UK: Labour Elects New Leadership after Humiliating Defeat
By Joseph Adams, RCIT BRITAIN, 17 January 2020, https://redliberation.wordpress.com/
After the humiliating electoral defeat Jeremy Corbyn has resigned as party leader. As a result a leadership election campaign has begun with the result known at a special Conference on April 2nd. The main contenders for the leadership Election are Rebecca Long Bailey, a close ally of Corbyn, and Sir Keir Starmer, former Brexit Shadow Secretary and a noted Blairite. Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy other less known Blairites are also standing. Emily Thornberry, former Shadow Foreign Secretary, is also standing,
The latest odds are that Starmer is in the lead with the most nominations from MP’s and he has gained the support of the right wing trade union Unison. Starmer is a former state official having been Director of Public Prosecutions involved in some high profile prosecutions including Julian Assange. He is a vicious Blairite with no connection to the working class.
“Sir Keir Starmer has won the backing of the UK's largest trade union, Unison, to become the next Labour leader. Unison, which has 1.3 million members, said the shadow Brexit secretary was best placed of the candidates to unite the party and regain public trust. Unite, Labour's largest financial backer, will decide later this month who to back in the contest. Sir Keir has also become the first to secure enough nominations from MPs and MEPs to get on the ballot paper. The Holborn and St Pancras MP has, so far, secured the backing of 41 colleagues - well above the minimum of 22 required” [1]
Rebecca Long Bailey who gave Corbyn 10/10 for his leadership is no Corbynite and refuses to be labelled one and has consistently tries to unite the party with the Blairites. Long Bailey recently received the support and backing of several trade union leaders. She also has serious pro-Zionist sympathies having attended the Jewish Labour movement conference, a noted Zionist Organisation, where she stated she would not readmit Chris Williamson, a noted anti-Zionist, back into the party. Williamson was witch-hunted and driven out of the party for campaigning against the Blairites and Zionists. Unlike Corbyn she is not opposed to the use of nuclear weapons as Corbyn was and she said if elected as Prime Minister she would have no problem in taking Britain to war. It is on the issue of perceived Anti-Semitism where she criticises Corbyn for his softness to the issue.
“Interestingly, though, in a subsequent interview with the BBC, she adopted a slightly more nuanced approach. She acknowledged that Brexit harmed the party in the election. She also conceded on anti-Semitism - saying that behind the scenes she was pressing for tougher action on this”. [2]
The RCIT BRITAIN has consistently shown the role of Zionism in Britain and how even Corbyn and now Long Bailey conflate the issues of Anti Zionism with Anti-Semitism. Ruth Smeeth MP, a Zionist agent who lost her seat in Stoke on Trent, has accused the party of ‘Racism’. No action was taken against her, yet honest socialists and pro-Palestinian supporters were expelled and witch-hunted out of the party. This shows the double standards of potential leaders like Long Bailey who wants to strengthen the IHRA definition and continue to allow Blairites and Zionists to remain within the Labour Party.
“In July 2017, Labour’s leadership – the National Executive Committee (2) - adopted the so-called International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition that includes the notion that criticism of Israel can amount to Anti-Semitism. In February and July 2019, complaints of Anti-Semitism led to a process where 350 members resigned, expelled or received formal warnings. Thus even on the issue of Zionism Corbyn caved in and even apologized to the Zionists.” [3]
BOURGEOIS STATE WILL BE HAPPY WITH LONG BAILEY OR STARMER AS LEADER
The election result will be decided by a vote by every member of the party including MP’s, Constituency Labour Party members, MEP’s and trade union affiliated members as well as registered supporters. Both candidates, Long Bailey and Starmer, have no connection to the working class or the trade unions. Starmer, a former State Agent, and Long Bailey, a commercial solicitor, of course need the support of the trade union bureaucracy. It seems that Corbynism as a movement is dead with his defeat. The bourgeoisie are now quite happy with the possibility of either Starmer or Long Bailey being elected. They are hoping that once again the Labour party can be turned into an openly pro-capitalist Blairite party again. Long Bailey, the so called pseudo-left candidate, will as Corbyn did compromise and capitulate to the Blairites in the Labour Party.
DEPUTY LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN
There are two main candidates in the Deputy Leader election campaign, Richard Burgon and Angela Rayner. Angela Rayner has a political outlook similar to Rebecca Long Bailey. Richard Burgon, on the other hand, is a committed socialist. The Left Labour Alliance, formerly Labour against the Witch-Hunt, is supporting the election of Richard Burgon and the RCIT BRITAIN will also campaign for Richard Burgon as the best candidate to succeed the vicious Blairite Tom Watson the former deputy Leader who in the end lost out to Jeremy Corbyn. Good riddance.
Naturally, this does not mean that we share all the political viewpoints of Richard Burgon (e.g. his political sympathies for Maduro or Castro).
BORIS JOHNSON’S REACTIONARY AND RACIST PROGRAMME
Boris Johnson in his Queen’s speech to Parliament presented a fundamentally reactionary programme which includes the privatization of the NHS with an Atlantic deal with President Trump. Strikes in the public sector including the recent strikes on the railways by members of the RMT and ASLEF will be illegal and banned. Showing his support for the Zionist racist and imperialist state of Israel the Boycott Diversity and Sanctions campaign will also be illegal and NGO’s like the Palestine Solidarity campaign campaigning for BDS faces a prison sentence. Anti-Gypsy and anti-Roma measures are parts of his immigration laws which he will introduce in the new Parliament. Both Europeans and non-Europeans will face deportations and evictions from Britain.
The General election in the end was fought on Brexit and Johnson won because he promised Brexit would be done. His European Withdrawal motion was passed with an 84 majority and is now the main plank of this parliament. The Pro-European remain Blairite MP’s ensured Corbyn’s defeat and many voted for the Liberal democrats. The Blairites more than any other forces helped to destroy Corbyn and ensure a Tory victory.
“The European Union (withdrawal agreement) bill will ratify the deal the prime minister struck with EU leaders in the autumn and which was voted down by parliament repeatedly. He is set to put this bill to MPs on Friday and hopes to have this passed by 31 January The immigration and social security co-ordination (EU withdrawal) bill proposes an Australian-style points based system that would end free movement in UK law The government will stop public institutions, including councils and universities, from imposing their own views on international relations with boycotts and sanctions. The prime minister said he wants to end institutions developing their own “pseudo-foreign policy” against countries that, “with nauseating frequency, turn out to be Israel”. [4].
There is also evidence that over 1,000 fascists have applied to join the Tory Party to support Johnson’s extreme Islamophobic programme against Muslim migrants living in Britain. Britain First, a prominent fascist organization, and the English Defence League have been prominent in attacks on anti-fascists while the police have stood by and let it happen. This demonstrates that the Tory party under Johnson’s leadership has now massively shifted to the right. He has expelled many Pro-European Tories. Kenneth Clarke and Michael Heseltine have left the Tory party and voted for the Liberal Democrats at the General Election.
“Britain First says two-thirds of its 7,500 members have joined the Conservative Party after being drawn in by Boris Johnson’s ‘firm stance against radical Islam’. The far-right group, whose leaders were jailed for Muslim hate crimes last year, added that the mass defection had taken place in the wake of the general election”. [5]
PERSEPCTIVES
It is highly urgent that socialist activists draw the right conclusions from the defeat of Corbyn’s left reformism. Any way forward is impossible if socialists remain within the same party like the Blairites and pro-Zionists. An important issue in the leadership election must be the issue of splitting with these reactionary forces.
Furthermore, socialists must advocate a program of militant class struggle against the austerity, racist and anti-democratic attacks which the Johnson government plan.
The RCIT BRITAIN calls for a campaign to rearm the leftward moving forces in the Labour Party like the Labour Left Alliance. It is essential in these leadership elections to support Richard Burgon for the Deputy Leadership election and for Constituency Labour Parties to nominate him as Deputy Leader.
The RCIT BRITAIN calls for a determined fight inside the Labour Party and in the working class and trade union movement for protests, demonstrations and occupations in a campaign to remove the Johnson government. The RCIT BRITAIN puts forward the following programme.
* Form a united front with organizations like Labour Left Alliance. Support and vote for Richard Burgon for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
* 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!
* Expel and purge all Zionist and Blairite MP’s or former MP’s from the Labour Party. All Zionist organizations like the “Friends of Israel” and the Jewish Labour Movement must be proscribed as racist organizations which have no place in a democratic socialist Part!
* For a United Ireland as a 32 County Workers Republic as part of a United Socialist States of Europe. Combine with Irish activists to campaign for demonstrations and protests in the campaign for a 32 County United Workers Republic!
* Defend the right for self-determination for Scotland!
* 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!
* For the formation of peoples assemblies and action committees, based on direct democracy, to mobilize for demonstrations and strikes up to a general strike in order to put pressure on Labour to reject any collaboration with capitalist parties and politicians! People assemblies, action committees of the workers and oppressed as well as mobilizations on the streets up to an indefinite general strike are the backbone of the fight against austerity and cuts, and in consequence also the initial ignition that opens the road towards the struggle for socialism! A workers republic as well as the United Socialist States of Europe can only be won via the armed uprising of the working class and oppressed!
* For a Workers Government pledged to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism!
Footnotes
1) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51035448
3) https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/elections-in-uk-role-of-zionism/