The sheer sight of Jack "Free Pinochet" Straw sharing a platform with such an unikely crew should be our final warning that something is very wrong in so-called New Britain.
The fuel tax protesters have given themselves a self imposed deadline before they re-impose the blockades, perhaps in just over a month's time, and unless the Finance minister (Brown) has a surprise tax cut for them, we must assume that there will be more conflict.
Scattered observations have suggested that the farmers and truckers are mostly concerned about bankrupcy and unemployment, and are not necessarily the greedy bigots they have been portrayed as.
So, if there is industrial unrest, what will happen if the farmers and hauliers are defeated ? In fact, the goverenment have already spoken of rural unemployment in much the same way that the tories did about the coal miners, with pure contempt.
The current Labour christian populist regime is partly the result of the defeat of the organized proletarait in the 80s and the subsequent expulsion of the Militant socialists from the party. So, who will gain from the defeat of the fuel tax protest, should it be resumed ? As the group "Red Action" has observed [I am not connected with them in any way], the tories were content to DEFEAT the workers, but Labour is attempting to LIQUIDATE the entire class: in future, you'll either be a member of the Blairgeoisie, or you'll join the "Poor" if Blair has his way. This is the philosophy of the "Enid Blyton" politician, " if everyone were like me, the world would be a better place" he sighs from No 10.
"defeat the forces of Conservatism" was Labour's battle cry: sounds good- who wants a tory ? But the question persists, if there is no organized independent working class, and the ruralists are defeated, who holds power ? Labour is not accountable to the unions, rather the unions are locked into the establishment by Labour. Thanks to Livingstone, there is no independent left to speak of anymore either. Do you know where labour ends and where the left begins ? I cant say I'm too sure now.
David Handly of Farmers for Action has spoken about dictatorship, and it may not be entirely rhetoric. After all, if no class holds power, then control must go by default to an unaccountable directorate, and if that were to occur, who could stop it abolishing democracy altogether and instituting a corporate structure, with, oddly enough, representatives from the police, industrial giants, and trades unions, all 'united' in a common cause, just like Straw's platform yesterday...