OVER 100 workers, students and youth attended the News Line Anniversary Rally at the Wheatsheaf Community Hall in Vauxhall, south west London on Saturday afternoon.
In his opening speech as chairman of the rally, All Trades Unions Alliance Secretary Dave Wiltshire said: ‘Comrades – I would like to welcome you to this rally celebrating 53 anniversary of the daily revolutionary newspaper the News Line and commemorating the 82nd Anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky by Stalin’s agent.
‘Trotsky the co-leader with Lenin of the world’s first socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 and founder of the Fourth International remained confident of the victory of the world socialist revolution throughout his life.
‘Our party was equally confident when we founded the first revolutionary daily paper 53 years ago.
‘Our political enemies derided us as living in a fantasy world so confident they were that capitalism was the final, the best social system and it would never be overthrown. Socialism was an unattainable dream and the working class was destined to forever having their labour exploited for the profit of the capitalist class.
‘The best, workers through their unions, could hope for was to get limited concessions over pay and vital public services when the times were good for the profit margins of the ruling class.
‘But when profits fall and the capitalist crisis threatens to bring the economies of the world crashing under recession and inflation there will be no more compromises.
‘That time has most certainly come.
‘Today we meet when capitalism internationally is in the greatest crisis in its history.
‘Inflation spiralling out of control throughout the US, Europe and Britain.
‘All the measures taken by the world banks to try and bring down inflation by ramping up interest rates has only forced inflation higher.
‘All the attempts to rein in the uncontrolled pumping of trillions of dollars, pounds and euros into the economy to prop up the banks and keep capitalism from collapse has only plunged the world into recession and hyperinflation.
‘The massive debts that have kept capitalism staggering on have now got to be paid
‘And the bosses and bankers are determined that this debt will be paid for by the working class.
‘In Britain, which by every measure is the weakest link in the capitalist chain, this crisis has resulted in a massive political crisis.
‘Already this year the UK has gone through three Tory Prime Ministers – Johnson thrown out for becoming a liability to the ruling class.
‘The next one, Liz Truss, lasted just 44 days before she was ditched on the orders of the world bankers.
‘The international money markets who make billions buying government bonds and living off the huge interest payments on these debts, disciplined the Tories – selling off their bonds and crashing the pound and threatening the pensions of millions of workers in the process unless they towed the line.
‘The bankers cracked the whip and installed Sunak as Tory leader to carry out the austerity war on the working class that they demand.
‘Hunt’s budget last Thursday was the outcome of this dictatorship of the bankers.
‘Tax increases to hit the poorest and cuts for the NHS disguised as reorganisation – that means only more privatisation.
‘Wages are to be kept at poverty levels, way below the inflation. Energy bills are reaching £3,000 for the average family – the cost of food and energy shooting up way beyond the 12.1% official inflation rate.
‘Even the Office for Budget Responsibility has said living standards will fall by 7% after this budget, despite all Hunt’s claims about targeted relief for the vulnerable.
‘Millions of workers are being forced into poverty, unable to feed their families, or heat their homes, or pay the rent.
‘The working class have had enough of austerity, enough of seeing energy companies making millions for their shareholders while they freeze and their children go hungry. They have had enough of seeing their benefits and wages cut while a handful of bankers and hedge fund spivs wallow in luxury.
‘And enough of being told they must make sacrifices to fund the imperialist war being waged in the Ukraine to weaken Russia in the hope of engineering a regime change that will overthrow the gains of the Russian Revolution that denied the vast wealth of that country to capitalist exploitation.
‘Across the world workers and the impoverished masses are rising up from Myanmar, Sri Lanka through to Europe, the US and Britain.
‘In Britain – the oldest and weakest link in the capitalist chain – the situation has reached a revolutionary turning point.
‘Nurses, ambulance drivers, postal and telecoms workers, civil service workers, transport and rail workers are either on strike, or preparing to take action over pay and in defence of their jobs, pensions and conditions.
‘The working class is champing at the bit to fight this Tory government – on every picket line workers are calling for a general strike as the only way to defeat the Tories and secure a future for their families.
‘The only force that is holding them back is the cowardly refusal of the trade union leaders to mobilise this mass movement into a political general strike to kick out the Tories.
‘These leaders are so tied to capitalism and obedience to all the laws of the capitalist state that they would rather see the working class defeated than take on the Tories, as this would challenge the very existence of the capitalist system – something that these reformists are politically incapable of doing.
‘The crisis today can only be resolved for the working class through resolving this crisis of leadership.
‘The revolutionary leadership of the WRP and Young Socialists must be built up in the trade unions and amongst young people that is prepared to lead the struggle for a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government and socialism.
‘A leadership must be prepared to take the working class to power.
‘The anniversary rally today is not just to celebrate 53 years of our daily paper or commemorate the life of Leon Trotsky but to take the struggle for the world socialist revolution that Trotsky devoted his life to – its final victory and consigning this bankrupt, redundant capitalist system to the dustbin of history where it belongs.
‘Socialist revolution is not an impossible dream today but a burning necessity for the working class and masses of the world.’
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