TOM Watson, the right wing deputy leader of the Labour Party, escaped being unceremoniously chucked out of his position over the weekend following an intervention by Jeremy Corbyn.
Last Friday, on the eve of the party’s annual conference Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee agreed to submit to conference a motion that the post of deputy leader be abolished. Such is the hatred and distrust of Watson amongst Labour delegates that it was almost certain to have been passed.
Their antipathy towards Watson comes from his long-standing campaign to oust Corbyn and split the Labour Party from top to bottom. Numerous calls for Watson’s resignation have been made, including one from shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.
Watson has been at the forefront of the drive to overturn the result of the 2016 Referendum trampling all over official Labour Party policy whenever it suited him.
Watson is contemptuous of the votes of millions of workers in the referendum stating: ‘Pro-European is who we are and who we have always been. Our members are Remain. Our values are Remain. Our hearts are Remain,’ demanding that Labour tear up its election manifesto to become the party of Remain.
Corbyn has studiously avoided doing anything to curb Watson let alone demand his expulsion from the Party. On Saturday morning, Corbyn did intervene but in order to save Watson’s skin and prevent the Labour conference from ousting him.
Corbyn managed to persuade the NEC to drop the motion, saying: ‘The NEC agreed this morning that we are going to consult on the future of diversifying the deputy leadership position to reflect the diversity of our society.’
Corbyn insisted that his intention was for the conference to be ‘totally united’ and this obviously means keeping the right wing on board and caving in to their every demand, including turning Labour into an outright Remain party.
At a speech to a fringe meeting yesterday, Watson repeated his demand for a second referendum before a general election in which Labour would campaign as a ‘Remain Party’.
He said: ‘By backing a people’s vote, by backing Remain, I am sure we can deliver the Labour government the people of this country so badly need.’
In fact Watson is not interested in a Labour government, he is working for a coalition between Labour Remainers and the LibDems to carry out a coup against Brexit.
Corbyn, meanwhile, was prevaricating like mad as usual over where he stands on Brexit, telling the Andrew Marr Show that a Labour government could negotiate a Brexit deal with the EU that would be preferable to Remaining.
Such a deal, which would keep the UK tied permanently to the EU through the single market if achieved, would then be put to the people in second referendum with the only choice being to accept such a deal or Remain – no option to leave without a deal.
While Corbyn caved in to Watson the right wing are preparing to dump Corbyn at the earliest opportunity, split the party and join forces with the other Remain parties in Parliament, the Lib/Dems and SNP, in a coup to renege on the Brexit referendum result.
What is clear is that appeasing the right wing and saving Watson in the name of keeping some spurious ‘unity’ will not save Corbyn. Instead it encourages the right wing to go all out to destroy the party and pave the way for some ‘caretaker’ government in alliance with LibDems and Tory Remainers to kill Brexit for good.
While the Labour Party is split and its policies on Brexit increasingly in favour of Remaining, there is absolutely no doubt about the position of the Workers Revolutionary Party.
This position is clear, the working class must intervene by organising a general strike to kick out the Johnson government and take power by replacing it with a workers government.
A workers government will expropriate the banks and main industry placing them under workers control as part of a planned socialist economy and leave the EU on October 31st without any deal.
Only socialist revolution can resolve the political and economic crisis of British capitalism and force through the break with the bosses and bankers EU.
