To many, the Labour Party of 'Great' Britain is regarded as one of iconic left wing movements in the nation's history. Do not let the name fool you. It was a crime to label this group of bourgeoisie liberals 'Socialists' It is insulting to the genuine men and women who are. Indian Communist M.N Roy described the party as Western Mensheviks. A title very apt given what I am about to tell you.
Domestic policies
As I will discuss later, the imperialist drive with Labour did not only see atrocities and mass deaths, but it saw them abandon the most oppressed in society for corporate greed- time, and time again. Here I am going to cite just some examples of the fraudulent nature of the party.
"But the main reason for Labour’s decline, according to these sad-eyed scalpel-wielders currently poised over Labour’s corpse, is that the party ‘left behind’ its old voters, ignoring them in favour of cosying up to businesspeople in the Blair years and being too nerdish to connect with them in the Miliband years."
Though I know that Labour has never represented the working class, I also know that throughout general election history, the working class have on many occasions went in their numbers to tick Labour at the ballot box. Why? The working class are not class conscious to see past the misdemeanours of the movement.
Yet despite the war crimes and corporatism of the 20th century, it is only now that the working class are distancing themselves from Labour. Again we have to ask why? There are multiple reasons, and I will begin with domestic policies.
Time and time again, Labour have found themselves in bed with the Tories. A socialist party must never compromise with the enemy, even if it loses electorate success. This is a glaring error, and one which must be highlighted to acknowledge the wrongs of Labour. Labour has, despite being behind it, privatised the NHS. Labour has cracked down on migrants- why would a left wing party want to stop migrants coming from countries which Britain has bombed?
Imperialism.
Labour have always oppressed locals, whether those locals hail from Manchester or Mumbai, but it is the colonialist aspect of its dark and demonic history which is ignored by so many of the party's following.
Let commence with Ireland. No country has suffered at the hands of the British Empire more than the Irish people. Yet, there is not a more courageous and revolutionary group of people than the Irish. With the centenary of the Easter Rising just a few months past, let me begin with this.
Again turning to M.N Roy;
"Such an event as the 1916 Easter Revolution in Ireland could not make the British Labour Party define its attitude regarding this thorny question. As a member of the War Cabinet, Henderson did not raise a finger to save James Connolly, not to speak of others whose genuine fervour for national independence cannot be blackened by the insinuation of underground German intrigues. The British Labour Party did not find it necessary out of loyalty to the working class at least to withdraw from the Coalition which has killed the champion of the Irish proletariat."
Labour leader, Arthur Henderson was a member of the British Government, and actively supported the bombing campaign of the natives, and the execution of the great James Connolly? How very Socialist indeed.
Even the ILP, regarded by scholars as much more radical than their counterparts in Labour disregarded the rebellion, equating the Citizen Army with terrorists. ""We do not approve of the Sinn Fein rebellion," announced the ILP's Socialist Review in September 1916. "We do not approve of armed rebellion or any other form of militarism and war".
The First World War was the zenith of Western Imperialism was. And of course, was supported and sustained by the Labour Party. This conflict was built upon greed, wealth and colonialism, three vital components of Capitalism. Lions led by donkeys, brave young men dying for nothing but to line the pockets of the rich who wouldn't dare set foot in a trench.
Despite being heralded as a party of the working class the Labour Party wasted no time in denouncing the Russian Revolution and supporting the far right counter revolutionary White movement which sought to restore the Russian proletariat to a life of misery and despair under Capitalist rule.
The First (1924), and Second Labour Governments (1929-31) intensified the savagery of the Empire, despite increased uprisings from natives. It was no longer just the neighbouring Irish whom Labour sought to terrorise, now as the dominant party, they exerted their influence to massacre civilians in the Middle East- a now what common feature of Labour foreign policy. In 1929, the uprising known as the Palestine Riots invest heavily in Zionist occupation, taking the lives of well over 150 Arab civilians. No Socialist should recognise the apartheid state of Israel given the Holocaust they have committed on the indigenous Arab people- yet Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, seen as the most left wing in the party's history recently admitted "I really admire Israel". What do you admire Mr Corbyn? The illegal settlements? The rape of women? Or the massacre of children?
Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq fell into the hands of Britain. Labour pushed heavily for air strikes to minimise the rebel threat, with thousands of Iraqis dying. Old habits die hard. Labour's motives for Middle Eastern intervention then were for imperialist and corporate greed- this has not changed.
And then there was India. Asides from the Irish, it can be argued nobody suffered more at the hands of Britain's, and Labour's imperialism than the Indians. Any uprising, any hint of an uprising from the Indians was dealt with excessive force. Labour sought to quell the Nationalist movement by the same vulgar tactics they deployed in Ireland, Iraq, Palestine and many other nations which fell foul to history's cruellest Empires. It comes as no surprise that Bhagat Singh, the iconic Communist revolutionary was executed under a Labour Government. Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald would stop at nothing to clean the streets of the 'sub human' type Labour viewed the oppressed natives as.
Nigeria is one of the many countries still to recover from the impact of British brutality. Labour's arrogance that they had the right to the African land was present in one of the many xenophobia ridden propaganda pieces we have seen throughout history. A 1943 discussion of post war strategies for African colonies included the line "For a considerable time to come these peoples will not be ready for self-government, and European peoples and States must be responsible for the administration of their territories"
Following the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany, Clement Atlee came to power. Widely hailed as the father of the NHS, we cannot bypass his role in imperialism and global terror- particularly with Korea. During this period, Labour strengthened its ties with the US even more, allowing for joint imperialist interventions, decades on. The first real conflict of the Cold War, highlighted just how far Labour would go to preserve its imperialist ideology. Whilst the Welfare State got off to a rocky start. the party prioritised supporting its American allies puppet government in the South rather than providing greater healthcare and more housing for those who needed it so much. Labour's attempts to whitewash history, to preach of Atlee as a hero cannot be respected in the same way that his crimes in Korea cannot be ignored.
With a fear of Communism common knowledge, Labour worked with the Conservative Government to remove Cheddi Jagan, the Marxist Leninist leader as Prime Minister of French Guyana, succeeding in dismantling the revolutionary threat. Coups are a common theme of Labour's imperialist history.
In 1969, old flames were ignited, with British troops deployed in Ireland to 'maintain peace' following nationwide riots. The British Army were however simply an ally of loyalist militias, provoking sectarian rivalries, whilst committing atrocities on the working class of Ireland that left them so depleted, they are still trying to recover today. This is the real Labour Party. The disgustingly bigoted police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), composed mainly of Protestant and Loyalist personnel who took it upon themselves to kill as many Catholic civilians as possible were even given extensive funding by Labour. Though the 1970 election was lost, Labour remained opposition only by title, working alongside war monger Edward Heath in the occupation of Ireland, and thus supporting the racial state it had become, with Irish Catholics lucky to fall into the '2nd class citizen' category. Labour's intervention in 1969 can without doubt be highlighted as the reason for the thousands of civilian deaths which took place up until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, yet sectarianism still thrives because of Labour's barbaric behaviour upon the natives.
of what is now known as the Yugoslav Wars, Labour turned a blind eye to the horrendous war crimes committed by Milosovic, going as far as funding far right Serbian nationalists to slaughter Bosnian Muslims in their tens of thousands. The massacre of Sbrenica was the worst mass murder in Europe since the Holocaust, with 8,000 Bosnian men and boys losing their lives at the hands of Serb nationalists, with Britain, and Labour neglecting to protect the endangered Bosnian population. With Blairism succeeding in the 1997 Election, the Kosovo War was beginning. The climax arrived in 1999, where NATO, true to its nature began a heavy bombing campaign of Kosovo at the demand of the West.
The annexation of Afghanistan and Iraq should have saw Tony Blair tried in the Hague for war crimes, or hung in London city centre. Instead, and with over one million civilian deaths later, he still has an influence on the party.
Lenin was firmly against the structured format of Labour. Mass party politics allows for infiltration of counter revolutionaries. The greatest example is the rise of Blairites in mainstream politics. The workers should reject the status quo of Capitalist elections, and instead educate and organise. The lack of class consciousness is the reason Labour has thrived. Once the potential of the working class is realised, then we can organise. Not into mass mainstream parties, but into a vanguard. Into movements which are composed of both intellects, and of workers with little political knowledge, and who will learn this from their Comrades. Boycott the ballot. Because no revolution has ever, and will ever come at the hands of the Western parliamentary system, only counter revolutions. Do not remain in a party who supports the apartheid state of Israel, do not align yourself with Blairites, Zionists, and war criminals. Take a stand against imperialism. Understand what it means to be a Socialist. Read Marx, Lenin and Mao. Say no to Labour Imperialism, and yes to British Socialism!
When I hear of Labour supporters calling for a return to the party's origins, I laugh. Because the Party has always been an Imperialist group of elites. This has never changed. Never. Labour have always been something. Not a workers union. Not a communist clique. And most certainly not a revolutionary resistance. From Hardie and Henderson, to Brown and Blair, Labour have always and always will remain a bigoted colonialist party, loyal to the establishment, and loyal to the rich.
The following resources were used for this essay:
Liberalism and the British Labour Party, MN Roy
British Labour and the Easter Rising, Irish Democrat
British lost the working class vote a long time ago, Brendan O'Neill
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