07.03.1996

Abolish the monarchy

The Labour Party is too scared to even criticise the monarchy, let alone abolish it. Only revolutionaries can lead the fight for real democracy

So, Diane Spencer wants to divorce Prince Charles. Hardly surprising. We all know the wretched Charles Windsor is a sad, dysfunctional man, who only married Diane because he was told to by his unpleasant parents. The ‘fairy tale’ marriage was an arranged marriage in the classic aristocratic upper class tradition, designed to popularise the remote royal family and provide the Windsors with a ‘womb on legs’ - ie, the unfortunate Diana.

Some might conclude, therefore, that all the media fuss about the impending divorce is a monumental irrelevancy. Revolutionaries and partisans of the class should perhaps just smirk from the sidelines - ‘we are above such trivia’ - and carry on with ‘business as usual’.

This would be a fundamental mistake. All communists and revolutionary democrats should intervene in the ‘monarchy debate’, in order to expose the anti-democratic structure of our state and lead the struggle for real democracy. Revolutionaries must be in the vanguard when it comes to the fight for democratic reforms - it would be a dereliction of our duty not to do so.

We must not allow the issues thrown up by the ‘divorce debate’ to be channelled along safe, easy-to-deal-with lines. Yes, we can be simultaneously outraged and amused by the fact that Lady Di gets accommodation costs of £303,978 a year, or that her underwear bill comes to £4,004 a year - or by the suggestion that she might get a ‘clean-break’ lump sum of £15 million.

However, the task of revolutionaries is to elevate these sentiments onto the political sphere. The Guardian complacently commented: “We make up the legalities of our monarchy as we go along ... If we want to change the rules of the monarchy, then we can do so again. We can alter anything through parliament” (February 29).

This immediately raises the question of the constitution (or, perhaps more accurately, the lack of one) and constitutional reform. If we treat this question seriously it can become a weapon in our armoury, which we can use against the capitalist system. If not, it will be used against us in our struggle for revolution. For sure, the likes of  The Guardian and The Independent will work overtime to rob republicanism of its revolutionary democratic content and turn it into its opposite.

Most importantly, revolutionary republicanism is a dagger which we can aim at the heart of the servile and anti-democratic Labour Party. When the shadow Welsh secretary, Ron Davies, dared to suggest that Prince Charles was not a “fit sort of person to continue the tradition of monarchy” - hardly a bold republican statement - the house fell in on him. His views were denounced as “objectionable” and “demeaning” and he had to recant openly.

This reveals the vulnerability of the Labour Party, and its insecurity. By applying ruthless pressure to the constitutional fault lines which lie underneath the seemingly monolithic and sturdy capitalist state, we can topple the entire system. The working class can make a clean break with the constitutional monarchical system and raise the banner of socialism.