The Morning Star, as organ of the British Communist Party, originally opposed the Common Market, in the service of its Stalinist masters in Moscow. That meant that the British Communist party, like all other Stalinist parties had to be prepared to sabotage the struggles of workers across the globe in order to meet the Geo-strategic ambitions of the Moscow bureaucracy, and its policy of building Socialism in One Country. The Moscow bureaucracy wanted Western Europe to be weak, so that Eastern Europe, primarily the USSR, could be relatively strong. The Stalinist ideology formulated in Varga's Law, was that capitalism was in terminal decline leading to the impoverishment of the workers, whilst the Stalinist Nirvana was going from strength to strength. The reality, of course was the opposite. The Stalinist economies were the ones in terminal decline, as a result of Stalinist bureaucratism and incompetence. The capitalist economies were experiencing unprecedented growth, and rising living standards for workers. Trying to sabotage the Common Market, and the rising living standards, security and freedoms that came with it for workers, was, therefore, a key goal of the Stalinists, who were more than happy to see lower living standards for workers in order to try to convince them of the benefits of "communism". This same reactionary, catastrophist approach of more or less willing economic crises, and catastrophes to happen so as to convince workers to become socialists is still apparent today, and not just amongst Stalinists. The same kind of mindset can be seen amongst Malthusian environmentalists, and End of Days religious fanatics.
The Stalinists of the Morning Star do not seem to be phased by the fact that the Stalinist regime in Moscow collapsed 30 years ago, and any vestige it might have had of representing some form of progressive formation disappeared along with it. No one with a brain believes that the reactionary, right-wing, kleptocratic, mafia state of Putin, and the oligarchs is in any way progressive. But that does not seem to matter to the Stalinists of the CPB, and the Morning Star, who seem to have simply transferred their blind faith in Moscow from Stalin and his heirs to Putin. Whether Moscow provides the same or greater funding for its British sycophantic supporters today, as the old USSR used to do, is anyone's guess, but Moscow has not been shy in providing support for various reactionary, right-wing nationalists across Europe.
Putin does have one thing in common with the Stalinist regime of the USSR, he too wants to break apart Europe so as to provide relative strength to his bankrupt regime in Russia. He shares that same interest with his friend Trump in America, for whom, the EU represents a significant competitor to US imperialism.
So, its not surprising that the Stalinists of the CPB and the Morning Star have continued with their reactionary policy of seeking to break up the EU, and thereby to support the reactionary policy of Brexit. Reflecting the shared interest of Putin and Trump in that regard, they have been part of a Red-Brown front combining Stalinists and their fellow travellers with fascists, and ultra-nationalists in Farage's Brexit company. Considerable details about the Red-Brown Front can be found in blog posts at Tendance Coatesy.
The Morning Star some time ago set out its stall of the degree to which its commitment to Brexit in the service of Putin and Trump overrides any concern it might have for workers. It came out to back a Faragist No Deal Brexit on WTO terms that would be devastating to workers in Britain and Northern Ireland. This demonstrates not just the extent of its extreme nationalism, and the extent to which it seeks to serve the interests of other extreme nationalists like Putin and Trump, but again the bizarre and reactionary idea that the way to Socialism runs via the immiseration of the working-class!
In service of this reactionary agenda, the CPB and Morning Star, earlier this year, called on voters to abstain in the elections rather than vote for Labour that was moving in he direction of Remain. That call fell on deaf ears, not that you would know it from the Morning Star's hallucinatory reporting of events. Their call for an abstention in those elections was the closest they dared come to calling for a vote for their allies in the Red-Brown front, standing for the Brexit Party, without thereby being seen to be attacking their friend Corbyn. Some of their ilk, however, had no such compunction. George Galloway not only called for a vote for Farage's reactionary Brexit company, but wanted to stand under their banner.
In recent weeks the Stalinists of he CPB/Morning Star and their fellow travellers have become increasingly desperate. Their strategy in the local and European elections was disastrous and showed the utter bankruptcy of their analysis and strategy. It was based on the lie that Labour remain voters had nowhere to go other voting labour, whilst a more anti-Brexit stance would lose Labour Leave voters. In fact, 60% of Labour members let alone labour voters, deserted to the Liberals, Greens and Plaid. Labour's vote collapsed to around 13%, in many places putting Labour in fourth or fifth place. Labour members who had come into the party enthused by the Corbyn leadership movement, themselves began to flood out of he party, and head for the Greens, in particular, as some delegates speaking in favour of Composite 13 outlined.
Anyone with a brain knew that this strategy proposed by the Stalinists was destroying Labour. The rank and file began to demand a change of course, the Shadow Cabinet demanded a change of course, the only person resisting it was Corbyn, hunkered down with his cabal of Stalinist supporters. When the party did begin to change course, on the basis of what was clear to see, the Stalinists became ever more frantic, ever more vitriolic, ever more paranoid. It can be seen in their attempts to portray those opposing the party's reactionary Brexit stance as all being "centrists" or "neoliberals", which is like a mirror image of the Right's previous description of these hundreds of thousands of activists as all being Trotskyist entryists. The reactionaries be they those of the Right or those of the Stalinist fake left, have many things in common. The next thing we will hear is that all of the thousands of activists in the party opposing the reactionary Brexit policy are all CIA stooges, in the same way the Stalinists argued that about the colour revolutions in Eastern Europe.
The Stalinists were desperate to prevent Labour adopting an anti-Brexit stance. They could see that their Red-brown allies in he Brexit Party are now a spent force as Johnson has swung the Tories in favour of a hard No Deal Brexit. The Stalinists would clearly like to make common cause with Johnson in that endeavour. After all, the Russian oligarchs, and Putin's cronies have funnelled lots of money into the Tory Party to back Brexit, but to do so would clearly expose where they stand. labour in parliament along with the other opposition parties has also blocked Johnson's Brexit plans. The only way that Johnson can get his No Deal Brexit through is by calling a General Election, and winning a majority. The only way of preventing that is for Labour to have come out with a clear Remain position, and so the Stalinists set out to prevent that from happening.
The Stalinists are pretty stupid and incompetent as all history has shown. They make up for it wherever possible by the brutality, and bureaucratic manoeuvring that is their stock-in-trade. But, its doubtful that even the Stalinists of the Morning Star are actually so stupid that they beleived the shit they were shovelling about needing to not lose the votes of Labour Leave voters. It was as plain as day that the real problem was the loss of Remain voters from holding a pro-Brexit stance. The real purpose of the Stalinist manoeuvring to prevent Labour adopting an anti-Brexit position, was pure and simple to ensure that Labour loses the election, and allows Johnson and his hard right, Brexit Party to win a majority, so that they can push through the Brexit that the Morning Star's backers in Moscow and Washington desire. Earlier this year, they were happy to see Labour lose, by calling on voters to abstain, their current strategy is simply an extension of it.
That we should have an outside Stalinist Party interfering in Labour's internal democracy and affairs, similar to the way Putin's regime and supporters have interfered in US elections, and European elections to promote a reactionary nationalist agenda, is bad enough, but when the main vehicle in that subterfuge and undermining of Party democracy is Corbyn, as Leader of the Party himself, that is quite another. It demonstrates just why we needed to have had a root and branch democratisation of he Party and Labour Movement to clear out these reactionary elements.
The Stalinists have got their way. In just the same way that on countless occasions they have sabotaged workers struggles in the service of their masters in Moscow, so again they have ensured that the Tories will be able to win an election so as to push through a hard Right, reactionary Brexit, by destroying the labour party, at a time when it had represented the best hope for workers in half a century.
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