The Tory
government is more and more appearing as an elected dictatorship,
whilst Labour seems intent on committing political suicide. The
Tories attempt to deny the Scottish people the democratic right of
self-determination, and Labour's alignment with the Tories over the
issue, is the latest example.
As I wrote recently, May's government shares many features with that of Trump,
Putin, Erdogan and Netanyahu, as well as with the right-wing populism
of Le Pen, Wilders and others. This right-wing populism, based on
conservative social forces, is acting neither in the interests of
capital nor labour. That is one reason it has to resort to
authoritarian methods. The Tories, for example, did all in their
power to prevent Parliament having any say in how the government
implemented Brexit. When the courts, insisted that the government
was acting illegally, and insisted that it operate constitutionally
and in conformance with such basic democratic principles, a wave of
conservative hysteria was unleashed against the judges, just as Trump
has done in the US, when the legality of his actions have been
challenged.
What has
facilitated this conservative response has been the appalling
position adopted by Labour, which stands in contrast to the wave of
popular protest and opposition to Trump that has been built up in the
US, and the oppositional stance to Trump and the Republicans that
Democrats have adopted in Congress and other parliamentary forums.
Corbyn originally put forward the correct approach, which was to
argue that socialists would fight for a Remain vote, whilst giving no
support for the existing capitalist limitations of the EU. We seek
to be in the EU, as the starting point for building European workers
unity, and creating a Workers' Europe.
Its true
that Corbyn did campaign extensively during the referendum, contrary
to the accusations of the Blair-rights and Tories, but, for a party
that proclaims its intention of developing a social movement, the
referendum should have been the opportunity to launch a massive
Europe wide campaign for such a perspective, complete with regular
large street demonstrations and so on, bringing together socialists
and workers movements across the continent.
After the
referendum, Corbyn also correctly set down a series of red lines, of
principles around defending membership of the single market, customs
union and acceptance thereby of the right of free movement, without
which Labour would oppose triggering Article 50. But, as with so
many other red lines and principles, the Labour leadership soon
abandoned them under pressure.
Brexit is
against workers' interest, and so as a matter of principle, Labour
should oppose it, but even within the context of the argument it
presented, of respecting the referendum result, it should have
refused to vote for the Brexit Bill without its amendments.
Signalling its surrender in advance, let alone its failure to
mobilise any kind of mass social movement in defence of those
principles, was an act of class cowardice, which also guaranteed that
any such opposition would be demobilised, and that the potential even
of generating support from Tory rebels would be undermined.
It might
have been thought that Labour would have learned its lesson, in that
regard, from the last Scottish referendum. By lining up alongside
the Tories, in that referendum, Scottish Labour was destroyed,
opening the door not only for the Tartan Tories of the SNP, but even
resurrecting the long dead Scottish Tories, who pushed Labour into
third place! Labour might also have learned from the experience of
the Liberals in the coalition government of 2010-2015, or the similar
destruction of the Dutch Labour Party, in the recent elections,
following its lash up with the Dutch conservatives. But, it seems
that the Stalinist influences operating now in the background of the
Labour Party, have made such Popular Fronts the tactical order of the
day.
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