Occasionally you find something in the “left” press which is so bad it makes you sit up, blink and wonder if you’ve read it correctly. Even by the usual low standards of the Morning Star, its 22 March article on the House of Lords was astonishing.
In Solidarity 3/108, we wrote:
“About the only thing more ridiculous than the old House of Lords is the bizarre complication of the schemes to replace it.
“In fact there should be no Lords. No House of Lords at all. No second chamber.
“No trade union would have two executive committees, one to “vet” the other. No workforce would choose to have two shop stewards’ committees, one elected, and the second, stacked with elderly or appointed worthies, to restrain the first.
“Second houses of parliament exist, historically, only as bulwarks against democracy — as guarantees to the ruling class that, even if the people can elect a majority responsive to their interests, there will be “older and wiser” voices to hold back that majority.”
In contrast, in an article entitled “How about real representation?” (and billed on the front page as “Real democracy after the Lords”) the Morning Star’s Jerry Jones advocates a replacement for the House of Lords which would be constituted as follows:
“Our list would be the various trades and professions... architects, armed forces personnel, bankers... clerics, company directors, diplomats, doctors, engineers... lawyers... managers... and scientists”. (He also advocates representation for various categories of workers, but it is clear that these would be swamped by an enormous quantity of bosses, middle-class ‘professionals’ and technocrats.)
And how would the members of such a body be selected?
“One approach would be to utilise existing organisations, associations or federations that are broadly representative of particular groups — such as the various professional associations, trade unions, chambers of commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Engineering Employers Federation, the Institute of Directors...”
Heard it somewhere before...? This idea of political representation was pioneered by by Benito Mussolini in fascist Italy!
If only the article had been published on 1 April rather than 22 March...! In so far as it’s possible to make any sense of this at all, Jones’ bureaucratic/corporatist solution is just another, very small step in the 75-year old political degeneration of the “Communist” movement’s “popular front” strategy — seeking to merge the working-class movement into “progressive” coalitions with sections of the ruling class.
