LABOUR Party left winger Tony Benn yesterday raised that Tony Blair and David Cameron could serve in each other’s cabinets and the possibility of a Labour Tory coalition government.
The ex-Wilson government cabinet minister said that the two leaders had more in common with each other than with their respective parties.
‘Cameron would fit neatly into New Labour, or indeed if Cameron were to win, I think that Blair could find a place in a Conservative government’,
Benn can see the ‘possibility’ but has not got a clue about what to do about it.
In fact he is looking at today’s events just with the eyes of the 1929-1931 crash and slump that led to Ramsay MacDonald crossing the floor of the House of Commons to form a National Government with Baldwin and the Tory Party.
This saw the Labour Party and the trade unions split with the number of Labour MP’s reduced to a rump and Labour kept out of government until the social revolution erupted after the troops returned from the 1945 war, bringing a landslide victory for Labour, which was forced to legislate the Welfare State.
In the same way that it is no state secret that Blair and Cameron are political twins and not opposites, it is obvious that this winter and spring there are going to be major political strikes and major political battles in the House of Commons.
The FBU is recalling its annual conference in February to organise for strike action against the Blair government’s intention to destroy the pension rights of its members and add 10 years to their retirement age.
The FBU will be seeking to organise such action with the local government trade unions.
The battle however will be much broader since there are large numbers of workers in the private sector that are having their final salary pensions destroyed by the employers and the Blair government.
Indefinite strike action on pensions will bring around 2 million workers into the struggle.
At the same time in the House of Commons, it will be shown in practice that Blair’s education and security policies will only be carried with Tory votes, creating an unbearable strain and leading to a split in the Labour Party and the trade unions.
The way to resolve this critical situation and to prevent the formation of a national government led by Blair and Cameron is for the trade unions to fight the government on pensions, wages and basic rights with a view to beating it, that is, bringing it down and bringing in a workers’ government to carry out socialist policies.
This struggle will not wait till some four years time around a 2010 election. It will emerge this year as workers battle to defend their pensions, wages, jobs and basic rights against the Blair government and its Tory allies.
The basic issue is that both Blair and the Tories (representing the ruling class) say that 21st century capitalism cannot afford free state education – from primary school to university; a state-funded NHS free at the point of need and not part of any health market; cannot afford final salary pensions in either the public or private sectors or state pension rises linked to rises in average earnings; and cannot uphold the principle of innocent until proven guilty favouring instead ‘summary’ punishments, including execution by armed police officers.
They are seeking to drive society backwards instead of forwards.
The working class and its trade unions must push forward as the real defenders of civilisation against the capitalist law of the jungle.
They must state that they will not be stopped by reactionary anti-union laws but will defend every gain of the working class, and in that struggle will not hesitate to bring down the Blair government and proceed to a workers’ government and the socialist reorganisation of society.
There is no other way forward for the working class.
