Britain: COVID Passports and Mandatory Vaccinations are now in force
by Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 22.12.2021, www.thecommunists.net
On the 14th December Boris Johnson introduced further restrictions including the Green Pass and mandatory vaccinations showing that Britain is following all the imperialist governments in Europe. This move towards Bonapartist dictatorship was opposed by over 98 Tory MP’s which is a significant rebellion for the Johnson Government. It was only because of the support of Keir Starmer and the Labour Party that Johnson managed to get the measure passed at all.
“Adults in England must now show a Covid pass to enter nightclubs, big sports matches and other large events - despite 100 Conservative MPs voting against the government's plans. The new rules - which kick in today - require proof of double-vaccination, or a recent negative test, to enter certain venues. MPs approved the measure in Tuesday's vote on England's new Covid rules. Despite the revolt by Tory MPs, the plans passed thanks to Labour support”. [1]
“The rebellion on Covid passes was far bigger than many had predicted and by some distance the biggest of Mr Johnson's premiership. It's all the more significant because of the prime minister's efforts to limit the damage. What will worry Downing Street is that the vote brought different wings of the Conservative Party together in opposition to the government's plans. There was the Covid Recovery Group of backbenchers, who had long been sceptical of restrictions and had consistently voted against the government. But there were also centrists like Damian Green - who told BBC Radio 4's World at One that the plans for Covid certification wouldn't work, saying: "It's a gesture. It's doing something for the sake of doing something." [2]
Tories lose North Shropshire By-Election
In the by-election on the 16th December the Tories lost to the Liberal Democrats. This had been a safe Tory seat for over 200 years. This is further evidence of the political crisis surrounding the Johnson Government.
“The Liberal Democrats have won a stunning victory in the North Shropshire by-election, taking what had previously been a safe Conservative seat by a margin of nearly 6,000 votes, and capping a disastrous few weeks for Boris Johnson. Helen Morgan, the Lib Dem candidate, won 17,957 votes, ahead of the Conservatives’ Neil Shastri-Hurst, on 12,032, a majority of 5,925. Labour’s Ben Wood was third, with 3,686 votes. Turnout was 46.3%. The calamitous collapse in Conservative support – a 34% swing in a seat where they had a near-23,000 majority in 2019 – will prompt significant jitters among many Tory MPs, and is likely to raise questions about Johnson’s future”. [3]
The global crisis of world imperialism is affecting all the metropolitan capitalist countries including Britain. The bourgeoisie is using the present Omicron virus to spread fear and hysteria. This is even more urgent for the Johnson government as it faces widespread mistrust and hatred among the popular masses. Likewise, the government meets broad popular opposition against its policy of lockdowns and restrictions.
Keir Starmer, the leader of the pro-capitalist Labour party, is proving as all Blairites do that they are faithful servants of the ruling class. He instructed all Labour MP’s to vote with the government. Thus, he is proving once again that the reformist parties, the trade union bureaucracy and leftists parties all support the Lockdown and are opposed to this move towards Bonapartist dictatorship.
Jeremy Corbyn votes against mandatory vaccinations and COVID Passes
Jeremy Corbyn who still stands expelled from the parliamentary Labour Party for his opposition to Zionism voted against the COVID Passes and mandatory vaccinations. The former Leader continues to rally what socialist support there is in the Labour party against chauvinism and dictatorship. His position is in marked contrast to right-wing Labour MP’s and centrist groups who have shamefully denounced the widespread opposition to Lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations in Europe.
“Jeremy Corbyn has voted against the vaccine passport and compulsory jabs for NHS staff, after saying the measures would be 'counterproductive' and 'create division'. The former Labour leader - who is no longer a Labour MP after being stripped of the whip - tweeted ahead of the vote: "Tonight I will oppose both compulsory vaccines for NHS staff, and the introduction of vaccine passports. "Both measures are counterproductive and will create division when we need cooperation and unity." MPs tonight voted to enact the mask-wearing measures, mandatory jabs for NHS staff and Covid vaccine passports. The Covid passport measure passed 369 votes to 126, despite the biggest Tory revolt of Boris Johnson's premiership”. [4]
What is the threat of the Omicron variant?
The RCIT has shown in a number of articles that the bourgeoisie continues to create hysteria and fear over this so-called Omicron variant telling half-truths and spreading rumours. It also claims that the economic crisis is down to the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is untrue and a lie. The slump started in autumn 2019 and it is not due to the pandemic but the inner contradictions of capitalism – a failed economic system which is in an interminable crisis.
“Since a few days, bourgeois governments and their media are full of reports about a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called “Omicron”. Without any scientific evidence, media all over the world have quickly started to spread panic. Stock markets fell sharply. Since the South African government was the first to report about the new variant, the media claim that this country is the originator of Omicron. As a result, imperialist governments have imposed travel bans and closed the borders for people from Southern Africa. It is important to point out that such bans are not justified by scientific research as the South African Medical Association reports that the new virus variant, from what we know yet, results in mild disease without prominent syndromes. (…)
The RCIT has explained since the very beginning of the pandemic in February 2020 that the monopoly bourgeoisie is massively exaggerating the danger of the virus for the whole population despite the well-known fact that most victims are either above the age of 65 year or have pre-existing diseases. Contrary to the hypocritical phrases of bourgeois media, the historic attack on social and democratic rights, taking place since one and a half years, are not driven by health concerns but rather by political and economic interests of the ruling class. This is why the governments do not expand the public health sector but rather focus on expanding the police and surveillance state and increasing the profits of Big Pharma, Big Finance, Big Tech and Big Data.“ [5]
The Lockdown Left
Since the beginning of the Lockdown in Britain and the COVID Counterrevolution all pseudo-Trotskyists, the reformist Labour Party, and the trade union bureaucracy have all supported the bourgeoisie in its Bonapartist chauvinist attacks on the masses. Various “leftist” forces in Britain have advocated Zero COVID campaign which calls for a total Lockdown “until the virus is eradicated”. Most of these centrists who profess to be Marxists continue to support their own ruling class. It is a principle of Marxists that the ruling class and their agents must never be supported for whatever reason. These centrists have crossed the barricades and are now a reactionary force.
“It is a key characteristic of the COVID Counterrevolution period that it has exposed the fundamental bourgeois character of most “left-wing” organizations. As soon as capitalist governments around the world implemented the policy of Lockdowns in spring 2020 – in the name of “health” and “solidarity” – most of these supposedly progressive parties jumped the wagon. With only few exceptions, the “left” has been advocating a policy which is characterized by a permanent state of emergency, locking people up at home, restricting or even forbidding larger assemblies, comprehensive control of health status for all workers (the so-called “Green Pass”), closing the borders, discrimination of unvaccinated people and compulsory vaccination for the whole population. (…)
These “left-wing” forces either ignore or accept as a “lesser evil” that, by its very nature, this policy goes hand in hand with a vast expansion of the police and surveillance state as well as a huge increase of the monopolies’ profits. In short, the so-called “left” fully supports the principles of a policy which Marxists call chauvinist state bonapartism: the expansion of the repressive state apparatus and the increasingly totalitarian control – digitally and physically – of the population. This is why the RCIT calls such forces as Lockdown Left which advocates the policy of social-bonapartism – “socialism” in words, bonapartism in deeds.” [6]
The RCIT in Britain warns the working class and the urban masses about the dangers of the Green Pass and mandatory vaccinations. It is a move towards Bonapartist dictatorship! We puts forward the following demands:
* Expand the health service for more intensive care unit hospitals to be built and the recruitment of more doctors and nurses. Nationalization under workers control of all pharmaceutical companies without compensation.
* Reject COVID Health Passports and mandatory vaccinations!
* For mass protests and strike actions against anti-democratic attacks!
* Call on Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters in the Labour Party to continue opposing attacks under the pretext of the pandemic!
* For a Workers Government based on popular councils and militias!
* Join the RCIT!
Footnotes
1) Covid pass starts in England despite biggest rebellion of Johnson era - BBC News
2) Boris Johnson's biggest Commons rebellion - and why it matters - BBC News
4) Jeremy Corbyn votes against compulsory jab for NHS staff and vaccine passport - Mirror Online
Is it the End of Imperialist Unity around Covid-19?
By Damian Quevedo and Juan Giglio, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 22 January 2022, www.thecommunists.net
The abandonment of the COVID measures by Boris Johnson, a policy which was implemented by the entire world bourgeoisie for two years, reflects a major break in the difficult and fragile unity that the capitalists have created around the counterrevolutionary offensive, using COVID as a pretext for massive democratic restrictions and increase of big profit for Big Pharma.
This "swerve", by the British Prime Minister, may have more than one cause. On the one hand, the need to get out of the political crisis that his government, and that he himself is going through, caused by the civil commotion about his participation in a clandestine party during the lockdowns. The government crisis, which encompasses all British institutions, is one of the greatest that the regime has experienced.
“The number of deputies who are weary of Johnson has grown in recent hours, but the question was how to organize his overthrow and when the precise moment should be. ASAP? After the extraordinary session in the House of Commons…when Sue Gray, the senior official who investigates […], finally publishes her report?
The popular anguish over what happened in Downing Street, in the light of the mass mailing of protest letters from voters to their MPs, suggests that Johnson no longer has a reasonable political way out…”[1]
Although it is likely that this is one of the causes that moved Johnson to abandon the central COVID policy his government had agreed on with the rest of the capitalists, the scandal is not enough to cause such a rupture. It is possible and logical to think that there are other causes, since Britain is not the only country - albeit the most notable one - that is abandoning these tactics. The Czech Republic, Spain and the Netherlands are lifting COVID restrictions too.
It is that this type of policy is always unpopular, provoking all kinds of protest actions, which tend to spread. The government of Bolivia made this experience, when after proposing the implementation of the "sanitary pass", had to retreat in haste, due to the tremendous mobilization that was launched, especially generated within the bases of the party of government, the MAS!
This is also witnessed by the regime of Martinique and Granada - French colonies - which suffered an unprecedented general strike that pushed back the undemocratic policy of the French Prime Minister Macron, who is the highest authority in that region! Something similar happened in Kazakhstan, since one of the demands of the workers in struggle, who rebelled against the dictatorship, was to end the "sanitary" restrictions.
The stock markets, which have a special "sensitivity" to this type of phenomenon, were alarmed about it. It is no coincidence that the shares of the pharmaceutical companies Biontech and Pfizer have fallen on Wall Street, a symptom of the exhaustion of what seemed to be a great "goose that lays golden eggs"! Johnson's turnaround may also respond to this movement of the stock market, which tries to recover without much success.
Meanwhile, the provocations between the United States and Russia are taking place around the Ukraine, pushing, in fact, a direct confrontation between the two great powers. Military movements express that for the imperialist powers, the dilemma of which fractions of capital are imposed at critical junctures like this cannot be resolved in any other way than by force, which ultimately means war.
For the socialists, any capitalist "reset" maneuver must be fought, since it inevitably pushes towards environmental destruction and the deepening of the misery of the majority. Everybody who has a socialist perspective must denounce both - the war and the pseudo-health policies, which our current characterized as the Covid Counterrevolution.
The most progressive stance in such times is to hold the banner of anti-capitalism high, even with more force than ever before, and to fight for a government of the working class and the poor people. A government which intends to build Socialism, based on in its democratic decision-making bodies. For that, true revolutionaries must unite at a national and international level.
[1] El País, España 01/17/2022
¿Fin de la unidad imperialista alrededor del Covid-19?
Por Damián Quevedo y Juan Giglio, Convergencia Socialista, https://convergenciadecombate.blogspot.com/2022/01/fin-de-la-unidad-imperialista-alrededor.html
El abandono, por parte de Boris Johnson, de la política que caracterizó a toda la burguesía mundial desde hace dos años, refleja un quiebre importante en la dificultosa y frágil unidad que los capitalistas habían gestado en torno a la ofensiva contrarrevolucionaria, valiéndose del Covid, las restricciones y los negocios de la Big Pharma.
Este "volantazo", por parte del primer ministro británico, puede tener más de una causa. Por un lado, la necesidad de salir de la crisis política que atraviesa su gobierno y, en particular, él mismo, a raíz de la conmoción pública que generó la noticia de su participación en una fiesta clandestina en pleno confinamiento. La crisis gubernamental, que abarca al conjunto de la institucionalidad británica, es una de las más grandes que ha vivido el régimen.
El número de diputados hastiados con Johnson ha crecido en las últimas horas, pero la cuestión residía en cómo organizar su derrocamiento, y cuál debía ser el momento preciso. ¿Lo más pronto posible? ¿Después de la sesión de control en la Cámara de los Comunes… cuando publique finalmente su informe Sue Gray, la alta funcionaria que investiga las fiestas prohibidas?
La irritación popular por todo lo ocurrido en Downing Street, a tenor del masivo envío de cartas de protesta de los votantes a sus diputados, sugiere que Johnson ya no tiene una salida política razonable. Quien fuera el ideólogo del Brexit, que acabó saliendo del Gobierno por la puerta de atrás, ha iniciado su particular vendetta contra Johnson y asegura que dispone de material para demostrar que el primer ministro ha mentido al Parlamento sobre su conocimiento de las fiestas durante la pandemia.[1]
Aunque es probable que esta sea una de las causas que mueven a Johnson a abandonar la principal línea rectora que su gobierno había acordado con el resto de los capitalistas, ese hecho no es suficiente como para provocar semejante ruptura. Es posible y lógico pensar que existen otras causas, ya que, si bien el caso de Inglaterra es el más importante, no es el único país que está abandonando estas tácticas, como sucede, entre otros, en República Checa, España y los Países Bajos también.
Es que este tipo de políticas siempre resulta impopular, provocando todo tipo de acciones de protesta, que tienden a mantenerse y extenderse. ¡Que lo diga sino el gobierno de Bolivia, que después de proponer la imposición del “pase sanitario”, tuvo que “retroceder en chancletas”, debido a la tremenda movilización que se puso en marcha, especialmente gestada dentro de las bases del partido de gobierno, el MAS!
¡Así también lo atestigua el régimen de Martinica y Granada -colonias francesas- que sufrió una huelga general inédita que hizo retroceder la política contraria a las libertades del primer ministro galo Macron, quien es, en definitiva, la máxima autoridad de esa región! En Kasajstán ocurrió algo parecido, ya que una de las reivindicaciones de los trabajadores en lucha, que se rebelaron contra la dictadura, fue la de terminar con las restricciones “sanitarias”.
Las bolsas de valores, que tienen una especial “sensibilidad” para con este tipo de fenómenos, lo advirtieron. ¡No es nada casual que hayan caído las acciones de las farmacéuticas Biontech y Pfizer en Wall Street, un síntoma del agotamiento de lo que parecía ser una gran “gallina de los huevos de oro"! El viraje de Johnson puede responder, también, a este movimiento de los mercados, que tratan de reacomodarse para no perder.
Mientras tanto tienen lugar las provocaciones entre Estados Unidos y Rusia, alrededor de Ucrania, empujando, en los hechos, a una confrontación directa entre ambas potencias. Los movimientos militares expresan, que, para las potencias imperialistas, el dilema de qué fracciones del capital se imponen en coyunturas críticas como esta, no se puede resolver de otra manera que no sea por la fuerza, es decir, mediante la guerra.
Para los socialistas, cualquier maniobra de "reseteo" capitalista debe ser combatida, ya que empuja, inevitablemente, a la destrucción ambiental y la profundización de la miseria de la mayoría. Quienes reivindicamos la perspectiva socialista, debemos, en ese sentido, denunciar tanto las acciones de guerra como las políticas falsamente sanitarias, que desde nuestra corriente denominamos “Contrarrevolución Covid”.
La política más progresiva para las actuales circunstancias es la de agitar, con más fuerza que nunca, las banderas de la derrota del Capitalismo y la necesidad de reemplazarlo por el gobierno de la clase trabajadora y el pueblo, que se proponga construir el Socialismo, asentado en sus órganos de decisión democráticos. Para eso, los revolucionarios y las revolucionarias consecuentes debemos poner en pie Estado Mayor de la Revolución, a nivel nacional e internacional.