THE three months to September to 2.62 million, as youth unemployment rose above a million. Yet not one trade union leader called for action to bring the Tory-led coalition down.
With the jobless total for 16 to 24-year-olds hitting a record of 1.02 million in the quarter, and female unemployment at its highest for 23 years, the number of people receiving the JobSeekers Allowance in October rose to 1.6 million.
Even in this desperate situation, where Cameron has made it plain that dealing with the massive UK capitalist indebtedness, by sacrificing living standards and jobs is his only policy, the trade union bureaucrats will not call action.
They are still clinging to their pathetic insistence that the working class must not take action to remove the coalition, and that the Tories can be persuaded to adopt some ‘Plan B’.
In fact, as well as rising unemployment, wages are taking bigger and bigger hits.
The figures from the office of national statistics showed average earnings grew by 2.3% (less than half the rate of inflation) in the year to September, down 0.4% on the previous month.
Commenting on the latest unemployment figures published yesterday, Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said:
‘With unemployment shooting up again, and the number of young people out of work breaking through one million, ministers continue to blame others and the situation in Europe for their own economic incompetence.
‘To arrest this devastating rise in youth unemployment, the government must start creating proper jobs and opportunities, instead of cutting them. Unpaid work placements are no substitute.’
The union leaders are pleading with the government instead of rousing the workers to bring it down, the only credible policy.
Serwotka ended his statement with a declaration that ‘It makes absolutely no economic sense to be cutting benefit staff in the Department for Work and Pensions and closing jobcentres. These plans must be reversed immediately.’
Unison was singing the same tune, condemning the Tories but refusing to call for their removal.
Dave Prentis, Unison General Secretary, said: ‘The government is betraying the young people of our country . . . Growth has stalled, unemployment keeps on growing, families are struggling to make ends meet, and young people are losing hope . . . Plan A is not working – cuts are only making the economic situation worse. The government must act now – time to avoid a double dip recession is running out.’
Only the trade union bureaucracy thinks that the Tories can be made to change their policy. The working class and the youth are rightly convinced that they will never change to a plan B and that they must be removed.
The Governor of the Bank of England gave us a glimpse of the desperate nature of the economic crisis, and the crisis of the bourgeoisie yesterday when he admitted that the ruling class had no idea about what will happen next.
He told a press conference yesterday that ‘The journey to a more balanced world economy will be long and arduous.’
King admitted that ‘As in August, the committee has judged that there is no meaningful way to quantify the most extreme outcomes associated with developments in the Euro area and they are therefore excluded from the fan charts.’
He admitted to a tremendous fall in production saying ‘Measured productivity is around 10 per cent lower than would have been the case had it risen on its pre-crisis trend.’ However, this is only the crisis in its early days.
Capitalism is in its death agony. The trade union bureaucracy is fiddling while Rome burns, while the working class, as never before, now needs revolutionary leadership to organise the overthrow of capitalism to go forward to socialism.
Now is the time to join the WRP to build up the revolutionary leadership of the working class to carry out the British socialist revolution – the only way out of the crisis for the working class.
