Sunday, June 4, 2017

British Elections: Dear comrades, be aware of social democracy bearing gifts

EDITORIAL

On Saturday 8th June, the working people of Britain will be called to choose between two versions of bourgeois management: The Conservative Party of Prime Minister Theresa May or the Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn? Despite their existing individual differences regarding the mix of policies, both parties serve the capitalist system. They are both thoroughly bourgeois parties, fully committed to the goal of promoting the profits of the capitalists.

What is at stake for Britain's bourgeois class on the June 8th elections is the following: The terms upon which Brexit will take place, so that the interests of the British monopolies will be served in the best possible way. In any case, either with the Conservatives or the Labour Party in the government, the country's bourgeoisie will manage to safeguard her own interests.

The working class of Britain have tasted both the two bitter choices of the bourgeois political system. The communists of Britain- the real communists, not the various opportunist charlatans- have enough experience of the role that the Labour Party has played in the country's political history. They certainly know how social democracy disguises herself behind radical rhetoric and empty promises in order to get the votes of the workers and the popular strata. The new leadership of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is no exception.

Mr. Corbyn, who poses as a “radical” and a “socialist”, is nothing but a political representative of social democracy. Like Tsipras in Greece, he uses radical left rhetoric (including socialist slogans) in order to foster illusions within the working class that another, supposedly “humane”, capitalism is possible. This is a very well known strategy of social democracy that always leads to the weakening of the class-based labor movement and the disillusionment of the working class.

Like SYRIZA in Greece, Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party consists the left “reserve force” of capitalism. Despite their different backgrounds, SYRIZA and the Labour Party foster illusions among the people that there can be a better form of management of the exploitative capitalist system, despite the dominance of the monopolies. This is what social democracy does: exploits the pain and agony of the people by offering an illusionary “radicalism” within the “walls” of the system, inside the imperialist alliance of the European Union.

Britain's working class can draw valuable lessons and conclusions from the case of SYRIZA in Greece. The experience of the 2 years of SYRIZA’s governance demonstrates that it did not want to nor was it able to prepare the people for a confrontation against the austerity memorandums and the monopolies precisely because it had no orientation for resistance and conflict. On the contrary, SYRIZA deceived the people that it could pave the way for pro-people changes inside the predatory alliance of the EU. The developments consist a very clear expression of the failure of the so-called “governmental left” and of the theory that the EU can change its monopolist and anti-people character.

The communists, the marxists-leninists in Britain must not entrap themselves in the thought that says “let's support Corbyn in order to oust the Tories from the government”. The major problem is not the manager of the system, but the system itself. Neither May nor Corbyn- or any other bourgeois political leader- can offer actual solutions to the problems of the working class, because these problems are rooted in the capitalist way of production.

The only solution for the working people of Britain lies in the creation of a strong, class-based labor movement which will fight for the real alternative to capitalist barbarity- for the socialist perspective and people's power. The communist parties which are committed to the principles of Marxism-Leninism have the duty to contribute to the creation of a revolutionary strategy, far from trotskyite and opportunist illusions.

With all due respect to our comrades in Britain who ceaselessly fight for a better future, we must say that: Be aware of social democracy bearing gifts. No “left government” will ever satisfy the actual contemporary needs of the working class.

The only change lies towards the creation of a social alliance in a direction that strengthens the antimonopoly-anticapitalist struggle for workers’ power, the construction of a society that does not have profit as its criterion but the satisfaction of the expanding social needs, the socialist society.