Click on title to link to Wikipedia's entry for the histroy of the Labor Party in Britain.
COMMENTARY
BUSH LOSES HIS POODLE, BUT HE STILL HAS A BULLDOG FOR A FRIEND
BUILD A MILITANT WORKERS PARTY IN THE BRITISH ISLES
The face of bourgeois politics in Europe has changed over the last year. However, there is no need for leftist militants internationally to rejoice. Although there have been changes in governmental control in a number of countries including France, Northern Ireland and presently in Great Britain no picture has emerged that, except for the general opposition to the United States-led Iraqi War, links any of these developments to an increase in social struggles. On the contrary, except perhaps for the far-left in France, the opposite appears to be the case. Obviously, the situation in France is the most worrisome for leftists and the situation in Northern Ireland appears almost tragic against the original IRA/Sinn Fein struggle to get the British out. Today, however, I want to focus on the recent resignation announcement of one Anthony Blair, British Prime Minister-President George Bush’s pet poodle but also seemingly the last major international political player who unequivocally went down the line with American imperialist policy on Iraq.
Mr. Blair made no bones about his desire of turning the tepid reformist Labor Party into a mini-version of the United States Democratic Party. He carried this transformation out with Mr. Gordon Brown the heir presumptive to the leadership of the British Labor Party and probable next Prime Minister. In this endeavor they were, sad to say, successful. New Labor is dependent on the trade unions but that is less so than in the past. It is clear that in Britain a new workers party is necessary. That means that militants there must put themselves in a position to split the left-wing of New Labor and create a new party based on a socialist program. That means it is necessary to be in that New Labor Party even if one has to hold one's nose in doing so.
To state the task is easy. To do it is obviously much harder given the British labor movement’s seeming undying commitment to the traditions of the old Labor Party. But damn there is no other way forward. One last point that should shame all militant leftists. After ten years Mr. Blair is going to be able to resign. For his criminal role in Iraq as Mr. Bush’s publicity agent and spear carrier Mr. Blair should have, for starters, been booted out on a vote of no confidence by Parliament long ago. Real justice still waits to be served.
Interesting to hear views from outside the UK on the tasks for the left here - so often people try to transplant their local political situation onto that in other countries, and it's refreshing to read a US militant who understands that the Labour Party is not, yet, like the US Democrats.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that Blair should have been removed forcibly by the labour movement years ago rather than being able to choose the time of his departure for himself. The sad fact is that most left activists in the UK choose not to join the Labour Party, therefore denying themselves any kind of role which could have achieved such an outcome.
The unions will, one day soon, be forced to assert themselves against the remnants of the Blairites still running the Labour Party in Government, and it may happen sooner than we think. What the outcome of that will be, a split or a new party or a wholesale transformation of the Labour Party itself, remains to be seen, although some outcomes are more likely than others. What is clear is that imagining that there might be some other way forward to a new mass workers' party, other than by taking to task the people who claim to lead the current one, is only distracting us from the task in hand.
GOOD POINTS AND WELL WORTH PONDERING FOR ALL MILITANTS AS WE ARE IN MANY WAYS IN THE SAME BOAT POLITICALLY. GOOD LUCK
ReplyDelete