Stop Farage by taking the Assemblies road to people’s power

The right-wing, racist-populist Reform’s humiliation of Labour and the Tories in the May 1 elections is the clearest indication that the UK’s political system is in a dangerous state of disintegration, requiring dramatic action based on taking democracy to a new level beyond the present system.

When the two biggest mainstream parties, who have comfortably dominated government for most of the last 100 years, are rejected in such a comprehensive way throughout England, the outcome is more than a mere protest vote.

If a general election were held today, these results, if replicated, would propel Reform into power and leave the Tories, the oldest party in the UK founded nearly 200 years ago, facing extinction. This is no small matter, as the so-called two-party system has been at the centre of the UK state and its relative stability. Take that prop away and anything could happen.

While we shouldn’t shed tears for the Tories, who endured their worst result in living memory in county areas where they have historically had control,  the dramatic decline of Labour is another question. In less than a year since their ‘loveless landslide’ general election victory, Keir Starmer’s party lost Runcorn, a seat which they won with a near-15,000 majority only last July and Doncaster council in South Yorkshire, both to Reform.

The reasons are not hard to fathom and were not lost on the electorate either. Starmer’s government made their immediate priority the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance for older people, a measure that saved little and angered many. An attack on disability benefits followed, together with the scrapping of many environmental protection measures and climate change targets. Spending cuts are on their way.

In their pathetic attempt to outflank Nigel Farage and Reform from the right, Labour stepped up their anti-immigrant rhetoric and law-and-order ambitions, while at the same time pressing ahead with its pro-business, growth, growth, growth at any cost mantra. Starmer’s reaction to the Runcorn defeat was to declare that he would go ‘further and faster’ down this reactionary road.

The Labour Government was exposed as a no-change government, even an anti-change one. Tinkering at the edges, it is in essence a full-on, pro-establishment administration, with a slavish adherence to Tory principles, while pretending to represent the interests of ‘working people’.  

People feel the cost-of living increases, they see the attacks on the vulnerable, and the increasing inequality as the rich get richer. They see Starmer and company abandoning all the traditions and values of working class history, sidelining the unions, condemning strikes and doffing the cap to royalty.

People feel the instability, especially in the area of public services like the NHS and social care. As the social system of capitalism falls apart amidst a trade war launched by Trump and phenomenal public and private debt, they see the party they voted for desperately propping it up.  

Starmer’s embrace of corporate controlled AI, his rejection of all environmental protections plus ripping up restrictions on developers speak volumes. This is a dystopian vision of the future, where human beings are under the physical and mental control of faceless mega corporations.

The degeneration of Labour is the story of a death foretold. From the abolition of Clause 4 by New Labour, to Blair who now controls a multi-million pound business empire promoting anti-ecological measures to Mandelson who Starmer has made ambassador to Trump, the direction of travel has been clear.

This is the  perfect scenario for a populist like Farage, pint in hand, always ready with a belly laugh, seemingly friendly, but, as an establishment stalwart, ready to follow Trump, to split the working class on the issue of immigration, and move towards authoritarian rule.

He has already threatened council workers under Reform control with instant dismissal, mimicking Elon Musk, scrapping equal opportunities when it comes to recruitment and declaring that his councils will block migrants from their areas.

Reform won 39% of the vote in heavily working-class wards but only 19% in the most middle-class ones.   Reform’s highest vote of all (65.1%) was in Thornley & Wheatley Hill, situated in Blair’s former Sedgefield constituency in Durham and once a centre of coal mining.  Reform on average won 32% of the vote in previously Labour wards and 32% in Conservative ones.

John Curtice, the renowned elections analyst, remarked: “In summary, Reform did best in what has sometimes been characterised in the wake of the Brexit referendum as ‘left-behind’ Britain – places that have profited less from globalisation and university expansion and where a more conservative outlook on immigration is more common.” The Financial Times made a different, important point, noting with alarm the  “restless disenchantment with status-quo politics, driven by a sense that living standards are sliding and ‘nothing works’.”

This reflects the fact that the existing state-political system is not working for the majority, which has led to a loss of authority and legitimacy. This coincided with the rise of neoliberal capitalism, with the state’s wholehearted embrace of corporate and financial power and ‘trickle-down’ economics, resting on exploitation, low wages and the elimination of key public services. Needless to say, climate chaos was let rip.

That period has come to a crashing end, leading more or less directly to the election of a convicted felon, liar, fantasist, misogynist and authoritarian as the US president. Trump’s presidency shows that while would be dictators (including Farage) have contempt for the existing democratic structures, they use them as means to come to power and destroy democratic rights.  

Farage’s party would not be a parliamentary party any more than Trump is a traditional president working with congress, accepting the separation of powers. His open refusal to accept the constraints of the US constitution, including the rule of law, are the foundation of dictatorship. In the UK, Labour has already opened the door to a similar scenario against a background of global, financial and economic instability and the threat of a major international conflict.

That is why it’s not simply a question of creating a new party to replace Labour and contest parliamentary elections. Even if it were successful, such a party would quickly become trapped by the existing state, its grip on power and subordination to the interests of capital. Instead, we should campaign for a deeper democracy based on Popular Assemblies, which preserves our historic achievements such as universal suffrage, human and social rights, the rule of law and freedom of expression.

This approach is explained in more detail in our Manifesto, launched before last year’s general election: “A network of Popular Assemblies can begin to put forward plans for greater democracy in society, showing how communities at neighbourhood, city, regional and, above all, workplace levels could provide an alternative to the existing political system. As part of their project, they could sponsor constitutional conventions in each country of the UK. These would be charged with creating the legal framework for an advanced democracy and a new type of economy based on co-operation and not profit.

“Assemblies could collaborate to develop democratic education to support the decision-making process and get young people involved. They could find ways of using the internet so that everyone could participate in decision making, even if they were unable to attend Assemblies in person. A way of tracking and reviewing decisions could be brought in. Assemblies would respond to crises and attacks on rights or living standards from the old regime. They can set up sub-groups and get experts in to advise them.

“As assemblies grow into a network of counter-institutions that we can organise ourselves under, this will weaken state institutions. But we should have no doubt that state authorities will take every effort to prevent any movement that threatens their power and control. Once sufficiently representative, the Assemblies can defend themselves against such attacks. History has shown, however, that two rival power centres cannot co-exist for long. So, Assemblies would have to consider how to transfer power to themselves and assume governmental functions.”

Going down the Assemblies road is the lesson we should take from the May 1 election results.