By Nick MN.
LONDON, October 2024: The Tories are ousted from leadership of Great Britain. The Labour Party has returned to power with a new government headed by Keir Starmer sworn in. However, the mood in Britain was not celebratory. Why was this so? A trip to London saw a member of the Party of Communists USA (PCUSA) connect with comrades in Britain, investigate the outcome of the election and the general mood of the public and see historical sights.
Historical Sights
One place visited was the Cable Street Mural. This mural is dedicated to the Battle of Cable Street on October 4, 1936 when workers, young, old, and immigrants prevented Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts from marching through a Jewish neighborhood. While they were also attacked by police that protected the blackshirts, the people were successful in preventing Mosley and his ilk from marching through a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and sent a clear message that fascists were not welcomed.
Another location visited was Karl Marx’s grave at Highgate Cemetery. Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery in north London, where it was once a mass graveyard. It has tombstones from as far back as the 17th century to modern times. While walking to Karl Marx’s grave, the comrade saw the grave of Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, surrounded by pens and a towel. Karl Marx’s grave was prominently marked by a large statue bust with his phrase, “Workers of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!” inscribed on the stone. Around the monument were roses and carnations along with copies of The Communist Manifesto. There was even a Chinese version there left by a comrade from People’s China. While at the tomb and throughout London, the comrade took time to ask locals about the election.
Election Concerns
A myriad of issues were cited. One person talked about how much of the real estate in London is now far outside of the price range of the average worker and working family. While a new underground subway line had been opened, transit in and out of London was becoming more expensive. Housing units that were once built for the public were now million-pound privately-owned condos. Another worker talked to mentioned how he was starting a family soon, but worried about the rising cost of groceries, transportation, energy, and rent. They were going to move in order to make room for new family members, but it would mean they move further outside of his workplace and a longer commute. He worried about what would come for his children in the future. He stated that it was not so much that people wanted Labour to win, as that they wanted the Tories to lose. He was actually surprised that Labour did as well as they did in the election.
Others cited the school system as a place of concern. It was slowly being defunded as public education funding was determined by test performance with private schooling institutions siphoning public money. One worker described how private institutions kick out lower grade students to artificially inflate their grades while public school teachers are left dealing with bigger class sizes. Independent evaluation panels decide the fate of schools if they are performing enough or not, and the stress from work and pressure from these evaluations results in a high turnover of teachers, with little senior teachers remaining. The teachers union recently announced that there was a self-help program that would come before the evaluation to ensure that teachers would not commit suicide. However, the teachers union did not seem to be fighting too much to upend the horrid system.
Overall, there was talk of the defeat of the Tories, but not too much real talk about Labour making a big difference. Time will tell if Labour does anything positive towards the plight of the workers, or if it becomes a situation where both the Tories and Labour become similar to the Democrats and Republicans, where both parties serve capital and not the people. The comrade also sent greetings to Parties in the UK in hopes of building solidarity.