TODAY is a very strange day. It is a day on which the British people’s anger with, opposition to and contempt for the Tories is being massively expressed in a landslide victory for the Labour Party — for which there is, in turn, a remarkable lack of real support or enthusiasm, other than as a vehicle for routing the Tories.
 
Nonetheless, Labour is predicted to end up with the largest majority of parliamentary seats since the mid-19th century …  at the same time a recent Techne UK poll predicted a fall in voter turnout, particularly among under 35-year-olds… and the National Council for Social Research reports, “Trust and confidence in Britain’s political and electoral system have never been worse.”
 
Karl Marx referred to the Chartists and their demand for universal suffrage as “The first mass workers’ party in the history of the working-class movement,” and Engels, recognising that the power of the ruling class and its state exists independently of elections and parliamentary majorities, wrote: “Universal suffrage is thus the gauge of the maturity of the working class. It cannot and never will be anything more in the modern state, but that is enough. On the day when the thermometer of universal suffrage shows boiling point among the workers, they as well as the capitalists will know where they stand.”
 
So, given that the biggest landslide victory in history is occurring at the same time as working-class confidence and trust in the system is at an all-time low …  has the parliamentary pot boiled dry?
 
It’s certainly true that, as time goes on and the evidence mounts up, a growing majority of people see through the deception that Parliament rules Britain — and recognise that the economic and political power of big business and the banks, both domestic and transnational, fundamentally calls the tune.

Whichever party is elected is not in power but merely in office to administer their system. Some parties do so willingly, others reluctantly, some are coerced and undermined if they do not play ball …  and of course, Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party had to be utterly destroyed for fear that he would refuse to serve them.
 
So, what is to be done? Starmer’s model of a centrist party that doffs its cap to the forces of neoliberalism, imperialism and war will win the day today — but the next day, and every day after, will, by its actions, convince even more workers of the inadequacy of capitalist democracy for the needs of our class.
 
The answer is to take a very tough, difficult and demanding road — creating and building a “United Front Against Monopoly Capitalism, Austerity and War.” Such a united front was adopted as policy by the People’s Assembly Conference in January 2023, but not a lot happened as a result!

But maybe everything has its time — the material conditions in which an idea — a proposal — can flourish no matter how difficult … and the election of a Starmer Labour government is exactly that time, those conditions, for the growth of such a united front based in the unions, in trade union councils, in the People’s Assembly and working-class communities throughout Britain — organised and fighting for clear principles and policies.

To this end, the People’s Assembly has just published a new People’s Charter 2024 for wide discussion and concerted action. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would be nodding approvingly.
 
And there is now talk among People’s Assembly groups and, hopefully, the national committee with its many trade union and campaign affiliates — of a new People’s Convention to bring us all together into one united and cohesive movement …  easier said than actually done, of course.

It will, as sure as day is day, be increasingly necessary if we are to take the struggle forward in both policy and co-ordinated action against the attacks to come and for the demands of the People’s Charter. Do we have the political conviction, will and determination to make it happen?