With the BBC exit poll released and the count underway, Labour and Keir
Starmer seem set to walk into 10 Downing Street with a plentifulmajority to back him (1). Meanwhile, the Tory party looks in disarray
with Reform slicing a large chunk out of the Conservative vote count
with the Liberal Democrats picking up seats filled with upset Tories.
Britain's electoral left on the other hand has had a mixed night with
Green and Independent success being praised by some on the electoral left.
While right-wing Labour voters may be jubilant with the Tories crashing
out of office, the workers of Britain should not be fooled - Labour will
not bring reform to the system. With the election of Keir Starmer as
Labour leader after the 2019 election revolutionaries around the country
heard once again the lies of opportunistic politicians seeking to take
power in 10 Downing Street. From 2019 to 2024 Keir Starmer dragged the
Labour Party from its centre-left position under Corbyn back to the
centre-right to reassure the capitalist class that labour and its
reformist union allies were ready to uphold their interests. Under his
rule, any conflicting elements including Socialist Appeal (2), Jewish
Labour members (3) and former Corbyn allies were often purged without
evidence in order to remove any left elements from the party.
Policy within the Labour Party in the run-up to the election swung right
in a further effort to secure the trust of British capitalists to
prevent any potential capital flight. For the workers of Britain, the
Labour Party has presented a so-called deal for workers (4) which
promises no tangible benefits or improvements for the working class and
their conditions which have hit all-time lows over the last few years.
With Labour-affiliated unions putting up no real resistance (5), the
Labour Party have surely convinced British capital that its interests
are in good hands. The Labour Party's commitment to guaranteeing the
interests of capital has won them support from the British right-wing
print media, most notably the Sun who have backed the Labour party for
the second time in the 21st century (6).
On the social issues front, Labour similarly to all other parties has
committed itself to a transphobic position with Labour shadow health
secretary Wes Streeting defending so-called 'gender critical' people
while also expressing regret over a past statement he made on trans
women. In another blatant attempt to pander to right-wing voters Labour
under Starmer has positioned themselves on the side of Transphobia (7,8)
thereby further endangering working-class transgender people in Britain.
With the majority of Brits polled being concerned about immigration into
Britain Starmer in a terrifying move openly committed to working with
the French far right to reduce immigration to Britain (9)!
The idea that Labour offers a fundamental change from the Conservative
Party is bullshit, as every British election has demonstrated. At every
election, the state and capitalists always win. A vote for any of these
reformist parties is a vote for our capitalist oppressors, if this night
has demonstrated anything it's that revolutionary change cannot emerge
from the electoral arena. Our place is with the working class, in our
collective struggles, in our communities with our community power.
After the results come in traditionally the incoming government usually
undergoes a honeymoon period where the government experiences mass
popularity in its initial stages (usually due to hatred of the previous
government), as revolutionaries and anarchist communists we cannot allow
this to happen. By allowing Labour to get comfortable in the halls of
power we are prolonging the suffering of the working class under
capitalism, it is our responsibility and commitment as class struggle
anarchist communists to get inserted and involved in social movements
and upcoming labour struggles to support our comrades and build an
effective and revolutionary counter-culture capable of mobilising the
working class not to go to the voting booth but to realise the anarchist
social revolution.
While the working class prepare for the incoming Labour government in
Westminster, what do these results mean for the various factions of
British politics? How will the collapse of the Tories, the failure of
the electoral left and the rise of Reform affect the social conditions
of Britain going forward?
The far-right looms:
In the election the Reform Party have picked up 5 seats from the
Conservative Party, this marks a turn in British politics which the
working class will have to respond to. The racist Reform party headed by
Nigel Farage seems to have increased its vote share at the expense of
the British right-wing (Labour and Tory) through a combination of voter
disillusionment and harnessing of culture war issues to mobilise those
who are becoming affected by the rapid wealth consolidation of the
capitalist class. Within this election alone the Reform Party have
demonstrated the party is distinguished by racism, homophobia, and a
commitment to worsening the conditions of the working class by any means
possible (10).
The leaked footage of Reform candidates advocating things like shooting
migrants on the South Coast demonstrates exactly why this party should
not be brushed off as just an insurgent party. The Reform party have
harnessed the immigration debate to create a divide between British and
international workers by painting the latter as a threat to the job
prospects and living standards of the former.
For the time being, revolutionaries may seem defeated. Workers and
anarchists in this country however cannot be fooled - they will be back.
Capital and its servants are both cunning and resilient, when the first
opportunity arises the Conservative Party will strike at the Labour
Party to reclaim its mantle as the primary servant of capital. Although
this may take years, we as workers must remain vigilant and combat
prejudice and vile acts wherever they occur, whether this be in the
Conservative party or elsewhere.
Despite Conservative defeat, toxic political figures including Kemi
Badenoch and Suella Braverman remain in parliament. In her election
speech, Braverman apologised for the performance of the Conservative
party and its lack of promises delivered. This rhetoric signals one
thing and one thing only, a further right-wing shift is on its way, when
centrism fails extremism takes hold. With Reform's seat count rising
they will now be forced to keep up by amping up the racism, homophobia,
transphobia, and bigotry. We cannot tolerate this nor can we wait for it
to happen, workers in this country must be on the front foot against the
far right.
The British electoral left:
The failure of the Labour Party to commit to any form of left-wing
policies has supposedly opened up a space for a left Labourist party to
swoop in and attract disaffected Corbyn voters. The Liberal Democrats
via Ed Davey have continued to target disillusioned Tory voters in the
south of England which has seen them reach their highest seat count in
their history. The Green Party for years have been seeking to position
itself on the left of the Labour Party since the fall of Corbyn by
putting forward a progressive policy platform synthesising an
environmental and Corbynista platform to mobilise students and party
activists in their quest to centralise their votes in Bristol and
Brighton to overcome the First Past the Post electoral system. The
Greens have now, in fact, quadrupled their seat count from 1 to 4.
Jeremy Corbyn as well as the independent candidate Shockat Adam (South
Leicester) have upset the political establishment by defying the Labour
Party and its party line. Although many respect Corbyn for his Palestine
advocacy and consistent commitment to centre-left policy his victory
fosters a sense of hope in reformists that change can still be done via
the ballot box. Electoral "successes" like these risk fostering this
faith even more, as anarchists communists although we may come off as
doom and gloom merchants must reject these results and continue to push
for our methods of struggle. As history has demonstrated even a
socialist vote leads to capitalism.
To the left of the Greens are the Workers Party, Revolutionary Communist
Party, TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) and the Communist
Party. Despite all these groups (except the Workers Party) subscribing
to a variation of socialism they cannot seem to get away from fielding
candidates in a bourgeois election. Anarchists throughout history have
been strong in their condemnation of electoralism as a strategy for
change, Marxists whether they be Leninists, Trotskyists or Stalinists
remain attracted to the prospect of sending their comrades into the
heart of capitalism to mobilise workers for their vanguard parties. As
every previous UK election has demonstrated this strategy has once again
failed, if this is the case then why do they do it, you may ask?
The answer to this question will largely remain unknown, despite their
so-called commitment to revolutionary politics, groups like the RCP will
find one way or another to continue practices like entryism and
electoralism in an attempt to expand their audience (e.g. to find more
people to sell newspapers). Some on the left may argue it is necessary
to have radical voices like the Greens or others in parliament and local
office to champion the interests of local people in housing struggles or
other local difficulties. The realistic and simple answer to this is
parliamentary office is far from a pre-requisite for community action,
if anything it is quite the opposite. Being drowned in paperwork and
being obsessed with retaining your power is a barrier to working within
your constituency for the benefit of your fellow workers. I do believe
Trots and their vanguard will never abandon their revolutionary
opportunism, elections like these will always remain as prime time for
Trots to platform their most popular activists in an attempt to build
the worker's vanguard (RCP...)
The futility of left electoral opposition and pushing the Labour Party
to the left:
After this election and the "success" of independent and Green
candidates, there will be many on the electoral left pushing for young
people and Corbynistas to rally around the Greens and Independents as a
force to keep the Labour Party in check and push them further left when
possible. Once again reformists have failed to understand the nature of
the political system in Westminster, the scale of the Labour Party
majority compared to the insurgent "left-wing" candidates is remarkable.
Any potential vote in the Commons which may be contentious for the left
will not be defeated by a handful of insurgent MPs in a parliament
dominated by three parties (Labour, Tory and Lib Dem) jostling for power
Influence on select committees, PMQs (Prime Minister Questions) and
10-minute rule bills provides absolutely no leverage for working-class
people in Britain who will inevitably watch as these insurgent MPs
become obsessed with reproducing their power at the next election while
simultaneously managing the heavy load of paperwork and media
obligations that all MPs have to deal with. By the time 2029 rolls
around it will be time once again for the electoral left to cry out for
support for their representatives in Westminster. When this inevitably
fails the natural course of moderation and pandering to Britain's media
elite will take hold as we have seen many times before (George Galloway...)
Those who believe that these insurgent left MPs will provide an
effective means of pushing voters and parties to the left do not
understand the nature of the British political establishment. For
decades the Labour Party has not been seeking out left-wing voters as
they have become convinced that to be capital's representatives they
must be seen as competent, this will not change given the fact Britain's
right-wing print media adore parties which are pushed further to the
right as capital and its interests do not see it as a threat. This
explanation shows why parties like Reform and UKIP/Brexit Party have
been so successful in pushing the Tories and Labour further to the
right, the print media whether it be the Sun or the Daily Mail will love
any attempt to move the British political culture further towards
authoritarianism.
Those on the electoral left seem to have also completely forgotten that
Sir Keir Starmer has been measuring his success on how well he can
"change the Labour Party" e.g. crush anyone in the party who is not a
red conservative. Labour HQ has seen purges of "socialist" and radical
party activists and MPs as a great success in changing the party to
prepare for its accession to power. Is this the party and group of
voters you want to waste your time trying to push to the left?
The inevitable challenge at the next election will not be the electoral
left (it never has been), instead, the newly elected Labour Party will
have to deal with some form of Conservative-Reform party fascistic
hybrid fuelled by race hate, transphobia, and a burning desire to become
capital's primary servant once again. This paints a dangerous picture
for the future of Britain, we are not facing a society marked by
positive change. We are facing down the far right, the ballot box and
time-wasting in elections will not stop them.
If once again the electoral left has wasted their time then what is to
be done? Anarchist communists in Britain must be capable of putting
forward a coherent idea for what workers and anarchists can do as an
alternative to going to vote. Our theory clearly states that we seek for
people to take direct action and build their capacities as workers in
preparation for the social revolution. How anarchists in Britain do this
is something which we must discuss and work towards as comrades.
What this election has demonstrated once again is that the state always
wins, once again the left has wasted its energy and will leave this
election partly demoralised. It is clear alternate strategies must be
developed, this is not something which cannot be delayed, Britain and
the world are in crisis and action is needed. To allow the Labour Party
their honeymoon period would be handing the capitalists a win, as
anarchist communists our commitment to the class struggle must be
reflected in our actions in the coming months whether that be in your
local group, labour struggle or community.
1
BBC (2024) 'We did it! Change begins now' - Starmer's victory speech.
Available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/czrj3zd0g48o
2
Rodgers, Sienna (2021) Labour's ruling body agrees to proscribe
Socialist Appeal and three other groups. Available at:
labourlist.org/2021/07/labours-ruling-body-agrees-to-proscribe-socialist-appeal-and-three-other-groups/
3
Sanders, Richard (2023)
www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-labour-party-accused-discrimination-expelling-jewish-members.
Available at:
www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-labour-party-accused-discrimination-expelling-jewish-members
4
Labour Party (2024) LABOUR'S PLAN TO MAKE WORK PAY Delivering A New Deal
for Working People. Available at:
labour.org.uk/updates/stories/a-new-deal-for-working-people/
5
GMB (2024) How Labour's New Deal for Working People will transform the
world of work. Available at:
www.gmblondon.org.uk/departments/political/political-news/labour%E2%80%99s-new-deal-for-working-people
6
The Sun (2024) The Sun says it's time for a change. Available at:
www.thesun.co.uk/news/28935096/its-time-for-a-change/
7
Hansford, Amelia (2024) Labour's Wes Streeting says it's 'wrong' to
write off 'gender-critical' people as bigots. Available:
www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/labour-s-wes-streeting-says-it-s-wrong-to-write-off-gender-critical-people-as-bigots/ar-BB1nfVGX
8
Hansford, Amelia (2024) Labour's Wes Streeting no longer stands by
statement 'trans women are women'. Available at:
www.thepinknews.com/2024/04/11/wes-streeting-labour-trans-women/
9
Cecil, Nicholas (2024) Labour government would work with France's
Far-Right on 'small boats' crisis if both win power - Starmer ally.
Available at:
www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/labour-election-france-far-right-marine-le-pen-small-boats-channel-immigration-b1168325.html
10
Uddin, Rafe (2024) Sunak criticises Reform activist after racist
outburst. Available at:
www.ft.com/content/837dadb7-47b5-4c9c-94bc-6263fab28f99
https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2024/07/07/do-not-give-the-labour-party-a-honeymoon-period/
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