Review of the UK General Election 2017
Friday, June 09, 2017
The British parliament is hung and several negotiations are underway to forge unity to form a Tory government after the Theresa May led Conservatives failed to reach the magic figure of 326 in the parliament to form a majority. The unionist DUP of North Ireland has promised to support the Tories to keep the Corbyn led Labour Party out of 10 Downing Street. This endeavour will now help Ms May to stir across the hurdles towards forming her government once again.
This election result, which the Conservatives won with a slightly higher margin than the Corbyn led resurgent Labour Party, shows that a large section of the British population has become extremely concerned and are agonised by the austerity measures that the Conservative Party has imposed upon them since 2010. Despite holding their strong base in the northern parts, the Labour Party forayed into new areas and wrested 31 more seats than its 2015 tally. The Labour Party won seats like Canterbury, Plymouth and Ipswich, where their victory was unexpected and unbelievable to many political pundits.
The British and international monopoly and finance capital is sinking deep in the quagmire of an economic crisis that has never ceased to haunt them since 2008’s American sub-prime crisis, and now, the banks and the big corporations want to have greater share of wealth for their sustenance and they are intensifying their pressure on friendly governments throughout the world. Theresa May’s government was not an exclusion.
In Britain alone, £93 bn was given to corporate houses by the government in form of rebates, tax breaks and grants from the public exchequer, which means every year, £3500 per household goes towards the corporate world’s welfare, at a time when the common people, especially the working class and the lower-income groups, are facing immense challenges as the government keeps on cutting down welfare spending, emergency services including the NHS and social security.
Such unapologetic corporate bootlicking by the government of Britain and the growing income disparity in the British society has transformed many hardcore Conservative supporters into Labour supporters, though they are miles away from any revolutionary endeavour to change the social and political system of Britain. Lack of employment and underpaid jobs, which are basically unsecured, coupled with a heavily debt-oriented economy has crippled the opportunities for the British youth and unemployed people.
According to this report, though the number of unemployed people in the UK has reduced to 1.56 mn in March 2017, 45,000 less than September to November 2016, the experts and the Bank of England itself has claimed that the unemployment will rise 5.5 % once the real effects of the Brexit referendum will be felt(Ms May is in haste to negotiate the Brexit with Brussels now that she will form a government).
Even those who are getting employment, are getting them on wages that are far below the real wages, as the analysis from economist Geoff Tily shows that the real wages in the UK have fallen 1% every year between 2008-2015. Using the global data released by the ILO, the analysis showed that the UK ranks 103rd among 112 countries in the world in terms of real wage growth. According to The Economist, real wages rose only 1.9% in February, while the inflation hit 2.3%. It doesn’t need any special pointer to tell that the working class is forced to carry the cross of this crisis caused by the greedy capitalist system on its own shoulders.
The angry and disgruntled working class of Britain, including the immigrant workers, who are considered cheaper substitutes for slightly expensive British or Scottish workers, have provided a much required impetus to the Labour Party, which is harping for a chance to wrest control of Britain under the leadership of the pink socialist, Jeremy Corbyn -the parliamentarian who is packaged as a demi-revolutionary by the British and the international corporate media as he happens to be their best bait in case of a total collapse of the Conservative regime.
Jeremy Corbyn’s left-leaning, yet quite diplomatic rhetoric won’t lead the British working class and the traditional Labour Party supporters to a haven of egalitarianism. He and the Labour Party (despite being called the socialist and left-leaning Labour Party) will function as a shock-absorber for the British ruling class and monopoly-finance capital. The agenda of nationalising of the railways or key industries won’t usher in the dawn of socialism, rather, they will help the British capitalists with more money from the public exchequer and help them run their crisis-ridden business enterprises with the help of a trained bureaucracy that is paid from the tax payer’s money.
But despite utmost opportunism exhibited by the Labour Party, the British working class and the low-income groups showed, by voting the party, that they have decided to go against the Tory regime led by Theresa May. The outcome of this general election shows that despite managing to win 41% votes, the Conservative Party is not in a position to rejoice because the Labour Party managed 39% votes and is breathing on the shoulders of the Tory’s.
Britain desperately needs a change, for the better, and it needs it very soon. However, no such changes will be coming through such highly publicised and picnicked parliamentary polls, rather through hardcore militant struggle by the working class for democracy, socialism and liberation from the yoke of capitalist exploitation that leads the class towards destitution. The banner of this movement for a revolutionary change cannot remain pink, but crimson, the universal colour of the working class’ fraternity.
Therefore, to lead them towards socialism, which can be called the only antidote to the toxic condition in which the working class and the low-income group people lives in the UK, there is a dire need to establish a revolutionary centre and a political party of the working class that can on one hand be the vanguard of the working class on one hand, while on the other, combat all forms of opportunistic politics that will aim to curtail the revolutionary potential of the working class. Only under such a vanguard force the working class of Britain and its poor can defeat the ruling classes, thwart the neo-colonisation plans hatched by the British ruling classes and liberate themselves from the filth of capitalism and its exploitation.
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