Labour Needs An Anti-Brexit Leader

The Tories are the party of the reactionary petty-bourgeoisie that marched under the flag of Brexit and nationalism. Even in purely electoralist terms, it makes no sense for Labour to share that ground with them, let alone any question of political principle. But, the height of that Brexit nationalism, has itself come and gone with Truss's debacle in the Autumn of last year. The ruling class has shown where it draws the line in allowing it to continue, and the removal of Raab, is just another stepping stone along that path. The ruling class needs a party that will neuter Brexit, and if possible take Britain back into the EU as soon as possible. As the primary representative of the interests of capital and of the ruling class, Labour needs an anti-Brexit Leader. Workers need that too.

As I set out at Christmas, Sunak is likely to call a General Election in the Autumn. Before then, another Budget is likely to offer bribes to the electorate. Sunak does not suffer the same opprobrium that Johnson did, following the petty vendetta waged against him in relation to Partygate, and nor does he scare the ruling class in the way that Truss did, resulting in the Pound rising in currency markets, and borrowing costs having been reduced accordingly. Starmer has tried to whip up a racist scare against Sunak, amongst those racist bigots in so called red wall seats, but, even if it reduced the Tory vote, its unlikely to increase Labour's, as those voters simply sit at home, or again turn to the BNP, or some other bunch of fascists.

If Labour really wants to secure enough votes and seats to win, it has to move off the ground already occupied by the Tories, and move on to the ground of opposition to Brexit, and it needs to do so clearly and stridently. Labour may have a large poll lead at the moment, but that can disappear like smoke. Some of it isn't real anyway, being simply the response voters give in opinion polls to express an anti-Tory sentiment, in terms of support for the party that looks most likely to be their alternative at a national level. That is not at all the same as how they might vote in their own constituency, in which it may be clear that, there, it is a Liberal, Green or Plaid candidate that might have the best chance of beating the Tory candidate. That was seen in pretty much every by-election over the last couple of years, where Liberals swept from third place, to win, against both Tories and Labour.

Labour's problems have been helped by the melt-down of the SNP. That development is wholly welcome. The answer to the English nationalism of the Tories and Labour is not the Scottish nationalism of the SNP. But, its not clear that this is as much good news for Labour, as they might think. As a nationalist party that was once referred to as Tartan Tories, a significant section of that vote – those whose nationalism is represented by opposition to the EU as well as to England – may well simply go back to the Scottish Tory Party. But, so long as Blue Labour is seen as just another version of English Toryism, and is tied to Brexit, any SNP votes deserting it, may well go to the Liberals rather than to Labour. If the Liberals beat Labour to the punch, and come out using opposition to Brexit as their USP, that may well be the case. Indeed, if the Liberals had any sense, they would already be mounting their challenge on that basis, across Britain.

Its not, after all, as though Starmer's Blue Labour has the advantage that Corbyn's Labour Party had, of being seen to have something approaching a progressive social-democratic agenda, only tarnished by a continued acceptance of the Brexit vote. If anything, Starmer's Blue Labour stands to the Right of the Liberals. The ruling class can afford to bide its time, continuing to put pressure on Sunak to make further accommodations with the EU, preparing the ground for a British re-entry, within the next decade, if not next parliament. But, it will only fully throw its weight behind Labour, if it is seen as offering them a faster route to that goal. They may see a Starmer Labour victory, as a stepping stone in that process.

As a new government, it will be more heavily influenced by the permanent state machinery, which will attempt to drive it towards an EU reentry, and, at least, a much closer relation to the EU, acceptance of Single Market rules, free movement and so on, possibly also via EEA membership. The high preponderance of Blairite MP's, will facilitate that, as they will make up a majority of the government.

But, Starmer's attachment to Brexit nationalism, established firmly over the last 4 years, makes him unsuitable to lead any such government, as far as the ruling class is concerned. All of his ridiculous cakist talk about a Labour Brexit, and making Brexit work for Britain, will be ditched as soon as the election is over, even if it provides a pretext for talks between the new government and EU, which will be used to make more rapid concessions, and simply draw the UK closer to the EU once more. Ultimately, however, to take that process to its logical conclusion of EU membership, Starmer will have to go, and given the current Labour Party, his replacement will be another right-wing Blairite, possibly the Prince across the water, currently residing in the US.

That would be a defeat for the working-class, and its reflection inside the Labour Party. It is a defeat that was wholly avoidable, other than for the crazy politics and strategy of Corbyn, and his Stalinist advisors. Had Corbyn used his election to democratise the party and take the fight to the Right, he would have still been Leader, and we would be looking to someone to his Left not Right as his replacement. Had he done that, and launched an international socialist campaign for the EU referendum in 2016, linking up with workers across Europe, and parties like Syriza, Podemos, and the Left Bloc in Portugal, instead of handing over the campaign to Alan Johnson, who inevitably stabbed him in the back, and disappeared without trace, the Brexit vote itself could have been prevented.

Even then, had Labour stood on its principles, and stood in the 2017, General Election on a platform of not implementing the Brexit vote, it could have won the 2017 election, it already came so close to doing. The history would then have been different, but there is little point in such alternative histories, other than in learning from the mistakes for the future. The reality is, however, that Corbyn, Syriza, Podemos, the Left Bloc, as well as Sanders and the DSA in the US, did not all appear from nowhere, but are a reflection of changed global material conditions, and the ending of the conditions that made possible the neo-liberal order that ran from 1980 to 2008. The mistakes of the Corbyn Left have opened the door again to the heirs of Blair, but the changed material conditions persist, and make a return to Blairite neo-liberalism impossible. Ask Macron.

The arena, for now, has moved out of the confines of the Labour Party in to the workplaces, and on to the streets.  As in the 1960's, it will undoubtedly find reflection in the growth of grass roots organisations in communities and trades unions.  Already millions of workers across the globe are taking their future in their own hands by striking for higher pay, and so on.  But, the lesson of the 1960's is also that these industrial, sectional struggles cannot ultimately resolve workers problems.  A political class struggle is required, and for that an independent, revolutionary workers' party is required.

The answer to British workers problems cannot be provided by Starmerite Blue Labour Brexit nationalism, nor by Blairite, neo-liberal imperialism. Workers, as much as the ruling class, need an end to Brexit, and a return to the EU, as a fundamental basis of developing the productive forces across Europe. The nation state ceased being an adequate vessel for large scale industrial capital more than a century ago, requiring the destruction of nation states, and formation of large multinational states, and single markets. The nation state, and particularly a small declining nation state like Britain, is even more an anachronism, today.  But, we want an EU for different reasons to those of the ruling class and Blairite neo-liberals.  We want it as the basic form in which workers across Europe can come together, and seize control for themselves of those productive forces, and use them rationally to meet our needs, and not the needs of profit.  We want it as the starting point for creating a United Socialist States of Europe.