Labour has deserted the working class

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

socialist_unityRMT general secretary Bob Crow has accused Labour of deserting the working class and called for a new political party rooted in the trade unions after Ed Miliband promised Labour would cap benefits spending if elected to office.

The fact is that Bob Crow is absolutely right when he said that the Labour Party has deserted the working class and is did that already under Tony Blair when “New Labour” was created and under Ed Miliband with the “One Nation Labour” it is getting worse still.

The Labour Party now, under Miliband, is having a tiswas with the trade unions because it has been accused of being in the pockets of the trade unions and thus they are going to cut their nose off in spite their face and want to distant themselves from the movement that gave the party birth.

Labour has moved so far to the right that it is difficult to differentiate between that party and the Tories and one could, as I have done before, refer to them as the left-wing conservatives while the Lib-Dems are middle ground conservatives. The once party of the working class, Labour, has become a party full of toffs and people who have never done a real day's work in their lives and are about as far removed from the working class and the lives of the real working people as Moscow is from Cape Town; further probably.

The Labour Party rose out of the trade unions and the movements of the working class but, since Blair, has been stabbing the working class in the back. Ever since the death of John Smith the Labour Party has been leaning further and further to the right and deserted the working people more and more.

It has to also be said that many of the trade unions today are about as democratic as the Stalinist Soviet Union and thus are not suitable to create a new party of the working class. The working class itself – from within itself – has to bring about a new party of the working class. One with true values of socialism and democracy and which puts the interest of the working people above everything else.

What This country needs, and not this country only, is a party of unity of all those on the left, whether in a party or not. A true Socialist Unity Party that truly will be representative of the working class. The Labour Party in the UK, in the same way as the Social Democrat Party in Germany, and other, has long ago lost the mandate.

While it might be possible to resurrect a true Labour Party as was intended by the founders of the Labour movement a unity of all true socialist parties would make much more sense and would create a better power base and the trade unions, after being reformed and brought back to democracy and honesty, could be an integral part of it.

© 2013