CHANCELLOR Osborne was in the mood for sacrifices on Tuesday and as is his way, the way of the British bourgeoisie, these sacrifices were to be made by other people, in order to safeguard the interests of British imperialism.
Donning his butcher’s apron, as befits this jubilee year, he suggested that the Greek people will have to be sacrificed, so that the German bourgeoisie had no alternative to carrying out draconian anti-working class measures at home and abroad to save the euro, and by implication save British capitalism, since it is no longer capable of saving itself.
The Chancellor said that Greece might need to be sacrificed to save the euro, meaning that throwing Greece to the wolves, would create the massive crisis that was needed, with the euro crashing all round her, for Mrs Merkel to be able to drive through the draconian measures of economic and political union that are deemed to be necessary.
The bigger the crisis that a Greek eviction from the eurozone created, with the currencies and banks crashing everywhere the better it would be, according to Osborne.
Speaking to his friends at the gathering organised by the Murdoch-owned Times newspaper he said: ‘I ultimately don’t know whether Greece needs to leave the euro in order for the eurozone to do the things necessary to make their currency survive.
‘I just don’t know whether the German government requires Greek exit to explain to their public why they need to do certain things like a banking union, eurobonds and things in common with that.
‘I would suspect that if you had a eurozone finance minister here, they wouldn’t really know the answer to that.’
Osborne called for the Greek people to be thrown to the wolves as the British bourgeois response to the continuing collapse of the EU, despite the 100bn euro zone loan to the Spanish bankers, which saw the crisis continue jumping over all the fake firewalls threatening the French, Italian, German, and also the British banks.
Osborne in fact expressed the weakness of British capitalism. He was reduced to being a watcher of the spread of a huge blaze and repeatedly saying that if only he was in charge, he would manage the Fire Brigade much better.
He remarked: ‘What is depressing … is that everyone said to the eurozone that if you do not directly recapitalise these banks, if you do it via the Spanish sovereign, then you are not going to convince the market that the Spanish sovereign is entirely credible . . . and yet they went ahead down this route.’
The Greek workers now know that British imperialism remains what it was, a brutal wild animal, and that it favours their destruction, and then the elevation of German capitalism throughout the eurozone, since it is no longer master of its own fate.
The Osbornes and Camerons have in fact made the point that they are prepared to help the German bourgeoisie carve out its place in the sun, provided part of the deal is that the British bourgeoisie are not included on the menu of those about to be devoured.
British workers are not fools. They know that not only is Osborne prepared to throw the Greek people to the wolves to try to bolster the fading position of British capitalism in the world, he is also prepared to do the same to the British workers.
This is what the attacks on wages, pensions, benefits, the NHS and the Welfare State are about. It is to drive the working class back to the dark ages.
The lesson from Osborne’s speech is that the working class of Europe must unite and organise socialist revolutions throughout Europe to replace the bankrupt EU and its ruling classes with the Socialist United States of Europe, and a socialist planned economy that will consign capitalism and capitalists to being the subject of exhibitions in museums of pre-history.
