| The fascist pipedream was obliterated in the victories of the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. But the concepts of the corporate state and a united Europe have remained... |
The corporate state and a united Europe - the line from fascism to Thatcher, and Blair
WORKERS, JAN 2007 ISSUE
It is now commonly said that Blair's policies and legislation continue Thatcherism. This is to ignore, at our peril, the much longer and more sinister capitalist tradition in politics which he represents.
In 1970 when Edward Heath became Tory Prime Minister his intention was to introduce a radical reformation of British politics. His remit was to do away with the consensus politics dating back to 1945 and introduce a greater submerging of Britain into the then forerunner of the European Union. Heath, dating back to before the Second World War when he met Nazi leaders in Germany, was a loyal supporter of the fascist concept of a united Europe. Hitler, Mussolini, Mosley, Franco – all were adherents of a united Europe – united against the working class and at that time the Soviet Union.
Like the wretched Mosley, who was beaten by the British working class, all three fascist dictators were adherents of, in slightly differing forms, the Corporate State. All opposition was to be submerged in one unifying state to serve capitalism, ignoring national boundaries. The fascism's answer to working class opposition was to physically destroy or emasculate all centres of opposition, independence, aspiration and assertion of class power.
The fascist pipedream was obliterated in the victories of the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War. But the concepts of the corporate state and a united Europe remained.
The creation of the forerunners of the European Union from the early 1950s, originally funded by US interests, was a 50-year programme to gradually return to the basic fascist ideals: one capitalist Europe – not destroying themselves by war and competition, capital to be in unfettered power, the working class to be in its place.
Mussolini and Hitler: their legacy lives on in the European Union.
Heath, originally elected on a "no U turning" manifesto, was shattered within four years by working class resistance. Enter Thatcher, who took up Heath's gauntlet and set about brutally ending the consensus politics of Britain that had lasted from 1945 to 1979. If the Thatcherite years 1979 to 1997 were one phase of a counter-revolution against the working class, then the Blair years have been a second phase.
During both phases all roads have led to and from Brussels and the EU. The opposition to the concept of a united Europe – so strongly rooted in the British working class and trade unions – had therefore to be destroyed. An ideological fight ensued within the trade unions, spearheaded by the TUC under the years of Thatcher. "There is an alternative – it rests in the Social Charter of Euroland," was the siren call to the trade unions. So Thatcher and her creatures were dumped. Enter Blair.
The blueprint for Thatcherism was made up of the myriad EU directives promoting privatisation, break-up of the public sector, industrial zoning across Europe – not for the interests of the nations of Europe but for the interests of capital in Europe, free movement of goods and trade, free movement of capital, free movement of people (mass migration).
What Thatcher and Blair and their governments – irrespective of the personnel changes – have done has been to implement the EU blueprint first and unswervingly in Britain in comparison with other EU countries. The mistake made by the working class in Britain was to think Thatcherism was an aberration. It wasn't: it was and is a policy pushed through the EU from here and back on to us.
To betray Britain's sovereignty and national interests has meant a fundamental breaking up of 1,000 years of British history and society. What is being put in its place is a regionalised, de-industrialised, section of the wider corporate state of the European Union.
To prevent opposition to a strategy which has deliberately overseen the destruction of Britain, a systematic, piecemeal and secretive reformation of its structures and institutions has been under way. The first stage of this process was the attack on manufacturing industry, started under the Tories and exacerbated under Blair.
The destruction of traditional core industries – coal, steel, engineering, shipbuilding, textiles, agriculture, fishing etc – all undermined identity, community and collectivity. The destruction of social institutions – such as civic pride, civic responsibility, local and national democratic institutions, community, housing, health, education, pensions etc – was a second step in trying to replace belonging, purpose, aspiration and expectation with cynicism, corruption, deceit and one false mantra: the market and only the market is the answer. The rules of the jungle and barbarism are elevated as the only acceptable norm.
Repression
The third step, which has always been inherent to capital since capitalism first successfully emerged in Britain over three centuries ago, is repression. There has been a long series of repressive and punitive laws against trade unionism – the working class's only answer so far to capitalism – and against working class interests.
The legislation and legal precedents are in the history books: Master and Servant Act, Combination Acts, Taff Vale, In Place of Strife, Industrial Relations Act – all codified in the Tory legislation of the 80s and 90s – and then the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, which has been strengthened under the Labour government, making it almost impossible to hold a "legal" strike.
A torrent of employment-related industrial legislation has followed, strengthening the most draconian anti-worker legislation in Europe but also setting an agenda which has further emasculated trade unionism.
A further 16 Acts and proscriptive laws have been enacted or proposed since 1997 by this government (including the Terrorism Act 2000, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, Criminal Justice Act 2003, Extradition Act 2003, Civil Contingencies Act 2004, Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, Inquiries Bill 2005, Racial & Religious Hatred Act 2006, Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2006, European Arrest Warrant, Identity Card Bill, Police and Justice Bill, etc).
Much of this legislation, under the guise of tackling terrorism, limits free speech, limits the right to protest, limits freedom of association, removes the right to silence, removes the right to trial by jury, undermines the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and undermines parliamentary supervision and sovereignty.
On a day-to-day basis this legislation underlines the fear this government has of the people of Britain. CCTV, ID cards, DNA registers, ASBOs, eye-scanning, fingerprinting, computerised NHS records, vehicle registration plate scanning, all embracing criminal records and non-criminal records – a constant monitoring. Now the government is proposing in London to link Oyster card usage(for travel on public transport), congestion zone charging and withdrawals from individuals' bank accounts of all sums over £200 to police databases – all to spy on movement, communication, behaviour.
All this reflects a deep paranoia. What is being trialled in London and Britain is to be rolled out across Europe, and is leading to a European-wide police state. Such is the fear of the people of Britain by this government. Not a fear of criminals or terrorists but a fear of every single citizen: even babes in arms are to be monitored from the day they are born.
In addition to the undermining of economic and political institutions and the continuous expansion of repressive legislation, goes the falsification of history and language. The history of Britain is that of the people who have made Britain. It is not the history of wealth, MPs, kings and queens, foreign billionaires et al. The use of mass migration to expunge the history of Britain by ghettoisation and division in the name of freedom, equality and diversity will have to be resisted by unity, class and nation.
The double-speak and spin of the government (both aberrations to the English language) need to be understood and resisted. When they speak of freedom it is freedom to exploit and it is freedom to suffer the longest working hours in Europe on some of the lowest wages. When they talk of skill they mean generations of debt for students trying to gain said skills. When they talk of health they mean Dickensian privatised squalor unless you have wealth. When they talk of education they mean medievalism.
The trade unions in partnership are to be absorbed into the state. "Social enterprise" is needed because capitalism couldn't run a whelk stall, they need our brains and expertise but they steal the takings. Equality means institutionalised division. Participation means state funding for dead political parties. Reform agenda means counter-revolution – world-wide. The list is endless: when a capitalist politician speaks the sewer spews forth.
The collapse of bourgeois democracy in Britain – the Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Box and Cox of parliamentarianism, the collapse of illusions that capital can be reformed through elections, the disillusionment, the distrust and shunning of MPs, councillors and 'community leaders' is not accidental. It is not going to produce a turning to the Tories, or wannabe Tories called Liberal Democrats, or fascist and Nazi parties.
The charade which has existed in Britain for the last 100 years, that capitalism always wins the election and continues under a new hue, is no longer enough for them.
Capitalism on its last legs cannot brook any opposition or dissent. In extremis it turns to authoritarian and repressive measures – the corporate state. For example it is illegal to oppose the European Union – how long before prosecutions follow?
Capitalism continuing on its present road will mean the death of working class aspirations and hopes. Aspirations to build a society free from exploitation, to create employment for all, housing, health, education and dignity for all. Something has to give and it cannot be the 60 million people who constitute the creators of wealth in Britain – the working class.