Second time as farce?

February 28, 1974; a general election called by the Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath took place. The Conservatives, 297 seats; Harold Wilson’s Labour Party, 301 seats; Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberals, 14 seats. Following unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Liberals to take part in a coalition government Heath resigned on March 4 and a minority Labour government took power with Wilson becoming Prime Minister for the second time. October 10, 1974, another election. The Labour Party’s parliamentary majority was three votes. May 6, 2010, no political party reaches the 326 seat target required to form a government and ‘run’ British capitalism.

History repeats itself, said Marx, first as tragedy, then as farce. On this occasion, why then are we not laughing?

As I drive along Oystermouth Road toward Swansea University I pass Swansea prison. Each time I imagine what is happening behind those walls and what it must be like for the individuals there. Try as I might the following words always fly into my mind: “Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court, and it is now my duty to pass sentence. You are an habitual criminal, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard, and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner. We therefore feel constrained to commit you to the maximum term allowed for these offences – you will go to prison for five years.” I do not for one moment think that reality is anything like Ronnie Barker’s humorous television portrayal of incarceration, ‘Porridge’. Five years is now a fixed parliamentary term too apparently. Metaphorically speaking we are all still ‘banged up’ by capitalism until the majority gain socialist understanding and decide to set everyone free.

The majority may not have declared decisively in favour of one or three of the political parties which aspire to run capitalism on behalf of Great Britain plc but certainly, in May 2010, they chose not to vote for themselves. So what were they voting for? Both Ken Livingstone, an ex-Labour politician and ex-London mayor, and Emma Goldman, an American anarchist, are credited with suggesting that if voting actually achieved anything it would be made illegal or abolished – unless you keep on voting for the continuation of the present social system. The Socialist Standard of May 1974 provides an explanation:
“On a superficial view the electors who voted … wanted different policies, Tory, Labour, Liberal; or Scottish, Welsh and Irish Nationalism. What in fact they voted for is capitalism with small variations of no importance. Capitalism with a face lift; capitalism inside or outside Europe; capitalism with a degree of autonomy in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The voters wanted capitalism not Socialism. They have got what they voted for.”

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” as the French say. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The shenanigans and contortions engaged in by the three capitalist parties may have been of interest as an exercise in the lengths to which professional politicians are prepared to go to grab power for themselves. After all, if you have got to be a wage slave that’s not a bad little number to have, is it? These manoeuvres reminded me of Lewis Carroll’s Lobster Quadrille: “Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?’‘... but he would not join the dance. Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance.”

“YOU HAVE GOT YOU HAVE GOT WHAT YOU VOTED FOR” proclaimed the front page of the Socialist Standard in May 1974.
“In the last few weeks the politicians and commentators have been disputing about what the electors wanted, what the new Government will do, what will be in its next budget, will the polices work …They are wasting their time and yours. The main outlines of your future in the next few years are already determined, and it would be just the same with a Tory Government, a Tory-Lib coalition, or a three-party government – a little more there, a little less here but nothing essentially different.”

With this sort of prescience if you let the Socialist Party pick your lottery tickets we would all be rich. Better idea: abolition of the wages system.

The previous month’s Socialist Standard in April 1974 could have been writing about any of the capitalism supporting parties. Just substitute any other name for ‘Labour’ in the text and it is appropriate for them all.

‘The Labour Party is anti-working-class, but let the position be clearly understood. Intentions good or bad do not come into it; indeed they are determined by capitalism. Some Labour politicians know what they are doing, others do not. Some begin with ideals, others with the desire for a parliamentary career. The forming factor, however, is that Labour sets out to be a governing party – that is, to take on running the capitalist system. Given that, all the failures and ‘regrettable necessities’ follow. Because there is no way capitalism will run except its own way, and whoever tries to direct it is directed by it instead.’

“Oh, the humanity!” the radio commentator cried on May 6, 1937 as the airship Hindenburg burst into flames as it tried to land in America. “Vote for change!” the candidates cried as they went round soliciting your votes. One thing can be stated with certainty – the capitalist system does not work for the benefit of humanity. Don’t you wish you could turn the clock back and vote for real change?

DAVE COGGAN