Morning Comrades.
Whilst todays topic is, on the surface, very UK, or rather England specific lets make it extremely clear, not only is this development applicable to all “western” so-called liberal democracies but it also serves to illustrate why it is so vitally important to realize that irrespective who is “in charge” they all serve the same paymaster, and it is not us.
Two very specific events took place, one current and one whose 90th anniversary, eerily, happened to be two days ago. Specifically, the UK government, illegitimate as it is, passed its Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill - in light of other bills such as the Public Order Bill and I will elaborate on them shortly. Secondly, on January 30th, 1933 Hitler was appointed, this being the key word, to take the position of Chancellor in Germany. It is, potentially, the historian in me but I not only find the fact that England is no longer, even on surface levels, a functioning democracy, but has fully embraced a violent fascist kleptocracy but that it so happens that the above mentioned bill passes 90 years nearly on the day extremely uncanny and worrying.
In regards to the above law that just passed: The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill is a draconian piece of legislation. It allows Ministers to write regulations in any services within six sectors (health, education, fire and rescue, border force, nuclear decommissioning and transport) that will force workers to work during strike action.
Employers will then issue work notices naming who has to work and what they must do. Workers could be fired and unions face huge damages if they fail to comply. First in the firing line will be ambulance, fire and rail workers, with the government seeking to ram through new rules by the summer. We have already covered the insanity that is the Public Order Bill but here is a good refreshment course for everyone. Essentially, the government now decides what is a “legal” protest ( none ) and violations against this bill can and will result in prison sentences for up to 10 years.
Briefly, a little history about Hitler and Germany, seeing that there still remains plenty to talk about.
Contrary to what is often claimed, he was not brought to power by a popular movement against which the defenders of democracy proved powerless. He did not have to conquer state power because it was handed to him by the political, economic and military elites. When Hitler entered the Reich Chancellery in 1933, the democratic institutions of the Weimar Republic had long since been destroyed. For three years prior, chancellors had ruled through emergency decrees signed by the Reich president.
Hitler’s NSDAP—which gathered disappointed World War I officers, petty-bourgeois layers ruined by inflation and economic depression, and other declassed elements under the banner of race and anticommunism—achieved its best election result in the summer of 1932, with 37 percent of the vote. After that, support for the party quickly disintegrated. When new Reichstag elections were held four months later, the two workers’ parties, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Communist Party (KPD), received significantly more combined votes than the Nazis. The party was facing bankruptcy, and Hitler even contemplated suicide.
In this crisis, the decision was made in favour of Hitler by a small conspiratorial circle around Reich President von Hindenburg. Big business and the military signaled their approval. They did not support Hitler because they misunderstood his intentions, but because they knew exactly what he was up to.
As early as January 1932, Hitler promised top business representatives in a speech to the Düsseldorf Industry Club that he would abolish democracy, suppress the class struggle and “Bolshevism,” and conquer new Lebensraum (living space) for Germany. He reassured them that, despite occasional anti-capitalist rhetoric, the Nazis would not infringe on private property or challenge income differences among the people.
Hitler met with the leaders of the Reichswehr ( Armed Forces ) four days after he took over the government to clear up any lingering doubts. After introductory remarks about the importance of the “race,” he promised them an “expansion of the living space of the German people with arms in hand.” He said that as a precondition, “every subversive opinion must be suppressed in the strongest possible way,” and “Marxism must be completely destroyed.”
With their decision for Hitler, capital and the military responded to the insoluble crisis of capitalism. Constrained in the middle of Europe, dynamic German industry could expand only through violent conquest. For this, the class struggle had to be suppressed and the workers’ movement smashed.
3 months after this peaceful transfer of power, allowed and paid for by the above classes, the NSDAP, legally abolished all protest, political parties and all strikes against the government. The rest we all know. Or I hope we all know.
Of course, history never repeats itself. I genuinely do not foresee a wave of militant brown shirts running through England anytime soon. Nevertheless, human history has tendency for unoriginality and the majority of signs pointing to a total dismemberment of the democratic illusion upheld by the capitalists in the “west” is here, now, today. It makes no difference in the end what clothes the police wear, when the end result is the same as 90 years ago. When a government, such as the current one in the UK outlaws protests, the right to strike amongst an ocean of corruption, worker suppression, cultivated culture wars on the backs of any and all minorities, violent police forces and secret police forces that can legally torture its own citizens what we factually have is the same reality that existed in Germany 90 years ago.
Factually, the thin line between existing under the illusion of freedom under capitalism and naked fascism has been crossed.
Of course, one could argue that there never was a line and both realities are one and I have, often, in the past. What is significant here is that these “events” as such need to be viewed from those in power, rather than our perspective. For centuries, whenever the increase of capital was threatened, predominantly by unionized workers, this veneer of “civility” was lifted and the naked aggression of the capital class came home - of course, this has always existed in the Global South where the frail nature of the bourgeoisie wasn’t watching.
For those in power it is a constant play between allowing the illusion of freedom for the working classes - “here, have some social housing, a little free healthcare, sure, protest but not too much please” - and full blown violence directed at the working classes in order to maintain increasing profits. At this point, the ruling classes are more than aware of the fact that their Western Unipolarity is at an end, that their version of capitalism is at an end and most importantly, that they have pushed the working classes to the bring of revolt. When I say that history never repeats itself but human history is awfully unoriginal it means this: the same reality existed in 1927-1933 here in the West and whilst we are not seeing a bunch of swastikas floating around town, the material reality is increasingly the same. As always, what happens in one part of the Western Empire ( in this case England ) applies to all of us. Borders and Nationalism only exist for us peasants to fight over, not for the ruling classes.
This begs two questions.
One, what have learned in 90 years of history? What benefits, strategically and tactically have 90 years of critical ( and not so critical ) analysis given us in the fight against Capitalism for us not again to be led to an industrial sized slaughter? Heaps, I say, but this begets the second question, how far are we all willing to go to not only stop this insanity, but put an end to once and for all? Aside from the fact that this circle of violence has been omnipresent here in the “west” since our factually wrongly proclaimed beginning of time ( Ancient Greece ) we no longer have any time to debate and compromise with the Capitalist - cue: Climate Crisis.
As much as I would love to say: this is what needs to be done, this readership is far to vast and international for me to issue any genuine helpful tips, however, and this is a fact, no matter where you are reading this from, you can absolutely sure that there are not only people in your neighbourhood that feel the same but most certainly people already organizing to stop this insanity. Find them.
Lastly, if your gut is telling you that this doesn’t apply to you because, well, hell, England is a long way away and Nazi Germany is History, I will leave you with this infamous poem:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Now replace, any of those with England, and draw your own conclusion. No one is free until we are all free.
Thank you for your time, attention and support,
Yours,
Steven.