This summer has been marked by the appearance of national flags hung from lampposts up and down the UK from the Union Jack, St George Cross and even, more recently, the Saltire in Scotland.
Despite protestations of innocent expressions of patriotism and free speech, many of the flags have been funded by the far-right organisers.
Against the backdrop of growing support for Reform and a rise in hate crimes, many migrants and minority communities report feeling intimidated and afraid. The sizable march led by Tommy Robinson on 13 September signalled a growing confidence of the far right on the streets. This is something that must be challenged by the workers’ movement.
Red, White and Blue Bandwagon
Reform have been riding high in the polls for several months and look set to make gains in the May local elections, unless a serious political alternative is posed. They propose the obvious pipe dream plan to remove 6,000 migrants per week. This amounts to five jumbo jet loads of people daily with all the logistical, cost and security implications that would hold.
Shamefully, it’s not just the openly far right who are keen to jump on this red, white and blue bandwagon. Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick recently tweeted “While British-hating councils take down our own flags, we raise them up”. In another interview – using deliberately inflammatory dog-whistle language – he claimed immigration from “alien cultures with medieval attitudes” must be capped, while also saying grooming gangs began with the onset of mass migration.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has been at pains to appear next to a Union Jack at every photo opportunity and Labour MP and Foreign Secretary. Yvette Cooper felt the need to encourage the public to fly Union Jack and St George’s flags and embarrassingly detailed how she apparently incorporates such bunting in her household décor and tablecloths!
The appointment of new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood is revealing of Labour’s commitment to a ‘harder line’ on immigration. The introduction of a so-called one-in-one-out agreement with France is being touted as a victory in the battle against ‘illegal migration’.
Why Are the Main Parties Competing to See Who Attacks Immigrants More?
There has clearly been no honeymoon for Starmer and the Labour Party since coming to power. Working-class people have not bought the lie that they have to pay for ‘the mess the Tories left behind’ and the problems of the world economy. Meanwhile the cost of living crisis has continued for millions. Of course, Labour are absolutely not prepared to make the richest in society pay.
Farage is making gains partly because there’s truth in the idea that infrastructure like schools, health services and transport systems are massively under pressure. But this is not just the case in areas of high migrant populations, and nor is it their ‘fault’. Because the main capitalist parties have no answer for this, they turn to the old trick of divide and rule. It’s easy for them to tell the poor and working class who suffer the effects of chronic underinvestment, that their neighbour (also poor and working class, but a migrant) is to blame.
Because they refuse to tax the richest, prioritise investing weapons and defence instead of public services, and attack the living standards of the most vulnerable – they must attempt to redirect people’s anger away from themselves and towards easier targets.
It’s not just migrants who have suffered in their blame game of discrimination, but disabled people, trans people, Muslims, pro-Palestinian campaigners, workers going on strike, and the list goes on.
The election of Trump has further consolidated the rightward shift of the main capitalist parties. Starmer’s desperate fawning over the US President is embarrassing to watch. Starmer’s keenness to prove himself a US ally and his commitment to ratcheting up military spending while simultaneously claiming there is no money for services, has moved the Labour policy dial even further right.
There’s pressure from the UK ruling class to introduce more austerity in the coming budget. Meanwhile the far right are growing in confidence and aggression. Speakers at the far-right demonstration in September called Islam “the enemy” and urged the expulsion of all Muslims from the UK. Elon Musk intervened to rail against the so-called “woke mind virus” and call for a change of government in Britain. Clearly the ideas and policies of the far right are in the interests of the richest man in the world and others like him.
Role of the Working Class
The ruling class will always put protecting their profits above giving the masses a decent standard of living. The only force in society that can change that and give people the homes, jobs, wages, and services they need is the working class when it gets organised – including politically. The hugely positive development of Your Party has acted as a beacon – with 800,000 showing interest within a matter of weeks from its inception.
History shows that when working-class people from different backgrounds and communities come together to fight against attacks on their living conditions, the false divisions erected by the capitalists can be quickly torn down. In the past, campaigns like Save Our NHS Huddersfield in the 2000s, won council election seats and significantly undermined votes for the fascist British National Party. The BNP were gaining electoral support at the time, particularly in traditionally Labour council seats in the north of England.
Similarly to today, working-class people were sick of the mainstream parties all offering the same cuts and attacks on living standards. As soon as a campaigning alternative, based on mobilising working-class people to fight back against cuts, was on offer, people voted for it.
A unifying party like this can help cut across the growth of racist ideas and give people genuine answers to the problems they face. It can draw different struggles together and allow working-class people from all communities to realise we have more in common with each other than with billionaires like Musk and Trump.
It’s only through a united struggle internationally that change for the better of the majority can be achieved. An important start for this in Britain would be for Your Party to call a national demonstration to bring together different campaigns and trade unions in a massive show of strength and unity against the far right and the pro-capitalist parties, who promote only racist division and more hardship.
