BRITAIN, where modern industrial capitalism began and which became the workshop of the world, has now collapsed to being the world’s 12th biggest manufacturer, with an output of £200bn a year.
The current rankings put it behind Mexico, France, Russia and Taiwan.
Currently, China is top of the rankings with an output of $5.06 trillion, almost one third of all global production, with the USA now in second place at $2.7 trillion.
British capitalism is now in its greatest crisis ever.
The Starmer-led Labour government is already grappling with the threat by Tata Steel in Port Talbot to sack thousands of workers, and a similar crisis at the Belfast Harland and Wolff shipyard which has a £1.6bn Royal Navy contract.
Stephen Phipson, the chief executive of ‘Make UK’, has issued a warning that the latest manufacturing output figures show why urgent action is needed at once, as British capitalism is sinking fast.
He stated: ‘This is a serious and seismic wake-up call with the lights now flashing red about our status as a major manufacturing player.
‘Previous governments have been asleep at the wheel while other countries have put in place a range of powerful industrial strategies to boost domestic and foreign direct investment.’
Meanwhile, Labour PM Starmer, as part of his ‘missions for government’, has said that he will make the UK the fastest growing economy in the G7 club of nations.
He is talking about driving forward the output per worker, while there has been, in fact, a collapse in productivity since the financial crisis.
In the three decades before 2007, productive growth averaged 2.3% a year, but has since slumped to around 0.4% per year. Manufacturing accounted for 17% of the UK economy in 1990, but now accounts for 9.4%!
The real issue is that the capitalist mode of production is reaching the end of the road, while the capitalist system itself is heading for its biggest collapse ever, which will see major attacks on jobs, wages and the basic rights of workers.
It is no accident that while the capitalist crisis deepens, both the USA and the UK governments are setting out to spend record sums in rearmament and preparations for another World War – this time against Russia and China, with the object of smashing the Russian and Chinese Workers’ States as the only way out of the world crisis for the capitalist system.
In the UK, the trade unions must now push forward to insist that they will not support the war drive of the current Labour government against Russia and China, and that they will not sacrifice a single job in the brazen attempt that is taking place to save world capitalism at the expense of the workers of the world.
There must be no wage cuts or job cuts!
In fact, the TUC must convene a Special Congress to mobilise for a general strike to defend the basic rights of the working class by putting an end to the capitalist system.
The TUC must demand a sliding scale of wages, that is that wages are increased automatically with rises in the cost of living, so that workers and their families will not suffer as the capitalist crisis deepens!
The TUC must demand a sliding scale of hours so that not a single job is lost and the working day is cut.
The Starmer Labour regime will seek to take action to cut wages and jobs. The response of the TUC must be to call a general strike to bring down the Labour regime and bring in a workers’ government and socialism.
The only way forward is for the working class to nationalise the capitalist economy and put an end to capitalism by bringing in Socialism whose motto will be: ‘From each according to their ability to each according to their need.’
This is the only way forward. Join the WRP and the Young Socialists today to play your part in the organisation of the British and World Socialist Revolutions.
