Letters—Don’t buy it—workers need solidarity, not flag-waving

We don’t need more union jack branding. We need union organisation

The Lib Dems and the Tories are at it again—telling us to “Buy British”. As if that will save jobs, rebuild industry, and somehow reverse decades of devastation they themselves oversaw.

Let’s be clear. Buying British is not a strategy for working class people. It’s a plea to prop up a broken system that’s hollowed out British industry in the first place.

From the 1980s onwards, Tory governments under Thatcher, and New Labour after them, ripped the heart out of Britain’s manufacturing base.

Whole towns were gutted, factories destroyed, unions smashed and jobs shipped overseas. Not because of “foreigners” or “globalisation”, but because the ruling class put profit before people.

Now they want us to buy into a fantasy that consuming a British-made kettle or car will fix what decades of free market destruction have done.

But let’s not forget many of these so-called “British” firms are owned by multinational conglomerates.

The profits don’t stay here—they go to shareholders in boardrooms thousands of miles away.

“Buying British” also stinks of nationalism, the same toxic politics used to divide workers and blame migrants while the rich hoard more wealth than ever. It pits worker against worker instead of uniting us in common cause.

We should be especially wary of trade union leaders such as Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, spouting this rhetoric.

We don’t need more union jack branding. We need union organisation and collective action to rebuild our industries sustainably, democratically and in the interests of the working class.

The solution isn’t buying British—it’s workers solidarity and fighting for socialism.

Dave Gilchrist, north London

The crackdown by the Trump administration on human rights law firms is more than just political retaliation.

Trump is forcing them to choose between profits and principles. Unsurprisingly, some are already choosing profit.

Trump is saying align with the state, or else. The victims will be the working class who rely on these firms’ for even a shot at justice.

We can’t depend on them. The fight for justice, as always, will come from below—from the working class, from those willing to challenge not just the symptoms but the root cause of injustice.

Under capitalism, justice is too often reserved for the highest bidder. That must change.

Geraldine, east London

• I’m a retired member of Unite union. I’ve donated £25 to the Birmingham bin strikes. It’s an important strike and we should all get behind it.

Danny Thomas, Leigh

In his article on elections Tomáš Tengely-Evans starts with Marx and Engels.

They should be used by socialists to lay “before the public their revolutionary attitude’’.

What follows rows back from this despite referring to the disasters of Podemos, Syriza and Corbyn.

Tomáš is wrong to say that those formations were a reflection of mass movements. In fact they were always a retreat from them.

Tomáš also says that elections are arenas of struggle. Really? The age of sterile TV debates is a million miles away from the time when workers fought for the vote.

The logic of passive vote harvesting is shown by the difference between Corbyn’ first and second election campaigns.

To defy this logic is hard. Perhaps it can be only done if the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) stood as a party.
Then we could say, “Come on this demo, join this picket line, oppose all immigration controls, buy a Socialist Worker.”

Chris Fuller, York

An electoral alliance could unite the left at the ballot box.

The Socialist Workers Party is right to argue for a “broad-based, pluralist umbrella”.

We need a national conference. This would allow agreements on a programme and a process for selecting candidates for election. This would be a stage to give struggle a voice.

It won’t be easy. We won’t agree on everything. But we have to try!

Ansell Eade, south London