LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn wound up this week’s Labour Party conference with a speech that he insisted outlined policies for ‘socialism in the 21st century’.
On examination they do not offer any real challenge to the rule of the bosses and bankers. Indeed, what Corbyn is offering as his vision of a fairer society is one where the capitalist class are forced to work harmoniously with the working class through regulation.
This came out clearly when Corbyn referred in his speech to the world crisis of capitalism that broke through in 2008 in the form of a massive international banking collapse. Of this crisis, Corbyn had this to say:
‘If you want the most spectacular example of what happens, when government steps back, the global banking crash is an object lesson of a deregulated industry, of out-of-control greed, and speculation that crashed economies across the globe and required the biggest ever government intervention and public bail-out in history. Millions of ordinary families paid the price for that failure. I pledge that Labour will never let a few reckless bankers wreck our economy again.’
In this one passage, Corbyn revealed all the weaknesses of his reformist outlook.
It is an outlook that blames lack of ‘regulation’ of the banks and the actions of a few reckless individuals motivated by greed for a crisis that has brought the entire capitalist world financial system to the point of destruction, only surviving through massive state bail-outs paid for by workers through the most savage austerity.
In the face of this historic crisis, all Corbyn can come up with is the tired old demand for regulations to bring the banks to heel. This is a recipe that has been adopted by almost every government in the capitalist world as they desperately try and convince workers that there is a solution to capitalism’s crisis that will leave the banks intact.
In fact, all the ‘regulations’ introduced in the US and Europe since 2010 requiring banks to hold more capital as a cushion against collapse have had absolutely no effect. This can be seen in the banking crisis that is erupting across the globe, with Europe’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, sinking under a mountain of debt, Italian banks going bust and every British bank failing even the modest stress tests introduced to convince the working class that banks are now tamed.
What will a Corbyn government do if the banks refuse, as they are doing daily, to abide by his rules and stop being greedy? Perhaps they will be subjected to a stern ticking off by him and McDonnell. Behind all this nonsense about taming the banks is the offer of a corporatist agreement between a Labour government and the banks to work together for a fairer society.
Capitalism is not interested in fair societies; its only driving force is the absolute imperative to make profit out of the exploitation of the working class. Anything that threatens their ability to carry out this exploitation will be smashed as far as the capitalist class is concerned.
Even such a mild threat as Corbyn is viewed as a danger and they will move hell and high water to prevent his election and in the event of a Corbyn government there can be no doubt that the ruling class will mobilise its state forces to bring it down immediately.
It is not that they have much to fear from Corbyn himself. However, the ruling class is acutely aware that behind Corbyn – or rather in advance of him and his reformist policies – is a mass movement of workers and youth who have been revolutionised by the crisis and are demanding real change.
The danger of Corbyn for capitalism is that he has opened the door wide to a mass movement that is rapidly reaching the conclusion that capitalism holds nothing for them but misery and are demanding its overthrow. The class war that is emerging is posing point blank the issue of power before the working class.
This struggle for power and the victory of the socialist revolution can only be resolved by building a new leadership in the working class. This requires the urgent and rapid building up of the WRP!
