Force the Tories Out!

 Two weeks after the election and Theresa May continues to cling to power on the strength of a promise of support from the sectarian bigots of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has yet to be delivered, to give the Tories a wafer-thin majority in the House of Commons. But most of the reactionary Tory agenda has been culled from the Queen’s Speech, which Tory grandees concede was “her first and last”.

            Mrs May’s rivals are openly debating whether to depose her now or wait until she loses the next election before making a bid for the leadership amidst rumours that Conservative Campaign Headquarters has already been told to prepare for a late autumn re-run. Meanwhile the struggle between the two poles of the ruling class divided over Brexit continue within the corridors of power, with the Europhiles determined to create the conditions for another referendum before the conclusion of the Brexit talks.

            Communists have no say, nor indeed any interest, in who should lead the Tory party. Nor are we interested in the divisions within the ruling class except to exploit them for the benefit of the working class. The immediate priority is to bring this government down.

            The incompetence, greed and indifference that led to the Grenfell Tower fire sums up all that is rotten within the British ruling class.

Getting rid of capitalism and replacing it with socialism is the ultimate objective of working people. Getting rid of austerity and replacing it with social justice is the immediate objective of the working class and the Labour Party.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to oppose the May government in every way in Parliament and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has called for a million people to take to the streets to bring this government down.

But when the next general election comes we must mobilise to ensure that Labour gets a clear working majority. We don’t want the ‘austerity-lite’ of the Blairites who still remain within the Labour Party. We don’t want a mealy-mouthed compromise with the worthless Liberal-Democrats or the Scottish Nationalists that the liberal bourgeois pundits who pose as friends of the working class are now advocating. We don’t want any retreat from the decision of the British people in 2016 to leave the European Union.

What we want is an end to austerity and the restoration of trade union rights. Saving the NHS, capping rents and building cheap council homes, raising wages, getting rid of the need for foodbanks, saving our schools, restoring the right to independence for the disabled, restoring proper care for the elderly and restoring legal aid to bring justice for all – these are the issues that Labour’s manifesto addresses. Restoring at least part of the public sector, cutting the defence budget and taxing the rich to make them pay for the crisis of their own creation will pay for all of this and more.

There’s new militancy in parliament. There’s anger on the streets. One way or another the May government will fall. The sooner the better.