“A Labour vote is a class vote”: “The ABC of  Marxism”…Vs No vote Labour, “a passive and wishy-washy tendency masked by verbal intransigence.”
 

Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, KPD HQ 1926-33. Infamously a “red-brown alliance” was formed in the Landtag Referendum in Prussia in 1931, where the KPD endorsed, at Stalin’s behest, a Nazi referendum to overthrow the SPD government, dubbing it ‘The Red Referendum’.
 

The rise of the far right in Europe and in the US is now being repeated in Britain, Starmer’s government is carrying out his clearly indicated intention to attack the working class and oppressed on behalf of the transnational corporations and the billionaires. The Marxist tactic to fight this is the Workers United Front (WUF) and this has a vote for Labour as its central tenet. Trotsky made his position on the British Labour party very clear in his writings in 1932:

“For every revolutionary organisation in Britain its attitude to the masses and to the class is almost coincident with its attitude towards the Labour Party, which bases itself on the trade unions”.

The policy of the existing left wing of the Labour party was as dire back in 1922 and 1932 as it is now, but he goes on:

“The policy of the Opposition in the Labour Party is unspeakably bad. But this only means that it is necessary to counterpose to it inside the Labour Party another, a correct Marxist policy. That isn’t so easy? With this we are entirely in accord: the bureaucracy will not surrender. But the revolutionists, functioning outside and inside, can and must succeed in winning over tens and hundreds of thousands of workers.”

Of course the amount of effort a revolutionary socialist party gives to entry work in Labour depends on the degree of democracy in the party. Currently there is very little so Marxists must now practice open political work and attempting to get a united front opposition party formed from expelled members and those who have resigned in despair. This must have open democratic structures to enable the fullest debate on the way forward towards revolution. And so we must call for a Labour vote against the Tories and Nigel Farage’s Reform in elections when there is no serious alternative with support in the working class and oppressed.

No to Stalinist ultra-leftist Third Period posturing

Between 1928 and 1934 Stalin imposed the policy of the Third Period, which had the disastrous effect of allowing Adolph Hitler to come to power on January 30, 1933, without a shot being fired. Revolution was on the immediate agenda everywhere, the German communists foolishly asserted on his instructions.

All other political formations were just varieties of fascism; including Trotsky-fascists, of course. In particular the Social Democrats (SPD) were ‘social fascists’ and the main enemy. This gained traction because the SPD had murdered Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Leo Jogiches, the German revolutionary socialist/communist leaders, in early 1919 to smash that impending revolution.

So the German Communist party (KPD) allied with the Nazis, who were just another variety of fascism they ridiculously claimed, and it had support amongst workers. The Nazi name translates as the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP; another variety of ‘socialist’ fascism is National Bolshevism, initially formed in Germany and then reformed in the USSR on the same lie.

Infamously a “red-brown alliance” was formed in the Landtag Referendum in Prussia in 1931, where the Communist Party endorsed, on Stalin’s instructions, a Nazi referendum to overthrow the SPD government, dubbing it ‘The Red Referendum’. In the transport workers strike in Berlin in November 6-7, 1932 the KPD allied with the Nazis against the SPD leadership. The two sub-organisations calling for that strike were the NSBO (Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation) for the Nazis and the RGO (Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts-Opposition) for the KPD. This was just seven weeks before Hitler triumphed on 30 January 1933.

‘After Hitler, our turn’ was KPD leader Ernst Thälmann’s inane slogan after Hitler came to power, thus rejecting the workers united front tactic which is both from above and below; placing demands of the SPD leaders to expose them and win over their followers. The KPD united front from below only was a useless tactic which amounted to simply demanding that SPD workers, older, demoralised, employed and better paid, join the KPD, whose members were young and largely unemployed. The KPD’s illusions in parliamentary democracy were quickly shattered after the Reichstag Fire, spread by the Gestapo themselves, to give Hitler the excuse for his Enabling Act and making all opposition parties illegal, beginning with the KPD, of course.

Today’s Third Period Trotskyoids

We see these ultra-left moods again today in the demand that no one votes Labour. We can justly term them ‘third period Trotskyoids’. The Spartacist League, British section of International Communist Organisation (Fourth Internationalist) centred in the US, leads the way here. Their paper, Workers Hammer, screams “To hell with Sunak and Starmer! Vote Working Class!” They are correct in calling for votes for Jeremy Corbyn, Andrew Feinstein and other working class independents, 5 of whom were elected. But they also called for a vote for all 152 of George Galloway’s Workers party, with which we do not agree. His byelection victory was won on opposition to the Israeli genocide in Gaza and it was correct to vote for him then. But his policy against trans, gay and lesbian rights, his right wing opposition to abortion and his appalling stance against immigrants, worse than Labour, makes it impossible to call for a vote for any of his candidates.

Communist Fight, the publication of the Consistent Democrats, our former comrades, taking their lead from the Spartacist League, from whom their leader Ian Donovan, originated, also proclaimed, ‘A Vote for Starmer’s Labour is a vote for Zionist Genocide and Nazism in Ukraine!’ , Vote Corbyn/Abbot/Independent Socialists/Workers Party/Transform/TUSC/RCP! They claim those voting Labour are the most backward section of the working class. Of course those consciously voting for socialist candidates are to the (ultra) left of those voting Labour in a certain sense but this must mean those voting Tory and Reform are to their left!! We hear old Uncle Joe applauding from the grave!.

On June 2 David North’s WSWS/SEP went into a big rant against voting Labour by Chris Marsden; ‘Britain’s pseudo-left endorse a vote for Starmer’s Labour Party’. They hold that the trade unions are no longer workers’ organisations and consequently bourgeois workers parties (Labour, Social Democrats and Stalinist parties) no longer exist anywhere. If this were the case, then fascism would have triumphed everywhere. Their term for all their opponents on the left, is ‘Pseudo-left’; anyone who is not a member or supporter of the WSWS/SEP.

Class Consciousness is lodged in workers organisations

We insist that class consciousness, the class for itself subjectively and not just objectively in itself, does not develop in the minds of individual workers divorced from their social relations; the class consciousness of the working class is primarily lodged in its own organisations. That is the trade unions and reformist, Stalinist, centrist and revolutionary parties and groups vying for leadership of the class.

Here is Trotsky in 1932 quoting from and defending his resolution to the Fourth Congress of the Comintern in 1922 where he makes it clear that the WUF tactic in Germany was not a one-off for the early 1930s only but was the “ABC of Marxism”:

“Is the united front to be extended so as to include only the working masses, or so as to include also opportunistic leaders? …Were we able to simply unite the working masses around our banner … by eliminating the reformist party, or trade union organizations – that, of course, would be the best way. But, in that case, the very question of the united front, in its present form, would be non-existent. In the question of the united front, as it is raised, we observe a passive and wishy-washy tendency masked by verbal intransigence.”

 Of course, it was correct to call for a vote for principled socialists and revolutionaries with a base in the working class against Labour, e.g., Jeremy Corbyn, Andrew Feinstein, Faiza Shaheen, Sam Gorst and Lucy Williams in Liverpool. But in a straight Labour/Tory contest with no such opposition vote Labour. The argument is often heard that the situation is ripe nationally for an independent electoral challenge to Labour from the left; but this is premature, it bears small relationship to reality as yet.

The Workers International League makes the following statement in their pamphlet Revolutionaries and the Labour Party, 1994, “Lenin emphasised the need for ‘a sober assessment of the actual level of political consciousness of the working class as a whole, and not just its vanguard. This line does find a resonance among some groups of workers. Periods of retreat and demoralisation frequently produce ultra-left moods in a minority of the class. The answer to the real question of whether this line represents a correct approach to the politically conscious sections of the working class as a whole is no”.

Trotsky wrote “The WUF tactic in Germany was not a one-off for the early 1930s but was the “ABC of Marxism”: He warned on December 8, 1931:

“Worker-Communists, you are hundreds of thousands, millions, you cannot leave for anywhere; there are not enough passports for you. Should Fascism achieve power it will ride over your skulls and spines like a frightful tank. Your salvation lies in merciless struggle. And only unity in struggle with the social democratic workers can bring victory. Make haste, worker-Communists, you have very little time left.”

Leon Trotsky in exile in Mexico City, 1938