UK CAPITALISM is in crisis. After the falls in sterling, and the rampant oil, gas and food inflation, the ruling class is desperate and determined that the working class must pay the bill for the crisis of the capitalist system.
The Tory ‘mini-budget’ has made this crystal clear.
Kwarteng has abolished the 45% higher rate of income tax and has also cut the basic rate of income tax to 19% from April 2023.
He has reversed the recent rise in National Insurance, and has cancelled the rise in corporation tax which was due to increase from 19% to 25% in April 2023!
The working class and the poor get a totally different deal.
Kwarteng has tightened the rules around Universal Credit, by reducing benefits if people don’t fulfil ‘job search commitments’.
More than 120,000 people on Universal Credit are to be asked to take steps to seek more work, or face having their benefits reduced.
Jobseekers over 50 will have to spend ‘extra time with work coaches’ to help them return to the ‘job market’ or see their benefits cut.
The total cost for the Tory energy package is expected to be around £60bn for the six months from October. There is no doubt that this bill will be presented to the working class for payment.
The Annual Investment allowance, the amount companies can invest tax free, remains at £1m indefinitely, while regulations are changed so pensions funds can increase UK investments.
New and start-up companies able to raise up to £250,000 are being given tax relief, while share options for employees is doubled from £30,000 to £60,000.
This was and is a bosses’ budget, at a time when capitalism is in a desperate crisis.
From this ‘mini-budget’, the Truss government now has to go forward to illegalise the right to strike with new anti-union laws that will make the strike-breakers into heroes of capitalism and turn strikers into the enemies of the people.
Trade unions that continue to act as trade unions will face huge fines and illegality.
The ruling class has no alternative. As Lewis Shaw, founder of Mansfield-based Shaw Financial Services put it: ‘It’s getting very serious. Imports will become more expensive as sterling tanks because a lot of our imports are denominated in dollars.
‘This will feed into higher inflation through rising costs, which the Bank of England is mandated to deal with.
‘Put simply, it means more base rate hikes which feed into swap rate markets, ultimately ending up as higher mortgage rates. As I’ve already said it really is time to buckle up. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.’
Meanwhile three trade unions have condemned the crisis mini-budget.
Among them is Unite. Its leader said: ‘This mini-budget is unashamedly a budget for the rich, big business and the City – highest earners’ tax slashed, corporation tax slashed, investment bankers’ bonuses let rip. . .
‘If there are billions of pounds available to spend then the best way to help the economy would be to give public sector workers a pay rise.’
In fact the time has come when the working class must use its massive strength to fight for its own class interests.
There must be a sliding scale of hours and wages so that workers will not pay the price of the crisis of capitalism.
If the bosses scream that they cannot afford it then the industries must be nationalised and the plants put under workers management.
The October TUC Congress has a vital role to play. There must be a massive mass lobby there, beginning at 8am on Tuesday 18th October, when workers must tell delegates that the situation is too serious for just left talk and a few separate strike actions.
The better life that workers built from the end of the Second World War is being destroyed on a daily basis.
If capitalism cannot afford decent living standards then it is capitalism that must go.
The forthcoming TUC Congress has a duty to call an indefinite general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government and socialism through the nationalisation of the banks and major industries!
