Labour brings Tory-Lib Dem coalition to power

[Antid Oto]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Labour brings Tory-Lib Dem coalition to power
By Chris Marsden
12 May 2010

The central aim of the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition led by David
Cameron will be to impose savage cuts that will have a devastating impact on
millions of working people.

Its path to power was paved by the Labour Party. This is not only because Labour
has acted as the defender of the super-rich for the past 13 years and gave a
hated Tory party a way out of the political wilderness by depriving the working
class of any means of political expression. In the most direct sense, Cameron
was anointed as prime minister thanks to a campaign by a powerful section of the
Labour leadership to sabotage the Labour-Liberal Democrat “progressive
coalition” offered by Gordon Brown on Monday.

With Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg having difficulty selling a coalition
with the Tories to a section of his party, Brown offered to smooth the way to a
Labour-Liberal Democratic alliance. This involved removing himself as Labour
leader by September, once a coalition had been established, along with offering
six cabinet seats, a bill introducing the Alternative Vote (AV) system and a
referendum on proportional representation.

The offer was clearly tempting to sections of the Liberal Democrats. Clegg is a
member of the “Orange” group, formed in 2004 to argue for the Liberal Democrats
to ditch their social liberalism in favour of support for the free market. He
desperately wanted an agreement with the Tories, as did Vince Cable, his shadow
chancellor, who left Labour to join the Social Democratic Party in 1982. But
Brown’s offer was seriously and even warmly received by many top Liberal
Democrats, including former leaders David Steele and Paddy Ashdown, who remember
the explosive hatred engendered in the working class by the last Tory government.

Brown’s proposal, drawn up in consultation with Peter Mandelson, Alastair
Campbell and Lord Adonis, presented significant difficulties. With 258 MPs, an
alliance with the Liberals and their 57 seats would still leave Labour without a
majority. But Brown’s group calculated on the possibility of either bringing on
board Northern Ireland’s Social Democratic Labour Party and one Alliance MP, as
well as the nationalist Scottish Nationalist Party and Plaid Cymru of Wales not
being prepared to vote with the Tories.

The possibility of such a coalition was greeted with outrage by powerful
sections of the ruling elite in Britain, as well as the financial markets, which
believe that a Tory government alone will have the necessary political will to
take on the working class.

The past 24 hours witnessed a hysterical campaign by the pro-Tory media, led by
Rupert Murdoch’s News International, denouncing Brown for “squatting” in Number
10 and the Telegraph describing Brown’s constitutionally correct actions as “A
very Labour coup” (See accompanying article).

At the same time there was significant trading against the pound, which fell by
more than a cent against the dollar, while the FTSE 100 fell by one percent.

In the end, however, the wishes of the ruling elite were imposed by leading
figures associated with the Blairite wing of the Labour Party.

Former home secretary David Blunkett told the BBC that any deal with the Liberal
Democrats would be “a coalition of the defeated” and accused the party of
“behaving like every harlot in history.”

Another former Home Secretary, John Reid, warned that a Labour-Liberal Democrat
coalition would result in “mutually assured destruction” for both parties.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, was said to be “incensed”, while other
ministers went to the pro-Tory press to denounce the proposal as “obscene.”
Martin Salter, the former Labour MP for Reading West, wrote in the Telegraph,
provocatively describing the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists and “the Irish” as
“proponents of pork barrel politics”.

At least four cabinet ministers came out against Brown’s plan, with Health
Secretary Andy Burnham stating, “I think we have got to respect the results of
the General Election and we can’t get away from the fact that Labour didn’t win.”

Jon Cruddas, the backbench MP who is held up as a “left” in some quarters,
staked his claim to leadership by saying that Labour MPs, “affiliated trade
unions” and the party’s ruling National Executive Committee must be consulted on
any coalition deal.

An offer of a coalition from Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond was
unceremoniously rejected by Labour’s International Development Secretary,
Douglas Alexander, who also automatically excluded the SNP’s ally, Plaid Cymru.

The offensive succeeded, with Murdoch’s The Times declaring, “Labour infighting
killed coalition hopes”.

Throughout Tuesday, Brown was made painfully aware that he had been deserted by
a large section of his own party leadership, who were intent on making his
position untenable. They succeeded.

That evening, Brown came out of Number 10 to announce his resignation as prime
minister and Labour leader, effective immediately. After making an emotional
statement, he departed in haste to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation
to the Queen.

The main impact of his speedy departure was to leave the Liberal Democrats no
other possibility than to accept a coalition with the Tories. He quit even
before there had been any conclusion to the talks between the Liberal Democrats
and the Tories and before any proposal would be put to the party by Clegg. The
way was cleared for the announcement of a coalition later that evening, with no
details other than Clegg holding the position of Deputy Prime Minister.

It is a measure of the undemocratic character of the Labour Party as a whole
that neither Brown’s position, nor that of his Blairite opponents, was ever put
before Labour’s membership. The parliamentary party only met for the first time
today.

Cameron and Clegg have brought their parties together solely in order to carry
out the dictates of the banks and major corporations. They plan measures of
unprecedented austerity, with millions thrown out of work, the destruction of
vital services such as education and health and millions more plunged into poverty.

In this they will have the full support of the Labour Party.

In the next weeks, a leadership contest will take place within the Labour Party,
during which the various right-wing challengers will describe their decision to
oppose a coalition with the Liberal Democrats as “sensible”, “democratic” and
providing for a period out of office in which to “reinvigorate” and “regroup”.

It is nothing of the sort. The Labour Party put the Tories in power because it
agrees with the Tory agenda and accepts the injunctions of the markets that
Labour is no longer the favoured political vehicle of the financial oligarchy.
There is nothing they will not do to win back this support. To this end, Labour
will back up every attack that will be made on the working class—either by
voting for them, or working with the trade union bureaucracy to suppress any
opposition that emerges.

Labour is not the party of opposition, but an undeclared member of a de facto
government of “national unity”, just as surely as if it too had been directly
involved in a coalition with Cameron.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/may2010/brit-m12.shtml

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********