The billionaire wants to insert the power of his money into British politics, but Reform can be crushed if we mount a campaign of real protest, unafraid to attack Labour, argues John Westmoreland 

The world’s wealthiest man wants to buy the ballot box. In the last week Elon Musk, has opined that ‘only the [far right] AfD can save Germany’ and has met Nigel Farage at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, where they discussed how they could work together to ‘save the west’. He is threatening to bankroll far right parties internationally in a direct challenge to even our limited democracy. 

Far-right and fascist leaders have always emerged at times of crisis posing as the saviours of capitalism. And capitalism is in a crisis where poverty, war and decay are posing problems that seem insoluble. The far-right playbook is always the same. Soppy democratic parties have let foreign powers bring down the nation. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, the democrats are aiding the menace of an internal enemy that is out to destroy us. It used to be Jews and Communists, now its Muslims and ‘woke’ lefties. People fall for it because, first, there is a palpable crisis that seems to be getting worse, and second, the political parties of the establishment are floundering and ineffectual. A third factor is the willingness of the mainstream media to normalise the far right and amplify their message. 

Far-right parties are on the rise, and the threat they pose to working-class organisation is very real, but of course the open attack on trade unions and democratic rights that is their ultimate objective will come later. The emphasis now is on winning political power from the mainstream capitalist parties. Farage has called his party Reform. He wants to ease into political power, and tighten the grip of the far right on state power later. 

Funding Farage 

Farage said he learned all about how the Trump campaign secured victory from his meeting with Musk. However, it’s worth remembering, before we go further, that the Democrats handed Trump his victory. It’s important because Starmer seems to be hell bent on destroying the electoral fortunes of Labour in much the same way as Biden and Harris did over there. 

Nevertheless, Musk’s millions will massively boost Reform, by helping them create a bigger bureaucracy, local organisation and extending their reach. Although making donations to political parties by foreign donors is illegal in the UK, Musk can easily get round this restriction by donating through his companies registered in the UK. If he is successful, it will alter politics in the UK, corrupting our already tainted political system through the power of wealth, as is the case in the US. 

US party politics is dominated by donor money and the result is a corrupt system where the billionaires can throw their weight around. Trump is the president-elect and a billionaire who is forming his cabinet from fellow billionaires like Musk. Candidates who are popular because of their radicalism, and who pose a threat to the status quo, can be beaten down by heavily-funded, targeted campaigns. 

The radical Democrat, Jamaal Bowman, with working-class support in the Bronx, was targeted by AIPAC who spent $100 million to support the candidacy of his rival George Latimer. Bowman lost. He was defeated by supporters of genocide in Palestine and there was no outrage! It was fine with the US media and fine with the Democratic establishment. 

In the UK, Reform is targeting areas where Labour are in power, and where, inevitably, anger about Labour’s attacks on pensioners through cutting winter fuel payments and betraying the Waspi women is drawing hatred down on them. There is every possibility that Reform will make inroads in next year’s local government elections at Labour’s expense. 

Labour’s Plan for Change, launched at Pinewood Studios by Starmer in full plank-of-wood mode, was difficult to watch. A spreadsheet of missions and milestones announced with a plastic grin and lead-footed delivery was never going to cut it. Starmer wandered about on the political terrain of the right championing his intention to bully councils and their planning committees, boasting about deporting asylum seekers and calling for reform of the civil service. These are all issues dear to the heart of the far right. His grand finale that promised to fulfil his dream list through ‘the power of change’ added a fitting note of absurdity to the proceedings. 

There was nothing on offer that would win working-class enthusiasm and may instead form a list of failed promises that will help to bury Labour at the next election. It will give Reform encouragement and help them sell their snake oil to Labour voters abandoned by Starmer. That doesn’t mean that Reform can’t be stopped. It means we can’t rely on Labour to do what’s needed. 

Turning back Reform 

Musk’s millions don’t have to mean a victory for Reform. On the core issues that Farage stands for, he is out of touch with the working class. He doesn’t want to renationalise public services, and nor does he want to tax the rich to pay for them. He is not going to agree with us that the working class is excluded from democracy and do anything to reverse that. 

Farage thinks that the working class here should be as impressed with Trump as he is, but that’s not necessarily true. There is no reason to suppose that British voters are likely to fall for Trump’s demented speeches and bullying antics. Trump’s demand that the UK will have to choose between America and the EU is blatant bullying, and Starmer’s mild rebuke seems to have gone down well. Farage thinks Brexit is still a popular string to pluck too, but it hasn’t led to the promised land that Farage and Boris Johnson said it would. 

Reform seems to be doing well in places like Doncaster where they are out leafleting, holding meetings and are acting like a party of protest. But it is pretty superficial. They protest about the usual right-wing totems but not the things that matter most to workers, like the housing crisis. 

If the Labour movement brought some real energy into the fight against Reform, they could crush them. But that is not going to happen if the focus is on voting Labour. Reform need to be opposed on the basis of working-class politics. That will mean making working class demands on Labour with visible social solidarity up front, that can negate reform’s politics of hate, and call out Starmer’s right wing stance at the same time. 

The trade union leaders have to wake up to the political reality. We are fighting a political fight, separate from Labour’s agenda, and probably in opposition to it. We have to have 

something more radical to offer, and that means connecting protests over Palestine, war and racism to the everyday issues we face. If we don’t come together as trade unionists and campaigners, Reform will be ushered into seats because of Starmer’s abandonment of the working class. We need to act now, before it is too late.