British Banks have been recapitalised by the working class, who were not consulted by the government before the Prime Minister took the decision to hand over tens of billions of pounds to institutions that had bankrupted themselves by treating trillions of pounds of iou’s as cash.
The banks have responded to the bail-out by repossessing 11,300 homes in the last three months and by refusing to lend their wads of cash to small businesses or mortgage seekers. Meanwhile there are 168,000 homeowners in arrears with repossession just around the corner, by the same banks that the government has just rescued with our money.
They have said thank you to the government for the billions of pounds in rescue money, ripped off from the working class and just shut up shop.
The Brown government meanwhile, which has insisted that saving the banks is its main concern, has been forced to simulate anger at this development, to try and keep its place in the poll ratings. The Chancellor is even threatening to bring in legislation to force the banks to lend money.
The bankers are chuckling at this farce. They have pointed out that the Brown government has stated that the cash was given to them unconditionally, with the government stating that it had no intention of interfering with the running of the banks.
Meanwhile it is business as usual, with RBS declaring that it will sack 3,000 workers and the Lloyds TSB-HBOS banks expected to sack 40,000 workers.
The working class, which was robbed by the bankers in the first place, now faces house repossessions, massive cuts in the Welfare State to raise the bankers bail-out money, and mass sackings in the manufacturing industries, as they run out of cash.
The Brown government is sacrificing the interests of 99 per cent of the population in favour of enriching the bankers.
The banks must be nationalised and put under workers control, and the trade unions must take action to defend the jobs of bankworkers.
The banking crisis has interpenetrated with the cyclical crisis of capitalism, collapsing the motor car industry.
Honda is laying off 5000 workers for two months without pay in the New Year, while Nissan has announced that it is close to declaring zero profits, meaning that the jobs of several thousands of workers in Sunderland are threatened.
The workers’ union leaders in Unite, Woodley and Simpson have refused to condemn the Honda shut down, and are very understanding of the position of the employers.
A Unite statement said: ‘This is unexpected bad news. The Union, staff and the company need to work together to minimise any financial hardship and to find ways to protect pay and long-term job security.’
The union should have said that Honda must be nationalised and that its members will occupy the plant and organise national action to force its nationalisation.
These union leaders however support capitalism. They have limited themselves to calling for the government to give £13bn to the motor car proprietors.
If this happens, the bosses will simply copy the bankers, pocketing the cash and carrying on with their cuts and rationalisation programme sacking tens of thousands of workers.
Both Brown and the union leaders are trying to prop up the bankrupt, broken and out of date capitalist system, at the expense of the working class.
Workers in the trade unions must sack union leaders who refuse to defend their jobs by fighting the bosses and the government. There must be a general strike to bring down the Brown government and bring in a workers government that will nationalise the banks and the motor car industry and bring in socialism.
