Abolish the Monarchy!
https://socialistaction.org/2021/04/21/abolish-the-monarchy/
April 21, 2021
By Ann Montague
Over 50 million people watched Oprah Winfrey’stell all interview with
the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk (“Prince” Harry and Meghan Markle). They
discussed their personal experiences with race but not systemic racism.
They also discussed their relationship with the institution of the
Monarchy, but of course without questioning its justification for
existence. They were both quite generous towards Queen Elizabeth II, who
is an unelected “Head of State” with an immense fortune, but only
ceremonial powers inherited from the feudal era.
The monarchy is deployed today as national morale builders in times of
imperialist war, or to encourage the UK’s “national interests” through
“The Queen’s (or King’s) Speech,” or to present symbolic awards during
archaic ceremonies.
In some countries, like Sweden the monarchy is solely ceremonial, that
is, explicitly with no executive power. In England, the monarchy’s
ceremonial duties are extended a bit further, but still with no real
impact of the nation’s parliamentary system. The Queen is the “Head of
State.” She must give her “Royal Assent” to legislation passed by
elected members of Parliament. She has the “power” to dismiss
Parliament. All these titles and “powers” notwithstanding, no British
monarch has ever employed them to determine, alter or undermine any
aspect of British capitalism’s parliamentary operations. Similarly, the
British Queen is the “Head of State” over sixteen other countries called
“The Commonwealth Realm.” These countries each have a Governor-General
who is the representative of the British Queen. The elected Prime
Ministers govern only under the “Crown Prerogative” through the “power”
of the monarch, again a ceremonial arrangement.
Monarchy’s Australian Governor General
In 1975 during a budget stalemate the Queen’s Governor-General in
Australia, Sir John Kerr did actually dismiss the elected Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam (Australian Labor Party) and his government. Kerr then
appointed the opposition leader to be Prime Minister and commanded a new
election. But even here, the British Queen’s “ceremonial” Australian
Governor General acted only when the government itself was stalemated,
incapable of approving any budget via securing a parliamentary majority.
As with similar situations across Europe, in Italy, Spain, for example,
new elections are called as a matter of course, whether the formal call
is issued by a titular monarch or by implementing a parliamentary rule.
The Firm
In the Oprah Winfrey interview the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk often
referred to “The Firm” and to “The Institution.” Markle specifically
referred to The Firm as her employer. “At my old job there was a union,
and they would protect me, but now I was alone.” The term “The Firm” was
first used by Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, who declared,
“We are not a family. We are a firm.” When Markle need help for her
mental health issues she said she went to the “Human Resources
Department.” The business interests of the Monarchy are substantial.
They formally preside over all those who run the numerous palaces and
royal family members that live in them. Buckingham Palace alone employs
more than 1,200 workers, from maids and cooks to the royal’s corporate
style public relations firm.
The Monarchy’s £Millions and £Billions
Almost all of the expenditures of the Monarchy are paid through the
“Sovereign Grant,” which is covered entirely by the British taxpayer.
During the height of austerity while the working class saw cuts to the
National Health Service, disability services and libraries, British
taxpayers paid £370 Million for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.
The Queen’s personal assets of £500 million include jewels, investments
and two castles. The Monarchy’s House of Windsor owns £28 billion in
prime real estate, from central London to remote farms in Scotland.
Thousands of the its employees around the world are similarly maintained
via the “Sovereign Grant.”
The Firm exists to defend the institution of the Monarchy, heirs of the
UK’s slave trading, racist and imperialist history.
When Meghan Markle, a women of African ancestry, was recently and
repeatedly attacked and subjected to racist lies by the British gutter
tabloid media, The Firm stood silent, according to the Winfrey
interview. It went as far as intervening to reject Markle’s lunching
with her friends or even leaving Kensington Palace because she was
“overexposed.”
Crimes of British Colonialism
Black and Brown people around the world had their land and resources
stolen from them and were captured and sold as slaves. The European
imperial slave traders, led by the British monarchy and then capitalist
class, slaughtered and/or enslaved millions and justified their heinous
deeds with white supremacist myths. The mass plunder and murder paved
the way for the emergence of the UK as the greatest imperial power of
the era, similar in many respects to the emergence of the Southern U.S.
slavocracy.
Needless to say, the modern-day British titular monarchs, including the
present Queen and her coterie, never acknowledge the Monarchy’s
historical role in the monstrous transatlantic slave trade. Yet racism
in the royal family comes as no surprise to people of color in the UK today.
Abolish The Monarchy!
One of the clearest arguments for eliminating the Monarchy was made
recently by Mona Kamal in the British Socialist publication, “Counterfire.”
“The Monarchy serves as the embodiment of the idea that inequality is
not only inevitable but a virtue and that privilege is owed to them
alone and to the class they represent. They are the symbols of the
delusion that power and prosperity for the few are the result of the
natural order of things and therefore immune to challenge. This is the
system and ideology that underpins the Monarchy that they will do
anything to maintain. Including, apparently driving a woman to suicidal
intent. But this delusion is as ‘backwards’ as the countries they told
us need civilizing. The Monarchy is wholly incompatible with building a
society around principles of democracy and justice and this is why it
must be abolished.”
As #AbolishTheMonarchy has been trending on Twitter, British journalist,
Ash Sarker sees an upcoming clash between the feudal institution that
entrenches class inequality and the social struggles of today. “You
cannot have an institution which is premised on bloodlines and have it
not be racist, have it not be controlling of women and indeed quite
misogynistic. This is all entrenched in the royal family itself.”
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Carl Sagan “It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance
between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all
hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great
openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some
tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes,
whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble. If you are only skeptical,
then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new.
You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the
world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now
and then, maybe once in a hundred cases, a new idea turns out to be on
the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being
skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and
either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and
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and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot
distinguish the useful as from the worthless ones.” ― Carl Sagan
