Britain's Call for a General
Election
Working People Give Voice to Their Own Agenda
A general
election is to be held throughout the
state known
as the United Kingdom on Thursday, December 12. The writ was
dropped after the Early Parliamentary General Election Act
2019 was passed by the British House of Commons. The call to
hold a general election comes after a long list of failed
attempts to sort out the contradictions within the British ruling
class over the direction of the economy in Britain so as to best
benefit the demands of the financial oligarchy and the U.S.
striving for world domination and war preparations. They have
taken the form of whether to remain a member of the European
Union or not. Neither the Brexit referendum, nor the subsequent
general election called to get a solid majority behind the Brexit
talks, nor a string of failed votes in the House of Commons to get
approval for one deal after another, have sorted anything
out. On the contrary, the divisions within the government between the
factions called political parties, and within the
political parties themselves, are sharper than ever. Along with
this, the crisis of credibility and legitimacy in which the
so-called liberal democratic institutions are mired is deeper
than ever. This includes the form of government and the form of
decision-making. Confidence in the government, the parties which
form a cartel party system and the House of Commons are at an
all-time low and confidence that an election will sort the
problems out is also lacking.
The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain
(Marxist-Leninist) (RCPB(M-L)) explains the matter as follows: "It is
certain
that the election will sort out nothing for the ruling elites,
embroiled in their own civil war. The old parliamentary system
and its electoral mechanisms have had their day. They no longer
function in letting power flow from a party in office to the
party in opposition which also represents the status quo. The
powers-that-be can no longer look towards a champion who will
provide a measure of stability."
The desire of Britain's working people is to have
a labour
party which is not part of the status quo. This requires blocking
the factions within the Labour Party itself that support a
neo-liberal agenda and status quo of power and privilege, which is
what has caused havoc in the British economy in this period. By
destroying the welfare state, the ruling class has privatized the
systems of health care, education and civil services as well as
transportation and turned other sectors of the economy over to
war production and the oligopolies which are marauding all
countries of the world.
RCPB(M-L) writes: "[T]he working class and people
can make a
difference by rejecting a vote for the establishment, at the very
least preventing the Conservatives from forming a majority
government, on their own or in alliance or coalition with any
other party, and instead firmly voicing their own concerns and
agenda, not relinquishing the struggle for their own rights and
interests."
"The dysfunctionality of the old parliamentary
system of
'representative democracy' has underlined that the people must
use this election to speak in their own name, and in this sense
empower themselves. That is, it is not only a people-powered
campaign that is called for, but that the striving of the people
themselves for their own empowerment is the call of the
times."
RCPB(M-L) calls on the people to reject the pro-
or
anti-Brexit
agenda which the establishment wants to impose on the people. It
calls on them to take up the agenda of the concerns of the
people. "This election provides an opportunity for the working
class and people to speak in their own name. It provides the
opportunity to go all out for democratic renewal," the Party
says.
Using the Election for Discussing and Giving
Voice
to the
Concerns of the People
"The calling of a general election is a vain
attempt to end
the impasse in Parliament and sort out the contradictions in the
ruling elite over Brexit. The election has not been called by the
establishment in order to empower the people to decide the future
direction of society, but to impose an agenda and try and justify
business as usual with claims that the electorate have given the
status quo a mandate. The working class and people will not
accept this cynical state of affairs and are determined to go all
out to pursue their own agenda," the Party writes.
"This election
has been characterized by manoeuvring and
shenanigans from the outset. Going into the election, the
speculation is over alliances and backroom deals. This is now
the usual feature of the crisis-ridden cartel-party system and
the chronic inability to predict outcomes.
"After the interregnum of the May Government,
which had
attempted to represent stability through government by police
powers, and was defeated in its attempt to win a majority on that
basis, the rise of Boris Johnson has represented the end of a
stable and functional state of affairs in British politics.
"Furthermore, the presentation of the issues is to
deprive
people of an outlook that clearly views the civil war between the
ruling factions for what it is and instead sets its own agenda.
Rather, the disinformation poses the people as categorized into
opposing camps. There is a burning need to defend the unity of
the people and reject this division.
"On the basis of this polarization of the polity,
the
narrative and presentation directs all attention to the leaders
of the cartel parties and poses the issue as one of
personalities.
"Manoeuvring, division, categorization over
'values,' and so
on, aim to block the people from thinking for themselves and
speaking in their own name, as do the constant polls and
punditry. Reducing the matter to numbers and tactics serves to
obscure the actual human relations that exist, and the actual
issues in society that arise out of those relations.
"In these conditions and where people do not
decide the
electoral process, the candidates and their platforms, nor
determine what are presented as the election issues, in spite of
all the blocks and attempts to preserve the old arrangements,
people need to create conditions for a new democratic personality
to emerge.
"In this election, the times are calling for
discussion to be
organized, discussions characterized by everyone presenting their
own thinking. Rather than succumb to the pressure to follow the
traditional 'hustings,' or 'question time-style debate,' the
division into candidate and elector can be ended by finding new
forms in which all participants, whether 'panel' or 'floor,' are
encouraged to speak about their experiences and present their
views.
"RCPB(M-L) and its activists pledge to go all out
to do just
that in the coming days and weeks."
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 26 - November 10, 2019
Article Link:
Britain's Call for a General
Election: Working People Give Voice to Their Own Agenda
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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