The 44 days of Napoleon Truss
21 November 2022
Liz Truss announces her resignation.
A useful tool in understanding the collapse of the Truss Conservative leadership is the Marxist concept of "Bonapartism".
In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon Marx used "Bonapartism" to refer to a situation in which counter-revolutionaries seize power and use selective reforms to co-opt the radicalism of the popular classes. The process preserves a narrower section of the ruling class who maintain control of the state.
What could describe the Truss experiment better? In the 1850s Louis Napoleon pretended to be the reincarnation of his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte. Truss's whole strategy was to cosplay Margaret Thatcher. The broad-ranging counterrevolution of the 70s was replaced by a mixture of racism and hatred of the working class in a jumble of imperialist nostalgia. The unity of the entire ruling class behind Thatcher was replaced by that section of the Tory party wearing tin hats.
Yet the problems of British capital have not ended with the departure of Truss. What has failed spectacularly is Brexit. The dream that tearing up workers’ rights would restore labour productivity has proved an illusion, yet the offensive continues, with the dreams of a new empire replaced by a grim determination to impose mass austerity on workers in order to meet the demands of the banks. The last dregs of Thatcherism have left Britain in a state of decay. The immediate battle is to stave off a general election by finding a unity leadership candidate, but even if this is successful the party will remain deeply divided.
The major problem for workers is that British Bonapartism is not confined to the Tory party. Sir Keir Starmer has branded the Labour party as the pro-capitalist party of witch hunts against leftists. Starmer, questioned on the central issue of Brexit, stuck to the crazy idea that they would deliver a successful separation from Europe. Wes Streeting, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, was unable to say if the party would oppose current anti-migrant policies and ideas, and recruit migrants to solve the staff difficulties in the health service. David Lammy, Shadow Secretary of State, guarantees that a Labour government would balance the books - that is, bear down on austerity. Support for unending war in Ukraine, a large part of the cost of living and the energy crisis, goes unchallenged. In fact, the majority of British leftists have been unable to resist the drive towards nationalism and continue to mutter about an imaginary "Lexit".
A massive assault is coming. The first stages of trade union resistance have begun, but the response of large sections of the union bureaucracy has been lukewarm. Statements have been made to the effect that if more anti-union legislation is introduced then the unions will go to the courts. Hardly a proper response. Francis O’Grady, leader of the TUC, blew wind out her backside at the TUC congress before departing for a seat in the House of Lords. A general movement across the unions has yet to be built.
It's important to put all this in context. The global capitalist system is fracturing. Europe is fragmenting. Many governments are on the verge of collapse. Britain is exceptional in the incoherence of the right, the conservatism of the left and the low level of working-class protest.
Workers will resist because they have to and they will receive inspiration from stronger movements in Europe. The socialist movement can play its part by calling for an independent movement of the working class, by opposing imperialist proxy war and by counterposing a United Socialist States of Europe to Brexit austerity and chaos.