Only Labour can stop Johnson’s coup
John McDonnell is absolutely right to say that Johnson’s suspension of Parliament is a “very British coup”, writes Andy Stowe. A government of hard right ideologues is shutting down the very thing they argued should be sovereign.
This is a serious challenge to the the entire British labour movement and takes the situation to a new level. It is an almost insurrectionary measure by a government which wants no opposition to get in its way. Trump and Putin must admire the boldness of it.
Labour is key to stopping this move and preventing a no-deal Brexit on October 31st. Fortunately, whilst the Corbyn leadership has equivocated on taking a clear pro-remain position for a long time this changed yesterday when Corbyn took the leadership of the anti-Brexit campaign by calling a meeting of the leaders of the opposition parties to discuss the Parliamentary tactics for the coming weeks.
Whether this was a factor in Johnson’s decision today we will never know. But it does put Labour in a strong position to lead the struggle at all levels against a hard right project that is out to destroy jobs and hand chunks of the NHS to US corporations. Whilst Labour might feel that it has to make some nod to petitioning Elizabeth Windsor, this is class struggle and it must be opposed by class struggle methods – i.e. inside and outside Parliament and on the streets and in the workplaces. If Johnson win this we will be in deep trouble.
On one side stand Farage, Rees-Mogg and Johnson heading an alliance of the heirs of Enoch Powell, devotees of Ayn Rand, English nationalists and the DUP. On the other, as we saw at all the anti-Brexit demonstrations, migrant workers, progressives and internationalists. These are the supporters of free movement for half a billion and the opponents of climate change.
The biggest demonstrations of recent years have been those opposing Brexit. Virtually everyone with any grasp of British politics knows it is the big fault line and that stopping Brexit is the slogan which will get hundreds of thousands on the streets in England, Scotland and Wales. It now falls to Labour to get its hundreds of thousands of members to organise huge protests and demonstrations.
Johnson’s coup is an opportunity for Labour. The resistance to the Tory Brexit is also an inextricable part of the election campaign which has now started. A radical programme for government and stopping Brexit with mass action is how we stop the coup.
Join the nationwide wave of protests on Saturday 31 August https://www.anothereurope.org/stopthecoup-join-the-nationwide-wave-of-protests/
It cant be emphasized enough that throughout this long drawn out and pained process of Brexit, Britain’s attempted separation from the EU, based upon the division and divergence within The British Ruling Class and British Capitalism and the development of the coalition of The New Right(Law and dis-order).
The Plan was always to bring about a much closer re – alignment of British and US imperialism, economically, politically and militarily.
It could be argued that this is the last throw of the dice for these divisive reactionary right wing, racist and nationalist forces as they have no clear hopeful of optimistic vision for the future other than to take full advantage of the chaos of The Global Climate Emergency,change and crisis by preaching ignorance and entrenchment of the idea of climate change denial.
The recent lunatic ‘idea’ floated by Trump to use NUCLEAR WEAPONS(in reality they’ve actually been nuking the climate for deacdes) against hurricanes and tornadoes to stop climate change is but an indication of what sort of World these people inhabit coupled with Aron Banks’ nasty vicious attack on Climate change activist Greta Thornburg .
Trump, Farage and Bolsonaro show utter contempt and instant dismissal for even the idea of the existence of ‘manmade’ Climate Change created by the ravages of capitalism. It’s ‘Business as usual’ as The Amazon burns for FAST FOOD.
Dicktator Johnson and Nigel ‘fartarse’ Farage are closely aligned with Trump and his overall aims of bring together a New Right fused by nationalism, racism and reactionary ideas connecting both hard and far right forces nationally and internationally.
Enter Steve Bannon and Dominic Cummings .
It would appear that they see PROFIT AS GOD and great ‘economic’ opportunities in crashing out with a No Deal Brexit and relish the idea (with a few mere ‘bumps in the road’)as it will, in their minds, create the ‘necessary’ chaotic and destabilising conditions for bringing about a re-newed turbo charged neo-liberal(STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMME) ‘SHOCK TREATMENT'(Naomi Klein) to the ailing British capitalist economy with ‘desired’ wide ranging consequences for other European economies.
Clearly this will be to the great advantage of US capital primed to exploit the much anticipated and manufactured chaos, confusion and destabilisation, where the Johnson Government is ready to help ‘facilitate’ and assist these ‘market forces’ and rush through the necessary privatisation and deregulatory legislation by shutting down Parliament with the blessing of an unelected and unaccountable Head of State, a multi millionaire Monarch funded by the British tax payer.
The fact that US Private Health companies are already here and have been here for a quite awhile, quietly worming their way inside the NHS is a mere side matter compared with what is to come.
The so-called British ‘mainstream’ media(esp BBC) has ably assisted in disguising both this and the encroaching privatisation process with in both the NHS and State education.
The fact that crashing out on a no deal Brexit which no body ever voted for could well completely destabilise the Irish economy and bring about the breakdown in the Good Friday agreement have clearly been factured in.
Why has the idea been floated by Dicktator Johnson of a New Union between Britain and Ireland ?
How ironic, that 200 years on from Peterloo and 50 years since the Irish War ‘began’,The British Government is now acting boldly and decisively to stymy the ‘democratic process’ in Britain while having spent the last few year allowing Stormont ‘democracy’ in the North of Ireland to fall into atrophy by design ,to the great advantage of the Unionist parties with whom Johnson is closely aligned ? Of course it is no coincidence or accident that The DUP , the architects of the fall of Stormont in the North are the crucial lynchpin in keeping the Tories in power with a ONE SEAT majority in the House of Commons even when the majority in the North of Ireland voted to remain.
The idea of a United Ireland beckons , a once in a lifetime opportunity, an all Ireland vote is the minimum required.
Similarly Scotland voted by a clear majority to remain and deserves all the support it needs to move towards it’s Independence.
It was ever thus…United we stand, divided we fall !
Don’t mourn… mobilise !
As Lou Reed once famously said…..’Stick a fork in their arse, turn’em over….. they’re done !’