Britain

Brown has replaced Blair as leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, but has anything fundamental changed? Absolutely not! And yet behind this seemingly uneventful change lies the manoeuvre to stop John McDonnell to stand for the leadership. All the indications were that John would have made a good showing. Something is stirring in the British labour movement.

As the Middle East descends deeper into a vicious cycle of death and destruction, the Reverend Blair has stepped once again onto the world stage as international “envoy for the Middle East”. Blair has the strong backing of the US President George W. Bush. In other words, Blair will bend the knee as always to US imperialism and its interests.

This year marks the 300th anniversary of The Act of Union between Scotland and England. This was accompanied by the merger of the parliaments into one Westminster Parliament. In January 1707, the Scottish parliament voted 110-67 to ratify The Treaty of Union, which became law four months later.

While GDP in Britain is supposed to be the fifth largest in the world, the division of this wealth is extremely unequal. What growth has taken place has mainly been by increased exploitation of workers. The market principle of profit comes before education and health. Yet British capitalism's share of world exports has continually decreased.

This document constitutes an analysis of the deepening social, political and economic crisis of British capitalism. This perspective applies the method of Marxism to these developments, seeking to uncover the trends and processes within, and serves as a guide to action for all those workers and youth who want to struggle for a socialist transformation of society.

Written before Gordon Brown emerged as the sole candidate to replace Blair, this article shows where Brown really stands on key issues facing the workers of Britain. His latest budget actually shifted the burden of taxation in such a way that the poor actually pay more.

Thanks to the sabotage of some 300-odd members of the Parliamentary Labour Party, ordinary Labour Party members and affiliates, who were expecting a leadership election, ended up with no election and a “one member, no vote” imposed candidate. The task now is to strengthen the left in preparation for future battles.

Throughout the history of the labour movement we have witnessed the development of sectarianism within a section of the left. It reflects the inability to understand that the mass of the working class moves through its traditional mass organisations. The sectarian ignores this and believes that all you have to do is declare the "new party" and then the masses will come flocking.

We are reproducing here a letter sent by John McDonnell to all his supporters in which he stresses the need to now build the Left of the Labour Party. The campaigning work of the recent period is not wasted. It can be the basis for strengthening the left.

The ranks of the Labour Party and trade unions have been denied the right to vote on who they think the next leader of the party should be. This has been achieved by convincing a handful of Labour MPs not to nominate John McDonnell. But this is not the end of the story. Now is the time to redouble efforts to build up the left of the Labour Party in the coming period.

While the Blairites are licking their wounds after last week's elections results, the results of the Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity in Scotland and the Socialist Party in England should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that sectarian politics is a dead end.

Last week’s elections confirmed the damage that Blairism has done to the Labour Party. Far from being the man who “wins elections” as the Blairites boasted in the past, Blair has become a liability. After ten years he has thrown away the 1997 victory. Now is the time to draw lessons from this whole experience and fight to change the leadership of the Labour Party.

Tony Blair is now more unpopular than the much-despised Margaret Thatcher, an amazing achievement, considering how hated she was. The latest polls put Labour on 29%, the lowest support for the Labour Party for 25 years! Today we will see how close these figures are to reality once the results are out.

Support for nationalism in Scotland is an indictment of the widespread disdain towards the agenda of New Labour. And yet a recent poll revealed that while 88% of Scots want more power for the Scottish parliament, only 27% want full independence. Rather than independence, the workers of Scotland want an end to cuts, privatisation and all the other Tory policies Blair has continued to apply.