The actions of the Blair-right plotters are typically unprincipled. For years as careerist politicians, and elitists they have seen their privileged position not as something that depends upon tens of thousands of party members, who put them where they are, but as something they hold as of right. They see their personal interests, their personal views as overriding the views of the hundreds of thousands of party members. In that their egos are flattered by the Tory media. Today that media has spoken about a critical mass of the party opposing Corbyn. But, not such critical mass of opposition exists.
What exists is a handful of Labour MP's who are putting their own career and financial interests above those of the hundreds of thousands of party members. There is no critical mass of opposition to Corbyn within the party. If a leadership election were held today, Corbyn would win it by an even larger margin that he did last year. The Blair-right MP's know that, which is why instead they have been looking for an opportunity to launch a coup, and to unseat Corbyn by undemocratic means over the heads of the party. They cannot be allowed to succeed.
Constituency GMC's, must convene emergency meetings to support Corbyn. A campaign amongst party members via social media must be launched to back Corbyn, and to call for the expulsion of the plotters and traitors, seeking to undermine the party's democracy. All MP's should be told that if they vote against Corbyn they will be deselected. In fact, this has simply brought to a head what everyone knew had to happen sooner or later.
The current set of MP's and Councillors hold their positions only as a result of historical accident, arising from the bureaucratic control of th party machinery that the Blair-rights previously had. The current MP's and Councillors, in their large majority are now completely out of step with the party they are supposed to represent. That in itself is an affront to democracy and a situation that could not have been allowed to continue for long, because it meant that those MP's and Councillors were always going to look to every opportunity to undermine the party leadership, and party democracy.
The renegades of the SDP, at least had the decency to leave the party, when it was clear they were out of step with. But, Benn, Hodge and the other traitors know they cannot do that. They saw what happened to the SDP. Thy have also seen in the last election what happens to parties such as the Liberals that advocate the kind of Tory-lite politics they represent. They were eviscerated. It is only the same process that has led to the destruction of Pasok, and of other such parties across Europe, and the collapse of the political centre in the US, which threatens to let Trump into the Presidency.
The Blair-right traitors' arguments against Corbyn are paper thin. Even Ed Miliband in a speech yesterday pointed out that the foundations for the result could not be found within this campaign, but within the actions of successive governments, both Tory and Blair-right, over the last thirty years. He is right. The rot set in with Neil Kinnock back in the mid-1980's, as he began to undermine the party, and to open the door to Blairism. The party abandoned any semblance of principal in a more open search for votes at any price, than it had ever done in the past. It became a pale imitation of Thatcherism, with even Gordon Brown inviting Thatcher to Downing Street, and then inviting Thatcherite businessmen like Digby Jones into his cabinet!
Around 30% of “Labour” voters voted to Leave. Which means that around 70% voted to Remain. Even on that basis, the arguments of the Blair-rights against Corbyn fail, therefore. But, if we look at who these “Labour” voters are, they are in fact all of those sections of the population that the Blair-rights abandoned over the last 30 years, and drove into the hands of the BNP and UKIP. How on Earth do the Blair-rights think that a party under their leadership is going to win back all of those elements, the same elements their policies created, and those same elements they have ignored!
It was the Blair-rights whose policies sought to focus on the middle class and to ignore the traditional working-class whose vote they thought they could take for granted. It was their policies that were summed up in Mandelson's comment that they were “extremely relaxed” about some people getting filthy rich, whilst all the time urban areas sank further into deprivation, whilst those same policies that enabled a few to get filthy rich, as paper asset prices were inflated, also put the prospect of buying a house or getting a decent pension became further and further out of the reach of millions of younger workers.
Moreover, during this campaign it was the Blair-right Alan Johnson, who we had been told could walk on water, that had the job of leading the Labour In offensive. In fact, Johnson's arguments were weak, muddled and he himself was hardly seen. Hillary Benn who has been placed in the forefront of the coup against Corbyn, is also the Shadow Foreign Secretary with a particular responsibility, therefore, for Labour's campaign in relation to the EU. But, his comments have been equally weak and muddled, and he has not been particularly visible either. But, the fact is that had the Labour Party been led by David Miliband, Son of God, himself, it would not have changed the result of this referendum, other than the vote to Leave would probably have been even larger. The Blair-rights above all others should know the old saying that you cannot fatten a pig on market day, and all of the policies that created the conditions for this vote over the last thirty years could not be reversed in a matter of a few months.
A look at those that voted to Leave shows that they are predominantly amongst the older generations that grew up on a diet of British imperialism and superiority, and for whom casual racism is a way of life. It is reflected by the fact that amongst those who voted to leave 80% thought that Feminism, Multiculturalism, Social Liberalism, and the Green Movement were forces for ill, whilst 70% thought that the Green Movement was also a source for ill.
This shows the point I have made over recent weeks that those who voted to leave represent that 30% of the population that are bigots. The idea that these are natural Labour voters, is from the beginning false. Just because people are poor or paupers, or suffer deprivation and so on does not make them natural Labour voters. In fact, quite the opposite. It places them in that class of people that Marx in the 18th Brumaire describes as the dangerous class. It is from those layers that the right-wing Bonapartists and fascists obtain their support. It is why the policies of the Blair-rights over the last thirty years that allowed such layers of the population to grow, as a result of their economic policies are the material basis of this current crisis.
It also shows the lunacy of the proponents of so called Lexit. The basis of Lexit was idiot anti-imperialism, and idiot anti-capitalism. It started from the idea that a vote against the EU was a vote against imperialism. But, opposing imperialism in the name of a step backwards is by definition reactionary. Its been seen elsewhere around the globe, where in the name of such anti-imperialism unthinking support was given to reactionary forces such as the clerical-fascists in Iran, and which then led to the growth of other such reactionary forces such as Al Qaeda and ISIS across that region.
The vote against the EU, has not set in train any progressive anti-imperialism, but has fuelled other reactionary nationalist forces like the FN in France; it has strengthened the hand of right-wing nationalists in the UK such as Farage and Johnson; it has led to renewed calls for the the fragmentation of the British Labour movement by strengthening calls for Scottish independence, and even calls for London independence.
Of course, the sects that proposed this crazy idea of Lexit do not even see any downside in that, so far are they from reality. They are outside the Labour Party, and so the rise of Corbyn was a threat in itself to the world view they have been presenting for decades. If the coup against Corbyn succeeds, in their sectarian swamp they will see in it only good, and the prospect of picking up a few more members to their insignificant organisations. If it leads to the separation of Scotland, they like some members of the SNP will also see it as a good thing, as furthering their reactionary dream of an independent Scotland, with Scottish workers separated from workers in the rest of Britain.
The consequence of the vote for Brexit is not an opportunity for the Left, as the daydreamers of these sects believe, but has been a significant shift to the right. It is why the calls for abstention by the Weekly Worker were also a dereliction of their class duty. A Tory Party that was already one of the most vicious right-wing regimes in years, has seen a Bonapartist coup that is likely to put Boris Johnson into Downing Street, leading an authoritarian oppressive regime. At the same time, the Blair-rights supported by the Tory media have used it as the opportunity they have been seeking for the last year to launch their own coup against Corbyn, and the party. Only the fantasists of the sects can see that as any kind of opportunity or advance of the left.
In fact, they also make the mistake of seeing the Leave vote only in terms of a vote against the establishment. All of those same social layers that voted for Hitler, or who supported the mullahs in Iran, and so on, were protesting against the establishment too. But, they were doing so from a reactionary not a progressive perspective. It is what makes idiot anti-imperialism, and idiot anti-capitalism idiotic.
Our task is to forge the unity of the working-class, but a unity based upon a progressive and positive vision for the future, not simply a cut your nose off to spite your face hostility to the status quo. The sects offer the working-class even less of a way forward than do the Blair-rights. The immediate task is to defend Corbyn, and to defeat the traitors. It is then necessary to begin the process of transforming the party. We need a party that turns outwards even more into the communities with a positive programme based upon independent working-class action, and self-government. We need to continue the perspective of linking up with the working class across Europe, and Labour should fight any upcoming election on the basis of staying in or rejoining the EU, around the demand for the creation of a United States of Europe, and a struggle for a European Workers Government.
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