THE response of the Tory-LibDem government to the greatest ever crisis of the capitalist system has been to try to force the working class, the middle class and the youth to pay for this crisis. The government plans to save the bosses’ and bankers’ system by destroying the NHS and the Welfare State.
All that made life tolerable after the horrors of the 1930s and the Second World War is to be abolished so that a completely bankrupt social system can stagger on through making the masses suffer, before it ignites a new great war as it did at the end of the 1930s
It is to be back to the Poor Laws and the workhouses, with the homeless sleeping on the streets after their housing benefit has been snatched from them. All of this will be to keep the bankers and bosses, who caused the crisis in the first place, in the manner to which they are accustomed.
This is the cruel ruling class response to their crisis, to smash the NHS, end benefits, abolish the retirement age and, while they are doing it, call those that have had their jobs and futures destroyed, ‘scroungers’. The ruling class, whose members have never done a day’s work in their lives, will meanwhile live in the lap of luxury.
The question for the working class and the youth is what is to be done to end this crisis.
The trade union leaders and Labour MPs make a few protests, but they are telling workers to wait till the next general election and vote in Labour. This is no solution. Miliband and Balls support capitalism and have said that they will carry on with the Tory cuts policies, and do everything that must be done to save capitalism.
Also, in 30 months or so, the bulk of the Welfare State will be destroyed if we just make a few protests.
We must have a policy to defend the NHS and the Welfare State, not one that means we stand by and watch it being demolished while making a few verbal objections.
There is such a policy. It is that the trade unions and the communities form Councils of Action that occupy threatened hospitals and fire stations and keep them open and functioning.
Since it is impossible to have the beginnings of a workers state within the bankrupt capitalist order for long, occupations must be supported by mass strike actions and a general strike to bring down the Coalition.
We must make sure that the Coalition is replaced, not by Miliband and Balls, but by a workers’ government that will put an end to capitalism by nationalising the banks and the major industries under workers’ control and management.
This will allow a socialist economic plan to be drawn up and implemented to build the millions of homes that are required and to repair and renew the infrastructure that is crumbling under capitalism.
This will not only preserve the Welfare State. It will provide work and skilled training for millions of workers and youth at trade union rates of pay.
This is the only way forward in the UK and the other crisis-ridden capitalist countries, to preserve the gains of the working class and develop them by moving forward to socialism.
Only the WRP is serious about defending the Welfare State by bringing down the Coalition and by moving forward to socialism.
Join it today to build the new revolutionary leadership to take the working class and youth forward to socialism.
