Class Politics: the critical antidote to the far-right virus

By Ken Ferguson

AS THIS LAST VOICE of 2025 goes to press, the air is thick with claim and counter-claim on a possible pact, alliance or even merger between the Tory Party — often described as the most successful formation on the planet — and the insurgent right-wing newcomers of Reform.

Of course, both have denied any such intention, with Farage describing his ambition to annihilate the Tories as a national force and stage a “reverse takeover”, while the Tories stonewall on the idea — for now — as their leader Kemi Badenoch enjoys a modest boost on the back of Labour debacles.

However, as the popular saying has it, “they would say that, wouldn’t they?” and key to assessing the weight of the story lies in where it was first published. Not in the rabid, right-wing pages of the extremist Mail or Express, but in the pink pages of the bosses’ bible the Financial Times, where — legend has it — the readers need the truth, as they use news to guide their investments.

At the core of the supposed story is an alleged briefing for capitalists and speculators given by Farage — an ex-City man himself — no doubt to ease any concerns they still have as to the security of their money under any government which includes Reform. Just a few weeks earlier, confirmation that the capitalists were being wooed by Farage was sky-written with news that digger-makers JCB, via one-time Boris acolyte Lord Bamford, had donated £200,000 to Reform. Not just swelling their funds, but underlining the fluid links — irrespective of party — between the different strands of capitalists.

As I write, the latest polls put the Tories at 17% and Reform at 30%, with the former moving right via figures like Jenrick — raising the real danger of a majority UK government endorsing market forces, slashing welfare and — a real prospect — attacking the powers of Holyrood.

On the Holyrood point, those who think it set in stone need to recall the fate of the Livingstone-led Greater London Council. Dubbed “the most left-wing administration since Vienna in the 1930s”, it militantly challenged the Thatcher regime and was duly abolished by it.

Of course, history tells us that events are in motion and open to influence and change, and in turn this demands a clear and decisive response from the progressive forces, with the working class — destined to bear the brunt of far-right attacks — at its heart.

A brief consideration of what we would face if the far right gain power can be seen from the ugly racism now in the mainstream of public discussion via Reform, but closely tail-ended by the Tories and, most shamefully, Starmer’s “island of strangers” Labour. It was Nye Bevan who said that the right didn’t preach class war because they were too busy practising it, and there is no doubt that a right-wing government based on what would be a reconstructed pro-capitalist bloc would curb workers’ rights, assault the health service and trash the planet.

At the risk of being labelled a sectarian, I will borrow from Lenin with the question — as urgent now as then — “What is to be done?”

In former times, and in the experience of many Voice readers, the answer would have been: work for, join and vote Labour — now? Just over a year in power, and this supposed Labour government is sucked into a vortex of spin, wobbling on workers’ rights, out-Reforming Reform on refugee repression, crafting economic policies to suit the money markets, and feebly failing in its central policy of growing the economy.

Faced with the very real danger of a far-right government and all that entails, the working class finds itself supposedly represented by a government which takes the side of bosses, plans increased privatisation and money lending PFI in the NHS, and splurges billions on war.

In the urgent work of building resistance to the emerging far-right menace, parliamentary play-acting and spin is not convincing. The working class — as the polls show — has no faith in Labour and, as we write, is attracted to the simplistic slogans of Reform.

Yet the Left has yet to systematically take up the challenge and combat the danger growing ever more serious. For example, much was welcome about the Scotland Demands Better march in September, but it came after months of racist actions in Perth, Falkirk, Dundee, Aberdeen and Peterhead, among others.

It was a good event but needs to be just a start, not a one-off.

Political formations, parties, unions and campaign groups need to contribute to building a movement not just of defence against the right, but one able to chart a coherent alternative capable of mounting an all-round challenge in the streets, workplaces, colleges and ultimately electorally.

The Scottish Socialist Party — whose paper the Voice is — is already campaigning on the streets, doorsteps and at demos and pickets across Scotland, and has a longstanding policy of fashioning a common programme of demands capable of mobilising working-class Scotland against the far right and winning support for a different route forward — one rooted in social need rather than profit. Among the demands that need to be at the heart of such an approach are:

• Public ownership of energy to stop it being a dripping roast for profiteers and to cut bills.

• A mass building programme of modern, eco friendly council and social housing to end the housing shortage and undercut landlords’ profiteering.

• Scrap the council tax and replace it with an income-based Scottish Service Tax to cut bills for the vast majority and generate millions for services.

• Introduce the shamefully dropped National Care Service on a par with the NHS, to ensure quality care for the elderly and free NHS capacity.

• Break all bloodsucking PFI contracts in our schools and NHS and divert the billions saved into vital services and away from money lending profiteers.

• Expand public transport and make it free — buses, trains and ferries — to reduce traffic pollution, cut road accidents and boost social inclusion.

These are just the bones of a programme which, if taken up by a mass movement, can win the case for a real, just Scotland serving people and planet, and can defeat the ravings of the far right.