latest, frenzied chorus of attack is precisely the crisis engulfing the government. Britain's capitalist class lacks reliable political representation. There is no party it can count on to act in its interests in negotiating exit from the European Union.
The one thing staying the hands of May's multiple potential Tory assassins is their fear that a general election could see a further surge in support for an anti-austerity alternative - that a Corbyn-led government could be swept to power.
This, the capitalists understand, would have the potential to further awaken the appetite of working class people for a decisive break with austerity, and for more far-reaching, socialist measures.
That's why the agents of the rich 1% remaining in the Labour party - the Blairite fifth column - are approaching this latest round of Corbyn-bashing with such fresh zeal.
Bold response needed
But what is the response of Corbyn, McDonnell, and the leadership of Momentum to these attacks? What shots have been fired in return?
Since Corbyn's election in 2015, the Socialist Party has warned of the dangers posed by an approach of seeking false 'unity' with the pro-cuts, pro-capitalist elements still dominating Labour in parliament, local councils and much of the party machinery.
Almost three years on, there has been no let-up in their campaign to undermine Corbyn.
On 5 August, Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson further stepped up the rhetoric of Labour’s right in a vituperative attack, clearly consciously timed in order to help ensure that there is no respite from viciously negative headlines for the Labour leadership.
That interview has provoked mass outrage among Labour members and Corbyn supporters, with tens of thousands calling on Watson to resign via social media.
Fresh revelations of the ongoing plotting taking place behind the scenes emerged on 7 August. Reportedly, a ‘core group’ of around 12 Blairite MPs has been meeting for away days at a luxury 12-acre holiday estate in Sussex. On the agenda: a new leadership challenge; a party split; a parliamentary realignment grouping together with Tory remainers, Lib Dem cutters and right-wing Labour MPs in a new formation; and, perhaps most outrageously, a plan to organise Blairite MPs to block Corbyn from becoming prime minister should he win the next general election.
Two leadership election victories, a general election surge and a poll lead, have all failed to convince these pro-rich politicians to support him.
It would be folly to think that a potential general election win by Corbyn - now a clear possibility - would have this effect. Every concession made to the Blairite right by Corbyn or McDonnell has acted to embolden them to intensify their attacks.
That is why the decision, seemingly taken by Momentum's (essentially self-appointed) leader Jon Lansman, to drop Pete Willsman from the left slate for the Labour National Executive committee elections following the publishing of a secretly-made recording of him making some clumsy - though by no means antisemitic - remarks, was such a mistake (further material on this to follow).
This was a move characteristic of the general approach that the leadership of the Corbyn movement has adopted since the first poll predicting his victory in the leadership election in 2015.
A change of course is an urgent necessity. The stakes now are higher than ever. With the Tories on the brink, a Labour government is potentially on the cards.
It's possible that a section of the Blairites could move to block such a development by splitting from Labour to form a new party. Fresh chatter in the press suggests this is in the air.
(Click to enlarge)
But we cannot wait for them to leave, at a time designed to inflict maximum damage on Corbyn. The workers' movement needs to clear them out.
This is why, as well as calling for people to take to the streets and organise to kick out this Tory government, it's vital that Corbyn fights to mobilise his tens of thousands of supporters, along with the trade union movement, to take on the right in his own party.
This means being prepared to fight for the kinds of measures the Socialist Party has been calling for since Corbyn's election: the measures which are necessary to transform Labour into a genuine workers' party.
We call for mandatory re-selection. With a snap election on the cards it is urgent that a genuine democratic say in which candidates represent Labour at elections is given to party members and trade unions.
We fight for the opening up of the Labour Party to all elements of the workers' and socialist movement, including the Socialist Party, to participate in it on a federal basis.
We argue for the reversal of all the anti-democratic measures introduced by Blair and the re-founding of the party along genuinely democratic, socialist lines - including the full restoration of the democratic rights of trade unions and party members in deciding party policy.
The attacks Corbyn is facing now, severe and relentless as they are, will be as a shadow compared to those that would face him and his government should they threaten the profits of the capitalist class in seeking to carry out their programme.
We therefore call on him to take the urgent action necessary to organise the fight to take on the right now - helping to prepare the forces that will be needed in order to defend his anti-austerity stand and to fight for socialist change.
This article was updated on 7.8.18
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
LATEST POSTS
12 May Stop Israeli state brutality
 |
9 May Post-election meetings
15 May Birmingham Socialist Party: How can we fight for socialist change and a new workers' party?
17 May Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
18 May Bristol North Socialist Party: Liverpool - history of socialist struggle
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 075 4018 9052
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 079 3539 1947
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999