Marxist Robin Blackburn, author of books on slavery and capitalism (left). Hard right Tory Michael Gove (right) In his last major speech as an MP and secretary of state, hard right Tory Michael Gove last month chose to defend capitalism and empire. He specifically targeted the pro-Palestine movement—and the student protest encampments —falsely accusing them of antisemitism.
But the speech was also an attack on all those that think slavery and colonialism are marks of shame that Britain should acknowledge and apologise for. “The encampments, in their slogans, programmes and demands reflect the prevailing intellectual fashion of decolonisation,” whined Gove. “The radical left, the extreme left, rejects the idea that successful states can have prospered because of free markets, enlightenment values, liberal parliamentarianism, property rights and capitalism.
” Here Robin Blackburn, the Marxist author of many vital books on slavery and capitalism, responds. The prospect of defeat is panicking the Tory high command. Rishi Sunak evokes the spectre of “mob rule”, Jeremy Hunt urges a bonfire of workers’ rights, while Michael Gove lectures us on the virtues of capitalism and a deluded vision of rampant antisemitism.
Gove is bowing out of front line politics but still aspires to be the brains of the new Conservatism. Gove’s bombastic parting shot is lacking in reasoned argument or any attempt to explain the poly-crisis facing Britain’s rulers. Roughly 250 years of .
