The capitalists have always sought to demonise the working class. Picture shows workers marching on a TUC demonstration, June 2022. Photo Workers.
Communists aim to unite workers, those who live by selling their labour power. Workers are put into competition with each other by their existence under capitalism.
But workers also cooperate with each other – not only working to produce goods and services but also combining against employers in fighting for pay and conditions.
All who live and work here are the working class, which comprises the vast majority of the British people. Whatever divides the working class works in favour of the employers, the ruling class.
Communists do not think or act in ways that divide our class. We are not “left” or “right”. We don’t divide our class into progressives and reactionaries. Communists are for the unity of our class. We work to unite our class to fight for what’s in the interests of our class, the British working class. These interests are also the interests of Britain.
By contrast, social democracy – the ideology of living with capitalism, typified by the Labour Party – embraces rootless internationalism. It denounces as “far right” those who embrace the national interest – cheap rhetoric that reveals their disdain for Britain and its people.
Social democracy holds that political life is divided into two: “left” and “right”, and that being of the left they are on the side of the angels. This facile division dates back to the time of the French revolution 220 years ago – it does not reflect real life in Britain today.
So it is said to be left-wing to support public investment, full employment, trade unions, good wages and decent pensions. All policies with majority support in the British working class.
And on the other hand, it is held to be right-wing to support using nuclear power to help to meet our energy needs, to oppose giving ever more powers to the unelected European Commission, to oppose prioritising identity politics, and to be in favour of controlling immigration. Again, all policies with majority support in the British working class.
In Germany now, two major political parties want to bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine, the most dangerous war in Europe since World War Two. Both these parties want a peaceful settlement of this war. They both oppose sending ever more weapons to Ukraine.
Yet one, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), is considered left wing as it is anti-capitalist and anti-austerity; it’s also anti-EU. The other, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is described as right wing for its opposition to immigration. Both these parties are gaining support, quite unlike the collapsing social-democratic German government, and quite unlike the Labour government here.
Surely it is good when Germany, so often a belligerent in Europe’s wars, has two major parties rejecting war? Yet conventional social democratic opinion sees a joint threat from both parties as “reactionary anti-western, anti-NATO” parties “that reject western values”.
The European Commission, the Labour Party and social-democratic parties across Europe all claim to “oppose the far right” to try to justify their existence and legitimise their policies. But their slogan “don’t let the far right divide us” is itself divisive. And too many trade unions in Britain follow the same line.
The media over-emphasises the “far right” terror threat in Britain. And it labels as “far right” people who don’t accept the social-democratic political consensus (pro-EU, pro-NATO, pro-open borders).
A march in Glasgow held on 7 September last year was pro-Britain, anti-separatism, anti-SNP, pro-Brexit, and against mass immigration. The BBC told us that the march was anti-immigrant, and never mentioned its pro-unity and pro-sovereignty messages.
This self-defined left calls for “no borders”; the self-defined right calls for mass deportations. Both positions are anathema to the interests of workers; both deny security to those who live and work here.
The ruling class has always feared the working class. That is why it has always demonised the working class and its communism. The bigger the threat, the bigger the lies the rulers have to tell about it.
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