Renew the fight for democracy!

Submitted by AWL on 9 February, 2003 - 9:06

behind the news

Paddy Dollard

The attempt to reform the House of Lords has collapsed in chaos. A House of Commons vote-out resulted in the rejection of all five of the options on offer. The status quo will remain for the foreseeable future.

Tony Blair is said to find this not displeasing. For choice, Blair would have had a second chamber made up entirely of appointed members. An elected chamber? This prime minister does not trust the electorate!

That such an unashamedly anti-democratic proposal as an appointed second chamber should come from a Labour government at the start of the 21st century is one measure of the decrepit state of bourgeois democracy in Britain. Right now, it is not the most striking one, however.

A majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party and perhaps a majority of MPs do not want Britain to join the USA in making war on Iraq. They share the worldwide belief that war is neither justified nor likely to result in improvements in the Middle East - that it is the worst of the options. But they can't do anything about it. They can't even get a parliamentary debate.

Blair openly shows his contempt for the Parliament from which in democratic theory his Government receives its authority. Let the House of Commons decide in a free vote? God forbid!
In reality the Prime Minister and his coterie decide - which means that the President of the USA and his advisers decide...

We commented last summer on the symbolism of the MP Graham Allen's attempt to circumvent the Government's refusal to reconvene Parliament to discuss the war preparations by booking a hall in Westminster in which MPs might meet to discuss it "unofficially". It was reminiscent of the days when representatives of the people - for example, the Chartists in 1839 - would try to hold unofficial assemblies in opposition to a House of Commons elected on a very narrow franchise. (Most such attempts were legally banned).

We hear much talk of the failures of the left in the 20th century. The left failed first as democrats - as consistent advocates and warriors for a viable democracy in which the people, and thus the working-class majority, actually did rule.

Leon Trotsky outlined a programme for that sort of democracy in 1934. "A single assembly must combine the legislative and executive powers. Members would be elected for two years, by universal suffrage at eighteen years of age, with no discrimination of sex or nationality. Deputies would be elected on the basis of local assemblies, constantly revocable by their constituents, and would receive the salary of a skilled worker.
This is the only measure that would lead the masses forward instead of pushing them backward. A more generous democracy would facilitate the struggle for workers' power.

"We want to attain our objective not by armed conflicts between the various groups of toilers, but by real workers' democracy, by propaganda and loyal criticism, by the voluntary regrouping of the great majority of the proletariat under the flag of true communism. Workers adhering to democratic socialism must further understand that it is not enough to defend democracy; democracy must be regained".

The first condition for the labour movement to take up the fight is that we face the fact that British bourgeois democracy is a hollow sham. Today we need once more to take up the fight for democracy, and in the course of it explain the need for a workers' government.

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.