IN his recent budget speech Chancellor Osborne stated his objective is: ‘Building a modern reformed state we can afford.’
The truth of the matter is that modern capitalist Britain cannot afford anything at all for the working class and the middle class, except poverty.
Osborne went on to shed light on this outlining £11.5 billion more of savage cuts in government spending, and a permanent wage freeze for the public sector, ie years of wage cutting.
Yesterday on April 1st the coalition began its big push against the working class, the middle class and the poor.
It unloaded £2.3bn of cuts onto the backs of the poorest people, including a bedroom tax of up to 25% of housing benefit, and council budgets’ cut of £483m, which will see the poorest people being forced to pay up to £10 a week or more of Council Tax when previously they paid none!
This huge attack on the poor is taking place at the same time as the cost of living is rocketing daily.
April 1st saw war being declared on the poor.
It also saw the war that is already being waged against the NHS and teaching trade unions stepped up.
The coalition is seeking to abolish national bargaining, bring in local performance-related pay, and measures of privatisation into the NHS and the schools that will leave the individual to negotiate his or her own wages and pension rights, without the strength of national agreements or a national union behind them.
Yesterday the coalition began its big push to privatise the NHS, arrogantly rejecting the submissions of the BMA and RCN health unions that the regulations that are now in operation must be rewritten, to make it clear that healthcare is primary in the NHS, and that the Commissioning Bodies, that have been set up, must have the right to refuse to put NHS services out to tender to the profiteers of the private sector.
Not only have these submissions been completely ignored, the way is now clear for the private sector to purchase chunks of the NHS, including so-called ‘failed hospitals’, for the purposes of making super profits by creating a big health market.
Yesterday commissioning groups took control of the NHS budget and a new board, NHS England, has started overseeing the day-to-day running of services.
Healthcare is to be bought and sold, at the same time as the government is making £20bn of cuts in the NHS, and planning to close down scores of district general hospitals.
It is now clear to large numbers of workers, youth, doctors and nurses that the decisive battle to defend the NHS and the Welfare State has begun, and that it can only be won by bringing down the coalition with a general strike and going forward to a workers government.
The trade union leaders meanwhile oppose this policy. They say that it is the job of the communities to fight these attacks and that because of anti-union laws they can only act as cheerleaders.
Such leaders are really seeking to make use of the fury of the masses to replace the current coalition at the next general election with a Labour-led coalition, that will then carry on with Tory policies to prop up bankrupt capitalism.
In fact, the trade union leaders voted at the last TUC Congress to consider the organisation of a general strike. Since that vote they have never stopped running.
News Line has a very clear position. We call for the setting up of Councils of Action everywhere to drive the bailiffs off the streets when they seek to evict non-payers of the bedroom tax.
Councils of Action will lead the fight to occupy fire stations and hospitals to stop their closure and to force the TUC to call a general strike to bring down the coalition and bring in a workers government and socialism.
This is the way forward.
Come to our conference next Saturday (see advert page 1) to discuss and organise the carrying out of this perspective.
