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Vol. 81/No. 26 July 17, 2017
(front page)
UK elections reveal depth of rulers’ parties political crisis
BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN
LONDON — The results of the general parliamentary elections have thrown
a spotlight on the political crisis of the propertied rulers in the U.K.
and their parties.
The Conservatives — who had drooled over poll results promising a
sweeping majority just weeks earlier — were punished, losing their
majority. As the incumbent governing party, they were held most
responsible by some workers and others for the devastating effects of
the rulers’ grinding assaults on working people and some middle-class
layers, and the broader social crisis. Declining real wages, growing job
insecurity, lack of affordable housing and a burgeoning health care
crisis saw millions vote in protest or stay home.
Political developments — from the Brexit vote to this one — have caused
a deepening crisis for all political parties in the U.K. And they raise
fears in the British ruling class, who see behind the votes growing
working-class anger and labor battles to come.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s authority is shattered. Former Conservative
Chancellor George Osborne called her a “dead woman walking.” Events
since the vote, most notably the social catastrophe resulting from the
Grenfell Tower fire and the start of Brexit negotiations, deepen the
factional divisions between and within the rulers’ parties.
The new Conservative government is proposing just eight substantive laws
— all focused on Brexit — stretched out over two years, so as to avoid a
vote next year on what would surely be a “no confidence” motion. May has
secured an arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern
Ireland for their support in such votes. But while the DUP deal allows
the Conservatives to form a government, it threatens to add to the
political crisis by undermining Northern Ireland devolution — the
ongoing transfer of powers from London to the assembly in Belfast — to
which the Conservative Party is committed. By associating the U.K.
government with a Unionist party, they endanger alienating Republicans
upon whose willing consent the Northern Ireland executive depends.
May clings to office
To cling to office, May says she will try to work “with anyone in any
party.” One proposal is to bind Labour into the Brexit negotiations by
offering Keir Starmer, their shadow Brexit minister, a Privy Council
place. Starmer would be drawn into government discussions on
negotiations with the European Union, but bound to secrecy.
The government will also look for cross-party agreement on new
“anti-terror” measures. Already — with bipartisan support — armed police
in Manchester have started routinely stopping and searching cars,
claiming to act as a “deterrent and reassurance.” The Labour Party
campaign was marked by leader Jeremy Corbyn’s call for adding 10,000 new
cops to Britain’s forces.
The Scottish National Party, the governing party in the Scottish
Parliament, was also punished in the poll, losing 21 of its 56 Members
of Parliament. The Scottish Conservatives won 14 seats, up from one
before the election. But this is a potential Trojan horse for
instability. Scottish Conservatives have their own agenda, and leader
Ruth Davidson is touted by some as a replacement for May.
The UK Independence Party saw its electoral support hammered. Its vote
collapsed from 13 percent in the 2015 election to 2 percent. With the
Brexit vote, UKIP lost its central demand, and with May leading the
negotiations, the party switched to a crude anti-Muslim agenda,
resulting in hemorrhaging of its working-class support.
Political crisis deepens
The Corbyn-led Labour Party received 41 percent, just two points behind
the Conservatives. Corbyn campaigned around the slogan “for the many,
not the few,” presenting himself as a radical outsider — both anti-Tory
and outside the Labour Party old guard.
The Conservative Party leadership and much of the media ran an
anti-Corbyn campaign, accusing him of being a “Marxist” for advocating
some nationalizations and tax increases on those with higher incomes and
being “soft on terrorism.” His prospects improved with each attack.
The “soft on terrorism” allegation especially backfired. Corbyn turned
the tables, condemning the government for cutting police and competing
with May in a bidding war over curtailing political rights, glorifying
the rulers’ cops and spy agencies. He called for expanding “Prevent,” a
central pillar of the government’s anti-terrorism strategy, that obliges
civil servants, teachers and others to inform on anyone they think
voices “extremist views.”
The Corbyn leadership tastes blood and is demanding a new election. But
Labour’s own factional crisis, which last year saw mass resignations
from the shadow cabinet, remains.
The shift to Corbyn was strongest among middle class layers, and
especially among student youth whose aspirations for well-paying jobs in
the U.K. and Europe are being dashed by the capitalist economic crisis
and declining university standards. Corbyn made campaign pledges to end
tuition fees and relieve the financial burdens on indebted students.
A layer of younger workers also voted for Labour. On average they are
earning £8,000 ($10,350) less in their 20s than their parents did, while
the number living with their folks has sky-rocketed.
Overall, working-class votes were evenly divided between Conservatives
and Labour. May competed for working-class support, with a parallel
pledge to govern for the majority, not the privileged few. Conservative
MP Robert Halfon proposed renaming the party the “Conservative Workers
Party.” Workers who favor Brexit and don’t trust Labour to deliver it
also voted Conservative.
The election registered that party loyalty, especially along class
lines, is over. The Labour Party is today more like the Democratic Party
in the U.S., no longer a social democratic party looked to by working
people as theirs — whatever misgivings they may have had about its
program and leadership.
“Voter volatility” is the expression of the deep-seated anger among
workers and sections of the middle class. It is beginning to scare the
rulers. Theresa May called it a “quiet revolution.”
The anger contributed to the successful campaign for the Communist
League. “Workers are open to discussing a communist perspective —
whether they ended up voting Conservative, Labour or not voting,” said
Peter Clifford, the League’s candidate in Manchester Gorton.
Beneath the political crisis is the U.K.’s weakness in the face of world
capitalism’s growing disorder, and London’s disproportionate decline in
relation to its imperialist rivals. British capital is stagnant,
trailing its rivals in productive business investment and labor
productivity. The British rulers’ army has been reduced to 78,000, and
plans are afoot to cut it to 65,000, making impossible the sort of
commitment of 46,000 soldiers London sent to back Washington at the peak
of the Iraq war.
The political crisis isn’t going away.
Related articles:
Marchers at London rally protest Grenfell catastrophe
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