The role of 'democratic' political parties in the capitalist system
(A UK Case study)

So Why are all these politicians so keen to be associated with McDonald's? Tony Blair MP serves up in McDonald's SAD The sad fact is that it isn't even the politicians who are in power. It makes no difference whether it is the Tories or Labour, Democrats or Republicans etc. who are administering the capitalist regime, all the major 'democratic' political parties have a vested interest in keeping the 'big guns' happy. "political parties have a vested interest in keeping the 'big guns' happy" FEAR If the ruling class (the super wealthy) do not like a particular political party's policies, they have tremendous resources with which to sway public opinion against that party. Television, printed press, billboards and radio (all owned by the super wealthy) can be used by those in power to counteract anything said by those who speak out against the established order. Fear of being discredited and losing what little power they have keeps any possibly wayward politicians in line. X X X X X X X X X X X is this your lifetimes supply of democracy? To use an example from the UK to show how this works, we need to look no further than the Labour Party, who generally got very good opinion poll results leading up to general elections, but once big business got aprehensive that they might not make as much money under a Labour administration, they pulled out all the stops to sway public opinion away from Labour. Margret Thatcher MP digs into a Big Mac PM John Major assists McDonald's with a public relations exercise FILTHY RICH The popular tabloid press showed headlines highly critical of the Labour party and even (filthy rich) rock and pop icons started speaking out against Labour - the result, a swing back to the right and another Conservative government. Labour only managed to get the support of the right wing press and business bosses by becoming as right wing as the Conservatives that they were fighting against. The UK Elections Michael Portillo MP in crew uniform! Sir Bernard Ingham gets a fat bite out of Big Mac Bernard Ingham is a classic example of how politicians and the corporate sector have a 'you scratch my back and i'll scratch yours' agreement. Ingham was Margaret Thatcher's press secretary during her 11 year reign. He gained a reputation as a manipulator of the media who was very close to Thatcher. For several government ministers (who were out of favour with the supreme one), the poisoned words of Mr Ingham to the press marked the beginning of the end of their time in office. Shortly after this post (in 1991), he was made Non-Executive Director of McDonald's UK for what you can bet is a fat sallary. So, at the end of the day, political parties are just a buffer between ordinary people and the corporations who are exploiting them. People vent their anger at the political party of the day and miss the point that the political party is only doing the bidding of big business. Rather than getting directly active in the streets and in their local areas to fight back against the whole system of oppression, many believe they can improve their lot by voting for a different set of administrators once every four or five years.

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