UK Election: Wall Street Journal Supports Tories.

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

Although from the UK, I have not lived there for 47 years and not likely to in the near future. I live in California across the bay from San Francisco. If I were in the UK today, I know that on Election Day, December 12^th, which is this Thursday, I would vote for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. I cannot understand why any British working class person would do otherwise.

In the US, any political candidate that dares, challenge US capitalism’s god given right to do whatever it wants, where and when it wants, faces the most savage slanderous assault by the mass media they control. You don’t have to be a socialist to face this barrage, Elizabeth Warren, an avowed capitalist can attest to that.  The British capitalist press, much of it owned by billionaires as is normally the case with the mass media, has waged an unprecedented war against the Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn that has had a significant effect on the British public. I read one comment from a social network user that called Corbyn spineless which is hardly applicable. Disagree with him if you must, but what he has had to face in the media, most people would avoid like the plague.

The Wall Street Journal, one of the world’s most important and influential mouthpieces of US capitalism, made its position very clear in an editorial today. “First and foremost this is a Brexit election”, the Journal editorial board argues, but also recognizes that even worse is what the Labor Party a proposes.

“Mr. Corbyn also wants to nationalize utilities, railways and the postal system, offer free university education, increase property taxes and regulation, and build hundreds of thousands of new homes at government expense.” the Journal adds.  The idea of nationalizing industries as the Labor Party is proposing is a horror scene for the US capitalist class. Not so though when it comes to bailing them out as was done after the crash in 2008 when the US taxpayer dragged the rotten system back from the abyss.

The Journal goes on to hammer away what it refers to as  Corbyn’s hand outs as a bone that will, “…cause voters to ignore everything else that should disqualify him as prime minister.” citing his, “…sympathy for terrorists like Hamas and despots like Vladimir Putin….”.  The Journal goes on to repeat the ridiculous slander about Anti-Semitism in the Party that has occurred “…on his watch.”

“Against this left-wing revanchism, the Tory manifesto is vastly superior.", says the Journal but this voice of US finance capital has some criticism of Boris Johnson and the Tories for not going far enough in giving capital free reign and creating a more lucrative environment for profit making. The paper is upset that the Tories won’t reduce the corporate tax rate and taxes in general but also attacks the party for suggesting raising spending for schools and the National Health Service. Spending on schools and medical care for the population, the Journal refers to as “welfare-statism” that, “Mr Johnson  may feel………..is necessary to win pro-Brexit constituencies outside of London that traditionally vote Labour”.  I have to say that while I do not see Corbyn as a revolutionary socialist by any means and I have some criticisms of him, I believe he is basically a genuinely decent and honest man.

In recognition of the present phase through which we are passing, with protests against the savagery of global capitalism occurring throughout the world including a massive general strike in France last week, the Journal editorial board admits that if the British Labour Party wins on Thursday with its most radical program since the Second World War, this could have very negative repercussions for capital.  It, “…might also encourage other parties of the left—not least America’s Democrats—to lurch further toward socialism”. Such fears from an important capitalist journal should not be ignored. Both the global ruling class and the global heads of the workers’ organizations----political parties and trade unions---recognize that the conditions for a united global workers’ movement are there.

Brexit is supported by the Wall Street Journal argues because, “…..despite its flaws remains the best chance to deliver Brexit and liberate Britain to enter a new era.”  The “liberation” the Journal is referring to is the liberating of capital from any restraints that hinder accumulation and profit making. Both Britain and the EU have stricter curbs on capital. The US has the most expensive yet the worst health care system of the advanced capitalist economies. There are 30 million without health insurance and we have a quarter of the population in poverty and literally thousands of older Americans head north to Canada or south to Mexico to obtain life saving medication.

There are tighter regulations on how food is grown, packaged, produced in the EU as far as I know. The point is, US capitalism wants to draw its weaker British neighbor closer under its wing. This will not benefit the British working class.

Lastly, while there are British workers that support Brexit for all the wrong reasons, xenophobia, racism, the colonial mentality and so on. I am aware that there are others who have real fears and are genuine in their beliefs. I know there are comrades, socialists who are staunch Brexit supporters. I just can't bring myself to agree with them; this should not harm political relationships among those fighting to change society. However, I am not there and the decision is not mine to make.

In contrast to the Wall Street Journal’s claim that Thursday’s election is a Brexit election, I think that we should oppose that view and that Corbyn and the Labour Party’s platform is the issue and Brexit is the smokescreen. Facts For Working People published recently an editorial from the UK website Left Horizons which said in part:

 “One thing that is different to the 2017 election, however, is the potential for Brexit to monopolise the entire campaign. As we have argued, the trading relationship between the UK and the EU is not and has never been the decisive question facing the working class. That issue is austerity and the drive to the bottom in wages, services, working conditions and in all the normal securities of life.”  

That the Wall Street Journal is concerned about the British Labour Party winning an election and the affect it might have on the rest of the world, including here in the US should be a warning to us all. It also shows how afraid the most powerful capitalist class in the world is of the international working class and how national struggles have the potential to spread so rapidly beyond the barriers of the nation state.

I read today that there are more food banks in Britain than MacDonalds. Corbyn and the Labor Party's program will take steps to address that, Boris Johnson and the Conservative party will worsen it.

Here is another article on the British Election from Roger Silverman, Labor Party member in London.