Labour Party Marxists labourpartymarxists.org.uk Free - donations welcome READY TO FALL Because of acute divisions over Europe the Tories are extremely vulnerable. However, says David Sherrief, the last thing we need to replace them is a ‘normal’ Labour government Weak and wobbly heresa May’s government is low-tax, low-regulation Britain finding a recent Downing Street approach to large Of course, at Phillip Hammond’s appears intent on brushing aside the interests deeply divided and looks set “glorious” future outside both the single private companies and selected FT-100 prompting, there has been an acceptance of big capital. All in all, therefore, “big to blunderingly take Brexit market and the customs union.1 A cat in firms, in the attempt to obtain endorsement that Britain will, if it can, negotiate a business is in a difficult position”, reckons negotiations to a disastrous ‘cliff the “nest of singing birds”. for the government’s post-Brexit plans for a two-year transition period. This has been John Colley of the Warwick Business School.3 Tedge’. Despite her Florence speech, little True, the government comfortably “global Britain”, was greeted with derision. cautiously welcomed by many of the CEOs Of course, the capitalist class, though it progress is being made in Brussels. No got the European Union (Withdrawal) Technology, aerospace, pharmaceutical, and boardrooms of blue-chip companies. is the ruling class, is particularly ill-adapted breakthrough over the divorce bill. No Bill through its second reading in the energy, manufacturing, banking and financial But the lack of detail causes uncertainty, to exercising direct control over day-to-day breakthrough over the Irish border. Then Commons. The final vote was 326-290. services firms have all warned that the drifting frustration, even anguish. government operations. The main business there is Boris Johnson and his 4,000-word However, the war is far from over. Tory Brexit negotiations could lead them to transfer A recent survey of 1,000 UK businesses of members of the capitalist class is business. Sunday Telegraph manifesto calling for a MPs - not least Nicky Morgan, Dominic some operations from Britain. Toyota is reported that more than two-thirds of them The exploitation of labour and dog-eats-dog Grieve and Anna Soubry - have tabled already openly questioning the future of its needed to “know the details of any transition competition is hellishly time-consuming. amendments aimed at shooting holes into Burnaston plant in Derbyshire. arrangement after Brexit by June 2018 - just On average CEOs work “10-11 hours per May’s Brexit plans: eg, they want to include Many capitalists fear that they will face nine months from now - in order to plan day” plus weekends.4 the EU’s charter of fundamental rights. tariffs and other damaging barriers after properly”. If investment and recruitment So the capitalist class has to find itself There will also be challenges to the use of March 2019 … if there is no deal. Nor do decisions that have been put “on hold” are a political party which “can take, and so-called Henry VIII powers and demands they have any liking for the government’s to be “unblocked”, 40% of the businesses stick to, an overall and farsighted view of for a vote on final terms. This brings the leaked proposals to limit immigration say the government must set out what the the interests and needs of the system as a distinct possibility of government defeats. post-Brexit. The markets confirm what the transition will involve, when it comes to vital w h o l e”. 5 Since the 1920s that party has been sept 28 Of course, that would not trigger a general personifications of capital say. Since the June areas, such as the movement of goods, capital the Conservatives, but no longer, it seems. election. For the moment at least, May is 2016 referendum the pound sterling has and people, as well as legal arrangements.2 Today the Tories are clearly acting against the secure. Thanks to the £1 billion deal with fallen by around 20%, compared with other Far from May and her cabinet providing long-term needs and interests of the system: No.018 the Democratic Unionist Party, she would major currencies. Moody’s has meanwhile Britain with ‘strong and stable’ leadership, ie, the capitalist class as a whole. Maybe this win a vote of confidence. Nonetheless, the downgraded Britain’s credit rating from a big capital worries that party interests are reflects the increasingly cosmopolitan nature government is vulnerable and we should top AAA to Aa1, and now Aa2. Despite being put first. Hence, addressing widespread of modern capitalism - foreign investment expect compromises, gruelling late-night the requirement to pay what is in effect a concerns amongst voters about ‘unrestricted’ in Britain stood at around £950 billion in 2017 6 sittings, MPs being brought in from sick 20% premium, outward investment has immigration is being prioritised over 2015 - and therefore a hands-off approach beds and desperately fought by-elections. doubled in the last quarter. Figures such guaranteeing access to the single market. to national political parties, their national Surely, though, the government’s main as these reveal the thinking of collective Private meetings and frantic lobbying rivalries and their national machinations. problem is that a hard Brexit runs counter capital. The bet is that Britain is heading have had little effect on David Davies and True, a few big businesses, such as JCB, to the interests of the dominant sections for difficult times. In other words, Brexit his department for exiting the EU. The Westfield and Bloomberg Europe, have of big capital in Britain. For example, the is bad for profit-making. government says it has its mandate and donated considerable sums to the Tories.7 LPM SEPTEMBER 28 2017 Tories But most of the money going to Tory HQ the momentum can be maintained. But, business”.9 He has, in fact, said similar Laval and Rüffert judgements). But nor nowadays comes from very wealthy - often inevitably, Wile E Coyote realises that he things before. Eg, 18 months ago Corbyn should we have any illusions in a so-called very quirky - individuals (many of them is suspended in mid-air … then comes The Tories are still told the British Chambers of Commerce Lexit, as advocated by Labour MPs Dennis after access to government, dinners with the long plunge to the ground. that “we are natural allies”. Such statements Skinner and Kelvin Hopkins. ministers, knighthoods, membership of Since the 48.11%-51.89% referendum running ... but they ought to be taken seriously. Basically what On the contrary the EU should be seen the House of Lords, etc). result, Britain has not suffered the economic Corbyn is promising is that the “next as a site of struggle. Our task is to unite the Over the years the number of companies disaster George Osborne, Mark Carney, appear to be heading Labour government” will be a normal working class in the EU in order to end making donations has shrunk.8 Yet, Peter Mandelson and co predicted. No Labour government. A government the rule of capital and establish socialism with the bulk of Tory finances coming yanking recession. No flight of capital. This for a big fall. However, fully in the spirit of Ramsay MacDonald, on a continental scale. That would be the from the rich and the super-rich, with has allowed little UK Europhobes right and Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson, etc. That biggest contribution we can make to the hundreds of Tory parliamentarians left - from the Daily Mail to the Morning will a Corbyn-led ought to be good news for the Labour global struggle for human liberation l holding directorships, with Tory MPs Star - to claim vindication. But a Brexit government be a normal right - it shows that Corbyn can be tamed. coming from business and going back referendum result hardly amounts to Whether or not big business believes Notes to business, with the visceral hostility to Brexit. True, statisticians report that the Labour government - a Corbyn is another matter. After all, there 1 . The Sunday Telegraph September 15 2017. trade unions, it is clear that the standard British economy has been growing slower is his long established record of opposing 2 . Financial Times September 12 2017. Marxist description of the Conservative than the euro zone. It is, though, a case of imperialist wars, supporting strikes and 3 . https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/businesss- government committed to government-lobbying-brexit-isnt-working- Party as the party of big business, albeit anaemic growth compared with anaemic advocating wide-ranging nationalisation. heres-143415309.html. it with various qualifications, remains growth. Projected long-term, that heralds the ‘national interest’? And, of course, as the capitalist class 4 . Time October 16 2015. correct. Nevertheless, the tension that Britain’s continued relative decline. well knows, behind Corbyn there lies a 5 . H Draper Karl Marx’s theory of revolution Vol 1, exists between the interests of big capital Nonetheless, a negotiated hard Brexit mass membership which is expressing New York NY 1977, p324. and the direction being taken by May’s deal - let alone a hard Brexit non-deal - itself, is eager for ideas and is already 6 . House of Commons Library Debate pack Number CDP 2017/0159, September 8 2017. party and government is unmistakable. could quite conceivably result in absolute tentatively pursuing its own agenda: a 7 . The Guardian April 1 2015. The origins of this divergence lies decline. Such a prospect deeply worries mass membership which, if disappointed, 8 . B Jones (ed) Political issues in Britain squarely in electoral calculation.