TODAY, hundreds of thousands of workers and young people will take to the streets of London, Glasgow and Belfast in mass demonstrations called by the TUC under the banner of ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’.
Exactly two years ago half a million marched under the TUC slogan ‘A Future That Works’.
The main feature of the 2012 march was the overwhelming call for a general strike to deal with the coalition and bring it down, a demand completely at odds with the policy of the TUC which was, and remains, saving capitalism with less harsh cuts.
So overwhelming was the demand for a general strike, that even Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, got carried away with himself and put the question of an all-out general strike to a show of hands at the mass meeting in Hyde Park following the London march.
To the horror of the trade union bureaucrats and the TUC, his call for a vote was rewarded by a forest of hands shooting up in a unanimous ‘yes’ for an indefinite general strike.
So great is the fear of the TUC leaders of the demand for a general strike and the enormous support it commands amongst the working class, that they have spent the past two years ignoring it or rubbishing it as ‘unreal’.
What is unreal is the fact that not just for the past two years, but for the entire period since the economic crisis of the capitalist system burst into the open in 2007, these leaders have sat back and allowed poverty wages to be inflicted on the working class and done absolutely nothing to stop it – apart from one-day protests and marches.
The appalling figures – produced by the TUC itself – are a massive indictment of this leadership.
Since 2008, workers in Britain have suffered a £50-a-week cut in their take-home pay in real terms.
This figure is based on the rigged consumer price index (CPI) figures which vastly underestimates the real rise in the cost of essentials.
For the past seven years, average weekly earnings have been falling – the longest period of sustained decline in wages since the 1850s!
A recent study into poverty conducted by seven universities revealed that the number of impoverished households has more than doubled over the past thirty years – a period that covers both Tory and Labour governments as well as the coalition.
This is the reality of the deprivation facing millions of workers in Britain today under a capitalist system that is so bankrupt that it can only survive and pay off its massive banking debts by driving the working class into the gutter.
The era of the working poor, with full-time jobs being transformed into part-time work on zero-hours contracts and with poverty-level wages, is the future as far as capitalism is concerned.
This disgraceful situation, however, is not anywhere near as disgraceful as the complete inactivity of the trade union leaders who have sat back and allowed it to happen.
They have consciously refused to mobilise the strength of the trade unions, and the hatred workers have towards the coalition, for fear of bringing down the government.
At this year’s TUC conference they would not even discuss their own policy of considering the ‘feasibility’ of a general strike, so terrified are they of the massive response this commands amongst workers.
What is clear is that this leadership would rather see workers driven back to the conditions of the 19th century than lead a fight against the government and the capitalist system it serves – they are operating as a fifth column within the trade union movement.
The time is more than ripe for removing these traitors – they will not fight and so must go and be replaced with a new leadership prepared to organise and lead a general strike to bring down the coalition and go forward to a workers government that will advance to socialism.
Only the WRP is building this leadership – we call on all workers and youth to join today.
