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."

(Workers' Weekly No. 19, November 16, 2019. Photos: Workers' Weekly)


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


    

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