Histomat: Adventures in Historical Materialism

'Historical materialism is the theory of the proletarian revolution.' Georg Lukács

Saturday, March 01, 2008

More John Bull-shit from the Brownshirts


Under the banner slogan 'New Labour Your Britain', the spring conference of the National Socialist British Labour Party saw the Great Leader Gordon Brown get a standing ovation from the assorted NSDLP members, known by some as the 'Brown Shirts'. 'I know these last few months haven't been the easiest' Brown told supporters. 'I have heard the worries. Worries about jobs going overseas, about the sorts of jobs our kids will get when they grow up and about how our communities are changing, and how the British way of life is under threat.' Playing the race card in such a brazen fashion during a period of economic uncertainty seemed to go down well with supporters, as did the announcement of a British Trust Fund designed to scapegoat migrant workers in a racist fashion by charging them to use the National Health Service and other public services. Along with the ever popular slogan 'British Jobs for British Workers', this policy announcement was possibly stolen from the NSDLP's rival far-right party in British politics - the British Nazi Party (BNP).

Brown stressed the importance of Britishness as a value, though as usual he played it safe by refusing to spell out what exactly constituted 'Britishness' and the 'British way of life'. However it was made clear to delegates that not being 'British' or worse still, being 'anti-British' was a Very Bad Thing and could incure not only penalties but punishments. 'Being a British citizen is about more than a test, more than a ceremony; it's a kind of contract between the citizen and the country involving rights but also involving responsibilities that will protect and enhance the British way of life.' To more cheers from the assorted Party members, Brown concluded 'Let us have confidence that our values are the values of the British people, and confidence that what we stand for is what the British people want for the future of this country. Let us go out and meet that challenge together'.

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4 Comments:

At 4:50 pm, Blogger John A said...

I was there, and I've never heard a racist say things like "let's set up a Medicins Sans Frontieres-style organisation to give basic education to the 75 million people around the world who don't yet have it".

 
At 5:05 pm, Blogger Snowball said...

I was wondering when a Labourite was going to bite, and it didn't take long...

John, one can be both racist and reformist - indeed racism and reformism in a sense go hand in hand due to the idea that the nation state can be a force for change and so the accompanying nationalism which goes with it. There is whole history of this when one looks at the Labour Party, and especially around the question of immigration controls - see here for example. Brown's racism is in a sense nothing new at all...

 
At 1:25 am, Blogger John A said...

One can be both racist and reformist - but this is not national reformism, it's using national resources in NGO style form to deliver free education to the poorest kids in the world. Sure those schools are unlikely to function as Marxian madrassas, but what can the Labour Party do right in your eyes?

Are you kidding? A large slice of that conference dealt with trying to defend large immigrant numbers in the face of an increasingly hostile press (and certain segments of the public).

I don't agree with a points system either - it's a rather blunt instrument which is easily misused (and smacks of market-worship).

Nonetheless - I don't think you do your case any good by being so sensationalist about it.

- Godwin Slaw, Hitler Youth member 392904

 
At 2:32 pm, Blogger Snowball said...

But Brown's speech was racist - that is my point.

Getting migrant workers - ie the poorest people in society - to pay for public services will raise 15 million pounds. 15 million pounds is nothing in Government spending terms. New Labour have spent 100 billion on Northern Rock, and who knows how many billion on their wars...

Introducing such a policy - and introducing a points system - is not about money, but about being seen as being 'tough' on immigrants. It is an attempt to appease the racist press and racist voters.

Why does New Labour think the views of racists are worth listening to, but ignores public opinion when it comes to renationalising the railways for example? Why does Brown 'hear the worries' about Britishness, but not hear the worries about privatisation, British arms sales to Israel, or calls for the troops to come home from Iraq and Afghanistan?

New Labour have moved so far from social democracy, they are ideologically so tied to neo liberalism, that they are unable to put any of the blame for the economic downturn onto the capitalist system and the parasites who run it. Yet they need to give people some sort of scapegoat to blame for things, and rather than blame the richest and most powerful in society they blame the poorest and the weakest section of society. That is the Labour way.

 

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