Britain: The Blairite Keir Starmer is elected leader of the Labour Party with Angela Rayner elected as Deputy
The Corbyn Anti-Austerity Project is over with the Blairites in Control: Split the Labour Party and Build a New Workers Party!
Article by Joseph Adams, RCIT Britain, 15 April 2020, www.thecommunists.net
Keir Starmer, the right-wing Blairite candidate won the election as Leader of the Labour Party with a 56% majority and Rebecca Long Bailey coming a poor second with 26%. The distribution of votes shows that the Labour party has made a significant lurch to the right. Starmer, who only joined the Labour Party in 2015, was a state functionary serving the capitalist state as Director of Public Prosecutions for many years. He helped prosecute some high level cases including Ian Tomlinson who was killed in the Anti-G20 protests in 2009 and Jean De Menzies - a Brazilian who was also gunned down by police in 2005. In both cases he acquitted the police officers or rather the killers in uniforms of a charge.
“In 2008, he became Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), holding these roles until 2013. For his role as Director of Public Prosecutions, Starmer was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2014 New Year Honours In February 2009, Starmer approved a decision not to prosecute any police over the controversial shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.
In July 2010, Starmer announced the decision not to prosecute the police officer Simon Harwood in relation to the death of Ian Tomlinson; this led to accusations by Tomlinson's family of a police cover-up.After a subsequent inquest found that Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed, Starmer announced that Harwood would be prosecuted for manslaughter. The officer was acquitted in July 2012, but dismissed from the police that September.” [1]
There is also no evidence to suggest that Starmer ever joined a trade union and was active in any branch of the Labour Party prior to his joining the parliament in 2015 and becoming the MP for Holborn and St Pancras. On being elected both Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner visited the Board of Deputies an extreme right-wing, Zionist organization and assured them that they would root out any evidence of “Anti-Semitism” in the Labour Party: “The BoD is a pro-Israel organization. It claims, for instance, that the Palestinians in Gaza are “using its civilians – including children – as pawns” in their fight against Israeli occupation and oppression.
The BoD have supported every war, every attack launched by Israel. The BoD is not a neutral body, but one with an evident political agenda: to attack, weaken and destroy any opposition to the systematic and brutal oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli government. The BoD encourages the conflation of criticism of the Israeli government (anti-Zionism), with antisemitism (hatred of Jews).”[2]
Starmer, as soon as he was elected, wrote to Boris Johnson promising Labour’s support for the lockdown in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. He was even willing to join a government of national unity.
“Keir Starmer has vowed to work with Boris Johnson “in the national interest” to guide Britain through the mounting coronavirus outbreak, after the prime minister published a letter urging leaders of opposition parties to “work together” with the government.In a phone call with the prime minister after being elected Labour leader, Starmer offered to work constructively with the prime minister and not provide “opposition for opposition’s sake”."[3]
The capitalist state uses the coronavirus pandemic as a cover for an attack on democratic rights, having an infatuation with dictatorship, yet here is the new leader of the Labour Party offering his services to the capitalist state! Starmer is the stalking horse to turn the Labour Party into an open capitalist party. Keir Starmer, like the majority of the parliamentary party, organized two coups against his left-wing predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. Starmer himself resigned from the shadow cabinet in 2016 but returned as Brexit secretary with one specific purpose: to malign and destroy Corbyn’s leadership during the 2017 and 2019 General elections by promoting a second referendum on Europe in order to overturn Brexit. Boris Johnson’s victory at the last general election was used by the Blairites to strengthen their influence, preventing Corbyn from winning again and ensuring the final takeover of the Labour Party by the right-wing cabal of pro-capitalists and opportunists. Many disgruntled Labour rank-and-file militants are either leaving the party or have been expelled or suspended through the perceived witch-hunt against supporters of the Palestinian people. This is something that Starmer will use to further reduce the membership by purging any elements critical of his leadership.
Pro-Zionist forces in the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party has suffered abuse and attacks by all the pro-zionists in the Labour Party. Those advocates of the Apartheid State Israel have the sympathies of fascists like Britain First which became very visible when Corbyn was attacked at a North London mosque in Finsbury Park. He showed his respect to the muslim community of the mosque which whitnessed a terrorist attack in 2017.
However, both Corbyn and John McDonnell have failed to distinguish between anti-semitism and anti-zionism and have conflated the two. As the RCIT has stated many times those pro-zionist MPs are working under the direction of the Israeli Embassy respectively the Israeli state. Responsible for murdering tens of thousands of Palestinians, Israel is a racist and imperialist settler state that enforces Apartheid.
“The Zionists aim is to conflate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism; unfortunately both Corbyn and McDonnell have allowed this to happen and fallen into a trap set by the Blairites. The real racists are of course the Zionists. This right-wing Labour MP’s never mentioning hate crime against Muslims recently by fascist groups or attacks against refugees or Migrants. This is of no concern to them. They are constantly trying to equate Jews with Zionism and any Labour party member who supports the Palestinians and attacks the state of Israel is of course “Anti-Semitic”. Unfortunately Corbyn and McDonnell have confused Anti-Semitism and Zionism and are capitulating to the right-wing elements in the Party. Corbyn now says he is going to conduct an inquiry into Anti-Semitism in the Party. Of course the pro Zionist elements in the party – the ‘LABOUR FRIENDS OF ISRAEL’ – are forcing Corbyn and others to instigate a witch hunt against pro-Palestinian elements in the party.” [4]
Further evidence of this witchunting by Labour officials is provided by the progressive party structure Labour against the Witchhunt. They show how a secret report was prepared during the last days of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership proving that pro-zionist organisations outside of the Labour Party were involved in this frame up: “It is a crying shame that this report was produced only in the last days of Corbyn’s leadership. It is based upon primary evidence showing serious wrong-doing by senior party officials. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the left to radically transform the Labour Party and effect progressive change was ruined by the right in the party. At the same time, supporters of Corbyn were vilified and slandered, their voices silenced and their votes nullified. Unfortunately, it appears that this was sometimes done with the knowledge and occasionally even with the participation of the Corbyn leadership, as in the expulsions of Jackie Walker and Chris Williamson. In other words, staff “initiate cases themselves by proactively investigating social media comments by Party members” (p17) to create a body of evidence where no basis for a case exists. The report also makes various positive references to Dave Rich from the Community Security Trust (CST), whose views are still being routinely sought as “expert opinion”. But the CST is not a neutral body – it is a pro-Israel charity, which the Tory government started funding in 2015 and has given at least 65 million pounds since.”[5]
Starmer and the Blairites are set to purge, suspend and expel the pro-Corbyn left and witchhunt anyone who does not agree with these pro-racist pledges.
Corbyn Failed to Protect his own Supporters
Jeremy Corbyn remains what he has always been: a left reformist who believed that he could unite the two wings of his party, the pro-imperialist wing and the anti-austerity wing. This was always going to be fraught with difficulties as the majority of the parliamentary party were Blairites and would oppose everything that Corbyn stood for anyway. Corbyn has presided over witchunts, suspensions and expulsions. Never dismantling the disciplinary procedures that were clearly against natural justice in a so-called socialist party. Corbyn promised a Democracy review but it never happened. As long as the Blairites controlled or at least influenced bureaucracy heavily it was ensured that nothing will change on the long run. The Blairite's masters in the capitalist state were delighted with Corbyn’s defeat in two elections and the bourgeois press encourages Starmer to finish the job.
Marc Wadsworth, Jackie Walker and Chris Williamson remain expelled. Ken Livingstone, the former Labour Mayor, resigned when he realized he would not get any help from Corbyn. “Chris Williamson, the Labour MP for Derby North, has been suspended from the Labour Party by the NEC for making purported anti-Semitic remarks at a Momentum meeting in Sheffield. “Labour’s deep divisions over antisemitism were exposed afresh on Wednesday, after the party’s top official, Jennie Formby, succumbed to intense pressure and suspended the MP Chris Williamson. The announcement reversed decision hours earlier to allow Williamson to continue to remain a Labour MP, while a “pattern of behaviour” was investigated – which had sparked a furious backlash from senior MPs, including the deputy leader, Tom Watson. The Derby North MP is an enthusiastic supporter of Corbyn, who served as shadow fire minister, before being removed from the post after departing from the Labour line on taxation. The Labour leader told Williamson’s local paper, the Derby Telegraph, in January: “Chris Williamson is a very good, very effective Labour MP. He’s a very strong anti-racist campaigner. He is not anti-Semitic in any way.”[6]
Corbyn’s heir apparent Rebecca Long-Bailey has accepted the 10 pledges from the Board of Deputies and like Starmer she took a pro-zionist position, letting an openly zionist organization decide who can be a member of the Labour Party and who cannot. This is not even-handed as it is not directed at the Tory Party, which has open racists as members including its leader Boris Johnson. Long-Bailey had never big chances to win the leadership election as she claimed she watered down most of Corbyn's progressive policies, even advocating the readmittance of Alistair Campbell back into the Labour party. This noted Blairite who voted for the Liberal democrats was correctly expelled. Long-Bailey was unprepared to meet the challenge of the right-wing and has now taken a place in Starmer’s Shadow cabinet, unlike other known Corbyn-supporters who have been sacked.
Split Labour - For a New Workers Party!
The RCIT in BRITAIN calls on all principled socialists and activists in the Labour Party to join with and support our call to split the Labour Party and build a New Workers Party on a genuine socialist base. This rapid lurch to the right with the election of Starmer as leader means that it becomes ever more necessary to split the party and to break with the rotten comprise done for so long with the pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist wing of Blairites and their lackeys.
The New Workers Party could and should be the platform for all socialists and militants to hammer out a programme for Socialism. Various centrist forces like Socialist Appeal continue to peddle the old illusion that somehow Labour can be transformed into a Socialist party only if Marxists stay long enough inside Labour. That is a pipe dream by people who orientate themselves blindly and uncritically towards (left) reformists. As the former comrades of Militant, the members of Socialist Appeal must know that Starmer and the Blairites will most likely do exactly what Kinnock and Blair did in the 1980’s - to expel and purge any opposition to them. While it made sense to (also) fight inside Labour under the era of Corbyn when the party turned to the left and many new members entered it, the situation changes now. The RCIT calls revolutionaries to not orientate towards a membership in the Labour Party which obviously entered the old Blairite way head over heels. All forces must be dedicated in the creation of a new workers party!
The most sure way to socialism is through the construction of a Revolutionary Workers Party as part of the new Internationale, that can lead the struggle against the ruling class and against all of their direct or indirect supporters. The best elements of Labour must break away now and create a new workers party together with other organizations of the workers and oppressed! Genuine socialists must fight for a revolutionary program as a basis of such a new workers party!
The RCIT in Britain puts forward the following demands to unite workers and oppressed on a revolutionary basis in the struggle for a new workers party! Smash capitalism and imperialism and fight for a socialist society!
* Revolutionaries inside of Labour: Split the Labour Party and rally together with other activists to build a New Workers Party! All authentic Marxists have to fight for a revolutionary program of such a new party! Such a program must include without limitation the subsequent demands:
* Fight for open borders, full equality for all migrants and equal wages! Full citizenship rights should be given to all people living in Britain as well as the unlimited right to speak in their mother tongue and to live their cultural and religious believes! Stop the “War on Terror” that is only an excuse to discriminate Muslim people!
* Reject any support to the camp of the Brexiteers or the Remainers! Neither an imperialist Britain nor an imperialist European Union is the solution, but rather the fight to smash both of them!
* For self-defence guards and action committees to protect workers, the oppressed and migrants from the police, racist or fascist attacks!
Footnotes
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_Starmer