Looking into the abyss
Just when opinion was shifting towards Starmer in sympathy with his opposition to Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war against Iran, the Mandelson farrago blew up again. Poor judgment regarding in Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, compounded by the revelation over failed security vetting, reopened the mess. In mitigation, Starmer says he was not told. But as many have responded, why not ask?. Further revelations about an overseas diplomatic post for the suspended Lord Doyle come on top of the sacking of the chief of staff, McSweeney.
It’s no good blaming the media. These are own goals.
The critical question is the cost of living crisis, deepened by Trump’s war, now raising energy costs, petrol and diesel pump prices, fertiliser costs and food supplies. And let’s not forget Trump’s war was originally supported by Farage and Badenoch.
May 7th will reveal an interim electoral verdict on Labour. The polls suggest the results will be very bad for Labour. particularly in Wales and Scotland (where, until recently, Labour looked set to unseat the SNP).
People don’t want excuses. Of course, Trump’s war and blockade of the Straits of Hormuz are the primary reasons for bills rising and sluggish growth. However, there are ways to counter the economic hardship which Labour is failing to adopt. Namely, taxes on wealth, on property, on profits and land of the super-rich alongside public investment to boost youth employment as Jasmine Piakan proposes. Moreover, as Dave Toke explains, the Tory remedy of more North Sea drilling for fossil fuels is a chimera and the abandonment of net zero would put us in double jeopardy.
Labour’s core mission should be about the redistribution of wealth and reducing inequality. Why not equalise Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax to raise £10b?. Why not charge VAT on financial services, raising £8b?. Why not charge the equivalent of National Insurance on investment income, raising £18b?. According to tax expert Richard Murphy, currently, the bottom 10% of income earners pay 44% of their income in various taxes, while the wealthiest pay an effective tax rate of 22%. Then there could be a further windfall tax on the oil giants who are making obscene profits. Chancellor Reeves rejects these progressive moves.
Labour was going awry before the 2024 general election; however, with many candidates being imposed and the malign Labour Together clique using fat cat money to take control, purging the left and weaponising antisemitism, as explained by Richard Kuper. The writing was on the wall as Starmer rowed back from his original ten leadership election pledges well before 2024. Drawing on Paul Holden’s The Fraud (feature review in last Chartist), Glyn Ford floodlights the abyss Labour faces as a consequence of using the McSweeney/Mandelson playbook to appease big business, epitomised by the failure to initially lift the two-child benefit cap and the cut in Winter Fuel Allowance.
Worse, as Don Flynn explains, has been the steady shift to shadow Reform on migrant bashing with the latest moves from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to tear up settlement rights for thousands of working migrants. This pitching to the right means Labour is losing four times as many votes to the Greens and Lib Dems as to Reform. Victor Anderson outlines why Labour’s attack lines are all wrong and should focus on more serious threats to democratic rights, social equality and freedoms, like the right to protest, which again Labour seems intent on restricting with yet more draconian legislation.
Labour has some good stories to tell: on workers’ rights, on clean energy, rail nationalisation, minimum wage, the Renter’s Rights Act charter and more, but they are currently lost in the backwash of discontent over Starmer’s leadership. Frank Hansen explains how the Palantir AI tech company is yet another example of courting the wrong kind of corporation in allowing these ultra-right tech titans to access NHS data, defence, police data and much more for potentially nefarious ends. A full independent inquiry is needed on this and Mandelson’s role.
On the international scene, Labour has much ground to make up. Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza has been a shameful episode, where British arms and trade continue to flow to this rogue state. Lennaart van Oldenborgh of Standing Together explains how on-the-ground efforts to unite progressive Jews and Palestinians aim to turn the situation around. Andy Gregg reveals how Israeli aggression in Lebanon is further decimating lives and peace in the region. In Ukraine, Sian Norris reports on the dire conditions but dogged resistance of miners in the besieged Donbas region.
Andrew Ryder and András Andras Schweitzer emphasise the significance of the defeat of ultra-right national populist Viktor Orbán Victor Orban in Hungary. This will free the European Union’s 90 billion Euro loan to Ukraine, but also boost democratic forces throughout Europe. They also draw lessons from the 1956 Hungarian uprising against Putin’s antecedents.
Europe is critical to the UK’s future. Paul Teasdale explains how closer ties will help combat Trump’s tariffs and trade war while providing a bridge for economic development. Patrick Costello echoes these arguments in the context of the Iran war. Bryn Jones exposes the futility of seeking to sustain the ‘special relationship’ with the wild west nativist pursuing his Donroe doctrine on a world scale.
The stakes are high with ultra- right war mongering authoritarians in the White House and the Kremlin and a capitalist system moving into crisis. Despite a challenging international environment, Labour in government has enormous opportunities to steer a progressive path. These should not be squandered by pandering to right-wing talking points and timid economic and social policies. A major political reset is required if Labour is to rescue the situation from the abyss. Chartist, alongside Mainstream and Momentum, is campaigning hard for a democratic socialist agenda, a reformed electoral system, an end to the cronyism and centralised inner party control of Labour Together and a radical departure from a socially bankrupt and ecologically failing profit-driven economy. Fresh leadership, radical vision, people empowered change can avert the fall.