ECONOMIC activity declined by 0.8 per cent over the three months to the end of June, a fall of 5.6 per cent in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the past year, according to figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) last Friday. There has been a continuous decline of 5.7 per cent over the last 15 months.
The economy has contracted by 3.16 per cent this year and is heading towards 4.5 per cent for 2009 as a whole, way above Chancellor Alistair Darling’s forecast of about 3.5 per cent.
Amid business bankruptcies, factory closures, sackings, pay cuts and home repossessions, Darling was forced to venture out of the Treasury yesterday to admonish the banks.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Federation of Small Businesses and mortgage advisers say that companies are being forced out of business and homeowners are suffering, because they cannot borrow from the banks, or face huge interest charges to boost their profits and capital deposits.
Darling, who is meeting bank executives at Downing Street today, said: ‘I want [the banks] to rebuild their balance sheets . . . but, . . because of the fact that we’ve got a recession, we also need them to lend money. That’s why we re-capitalised them to do that, and that means they’ve got to live up to the promises that they made.’
This is rich coming from Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Chancellor. The government is the majority shareholder in two of the largest high street banks, RBS Group and Lloyds, after the multi-billion bail-out last October. The government owns these banks. It could tell them what to do!
This confirms what millions of working-class and middle-class families know. The capitalist crisis and slump are deepening, the Brown government is doing everything the bankers want and nothing about factory closures and hundreds of thousands joining the ranks of 2.25 million unemployed.
Even the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which has an unbounded faith in capitalism, admits the slump is growing. On Friday, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘There are no green shoots here.
Unemployment is growing and a recovery that brings hope to the jobless looks even more distant.’
Under these conditions, workers are taking things into their own hands to defend jobs and secure a future.
A group of workers at the Vestas wind-turbine manufacturing plant at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, have occupied their workplace since last Tuesday, against the Danish company’s plans to close the factory, sacking 525 workers.
The occupiers are fighting for their jobs in this ‘green’ industry and demanding that the factory be nationalised. They have the backing of the Trade Union Coordinating Group (TUCG) of eight national trades unions, including the RMT rail union and the FBU firefighters’ union, and Workers Climate Action.
The occupiers are following in the footsteps of Unite members at Visteon car components factories, Prisme Packaging, Waterford Crystal workers in Ireland, and workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago.
The Vestas workers declare: ‘We are calling on the government to intervene to save jobs at Vestas, through nationalisation if that is what it takes, . .’
From occupation, as the first line of defence, the workers demand for nationalisation provides a way forward, not just at Vestas, but in every industry where factory closures and sackings threaten jobs.
When the Brown government refuses to nationalise Vestas and other industries under threat, like the Corus steel plant in Redcar, the trades unions, which back the Vestas occupation, must demand the whole trades union movement in the TUC organise a general strike to win the nationalisation of these vital industries.
The Brown government must be removed and replaced with a workers government that will carry out socialist policies. Workers can only secure a decent future by overthrowing capitalism and putting an end to its financial collapses and slump.
Workers fighting to defend every job in this way must build a new leadership in unions, like Unite, where leaders are accepting plant closures, sackings and pay cuts. The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) is building this new leadership in the unions. So join the WRP today!
