Why the UK needs a separate and viable Socialist Party.

Great powers in decline often find it difficult to adjust to their new place in the world and go through revolutionary changes at home. The obvious examples are France (1789), Russia (1917), Germany (1933), China (1949) and Russia again (1991). The decline of Great Britain has been long and slow, in the late 1940s it resulted in the NHS and the welfare state. Since the credit crunch it has resulted in a lurch to the right in an attempt to guarantee ‘British exceptionalism’.

Democracy is being undermined

Since 2019 – and before – the Conservative government have been involved in a project to undermine democracy in the UK and create a Russian-like system of nationalistic, oligarchic, one party rule. Police spies have been put in all the opposition parties and many campaign groups ( see Declassified UK) – the SpyCops bill will put these spies above the law. The first past the post electoral system is biased in favour of the Tories (see Electoral Reform Society), and so is the culture of the ruling class, that controls the police, justice system, the corporate world and provides most of the financing for political parties. Most of the mainstream media is biased towards the government, and the small parts of it that are not offer little actual opposition. Pork-barrel politics has ensured that your area will get more of the funding it needs if you elect a Tory MP.

The Labour opposition is really no better. The right of the party has no ideas on how to solve the problems of the 2008 crash, Brexit and the Covid pandemic. It is seeking to undermine democracy in its own party to ensure that those it falsely brands as ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘Trots’ will have no power – essentially disenfranchising a large portion of the population. It is able to offer no opposition to the Tories, just to the leftists in its own ranks.

The Free Market Economy

The Conservatives have rightly concluded that the free market economy is dead. Brexit having been achieved, this is the main reason why they are hanging on to the support of the ‘Red Wall’. Neo-liberal economics has led to money ‘trickling up’ to the one-percent, leaving much of the population dependent on credit and creating exactly the same conditions that led to the credit crunch – as well as leaving most of the economic and political power in the hands of the one-percent. Banks create money for investors, who put most of it into the stock-market, rather than the real economy.

The government are pumping money into the economy in an attempt to alleviate this situation, but they are doing it in an incredibly unfair manner. They are making no effort to solve the problems of the gig economy or zero-hours minimum-wage contracts. While this will create more jobs it will not create many well paid jobs, and not much effect peoples’ reliance on credit. Much of the Tories’ popularity has come through sowing division in their scape-goating of foreigners and those they consider ‘woke’.

In order to halt its decline the UK will need to become more productive. Whilst production is partially dependent on investment it is just as dependent on having a motivated and productive labour force. If ordinary people receive no share of the profits they are creating, and no control over them either, there will be little motivationto do more than the bare minimum for survival’s sake. The rich do not have to invest in production to make more money or gain more power – they do better out of the finance sector.

A Socialist solution is viable

Whilst Labour is offering us a return to the free market – even with extra money for the NHS, schools and other services – it is unlikely to win a general election, and will never solve the problems we face if it did. If a left wing leader was to replace Keir Starmer the party would again become completely divided and unelectable. Any ‘soft-left’ leader would be forced to lean to the right, as yet again the right wing would tear the party apart if they did anything else. The Labour Party has made itself useless.

In the 2017 election Jeremy Corbyn proved that Socialism is a viable idea as far as the electorate is concerned: Under Corbyn Labour won 40% of the popular vote whilst the Tories got 42% - and this was with the mainstream media basically acting as a campaigning arm of the Conservative Party and many Labour MPs actively seeking to undermine their own side. In 2019 Labour did not do as well because of bad decisions made about Brexit – mostly at the behest of the right of the party.

A viable democracy would have parties of the left, centre and right – what is the point of two centrist parties and no left wing one? The left could do without these cuckoos in the nest. Whilst there is little that can be done about the mainstream media whilst the Tories are in control, the left could do itself a favour and split off from politicians who want to undermine it more than they want to undermine the government. Whilst there are other Socialist parties in existence, they are very small and stand no chance under our electoral system. A party made up of what is now the Labour Socialist Campaign Group – about 30 MPs – would have some chance.

An independent and viable Socialist Party

Turning the SCG into a separate party would be a gamble. But if this does not happen our country is doomed to decline, corruption and possibly authoritarianism. Socialism would be wiped out of British politics. Please support my petition to the Labour Socialist Campaign Group to split off from Labour. Even if you do not consider yourself a Socialist, this may restore democracy, provide an opposition, and it will give the electorate a viable choice.

Go to the Petition.

Martin Gooding