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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Tories in disarray

There’s gloom and doom in the Tory ranks following the defection of Robert Jenrick to the Faragist camp. Jenrick defected to Reform UK last week after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch sacked him from the shadow cabinet saying she had “irrefutable evidence” that her shadow justice secretary was plotting to jump ship in most damaging way. She was speedily proved right.

Not that it will do her any good. Deeply mistrusted by the Establishment, her lack-lustre leadership has failed to heal the divisions over Brexit amongst her own ranks or stem the drift to Reform amongst the old guard. Many believe the Tories will be hammered at the local and regional elections this year with mass Tory abstentions and dissidents swinging to Reform, the Lib-Dems and the Greens.

Jenrick was the back-bench Tories’ favourite to challenge Badenoch. But it was a gamble he clearly wasn’t going to risk taking. A careerist, and indeed a Remainer when David Cameron was in charge, Jenrick now poses as a ranting Faragist Brexiteer to prolong his political career in Parliament.

Workers have no interest in who leads Reform or the Conservative & Unionist Party. What we are concerned about is building the resistance to war, austerity and racism.

The history of humanity is a history of exploitation and class struggle. For century after century working people – the slaves, the peasants, the artisans – dreamt of justice and equality. But in the modern era with the rise of the working class and the development of scientific socialism, it is now possible not only to dream of a better world but also to concretely build it.

The imperialists think that their guns will ensure that they can ignore the will of the people for as long as they like. But they were proved wrong in the 20th Century and they will be proved wrong today. The days when people listened to the rich men, who told us that the greatest virtue of humanity was the possession of the largest amount of money, are over.

Great mass movements are again sweeping the continents. The masses are demanding social justice, democratic rights and an end to exploitation. It’s capitalism that’s finished – not us.

Everywhere we look in the capitalist world we see unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. And the symptoms of industrial decline, inflationary pressures, stock market volatility and economic stagnation. This is capitalism. And working people are being made to carry the burden of its failure.

Socialism can end all this. Only through socialism can the will of the masses, the overwhelming majority of the people, be carried out. Only socialism and mass democracy – not the sham democracy of the bourgeoisie or the myths of the social democrats – end the class system and free working people from their slavery. Socialism must be put back on the workers’ agenda.