Democracy, monarchy, republicanism

As Sacha Ismail says ( Solidarity 658 ) the royal row has shone a light on the bigotry of the royal family. And a bit more. It lifts the lid on how the spectacle of the monarchy is created — a sick abusive relationship between the media and the Windsors. Politically, the monarchy survives as a political resource for the ruling class, usable as a backstop in crisis, largely by the monarch doing and saying as little as possible in ordinary times. The monarch must be an empty vessel. That was much easier to achieve before 24 hour news and social media. Now the royals can’t exist without their...

There is no substantially democratic, “progressive” alternative to the privilege and racism embodied by the UK royal family in the right-on brand of aristocracy promoted by Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle. “Harry and Meghan” have become right-wing hate figures for a reason. They have shone new light on just how unpleasant and bigoted the core royal establishment is. But we want neither old-fogey monarchy nor a sort-of-woke Lord and Lady Bountiful version: we want no monarchy at all. The pseudo-social justice talk adorning their self-promotion (“Each of us can change our communities. All of us...

“We now have the prospect of having a Conservative Party leader who doesn’t have a mandate from the country and won’t even have a mandate from the membership either... I think a general election is the only answer, otherwise we’re just going to go from bad to worse.” That’s not a Labour or Lib-Dem politician, but a Tory MP, admittedly a somewhat maverick one, Christopher Chope. Socialists advocate a thorough representative democracy, based on the right to recall representatives at any time, abolition of privileges for representatives and officials, and ending the separation of legislative and...

Two unelected heads of state: Charles Windsor and Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel In an extraordinary editorial (“Funerals, bank holidays and collectivism: for a socialist approach”) that appeared online dated 18 September, the Morning Star warned against “confus[ing] public displays of affection for Elizabeth II with intrinsically reactionary political outlooks”, advising that we “should recognise the instinct for community and belonging which can be channelled along these lines.” The editorial then went to describe objections to shops being closed on the day of the funeral (were there many...

Keir Hardie, the working-class organiser and campaigner who became one of the first Independent Labour MPs (in 1892) and then first leader of the Labour Party (in 1906), wrote these words in 1897, at the time of Queen Victoria's 60th jubilee. Even under a representative system of government it is possible to paralyse a nation by maintaining the fiction that a reigning family is a necessity of good government. Now, one of two things must be – either the British people are fit to govern themselves or they are not. If they are, an hereditary ruler who in legislation has more power than the whole...

Public support for the monarchy has got a small boost from the huge state-driven monarchist campaign following the queen’s death. On 14 September YouGov found that 67% said the UK should continue to have a monarchy, up from 59% in March and 62% in July. The monarchy’s support got a boost at the time of queen’s 2012 jubilee, followed by sustained decline. It seems likely that this fillip will be temporary, and soon the decline of monarchism will continue. In 2012 YouGov found that over 70% of 18-24 year olds wanted to keep the monarchy, not far short of the overall figure for the country...

Behold a gorgeous palace that amid Yon populous city rears its thousand towers And seems itself a city. Gloomy troops Of sentinels in stern and silent ranks Encompass it around; the dweller there Cannot be free and happy; hearest thou not The curses of the fatherless, the groans Of those who have no friend? He passes on - The King, the wearer of a gilded chain That binds his soul to abjectness, the fool Whom courtiers nickname monarch, whilst a slave Even to the basest appetites - that man Heeds not the shriek of penury; he smiles At the deep curses which the destitute Mutter in secret, and a...

In July 1911, when the British king George V visited Ireland, Irish socialist James Connolly wrote the following. Much more on and by James Connolly here. As we face pressure to suspend working-class struggle following the death of Elizabeth II, and many in the labour movement are all to eager to comply - and to join in with celebrations of the monarchy - we would highlight the following in particular: "Let the capitalist and landlord class flock to exalt [the King]; he is theirs; in him they see embodied the idea of caste and class; they glorify him and exalt his importance that they might...

Keir Starmer plans to put a conservative, conformist stamp on the Labour Party conference (25-28 September) by opening it with “God Save The King”. (No, in 1952, when monarchism was much stronger, the Labour conference didn’t do that. Its main event was big advances by the left in elections for the National Executive.) However, according to the Observer (18 September) “several motions backed by the country’s most powerful unions have been submitted to the conference underlining the duty of MPs to support strikers”. The unions’ motions to conference are published only shortly before the event...

A hundred and twenty-five years ago, for Queen Victoria’s 60th year on the throne, Labour’s first leader Keir Hardie wrote: “If we are for the Queen we are not for her subjects. The throne represents the power of caste — class rule... [The monarchy] is the centre, if not the source, of the corrupting influences which constitute Society… In this country loyalty to the Queen is used by the profit-mongers to blind the eyes of the people. We can have but one feeling in the matter — contempt for thrones and for all who bolster them up”. (More from that article here ) Today, too, the monarchy is not...