A member of our Party was sent an unsolicited letter by the Labour Party under the heading “Have Your Say”.
You were not allowed to give your opinion about the Labour Party but were directed to a questionnaire to respond to a survey which obliged you to reply in a particular way. You could not give your opinion on the anti-working-class Labour Party or its authoritarian leader Keir Starmer.
In the letter you were told that Labour had “missions for Britain”. We were told that “for too long working people have been held back”. Reference was then made to “our economy”, “our public services” and “our communities” which were supposed to be “in crisis”. Labour’s objective was to solve these problems and make “a Britain” that “can stand tall again”.
What is Labour’s “mission for Britain”. Its mission is not to question capitalism or the capitalist class. It is not to question the private ownership of the means of production and distribution – the private ownership of land, raw resources, factories, communication and transport system, and distribution points. It is not to question the profit system and class exploitation.
In fact, the working class “are held back”, but not by the Conservative Party – popularly known as the Tory Party. They are held back by capitalism. Only socialism, the common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and distribution can free them from the profit system. Only socialism can allow free access to what workers need to live fulfilling and creative lives.
Capitalism is not “our economy”. It is the capitalist class who see their “economy” protected by the armed forces of the State. The armed forces protect the private ownership of the means of production through capitalist governments and the Labour Party is no different in this endeavour than so called ‘right wing’ political parties. Labour, like the Tories, have used troops to break strikes and imprison workers.
We are an exploited class who produce but do not own. It is the capitalist class who live off the unearned income of rent, interest and profit.
Workers do not own the public services. In health, education and housing the working class get second best or not at all. The capitalist class get the best. It is their system, one which the Labour Party supports and defends.
And it is not “our Britain” either. Workers do not have a country. We have no raw resources to defend, no trade routes to protect, no spheres of influence to maintain. We own nothing but our labour power.
We should also not forget the Labour Party’s contribution to war and the death and destruction of thousands of workers throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
Over half million Iraqi children died following the imposition of UN sanctions enthusiastically supported by Britain under a Labour government. Labour now gives unconditional support for NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine which see Russian and Ukrainian workers kill each other daily in their hundreds.
What we say is that workers should ignore the Labour Parry and other capitalist parties. Workers should organise politically and democratically to replace capitalism with socialism. That is what socialists say and the more socialists do say this, the nearer we come to creating a world fit for human beings not wage-slaves.
