Bring down Boris – build the fight for a general election

By Matt Dobson

The election of Eton-educated toff Boris Johnson by the ageing, aloof and shrinking Tory membership came as no surprise. For the capitalist elite, however, it escalates the political crisis in Britain, leaving them without a safe pair of hands to carry out their interests.

Johnson’s pledge that the UK will leave the EU “with or without a deal” by October 31 threatens the stability of their profit agenda.

Boris as prime minister will inflame the irreconcilable conflict in the Conservative Party. The only thing they agree on is the need to Stop Corbyn!

Corbyn’s limited program alone is not their main fear, but the aroused expectations his government entering Downing Street would trigger among workers and youth. 

When parliament returns in September he is likely to be met with immediate no confidence votes. Labour but also remainer Tory MP’s, Liberals, the SNP and others have pledged to bring him down if it becomes clear the trajectory of the Johnson government is for no deal. 

Sections of the capitalist class, supported by as many as 60 right wing Labour MPs, pro EU Tories, the Liberals and even the Greens and the SNP, are looking at the option of forming a national government to block a no deal, keep Corbyn out and even reverse Brexit.

Such a government would be a tool to attack the working class. But it would also run the risk of the capitalists running out of alternative options and fuelling support for the left and Corbyn. 

If no withdrawal treaty is agreed by 31 October, the default position is that the treaty obligations between Britain and the remaining EU27 countries will no longer apply. To obtain a further extension the UK government needs to request one, and an EU summit agree to it and its terms unanimously.

The EU27 countries, at the time of writing, are maintaining a unified position. The current ‘Brexit-in-name-only’ 585-page legal withdrawal treaty agreed with May is not up for renegotiation.

But the more ambiguous, non-binding political declaration could be recast, they say. The EU27 leaders do not wish for a disorderly Brexit or for ‘Brussels’ to be blamed if the whole process collapses.

Cosmetic changes are unlikely to satisfy the hard Brexiteer European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MP’s. All of this points to Johnson going for an early snap election to try for a ‘personal mandate’ to pre-empt the inevitable collapse of his government.

Such a general election would take place amongst international volatility and a worsening economic outlook. Over the next few weeks there are opportunities to push the needs of our class onto the agenda that the left Labour leadership and the trade unions must grasp. 

Corbyn’s approach

The approach adopted so far by Corbyn and McDonnell of constant unrequited compromise with the capitalist wing of the Labour Party, who have the whole establishment behind them, must cease.

For the belligerent Blairites, the key issue on which to undermine the left Labour leadership is fighting to shift the party into supporting a second EU referendum and reversing Brexit.

If Corbyn is seen to reverse the result of the referendum, it would massively alienate important sections of the working class for whom voting leave was a protest against being forced to pay for the capitalist crisis of 2007-8.

This would give space to Boris Johnson to run a right wing populist, seemingly anti-establishment campaign in defence of the Brexit vote which could even secure the Tories a future general election.

It is urgent to launch an all out campaign to deselect pro-capitalist Labour MPs and call on Labour councillors and MSP’s to fight Tory cuts as part of a program to transform Labour into a real workers’ party.

Corbyn and McDonnell should stand up to Tom Watson and the cabal of right wingers in the Scottish parliamentary Labour party and clearly defend the right to a second independence referendum. 

If Corbyn and the Labour left fail at this critical time to represent the interests of workers and trade unions, they will rightly be compelled to act to organise their own political representation. 

Build the fightback

It is a mistake to solely rely on parliamentary no confidence votes alone to inflict defeats on Johnson’s Tories. A mass working class movement could bring down the government. The mass anger is there to be mobilised if a lead was shown.  

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) is calling on Corbyn and the TUC to call for mass demonstrations, rallies for socialist polices and nationally co-ordinated strike action against poverty pay, austerity and the bosses offensive and for a general election.

A bold call for a fightback could bring together the strikes and working class action already taking place; the Harland and Wolff occupation in Belfast, Bradford hospital strikers, postal workers walking out against bullying and striking Sainsbury’s distribution centre workers.

Correctly the young school student climate strikers have chanted Tories Out on their demonstrations and would join such a mobilisation.

Nationalisation of the shipyards in Belfast and Greenock, Honda Swindon, the Caley railworks, British steel, Ford Bridgend and bringing Royal Mail and the railways back into public ownership would receive mass support.

As would policies such as a immediate £10 an hour minimum wage for all workers, the scrapping of cruel universal credit and an end to all cuts to council services. On such a manifesto Labour could win a general election by a landslide. 

With a concrete chance that their lives would be transformed, after a dire decade of austerity, workers, the poor and young people would be enthusiastic to struggle.

Of course the bosses and the capitalist class would engage in a bitter campaign of sabotage. That’s why it’s crucial to go further. A left government would need to nationalise the major corporations and banks to take the power out of the hands of the 1%. 

A Corbyn government would then be in a stronger position to negotiate a Brexit deal in the interests of the working class. While making an appeal to workers and youth across Europe, Corbyn could demand a deal that clearly ends all pro-privatisation, anti-worker EU laws and raise the call to fight for a socialist Europe.