The crisis of British capitalism expresses itself at the economic, social and political level. Its latest political manifestation, the defection of a Tory MP to the UK Independence Party (Ukip), demonstrates the dialectical law of sharp changes and sudden turns. The British establishment has always whipped up xenophobia and racism in an attempt to divide the working class. Today, however, under conditions of crisis, the issue of immigration and anti-EU hysteria has served to highlight divisions with the ruling class, especially its political representatives.
On August 28th Tory MP for Clacton-on-sea, Essex, Douglas Carswell, announced his shock defection to the UK Independence Party, throwing the Tory leadership into abosolute panic. This comes with less than a year to go before the next general election, breathing new life into Ukip leader Nigel Farage's claim that his anti-EU party can win its first seat in parliament at the next election. Carswell's resignation has now triggered a by-election. Bookmakers are putting Ukip as favourites. There exists the real possibility of Farage's perspective being brought forward, to the humiliation of Prime Minister David Cameron.
The defection follows the resignation of Baroness Warsi from the cabinet earlier in August in protest at Britain's silent complicity in the months-long Israeli siege of Gaza. Tory whips were reported to be scrambling to isolate the defection last night. Rumours and denials of more resignations to follow are circulating.
The resignation also coincides with figures published today showing net migration into Britain is at its highest level since 2011. Early in his tenure Cameron, in the demagogic style now typical of the Tories, promised to cut this figure to "tens of thousands" by the end of parliament, in contrast to the hundreds of thousands under the previous Labour administration.
Today, however, the announcement of the net influx of some 250,000 people has put colossal pressure on Cameron and provided grist to the mill for Ukip. John Hawkswoth, chief economist at the accountancy group PwC compared Cameron to "King Canute trying to hold back the waves."
Paying the price
Ever since Thatcher, the Conservative party has increasingly leaned on more politically-backward workers and sections of the middle class, pandering to their narrow prejudices. This development, rather than relying on the sober-minded strategists of capitalism, represented a sign of the declining power of British capitalism. In the past, the British Establishment prided itself on understanding its long-term interests. Now the Conservative party bases itself on the most short-sighted and narrow sections to maintain its support. This reliance on the middle class upstarts, which form the basis of the party, has exposed a central contradiction at the heart of British capitalism.
Capitalism has always played a double game of attempting to divide the workers along any lines possible. Not least along the lines of nationality and race. In the period of post-war recovery the mother nation needed its commonwealth subjects due to a shortage of labour. But it did not hesitate to demonise those same workers in an attempt to undermine a strong trade union movement. More recently they have used foreign workers to drive down wages and exploited their vulnerable and, sometimes illegal status, in order to cut the cost of labour to the bone. They scapegoat those same workers by whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment, pointing to them as the cause of all of society's ills.
They omit to mention the wars of devastation provoked and aided by British imperialism in places like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, that send peoples fleeing to the supposed safe-havens of Western Europe. They side-step the question of the the credit crunch, the banking crisis and the global crisis of capitalism when referring to the recent influx of Southern European workers.
On the other side of the equation the possibility of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom looms large as a possibility next month. The latest figures place the independence campaign on 47%. To the dismay of the government, Secretary for Scotland Alistair Carmichael, a Lib Dem MP in the coalition government, has announced his willingness to participate publicly in the establishment of an independent Scottish state! With friends like these, what need does David Cameron have of enemies?
Sinking Ship
This is yet a further illustration of the demise of British capitalism. The Coalition totters along from one crisis to the next. Each cabinet resignation, each defection, each contradiction from within the coalition, is another death pang of the government. This has revealed spits in the ruling class. The Tories, the first party of capitalism, has been for decades balanced between the serious bourgeois on the one side, and the middle class riff-raff on the other, increasingly taking on all their narrow petit-bourgeois prejudices. Under conditions of social crisis, this could lead to a split within the party.
This contradiction, which had been softened during boom times, is sharply exposed. The serious bourgeoisie knows its trade interests lie within Europe. Yet its ambitions are being undermined by petit-bourgeois upstarts like Farage and Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond. This was underlined by the recent remarks of the President of the bosses union, the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), Sir Mike Rake. Last Thursday he said that the prime minister's post-election referendum pledge on Europe was "causing real concern for business regarding their future investment". With investment being the key to any British recovery, the message from big business is clear.
The camp of the ruling class is in turmoil in what was meant to be the quiet summer period, where the Tories could quietly gather their strength in preparation for next year's election campaign. The rising star of Ukip does not represent "a step backwards", it is the manifestation of a current that has been festering inside the Conservative party for decades. The disarray of the establishment serves to demonstrate to ever-widening layers of society that they are unfit to rule.
What comes next?
Given these divisions, many will ask what should come next. The reason for the indifference towards all the political parties by large swathes of British society, despite the fiasco the coalition finds itself in, is due to the inability of the Labour leadership to differentiate itself. It is testament to the ineptitude of the current labour leadership that the Labour party is not leagues ahead going into a general election.
There are many parties representing the interests of capitalism, which offer up as programmes the demonisation of immigrants, and variations on the theme of austerity. Labour must change course and represent the interests of the class it was built for. Part of Ukip's success is based on the lack of an alternative to austerity being offered by the Labour Party.
The trade unions still today have the power to change the Labour Party, although not without a fight. This will inevitably mean the spewing out of the old right-wing. A fight must be waged to reclaim the Labour party for a programme of working class solidarity, not the demonisation of foreign workers. For democratic, public ownership of the economy, not the banker's austerity. For socialist internationalism in place of the bosses' EU.
If the Labour Party was armed with these policies at the next general election, which the trade unions could affect if they marshalled their resources for a struggle, then the working class would have the real leadership necessary to take advantage of the disarray present in the ranks of the coalition.