Britain

As the election results came in after the polls closed in June, expressions of shock were to be seen not only on the faces of the Tories and press commentators (who had all expected a large Tory win), but also on the faces of the Labour right wing. They had spent months arguing that Jeremy Corbyn and the ideas he stood for were huge vote losers and that a thrashing for Labour was on the cards come a general election. How wrong they all were.

Photo: Socialist Appeal

The mood was jubilant and euphoric in central London on Saturday 1st July, as chants of “Oh Jer-e-my Cor-byn!” rang out through the streets of Whitehall and Westminster.

Tory-DUP coalition

After a thin Queen’s Speech and long negotiations, Theresa May and DUP leader Arlene Foster finally appeared outside Downing Street earlier this week to shake hands on the deal that will keep May in power - for now.

“In developments of such magnitude twenty years are more than a day - though later on days may come again in which twenty years are embedded.” (Karl Marx, 9 April 1863)

With the rise of Corbyn, the SNP government needed to move to the left. Given the actual rise of a Frankenstein Tory right in Scotland, we were hardly risking anything. Besides, this morning we might have been celebrating a Corbyn government backed by the votes of nearly 59 SNP MPs.” - SNP MP, George Kerevan

The criminal disaster of the Grenfell Tower fire has brought to the surface all the horror, injustice, and inequality of Tory Britain. All the anger and discontent within working class communities has now exploded into plain view, with a series of militant protests taking place in the last week.

Britain’s political turmoil has become entrenched. Ever since the general election – a mere week ago - Theresa May has been desperately fighting for her political survival. With each passing day, her political authority is being relentlessly drained away. In the last throw of the dice, she has turned to the sectarian DUP, a reactionary outfit, to haggle for support and a parliamentary lifeline.

Poco antes de la 1 de la madrugada del miércoles se producía un incendio en el segundo piso de la torre Grenfell, un edificio de viviendas del distrito londinense de Kensington y Chelsea. El incendio alcanzó proporciones descomunales, que acabó devorando las 24 plantas del edificio. El departamento de bomberos desplazó al lugar unos 200 efectivos en 40 camiones, que tardaron más de siete horas en extinguir el fuego.

London and the whole of the UK are in a state of shock and visceral anger at the tragedy and crime that is the Grenfell fire. All the accumulated rage within the local working class community has exploded to the surface, as more and more details emerge showing how the Tories and profiteering management companies are culpable for the murder of the tower's residents.

“The Blair era truly ended on June 8th.”

“Corbyn’s triumph was the final nail in New Labour’s coffin.”

These are the words, not of any socialist or Momentum member, but of some of Jeremy Corbyn’s harshest critics - in these cases,

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Shortly before 1am this morning, a fire broke out on the second floor of Grenfell Tower, a block of council flats in the London Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. The blaze rapidly became a towering inferno as it engulfed all 24 floors of the block, taking 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines more than seven hours to extinguish.

Il 22 maggio, in una piacevole serata erano in migliaia, principalmente adolescenti, ad un concerto pop nell’Arena di Manchester. Ma ciò che doveva essere un’occasione di divertimento, si è trasformato in un bagno di sangue quando un attentatore suicida solitario ha fatto esplodere un dispositivo esplosivo a frammentazione improvvisato nell’ingresso dell’Arena, affollato di genitori che stavano aspettando i propri figli.

The shock result of the June 8th election, called by Theresa May with the intention of strengthening her position, has left the Tories without a majority and May’s political career in tatters. Like a drowning woman, she is now clutching at straws in a desperate bid to cobble together a government. The result is likely to be a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), with the leaders of both parties meeting today to discuss the terms of a Westminster alliance.

Nach dem Brexit-Schock hat Großbritannien bei den Unterhauswahlen an 8. Juni 2017 ein weiteres politisches Erdbeben erlebt. Theresa May steht vor einem Abgrund. Die durch sie ausgerufenen Neuwahlen mündeten für die Konservativen Tories in einem Desaster. Der erwartete politische Erdrutschsieg für die Tories, der in Jahrzehnte konservativer Herrschaft hätte führen sollen, hat sich als Märchen erwiesen. Stattdessen konnten wir beobachten, wie die Regierungsmehrheit der Tories von einer wiedererstarkten Labour-Partei unter Jeremy Corbyn zerstört wurde.

“As ideias do marxismo nunca foram mais relevantes. Enquanto enfrentamos a maior crise do capitalismo desde a Grande Depressão, as ideias de Marx, que desvelam as contradições insolúveis do capitalismo, oferecem o único caminho a seguir”.