The present moment contains the past represented by that petty-bourgeoisie, which has grown by 50% since the 1980's, and whose social weight, manifested in its votes, is the basis of right-wing populism and nationalism; the present represented by the ruling-class owners of fictitious-capital, which is the basis of a conservative social-democracy, whose model, based upon inflated asset prices and asset stripping, has collapsed, but which it tries to cling to, via its control of the state, and of financial markets (as witnessed by Truss in 2022); and the future represented by the working-class, as the collective owners of the dominant form of property, large-scale socialised capital, but over which they do not, yet, exercise control, and whose political manifestation is a confused, inadequate and statist, progressive social-democracy. The latter, however, also, bears within it the seeds, of the solution to these problems, international socialism.
The past, represented by the reactionary petty-bourgeoisie, and its political parties – Tories and Blue Labour, in Britain, for example – can provide no solution. Yet, the size of the petty-bourgeoisie, as a voting bloc, is the reason that these parties, historically bourgeois parties, have collapsed into this reactionary, petty-bourgeois nationalism. The extent of that is the acceptance, indeed welcoming, into Blue Labour, by Starmer, of the far right, Tory MP, Natalie Elphicke! Elphicke's views seem to fit perfectly with the jingoistic, reactionary nationalist ideology that Starmer has imposed on Blue Labour, in search of the votes of the petty-bourgeoisie, and various bigots. He may as well welcome Nick Griffin into the party.
But, this reality, also, impedes the ruling-class, which requires a continuation of that process of globalisation, or, at least, the development of ever larger single markets, which, in reality, also requires ever closer political union, and the abolition of nation states. The problems of the EU, as witnessed in the Eurozone Debt Crisis, illustrate that you cannot have a single market, without a single currency, and central bank, behind which stands a single state, which requires, also, then a single fiscal regime, and debt management. The obvious route to such a solution, is to mobilise the working-class, as a progressive counter electoral force to that reactionary petty-bourgeoisie, but to do so requires that the workers themselves be provided with some material incentive to support such a process. But, since 2008, that is precisely what conservative social-democracy, as political representative of the ruling-class, cannot do. Any sign of rising relative wages, and a consequent stimulation of economic activity, means rising interest rates, and a new crash of asset prices.
The ruling-class, therefore, is forced to make common cause, not with the workers which offer it a solution to its problems, but with the reactionary petty-bourgeoisie, despite the fact that its nationalist agenda, undermines the interests of large-scale, socialised, multinational capital, and, thereby, the interests of the ruling-class, which depends on the profits of that capital, out of which is paid its interest/dividends etc. The ruling class is forced to utilise its state, and its control of financial markets, to push through its own interests, despite the existence of these reactionary nationalist governments. That provokes an inevitable response from the petty-bourgeois rank and file of those parties, manifest in an increased right-wing populism, which, in turn, provokes an increased authoritarianism, and Bonapartism from the ruling-class, via its state.
In the US, its two-party system, leaves no room for a progressive social-democratic party, and even the challenge of Bernie Sanders was snuffed out by the Democratic establishment. In Britain, the obvious vehicle for such a progressive social-democratic alternative resided in Corbyn, but was similarly snuffed out. The Liberals and Greens, offer a similar alternative, but, again, Britain's first past the post system means that, even if they get large votes, they get few seats.
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