{"id":11690,"date":"2017-05-25T18:51:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T18:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=11690"},"modified":"2021-02-19T15:50:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T15:50:17","slug":"ric-edinburgh-statenment-on-the-june-8th-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/25\/ric-edinburgh-statenment-on-the-june-8th-general-election\/","title":{"rendered":"RIC-EDINBURGH STATEMENT ON THE JUNE 8TH GENERAL ELECTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Radical Independence Campaign- Edinburgh has produced the following statement in response to forthcoming Westminster General Election.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Theresa May\u2019s forthcoming general election is not a normal election. It is being called in defiance of the Tories\u2019 own 2011 Fixed Term Parliament Act. It bears a strong resemblance to a presidential-style plebiscite. But in the absence of actual presidential powers, such as those now wielded by Trump in the USA, May still wants to be able to override Westminster, Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont altogether.<\/p>\n

To do this she needs a supine parliament of nodding-head Tories, quite happy to go meekly through the government lobbies. In return they will be able to pocket their large salaries and many \u2018fringe benefits\u2019, whilst also making big killings from second (and more) jobs, the rewards of business lobbying and by directly employing their families. Furthermore, in Scotland, David Mundell and Ruth Davidson have already shown they will do whatever May tells them.<\/p>\n

The Tories are in the reactionary European Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists, along with Erdogan\u2019s Turkish Justice and Development Party. May hopes to emulate Erdogan\u2019s concentration of personal power after his recent rigged referendum. However, unlike Erdogan she doesn\u2019t need to rewrite the UK\u2019s constitution since it doesn\u2019t exist in a written form. Instead she wants full control of the Crown\u2019s armoury of anti-democratic powers. Thus armed, May hopes to cement the British ruling class behind her hard Brexit. In the face of ongoing global economic and political crises, she seeks to ensure that the ever-rising costs are borne by others, so \u2018our\u2019 rulers can continue to live in the manner to which they have become accustomed.<\/p>\n

To counter any remaining ruling class opposition to Brexit, May is offering them a mouth-watering deal. There may still be some \u201cbespoke\u201d EU deals for the City and selected corporations. However, to compensate for other possible losses, the Tories are preparing the ground for a major attack on workers\u2019 pay, conditions and remaining trade union rights. They want to step up austerity, which falls most severely on women\u2019s shoulders, and ensure remaining welfare benefits are fully subjected to punitive sanctions administered by ruthless private companies. More than 2 million workers from the EU are to be subjected to the draconian legislation, already in place for other migrants, so that British firms have access to a highly segmented workforce, divided by pay, conditions and residency rights, with the illegal lowest tier subjected to super-exploitation and to act as scapegoats. Civil rights will be further eroded. There is to be an increased militarisation of policing and state surveillance is to be stepped up. Our environment will continue to be sacrificed to corporate profits, as May\u2019s support for fracking in England shows. New trade deals are to be signed with Trump to open up the NHS to full privatisation. The UK is to sign up fully to all US wars for the benefit of the British arms industry, thus bringing untold misery across this planet.<\/p>\n

Scotland is in the frontline of May\u2019s attacks. The British ruling class wants finally to see off Scotland\u2019s attempted democratic revolution of 2014, where 97% of people registered to vote and 85% actually did so. This level of political engagement is without precedent in UK politics. Furthermore, this and the massive surge in support for Scottish independence, from 30% in 2012 to 45% in 2014, was done in defiance of the UK state, the EU bureaucrats, the US State Department and the British media, including the BBC. Open political, social and cultural meetings and events across the length and breadth of Scotland, supplemented by new independent media sources, massively contributed to this.<\/p>\n

This why the real purpose behind the Unionists\u2019 shrill \u2018No to IndyRef2\u2019 is to shut down this mass participation, so that things can return to normal \u2013 politics run by self-serving careerists, subservient to the British establishment and corporate power. This is one reason why Tories, Labour and Lib-Dems all cynically tried to hijack the recent Scottish local council elections to deny the Scottish people the right to hold the referendum agreed by Holyrood on March 27th, on the basis of prior election commitments.<\/p>\n

However, May wants to go even further. The Tories, having played Labour for fools in Better Together during IndyRef 1, now want to finish them off as a major electoral party. May will also undermine the existing devolution arrangements in Scotland and Northern Ireland and take whatever harsh measures are needed to deal with the consequences. To achieve this, May will fall back on the Crown\u2019s Supreme Court ruling that she, with supine Westminster backing, can override any devolved assembly powers. Cameron\u2019s, Miliband\u2019s and Clegg\u2019s pretended liberal unionism is to be buried by May\u2019s very real reactionary unionism. UKIP\u2019s and the DUP\u2019s politics have been mainstreamed by May\u2019s Tories. Sadly Jeremy Corbyn, loyal to British Labour and Westminster above all else, just can not see this.<\/p>\n

The Radical Independence Campaign (RIC) has members in the SNP, Greens, socialist organisations, Labour supporters of Scottish independence, and a majority in no party at all. Therefore, as in the 2015 Westminster and the 2016 Holyrood elections (when RIC-Edinburgh held hustings), we will not be making specific voting recommendations for the June 4th general election.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, we call on RIC supporters to recognise May\u2019s attempt to turn this election into a personal plebiscite to centralise UK state power in her hands, to be wielded on behalf of her big business backers. A prime target is the democratic right of the Scottish people to exercise our right to self-determination. Brexit is to be used to reinforce all the most reactionary features of Britishness. Instead of a Brexit fiasco we need an Ex-Brit (or break-up the UK) strategy to help us break free from the UK. In RIC\u2019s spirit of internationalism from below, this involves the people of Northern Ireland, Wales and England too. Therefore, we call for the rejection of all Unionist candidates.<\/p>\n

We also recognise that the Tories want to use the UK\u2019s profoundly anti-democratic powers to mount a major attack on the overwhelming majority. We will continue to work in and with trade unions, community organisations and all those campaigns we have supported to prepare both a defence against the planned attacks and to create a new society based on RIC\u2019s 5 Principles:-<\/p>\n

1) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For a social alternative to austerity and privatisation<\/p>\n

2) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Green and environmentally sustainable<\/p>\n

3) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A modern republic for real democracy<\/p>\n

4) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Committed to equality and opposition to discrimination on grounds of \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 gender, race, disability, sexuality or age<\/p>\n

5) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Internationalist and opposed to war, NATO and Trident<\/p>\n

We remain adamant that Another Scotland, Another Europe and Another World are Possible.<\/p>\n

RIC-EDINBURGH, 25.05.17<\/strong><\/p>\n

________<\/p>\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/06\/radical-independence-campaign-statement-defend-democracy\/ <\/a><\/p>\n

or<\/p>\n

https:\/\/radical.scot\/radical-yes\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Radical Independence Campaign- Edinburgh has produced the following statement in response to forthcoming Westminster General Election. \u00a0 \u00a0 Theresa May\u2019s forthcoming general election is not a normal election. It is being called in defiance of the Tories\u2019 own 2011 Fixed Term Parliament Act. It bears a strong resemblance to a presidential-style plebiscite. But in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1852,1867,1873,1846,18],"tags":[8900],"class_list":["post-11690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-communists-organise","category-emancipation-liberation-and-self-determination","category-against-unionism","category-british-imperialism","category-political-campaigns","tag-author-ric-edinburgh"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":3185,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11690"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11724,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11690\/revisions\/11724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}