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Volume 45 Number 11, May 1, 2015 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
Workers' Weekly Internet Edition: Article Index :
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Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
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On the occasion of May Day, RCPB(ML) sends warm greetings to the working class in Britain and internationally who are in struggle, building the New and defending sovereignty.
May Day 2015 comes at a time when, in the form of the coming general election, an important political battle is taking place to occupy the space for change. A space exists to develop the movements of the working class and people against the anti-social austerity agenda and turn this opposition into a movement for a pro-social alternative.
The modus operandi that was established when the Blair government came to power in an electoral coup in 1997 is in serious difficulty. The Westminster cartel has been breached.
In 1997, out of the crisis of the party-dominated system of representative democracy as it existed at that time, the ruling class was able to orchestrate a coup against the electorate, and resolved who was to be its champion in the person of Tony Blair. The ability to decide a champion failed in 2010 and is set to fail on May 7.
The Old is in crisis. What is coming to the fore at the present time is the need for the New.
This is being manifested as the need for a new take on politics. Faced with a crucial need to defend itself against the onslaught of austerity, the issue for the working class is to have its independent programme and thinking and to work out its strategy and tactics; this provides the context of how it must look at politics and the election in particular.
And that is what has begun to happen. The people's forces have geared up to stand candidates, and new parties have come into being, to try to use this election campaign to their advantage.
The resulting rising influence and voice of those smaller parties and candidates who stand against austerity, for the rights of all and to various extents represent aspects of the alternative, has isolated the establishment parties, who have been exposed as representing the old politics.
The agenda of
this election has not been able to be dictated in the way it has in previous
elections. Neither was the establishment able to dictate the agenda of the
Scottish referendum, where, by upholding the important principle that
sovereignty should lie with the people, the disempowering role of the
Westminster parties also became a central issue.
The concrete issue in the present election is to defeat the Coalition, as an important battle in taking a stand against austerity and defending the rights of all. The aim of ending austerity means restricting the rights of the monopolies, which in turn means the working class laying claim on the economy and deciding its direction. In short, it requires the working class to hold decision-making power.
Empowerment of the people in general is the burning issue of the day. People are taking stands, resisting the climate of dictate being fostered in all areas of society. The resistance to austerity is developing and has scored important key victories, particularly in defence of the health service.
This rise of the working class and people's movements as an independent political force is ultimately what has breached the big party cartel and has led to a palpably higher level of politicisation. Things have not been going the way the ruling class has preferred. Nevertheless, the working class must be vigilant since private monopoly interests are at stake which stop at nothing to utilise the state in their own interests.
The working class must keep the initiative in its own hands, whatever the outcome of the election. It needs to organise itself in itself and for itself. It needs to discuss and sum up, it needs to rely on its own efforts, consciousness and organisation, and not put its fate into any other hands.
The working class needs to build its own organised Workers' Opposition and elaborate its alternative, summarised by the principles:
Recognition of all inviolable rights.
More into the economy than is taken out.
Democratic renewal of the political process.
Recognition of the inviolable right of all peoples to determine their own affairs nationally and internationally.
First and foremost, the working class needs to build its own political party, and to this end, we call on all class conscious workers to work with and join RCPB(ML).
Defeat Austerity! Defend the Rights of All!
Build the Workers' Opposition!
Break with the Old and Build the New!
Celebrate the Unity in Struggle of Workers of All Lands!
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