LAST week saw the ruling classes of the capitalist world reeling at the prospect of another huge banking crash, with its high priests, the bankers, urging ‘sell everything!’ and with the French bank Societe Generale predicting a ‘global financial ice age’ wiping 75% off share prices.
In this crisis situation capitalism itself cries out to be abolished by a socialist revolution, so that a system created by men, but which dominates them, and decides their fate regardless of their attempts to appease it with austerity sacrifices, is overthrown by a socialist revolution, and replaced by a world wide planned socialist economy where the productive forces serve to satisfy the needs of humankind.
As if in a farce, at this very moment the Fabian Society on Saturday organised a conference at which the Labour party leader Corbyn proposed the most minimum of Fabian minimum programmes allegedly to make capitalism a fairer society, right at the point where it is about to blow up once again.
He failed to mention this crisis, and thus he failed to deal with what should be done about the crisis ridden banks – in fact he failed to mention the ‘S word’ ‘Socialism’ – he even failed to mention the huge junior doctors struggle that has now exploded and is set to be joined by major strike actions on the London tube network.
The system is gripped by an enormous crisis and the best that Corbyn can do is to speak, not about resolving this crisis, but how to make the system a tiny bit more bearable as far as the working class and the middle class are concerned, something like bailing out oceans of anarchy with a teaspoon!
In fact the Fabian Corbyn remains wedded to the interests of capital pledging: ‘We are determined to build alliances across Europe for progressive reform to ensure the EU always works in people’s interests.’ This after the way that the EU has destroyed the jobs, wages, and pensions, of the Greek workers.
He did say, ‘we are committed to a publicly owned railway’, but refused to commit himself to a major increase in the funding of the NHS. He pledged instead: ‘To integrate health and social care recognising that if you cut social care – as this government has done – then that has a negative impact on the NHS with fewer beds available and longer waits at A&E. If we fund prevention fairly through an integrated strategy, we can save money in the long run without undermining fairness.’
He refused to give support to the junior doctors defence of the NHS. That this was a clear derilection of duty is obvious. One cannot defend the NHS unless one defends the struggle of the junior doctors and stands for their victory over the Tories! Corbyn went on to say: ‘In workplaces too we must ensure that fairness is hardwired; the scandal of SportsDirect has shocked people. So as well as repealing the Tory Trade Union Act when it becomes law, we need a set of rights for all workers from day one to stop exploitation . . . Another proposal would be to bar or restrict companies from distributing dividends until they pay all their workers the living wage.’
The least he could have said was that major companies that failed to pay the Living Wage would be expropriated.
On housing, he said: ‘We need homes that are for families not for investment portfolios. Our country cannot succeed unless everyone can live together in our towns and cities – the cleaner and the city trader, the carer and the chief executive, a new generation of council housing delivered by councils able to borrow prudentially.’
However, a major building of council housing will require the nationalisation of building land, the building industry and the banks. However, in case anyone got the wrong idea Corbyn stated that the policies that he outlined were not party policies but ‘only suggestions’ admitting thereby that despite the huge changes in membership numbers the party was still in the grip of its minority right wing.
Once again, Corbyn’s super minimum programme for ‘fairness’, at a time when the system is collapsing, is a bad joke. What is required is the building of the revolutionary leadership, prepared to organise the working class to carry out a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a Workers’ Government and Socialism!
