Tories Out! On the picket lines, on the streets, at the ballot box!
The collapse of Truss’s short-lived administration has only added to the crisis overwhelming Britain. The Tories have no solution to the human, ecological, economic, or political crises either in Britain or the world because they are part of the problem. The only things that have come out of the latest Tory mess are more fear about the future and chaos on the capitalist market. They are tied in a knot by their own ideology and the consequences of a decade of disaster capitalism.
Truss managed to bring everything to a head by winning a leadership election amongst Tory members who were both reactionary and not politically astute. Her emergency budget was too extreme even for the money markets. The collapse of her leadership has only ushered in another phase of the crisis. The chaos has allowed for the possible return of the supreme agent of chaos-Boris Johnson.
To placate the markets, the new chancellor of the exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has promised deep cuts to public spending after a decade of austerity and low wages. But this would put Tory seats in areas that used to be controlled by Labour at risk and could make stagflation even worse. This is a capitalist party that has no new ideas and is increasingly at odds with the needs of the capitalist class itself.
Fight for a general election
It is clear that the Tories have to be booted out – now. An election has to be fought for by strengthening the fight back on the streets, not merely as a debate at Westminster. The clear democratic deficit between what people want and the Tories’ policies has to be exposed and sharpened.
A concerted effort to call a general election when the Tories are so low in the polls calls their legitimacy into question and hurts their claim that they have a mandate to cut public services to make the financial markets happy. Active calls for the Tories to be voted out keep the initiative with our movement.
Some within our movement are arguing that the time is not right. They think we should focus on the strikes or that a Labour government led by Keir Starmer would be worse than the Tories. We disagree—there is no disconnection between the economic and social struggles and the political. Regardless of who is in power, the working class resistance must be built and strengthened through expanding the strikes and escalation.
If there was a large-scale general strike that raised questions about political power, we would be against a general election because it would be a clear attempt to demobilise the movement, like what French President Charles de Gaulle did during the 1968 revolution.
Labour in power
The only alternative government to the Tories available at the moment is represented by Labour. We back a Labour vote because millions of people, many of them workers, will support Labour and want them to be a left alternative to the Tories. We do not advocate a Labour vote because we like the leader or based on the strength of the left within the party. Labour will never deliver an anti-capitalist socialist alternative. But in the past, it has had progressive policies that, to varying degrees, have partly protected the interests of the working class. A Labour government can create space to shift key policies (like scrapping the anti-trade union laws). But more importantly, it puts them to the test of power—is Labour going to be as progressive as people hope? If not, what are the alternatives?
Starmer has worked hard to get rid of the legacy of Corbynism so that our capitalist rulers will accept Labour. So we call for a Labour government with no illusions. Socialists fight to make such a government as responsive to working class needs as possible. To establish a genuine opposition to capital, we must popularise essential demands like inflation-proof wage increases, community ownership of utilities, the repeal of anti-democratic public order measures, protection for all migrants, a more radical green transition, and so on. The Anti-Capitalist Resistance will work with all activists and political currents in the labour and ecological movements who agree with such a perspective. Such a movement will involve activists inside and outside the Labour Party.
Build the opposition on the picket lines and in the streets
But a Labour government would only shift the focus of the struggle, not end it. The working class movement has to stand strong in the developing crisis. We have to lead the resistance from the base of our communities in action. Whether on a picket line at work, battling tenant evictions, taking direct action against the expansion of fossil fuels, standing up to anti-woke “divide and rule” racism, or fighting for social care and against low-income benefits, the working class, with all its diverse people, must unite.
While we must have something to say to those who look to Labour for hope, we must also speak to marginalised communities who have been relentlessly attacked by this Tory regime (Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller; LGBTQ+, and especially trans people; Black, Palestinian, and disabled people, and many others) who are distrustful of a Labour Party with its own entrenched racism, transphobia, and other electorally “justified”, “respectable” prejudices.
This can only happen when grassroots struggle is rising – and that is now. There is a crisis at the heart of British democracy that calls for radical action. A general election will shift the balance of power, but we can go further. We should make sure that democracy is responsive to our needs by calling for proportional representation and other constitutional changes, like getting rid of the monarchy, the House of Lords, and prerogative powers. This is not only a crisis of one party, but of our entire system of representation.
Our key slogans over the next few months are:
- Fight for a general election;
- Tories out;
- Escalate and coordinate the strikes;
- For wage settlements and benefit increases at least in line with RPI inflation.
If you agree then join ACR today.
JOIN THE PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY DEMONSTRATION ON 5 NOVEMBER IN LONDON CALLING FOR A GENERAL STRIKE
On Thursday 27 October at 7.30 pm we will be discussing via zoom ”Britain in Crisis – Tories in Crisis – What Next?” for a link and more details please see here.
We at the Anti*Capitalist Resistance wish to hear your views too. If you have an opinion about either this or another piece we have published, please contact us at editorial@anticapitalistresistance.org to share your comments, criticisms, and ideas. We will consider any email marked for publication for “Letters to ACR” or as a future ACR article.
I am surprised that your four ‘key slogans over the next months’ does not include a demand on state spending. As you know, public services are collapsing, with dire effects on the daily lives of the majority of people, and intolerable work conditions for public sector workers. (As the head of the nurse’s union has said, the NHS is already over the precipice.) All regulatory agencies have been cut; even if the political will to regulate were there regulation would be impossible (the head of the Environment Agency made this point after her recent retirement). Hence the vanishing regulation of awges and health and safety, the environment and taxation – all of which have terrible consequences for working class lives. The labour movement should demand an immediate restoration of public spending on services and regulation to at least 2010 levels, allowing for inflation and demographic change. This should be a central demand of Enough is Enough and the People’s Assembly, which are now the vanguard of the labour movement.
I agree Jamie, especially since we know that further cuts are coming and it is a direct response to plans of the Tory government. Given the state of the NHS, education, and social care (for example) we need to demand a restoration of funds as this affects the working class as workers and as those in need of services. So, I concur and it should be added to the demands.
good point Jamie, we should probably add that
There are many demands that can be put forward by ecosocialists as Jamie points out but I think it is right that the main demand is to focus on bringing down the Tories – and the only force capable of united action on a scale to achieve that un the near future is the industrial struggle. Excellent news that UCU have voted for a UK-wide strike over pay for the first time.
But it should not be forgotten that the final straw that brought Truss down was a ham-fisted attempt to shore up support for fracking in England, and both Truss and Sunak want to massively increase the extraction of fossil fuels by both fracking and issuing hundreds of licences for new North Sea oil and gas fields. While it is good that Enough is Enough rightly brings forward the demand for energy price reductions and controls, it is also necessary to link this to climate change and the need for an immediate and massive shift towards renewables and insulation, decoupling the energy market from gas prices, and full public ownership of energy systems (not Starmer’s mixed economy “Great British Energy” sop that leaves the super-profiteers still in place and that earlier municipal attempts at has already cost the council tax payers of Labour councils in Bristol and Warrington £millions).
Enough is Enough is a good initiative to unify the opposition, support the strikes and oppose energy price rises, but it’s very much top-down. Its five demands include two areas that are devolved and therefore it is anglo-centric; it has yet to relate to the importance of the parliaments in Edinburgh and Cardiff. The Scottish Parliament for example has now agreed with the radical Scottish tenants’ union Living Rent and brought in emergency legislation, now in law, for a six month rent freeze and ban on no fault evictions. This was a huge victory but is barely mentioned in the English-dominated media. It needs to be replicated by Labour in Wales immediately and pressed for by Englands Labour councils/Mayors to bring much more pressure on Westminster.
I also have reservations about Enough is Enough on the points you raise Mike and additional points that they refuse to discuss benefits and how the current situation is impacting upon disabled people, women and people of colour so deeply due to women’s role in social reproduction, disablism and racism in this this society. There are no specific demands raised on these issues. One wonders if somehow there is not a recognition that the working class includes the reserve army of labour and that benefits are literally enabling survival for those with the lowest incomes and disabled people. How can this be ignored at this time with inflation and real wages and benefits being eroded?