Lindsey German on Starmer, Trump and tyranny in waiting

Latest polling from Ipsos shows that Keir Starmer is the most unpopular prime minister ever in the history of their polling. His favourability rating is -66%. Just when you thought this couldn’t get any worse, he has decided to unite pretty much everyone against him by announcing the introduction of ID cards for the whole population in Britain. This is presented as yet another piece of persecution of asylum seekers and supposedly ‘illegal’ immigrants. But in reality it is an authoritarian move which will give far greater powers to the state and will be used in the already considerable curtailment of civil liberties that we are experiencing in Britain.

The alleged rationale is that it will stop illegal employment of those who are not entitled to work. But it will not stop people who are desperate and employers who are happy to pay below minimum wages off the books. The scheme would be in any case an extremely large sledgehammer to crack a tiny nut. But it won’t be mainly about that; despite official denials that it won’t be used to stop people in the street and ask for ID, that is very likely to happen. It will be much more likely to happen to those who are black or brown, but it will be a threat to everyone that the police might want to harass.

Behind it are two connected elements. One is the continuing grotesque persecution of refugees and asylum seekers, now extended by Nigel Farage to proposed deportations of hundreds of thousands of those with leave to remain – a policy that even Starmer has managed to denounce as racist. The second is the growing use of random surveillance, not just in the huge amount of CCTV, but in areas such as facial recognition – again used disproportionately against ethnic minorities. These developments are both highly dangerous and reactionary.

It must be added to the general atmosphere of repression instanced by a range of issues including the failed prosecution of Kneecap’s Mo Chara, the proscription of Palestine Action and the arrest of hundreds of those who have protested, the charging of four leaders of the Palestine coalition, the constant petty and unjustified restrictions on the Palestine marches. The real two-tier policing was also evident on 13 September when Tommy Robinson’s fascist-organised march was treated with the utmost cooperation, including no prosecution for the calls for violence from Elon Musk that came from the stage, and only a handful of arrests. 

A petition against ID cards has already reached over 2 million, suggesting the scale of opposition. Not all of this comes from the left – both Reform and Tommy Robinson oppose their introduction. Here, as in so many areas, the trade union movement needs to step up much more than it has done on fighting the racism of the far right and Labour’s attacks. This is an issue for the whole left and we can’t let the right gain the initiative.  

Starmer’s conference blues

Labour’s conference this week should be an easy success for a governing party with a big majority. Instead there are serious questions about Starmer’s leadership, a putative challenge to his leadership from Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, grumbling across the range of Labour MPs, serious discontent from the unions over workers’ rights and the two-child benefit cap, and the prospect of defeat on Palestine. Nearly all of the emergency resolutions at conference are on Palestine, reflecting the huge well of anger at the starvation of the Gazan people and the support for Netanyahu. Hopefully these will get onto conference floor and voted through. And hopefully they will contain opposition to war criminal Tony Blair being appointed a neo-colonial governor of Gaza, presiding over the continued genocide.

Starmer’s unpopularity has many sources, but Palestine is surely one of his most abysmal failures. His unwavering support for Israel will continue to haunt him. This is at a time when the solidarity movement is growing internationally. Berlin saw 100,000 demonstrating on Saturday – a major breakthrough given the repression of Palestine protest. And Italy showed the way with its general strike organised on Monday in solidarity with Gaza, initiated by the dockers of Genoa who have a proud history of organising.

I, like many, am increasingly frustrated by the developments with Your Party. Last Monday it announced a conference and assemblies which will not allow proper democratic debate and delegation but will have attendees selected by lottery, with completely different composition on two successive days. This is a recipe for control by a small number at the top and that will mean that the real experiences of those organising campaigns and party activities on the ground will not be properly fed into what needs to be done.

I signed up again to the party having done so the previous week, with little information about whether this was required. I don’t know the response to the call but anecdotally I’ve heard many natural supporters are not joining yet because of the divisions and uncertainty. Since no figures have yet been announced this suggests the response has not been as overwhelming as once expected. It is also regrettable that there is confusion over whether those in left groups like Counterfire can join.

In reality most of the big campaigns in my lifetime have been led by or heavily involved those to the left of Labour, including all the solidarity campaigns, Stop the War, the poll tax campaign, and the Anti-Nazi League. It is a poor hangover of Labourist politics to try to exclude them. It’s so important to build campaigns against racism, war, and austerity – and the Marxist politics behind them.

Trump: be very scared

The sending of troops to Portland, Oregon to use ‘full force’ against protestors against deportations is the latest of Donald Trump’s encroachments on democratic process. I have always hesitated to call Trump fascist, but his actions echo some of those by the Italian Benito Mussolini. He is criminalising antifa activists, who he laughably claims are attacking democracy, using troops to halt legitimate protests, carrying out more and more state capture to reach his goals. He sacks any who don’t agree with him and the enfeebled Democrats seem incapable of standing up to him.

His speech at the UN denounced Europe, blaming its failures on open borders which allow immigration. Trump’s position makes him a megaphone for the far right and fascists across the world. His latest decrees are absolutely chilling, but he is able to make them unilaterally with no democratic check. It is he, not Antifa, who is the real threat to democracy, and we must stop his poison spreading.

This week: I will be speaking at a meeting on Your Party in Portsmouth. Then I go to Paris for a very important conference on militarism, rearmament, Palestine, and the threat of war. I look forward to seeing people from across Europe and beyond and forming much closer ties with those attending. All the time I will be helping mobilise to make the 11 October demo on Palestine the biggest ever.