Page 15 - swtest

15
or solidarity with Palestine.
Meanwhile shadow chancel-
lor John McDonnell tried to win
over top bankers and business
leaders with promises of cer-
tainty and cooperation. “There’s
nothing up my sleeve,” he
claims to have told City fat cats.
Corbyn was also less able to
advocate the anti-war rhetoric
he was known for. Arguments
about war and terrorism were
now couched in the language
of “security” and the national
interest.
There were promises of
support for the army, and more
funding for the cops.
Labour also shifted to the
right over migration, with
promises to introduce restric-
tions on migrant workers in the
form of a divisive “skills-based”
system.
In the 2019 general elec-
tion Corbyn attempted a more
“professional” campaign. There
were no rallies or the sense of a
mass movement that had been
so crucial to his success.
And the Labour Party’s move
last year to support a second
referendum on membership
of the European Union was a
major shift from its policy in
2017.
Corbyn was unable to stand
strong in the face of pressure to
keep the line that Labour held
two years previously.
This resulted in many Labour-
supporting Leave voters feeling
that the party and Corbyn had Protesting
ignored their vote. against war (top).
Labour’s general election Accusations of
campaign failed. antisemitism led
The argument that working to attacks on
class people would never vote the Labour Party
for Labour while it had a left (above)
wing leader came back with a
vengeance.
Corbyn announced his
coming resignation.
With the pressure to appear
respectable and responsible
lifted, he suddenly started reap-
pearing at rallies and left wing
meetings.
At a protest against the threat
of war with Iran, veteran activ-
ist Tariq Ali told him, “Welcome
home.”
“We need you here,” Ali told
Corbyn. He should never have
left in the first place.
Corbyn was always at his
strongest when connected to
activity outside parliament.
But he was constantly pulled
away from that by a fatal flaw
at the heart of the Labour Party.
Labour doesn’t want to
destroy capitalism—only to
manage it and try to reform it
through parliament.
READ MORE
Antisemitism: The Far Available at Bookmarks,
Right, Zionism And the the socialist bookshop.
Left Phone 020 7637 1848
by Rob Ferguson or go to
£3 bookmarksbookshop.
co.uk
The Labour Party: A
Marxist History
by Tony Cliff, Donny
Gluckstein and Charlie
Kimber £14.99
Socialist Worker 1 April 2020
FOCUS ON
THE CRISIS
Capitalism brings people
together—perhaps to bury it
We’re encouraged
to see ourselves as
competing individuals.
But capitalism enables
collective action that
undermines those
ideas, says
Sarah Bates
NHS BOSS Dr Nikita Kanani
says she is “rallying the troops
and telling the public—
your NHS needs you”.
“This is one of those once-
in-a-lifetime moments where LEAFLETING FOR a mutual aid group in south London
a single action from one
person can be the difference themselves as more than
between life and death atomised individuals and
for another,” she said. take collective action.
Kanani was talking And working class people
A whole raft of problems about NHS Volunteers— fighting back together outside
come with that. Getting elected the hundreds of thousands- workplaces can also help to
means a constant pull to the strong initiative to support forge class consciousness.
right to attract right wing votes. health and charity services. It This solidarity cuts
Relying on parliament means echoes government rhetoric through the ideas fed from
striving for unity with right that everybody “doing their the top of society that we
wing MPs at all costs. bit” will be critical to halting are all individuals trying
The most fundamental prob- the spread of coronavirus. NHS boss Dr Nikita Kanani to climb the greasy pole.
lem is that Labour is committed When it suits those at Sometimes workers
to keeping the system going. the top of society, ordinary ruling class ideas about behave in ways that
That means proving to bosses people are encouraged to individualism. It has seen are individualistic or
a Labour government wouldn’t see themselves as part of a Tory and Labour governments greedy and accept some
pose a threat to their profits— homogeneous community. savage the welfare state, ruling class ideas.
and ultimately defending them. They cynically talk of a privatise public services But despite that working
As the coronavirus outbreak “national effort” because and shackle trade unions. class people have a common
hit Britain in earnest, Corbyn it taps into a real desire by Sometimes individualism interest—and ability—
made one last significant act as people to collectively support can fit with people’s to overthrow our rotten
Labour leader. each other. At the same experience. If you’re applying system. The revolutionary
This was to back Boris time, they’re still blaming for a job, for instance, there Karl Marx argued that
Johnson’s call for more repres- individuals for panic buying are often hundreds of other capitalism, by bringing
sive powers for the police or going to work on the Tube. people going for it too. workers together, “produces
and the state that ultimately But there is an antidote its own gravediggers”.
will only protect the needs of Contradiction to a society that divides The working class
capital. Coronavirus has heightened us. Capitalism brings holds a unique position of
It’s a sorry end to a leadership a contradiction within together huge numbers of power within capitalism.
that began with a promise to capitalism—a system that people in workplaces. One thing we’ve learned
shake the system up. pushes us together and pulls That’s not to say that in the coronavirus crisis
But it’s one that Corbyn us apart at the same time. everyone in a workplace is how workers dismissed
couldn’t avoid without People are encouraged is friends or they agree on as “low skilled” are key to
confronting the capitalist to see themselves as everything. But workers have keeping things running.
framework itself. individuals who are all a common experience of When they act together,
And that’s something Labour able to “pull themselves up being exploited by bosses. workers are able to bring the
will never do. by their bootstraps”. And, It produces the conditions system to a grinding halt.
if someone is unable to for workers to see A spirit of organised,
do this, it’s portrayed as a collective action, has
personal failing, rather than
driven the mutual aid
a result of political, social ‘‘ groups delivering food and
and economic conditions. medication to vulnerable
If someone relies on a Workers have people. And a similar desire
food bank they are often for a better world drives
painted as not trying a common other battles—opposition
hard enough. In fact it’s a experience of to war, imperialism, racism
consequence of factors such
and climate change.
as insecure, low-paid work Socialists should argue to
and benefit cuts, not poor being exploited generalise these fightbacks
household budgeting. into one that uses our
More than 40 years of by bosses collective strength to take on
neoliberalism has reinforced the entire capitalist system.