Starmer's reactionary, nationalist Blue Labour is a qualitative break from the Labour Party of the past. Those past Labour Parties were always representatives of the interests of the ruling class, whilst based upon the support of the working-class, for its membership and votes. They were as Lenin described them - bourgeois workers parties. As Lenin described, for example, in relation to the Narodniks in Russia, whilst Marxists do not support bourgeois goals, or parties, we recognise them as relatively progressive, as against those of the petty-bourgeoisie, which looks backward, and seeks to hold back, or reverse historical development, which involves also pandering to all of the bigotry and reactionary ideas of the past along with it.
Tony Blair's Labour Party, for example, was an epitome of that bourgeois workers' party, as brought to power by the votes of millions of workers, but which made no secret of its ties to the ruling class, and intention of acting in its interests, rather than those of the workers. But, in doing so, for example, in Blair's approach to the EU, that also, if unintentionally, yet inevitably, acted in workers' interests. The freer, stronger development of capital, and, necessarily, of the large-scale monopoly capital that dominates modern capitalism, also benefits workers, as Marx described in "Wage-Labour and Capital", for example. It broke down the reactionary national borders that act as a fetter on that development, creating the conditions for sweeping away the old, reactionary nation states, and facilitating the coming together of workers across borders.
But, Starmer's Blue Labour has made a qualitative break from that. One aspect of Blair's conservative, social-democratic Labour Party that began to make that possible was that it began to break the link with the working-class that was fundamental to its nature as a bourgeois workers' party. It did not actually break that link, as some Left sectarians claimed at the time. The trades unions continued to have an organic link to the party, at national and constituency level. The majority of individual members continued to be workers, many of them also trades union activists. But, Blair was able to pull in millions of pounds in funding from assorted billionaires and multi-millionaires, who recognised it as the main champion of their interests, as against a Tory Party that had been captured by a reactionary nationalist, petty-bourgeois base, and was increasingly driven to pursue those interests.
Blair, increasingly, did not need the financing of the unions, but that did not mean he could break the link with them, given the structure of the party, and role of the unions within it. Nor did Blair, increasingly, need large numbers of individual members, certainly not potentially troublesome working-class members, with their own agendas, and class interests that conflicted with the interests of the ruling class, and the agenda he sought to pursue. The days of needing collection of dues had long gone, with payment by direct debit, and the idea of physical door to door canvassing was seen as inefficient, as phone banks were used to canvass impersonally, using set scripts, and avoiding embarrassing questions and conversations with real working-class voters. The use of the Internet, social media, and targeted adverts has simply taken that to new level.
The link of Blue Labour to the working-class has not been formally broken either, but that appearance hides the developing reality. When Jeremy Corbyn became leader the link to the working-class became much stronger again. Membership rose by hundreds of thousands, making Labour the largest party in Europe. More unions affiliated or reaffiliated to Labour again, and millions of new working-class voters turned out to vote for it in 2017, giving Labour the largest increase in its vote, and vote share than at any time, since 1945. Starmer has destroyed, and reversed that.
The membership has fallen dramatically, as Starmer abandoned the social-democratic programme of Corbyn, and which he had said he would continue, as he lied his way into the Leadership. He has done that, because, captured by the Right, and needing to attack the ordinary members of the party, who overwhelmingly are to his Left, he has had to seek the external financing and support of rich donors, whilst appealing to the votes, not of workers, but that same large, reactionary, petty-bourgeois nationalist base, which provided the basis of Brexit, and the support for Boris Johnson.
Its interesting to note that, whilst Rachel Reeves boasted of the letter of support from over 100 UK business leaders, journalists pointed out that none of those signatories were currently leading FTSE 100 companies, and many were even just former heads of companies, no longer active. Reeves tried to claim that Labour was the natural party of business, and previous Labour Parties, actually have been precisely that, in relation to the dominant large-scale companies. But, that is not true of Blue Labour, which, like the Tories, is in its agenda, based upon Brexit and the interests of small business, actually alien to the interests of large-scale capital, and of the ruling class that derives its dividends and capital gains from it.
And, just as Lenin pointed out in relation to the Narodniks, in the same measure that Starmer has chased after the votes and support of that reactionary petty-bourgeoisie, and its attendant social layers, amongst the lumpen elements, and the backward sections of workers, concentrated in the old decayed urban areas, so too he has had to appease all of the old reactionary prejudices and bigotry that goes with it. That inevitably leads to resistance and contradiction inside the party, and in response to it, Starmer resorts to his natural type, that of the Bonapartist and authoritarian. Vicious and vengeful, as witnessed in the treatment of Diane Abbot.
But, it is not just Abbot that has suffered this mistreatment, which is, in part, a reflection of the institutional racism, ingrained into Starmer's Blue Labour, and also, in part, simply a reflection of the totalitarian nature of Starmer's regime, which cannot tolerate any, even the mildest criticism, and so seeks to bureaucratically and physically eliminate it, as with Starmer's employment of external agencies, connected to former members of the intelligence services.
The institutional racism of Starmer's Blue Labour, inevitably flows from its collapse into jingoism, and petty-bourgeois nationalism. Martin Forde KC, employed by the party to undertake an investigation into racism in the party (ironically what Abbot was accused of in her letter), found a perception of a hierarchy of racism, from the leadership and its apparatus, as the Right utilised "anti-Semitism", as a factional tool against Corbyn and his supporters, in conditions where the Right were in a small minority, but continued to exercise control over the party machinery, and continued to have free access to the bourgeois media, as a tool in that factional struggle.
Starmer and the Right have continued in that vein. Peter Mandelson used to speak about putting the Left in a sealed tomb, so that no matter whether they had a majority in a party that proclaimed itself a "broad church", they would never be able to get a proportional level of representation of MP's and so on. As someone put it, it would be a broad church, but with a very narrow doorway into it. It is the approach of the totalitarian that cannot tolerate any opposition, other than what can be used as a fig-leaf of cover. And, so it was inevitable that as the election was called, all those Labour MP's such as Diane Abbot that conflicted with that approach would have to be eliminated, along with all of those Labour PPC's already adopted, such as Faisa Shaheen, whose appearance on Newsnight, on Wednesday evening, illustrated the vicious nature of Starmer's Blue Labour, and its thoroughly racist nature.
Once again, the use of the right-wing Jewish Labour Movement, is the means by which Labour MP's, and PPC's are being bureaucratically removed without any attempt to disguise the factional nature of what is being done, using that same "hierarchy of racism", described in The Forde Report. Charges are being levelled going back ten years, often, as with Shaheen, to before those accused were even members of the Labour Party, as the basis, not even for disciplinary procedures, that is the minimum required by natural justice, but simply to block Leftish candidates from even standing, even after those candidates have been selected, and while they are already actively involved in campaigning.
Another such MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, was also blocked by this method, yesterday. When bad bosses send redundancy notices to workers by text message, Labour MP's, and even sections of the press are up in arms about it, but that is precisely the method of the vicious, anti-working-class racists and bigots, now running Blue Labour.
Of course, no Marxist should be surprised by this, as it flows inevitably from the collapse of Starmer's Blue Labour into reactionary, petty-bourgeois nationalism, and jingoism. It is the kind of Bonapartism and totalitarianism that goes with it, and that is being seen elsewhere, not just with Zionism in Israel, which the likes of Starmer and Biden seek to defend, but also in the US, in Germany, France and so on.
If Starmer were on the Left, this overt and vicious racism against Black and Asian people, and rampant Islamophobia, of Blue Labour, would be resulting in screams from the Right, and from the mass media for all sort of actions and investigations by the Human Rights Commission and so on. But, of course, that doesn't happen because the Right utilise that "hierarchy of racism" to engage in their factional struggle against the Left and ordinary members of the party, and the media, which itself sees the Left as a threat they cannot control, is happy to go along with it, in alliance with a Right they think they can.
If you are black or Asian, or Muslim this vile, racist, Bonapartist Blue Labour Party represents a clear and present danger to you. We already saw, Starmer dismiss Black Lives Matter, his racist Blue Labour systematically discriminates against, and treats in the most vile manner, Black, Asian and Muslim members of the party. But, currently, it does not form the government. That is about to change, if as seems likely, Blue labour wins the General Election. As Starmer inevitably fails even to implement the pathetic agenda he has set out, and doubles down on the jingoism, and reactionary nationalism, to blame the EU, foreigners and anyone else available for his failures, racism becomes the most obvious, and usual method for achieving that goal.
Expect, Starmer and the reactionary Blue Labour government to quickly be blaming all the same targets that the Tories have blamed for their own similar failures over the last 14 years. Expect Starmer stormtroopers on the borders to be emphasising that argument, and for those stormtroopers to be targeting black and Asian communities, with renewed use of stop and search, scare stories about terrorism, and so on, as it seeks to impose a greater authoritarian and totalitarian control over society, as it fails to contain the criticism and resistance to it. And, that will extend into its actions against workers in general, as those workers seek to resist, via their trades unions.
Back in 2008, I argued that if ever a situation arose, where the BNP, became the party that workers voted for in their majority, and to which they looked for answers, then, Marxists would have to deal with that situation, by working with those workers who were members of such a party, and who related to it. Of course, that does not at all mean supporting such a party, or calling for a vote for its candidates or programme. As Lenin wrote, in relation to our attitude to the Labour Party, we support it only in the same way that a rope supports a hanged man. We could never actively support the capitalist policies advocated by the Labour Party, or call for a vote for those policies, or the candidates standing on them, yet we do engage in activity in the Labour Party, and in its elections campaigns, using that opportunity, precisely to discuss with workers the bourgeois nature of the party, of its programme, and so, why a socialist alternative is required to it.
There is yet time to bring it back from the brink, but the Left inside Labour is divided, and has so far proved itself spineless in resisting Starmer's Rightward surge. So too have been the trades unions, which could have mobilised their resources at CLP level, and at national conference, to put a stop to the destruction of the party, as a social-democratic party. The purge of the left, and the totalitarian nature of Starmer's regime makes an equivalent of the SCLV impossible, but nor can we simply support a vote for Starmer's reactionary, racist agenda. Simply running away from the party is also not an answer. We have to organise and fight, now.
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