Thread by @paulmasonnews

THREAD: Johnson's No Deal Brexit will inflict economic catastrophe on every community - and unleash a victimisation narrative on minorities. That's why we need a limited, temporary pact to maximise progressive votes... 1/ theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

2/ Faced with an extraordinary threat, it's part of the labour movement's tradition to seek tactical unity with other progressives and left parties - eg Greens, SNP, Plaid, Sinn Fein - as in the 1930s Popular Front... theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

3/ It doesn't mean we stop fighting for a Left Labour government - it means we seek through local or national agreements to stop needlessly competing with other progressive parties in the few tens of seats where this matters theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

4/ The biggest headfuck for this kind of tactic is with party bureaucracies and MPs - I am unsentimental about these institutions: in the ground our diverse socialist traditon has a lot in common with parts of progressive nationalism + the Greens theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

5/ As for the Libdems they have five current seats where Labour standing down slams the door on Tory candidates while 54 Tory held marginals in England/Wales open up to Labour candidates. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

5/ The Tory party is already half destroyed by Johnson's coup - beating him in a snap general election would destroy the elite's main institution of government ... that's what he means by "do or die"... theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

6/ I'll write something longer about the historic lessons of the 1930s Popular Front - most left ppl in Britain were taught it was a bad idea and a "betrayal" but here's a short summary of why we should consider it... theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

7/ Without the PF electoral pact in Spain (Jan 1936) there would have been no left government. The right had an electoral pact with fascists; hundreds of political prisoners were freed & - without a repressive state the lid blew off the struggles of workers and peasants. But...

8/ Yes the Stalinist CP used the "need to keep the liberals on board" to repress anarchist and Far left struggles, and suppress non-state militias. Today Stalinism is a) weaker and b) wedded to the reactionary project of Brexit (ie not even on the side of progressives)...

9/ In France 1936 the Blum govt was not only created by the PF agreement - left unity was forged from below by anti fascist committees and popular assemblies. Once elected it created space for the mass strike/occupation wave ... but...

10/ ... again the CP led the sell out of the strike wave and Blum was not brave enough to defeat the financial speculators....

11/ For me the differences between 1930s and now make the PF tactic more relevant. First - unfortunatley - we are not facing a mass, radicalised prerevolutoonary wave of struggles - though a Corbyn govt and a shattered Tory party would enhance conditions for struggle from below..

12/ Second, Stalinism is weaker and there is no Comintern to Order and arm repressive forces within the Labour movement....

13/ This is a defensive measure - more like what Bevan and Cripps proposes in 1938 to stop Chamberlain selling out to the Nazis - that's the closest the UK labour movement came to a PF before Laboir conf agreed in May 1940 to join Churchill's government ...

14/ But there are dangers. As in France and Spain, faced with a hegemonic left+centre government the reactionary elite attacked it with speculative finance and then moved towards fascism - that's possible under a Corbyn-led progressive govt...

15/ The second danger is that the Labour right "owns" any pact other parties and starts to use it to slim down our racial commitments.

16/ Another danger is that the party apparatchiks of the Labour left become very enthusiastic about the PF once it works and become surrogates for Thorez and Caballero, policing the movement from above...

Radical

17/ How could it work if Johnson calls a snap election 4 Sept? In all marginal constituencies, Labour activists try to convene a people's assembly to discuss if its possible to run a joint candidate or tactically stand down...

18/ Meanwhile at national level Labour could ask for cross party negotiations on an electoral pact: Trump, Farage and co are already pushing for this on the right - they don't stand on ceremony. If it fails we can at least say we tried...

19/ There have to be offers to other parties: for Scotland a no-penalty, Fear-free referendum at any point with UK govt fairly facilitating independence if it's Yes (ie the opposite of Cameron/Carney Project Fear
In 2014). For the Greens - a key ministry...

20/ If the parties won't consider this, ppl will do tactical voting anyway - but faced with a Farage/Johnson pact it won't be enough. Here's today's @guardian piece theguardian.com/commentisfree/…