Blairite mutiny over McDonnell indyref2 pledge – Build a real mass working class party
By Philip Stott
The tumultuous Brexit crisis under Boris Johnson’s leadership has opened a new phase of instability for British capitalism. Increasingly it’s the threat of a break-up of the UK that is exercising mounting concern.
Gordon Brown, co-architect of New Labour, has opined that Johnson could be “the last prime minister of the UK”.
Writing in the Observer newspaper on 11th August, Brown commented: “We must recognise that nationalism is now driving British politics”, the UK is now “devoid of a unifying purpose powerful enough to hold it together and to keep four nationalisms – Scottish, Irish, English, and also a rising Welsh nationalism – at bay.”
While heaping responsibility for this onto Boris Johnson, Brown seems blind to the role his and Tony Blair’s big business policies played in driving support for Scottish independence.
A decade of “New Labour” neoliberal policies was marked in 2007 by the election of the first SNP government at Edinburgh. The SNP have been in power ever since. The 45% vote in favour of Scottish independence in the 2014 indyref was also, in large part, the legacy of Brown and Blair.
In truth, the centrifugal forces that are tending to the pulling apart of the UK are rooted in the failures of capitalism.
A decade of austerity, ruined public services and rising in-work poverty have all laid the basis for mass opposition to the capitalist political establishment.
For the working class in particular, demands for democratic rights for Scotland and Wales are, at root, a desire to break from the nightmare of life under a system run for the billionaire-elite.
The same factors drove the vote in favour of leaving the EU in 2016 among large swathes of working class communities across the UK.
What is needed, but is still missing, is a mass working class and political force to fight for and articulate socialist ideas. This can and should be done while standing in defence of the democratic rights of the people of Scotland and Wales to self-determination.
Systemic threat
Last week’s poll on Scottish independence underlined the systemic threat to the capitalist union. The poll in early August showed a 52:48 split in favour of independence.
Moreover, support for a second independence referendum in the next two years had also increased significantly in the last weeks, to 47% with 45% opposed.
It was both this poll and the imminence of a general election that encouraged Labour’s John McDonnell to announce in an interview in Edinburgh that a Labour government, if faced by a request from the Scottish parliament for an indyref2, “would not block something like that.
We would let the Scottish people decide. That’s democracy.” Referencing himself and Jeremy Corbyn, he went on to say “There are other views within the party but that’s our view.”
Blairites in revolt
All hell then broke lose. The Scottish Blairites launched an immediate attack. A statement from the majority of the Labour group in the Scottish parliament said: “We deplore any attempts to undermine the official policy position of the Scottish Labour Party… Scottish party policy is very clear – that is opposition to a second independence referendum.”
They cited Richard Leonard, the Corbyn-supporting Scottish Labour leader, who had in March said that if Labour won a Westminster election the party would refuse to grant a Section 30 order.
Indeed the 2017 Labour manifesto said the same thing. Which was to double-down on Labour’s abysmal collaboration with the Tories and big business as part of the 2014 Better Together debacle. This record, along with their pro-capitalist policies, has been decisive in reducing Scottish Labour to a shadow of its former political self.
The May 2019 European election saw Labour lose both their MEPs, dropping to just 9.3% support. They came fifth behind the SNP, Brexit Party, Tories and the Lib Dems. Recent Westminster polls have shown Scottish Labour MPs could face a potential wipe-out in a general election.
To Corbyn and McDonnell’s credit, at least they have taken a more sensitive attitude to the growing support for independence and demands for an indyref 2.
No doubt they are calculating that if a no-deal exit from the EU is attempted by Johnson, that support could grow even further and Labour should be responsive to that.
A minority Labour government might be faced with the need to have a “confidence and supply” arrangement with the SNP at Westminster.
Nicola Sturgeon would make a second independence referendum a key negotiating plank. A Corbyn-led government could agree to a section 30 order while pledging (mistakingly) to campaign for a No vote in any subsequent referendum. The Labour leadership also believe that the progressive left policies that they are pledging to implement would undercut support for independence.
Blackmail
If Corbyn in power was to stand up to the inevitable blackmail and sabotage of the bosses and carry through the necessary measures against capitalist interests, the nationalisation of the major sectors of the economy in particular, this would have huge appeal among the working class in Scotland.
Even then it would be crucial to stand for the right of Scotland to be independent, on the basis of majority support. An independent socialist Scotland could form a free and voluntary confederation with a socialist England, Wales and Ireland to end poverty, low pay, austerity and for a living wage for all.
As it is Tom Watson, Ian Murray and other leading Blairites have used McDonnell’s pledge to ratchet up the civl war against Corbyn. A further split away by a section of the Blairites prior to a general election is possible.
This could be linked to the formation of a government of “national unity” – which is being promoted by the Labour right, Tories, Lib Dems, and the Greens to stop a no-deal EU exit and a Corbyn government coming to power.
Corbyn and McDonnell are paying a heavy price for allowing the capitalist wing of the Labour party to remain in situ. By blocking the majority pro-Corbyn membership from having the right to de-select right wing MPs, the opportunity for big business to sabotage the possibility of left government, either before or after a general election, has been strengthened.
Corbyn’s concessions to the Blairite wing, including the continued opposition to Scottish independence and indyref2, will be an obstacle to a Labour recovery. That has to end now.
General election
Boris Johnson is preparing for a general election. By running on a right-wing, racist and populist platform, while pledging to be the only politician prepared to implement Brexit, the danger is he could win significant support. That would only be possible if Corbyn did not clearly advance a fighting left manifesto.
A manifesto that pledged to leave the EU on the basis of policies that would benefit the working class majority. By standing for massive investment in housing, public services, jobs and wages, to end Universal Credit and for public ownership of the economy, Corbyn could defeat Johnson easily.
He could also expose his pro-rich, elitist and reactionary policies and win over many who voted to remain in the EU, including in Scotland where a majority did so.
A recent poll that showed 54% (after removing those who did not know) want to leave the EU by any means, including a no-deal, underlines the dangers if Corbyn was to advocate staying in the EU and a so-called “people’s vote.
The same poll found 88% thought parliament was out of touch with the public. 89% felt MPs “ignore the wishes of voters and push their own agendas” on Brexit. This reflects a rage against the capitalist establishment that a mass working class party with socialist policies could base itself on to offer a future to millions whose lives are being destroyed by a profit-driven economic system.
Corbyn and the Labour left must act to help create such a party. The Blairites have to go, along with any Labour councillor and MSP who votes for cuts and austerity. A Labour manifesto that stands unequivocally on the side of the working class and points to the need to break with capitalism is also vital to win a general election.
If Corbyn does not act and continues to seek compromise with the capitalist class inside the Labour Party then a mass working class socialist alternative will still have to be built. Indeed given the role of SNP and Labour councillors and MSPs in carrying out cuts in Scotland it is a pressing need. The mass membership of the trade union movement will have a central role to play in that task.
