THE British ruling class, far from recovering from the Brexit mutiny, when its chosen policy for saving British capitalism – that of ceding its sovereignty permanently to the EU – was rejected by over 17 million workers, is now in an ever-intensifying crisis.
This is an historic crisis, with the form of rule through its parliament of the ruling class, that took power through the Cromwellian revolution and the execution of Charles I in 1649, now being challenged.
The referendum vote’s first result – after the masses had rejected the stand of the parliamentary parties – was to force the resignation of PM Cameron, end his government, and end the career of Osborne, his lieutenant. The duo that masterminded the referendum as a way of defeating the Tory anti-EU right wing was smashed, and parliament itself was undermined.
In the panic that ensued, the 1922 Committee that rules the Tory Party decided that it was much too dangerous to have a membership election for a new Tory PM. So the election was stopped 14 minutes after its campaign was launched, and Theresa May was appointed premier by the 1922 brigade.
Fearful of the people, the new PM sought to foist the referendum result onto a parliament, the vast majority of whose MPs were unwilling to accept it, and are now bent on undoing it.
Yesterday, a legal action was launched to seek to establish that since parliament is primary for the ruling class, the High Court should consider whether ministers can invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, to begin the formal process of the UK leaving the EU, without MPs passing a new law.
Investment manager Gina Miller and her lawyers are arguing that ministers are trying to ‘bypass Parliament’ by not offering a vote, when in reality her action is an attempt by the ruling class to dump the referendum result – the vote of the people.
At the same time, a realignment is taking place in the House of Commons with prominent Labour MPs such as Miliband and others joining hands with a mass of Tory MPs to prevent negotiations beginning with the EU unless the terms have been agreed by a vote of MPs – this would certainly constitute an another attempt to dump Brexit, and continue with EU membership regardless of the wishes of the majority.
This manoeuvring is taking place at a time when a new banking crash internationally is rapidly maturing, meaning that another effort to make the working class rescue the banks is on the agenda, and where the crisis is appearing first of all in the form of the pound crashing, meaning that inflation is beginning to mount.
This has led initially to the Tesco-Unilever war where Unilever will not supply Tesco with its products until the supermarket giant is willing to increase its prices for the products that Unilever produces whose raw material is imported and whose cost is rising on a daily basis.
With the world economy in crisis and the pound in particular under attack, the prospects are for a rapid and serious price inflation when workers have not had a wage increase for years, and where this catastrophe will lead to a massive strike wave and a huge movement of the working class.
This developing crisis will see a major split in the Tory and Labour parties where the Blairite gang will join hands with the mass of pro-EU Tory MPs, with the object of fashioning a regime that will impose remaining in the EU and a new austerity programme to save the bosses and bankers.
The way forward in this crisis situation is provided by the history of the bourgeoisie itself. When the rising bourgeoisie in the House of Commons faltered in its struggle against the monarchy, Cromwell and his New Model Army, that had driven forward the revolution, purged and closed down parliaments, abolished the House of Lords, declared a Republic and brought in a Commonwealth that worked to ensure that the ‘divine right’ to rule was abolished for ever.
The working class too in this period will have to deal with a parliament that is betraying the mass of the people. They must overthrow it with a socialist revolution that will bring the working class to power, institute a Soviet Republic and that will bring in a planned socialist economy in the UK for the benefit of the vast majority of the people, and campaign for a socialist Europe!
