UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for a speedy end to ‘dependence’ on Russian oil and gas, comparing it to ‘addiction,’ in his Daily Telegraph article yesterday.
He warned that the process will be ‘tough’ and ‘painful’ meaning that millions of UK workers will be pauperised with zero living standards imposed while the ruling class will soldier on in their accustomed luxury.
With the UK and the US now being eclipsed by the deformed workers’ states of Russia and China, Johnson calls it a ‘terrible mistake’ that the UK and other western nations did not stand up to Moscow’s ‘bullying’ sooner.
The UK ruling class was in fact doing very well living off the ill-gotten gains of Russian oligarchs, who got as far as membership of the House of Lords.
Johnson warned of the path chosen by the UK bosses: ‘I don’t doubt that there will be tough times ahead. The process of weaning the world off Russian oil and gas, and hydrocarbons in general, will be difficult … We have to accept that such a move will be painful.’
Hinting that the UK’s workers are to be pauperised Johnson added that his government has been ‘spending billions of pounds to ease the cost of living and cut hundreds off your household bills. But none of us can afford to carry on like this for long.’ He did not explain in detail what exactly British working class households will have to face in the near future.
To the horror of the green middle class, he urged on the second part of his ‘strategy’ – turning to nuclear power by building ‘small modular reactors as well as the larger power stations’ across the UK and encouraging investments in ‘dirty’ oil and gas extraction from the UK’s North Sea reserves.
The truth is that UK, EU and US workers are to face crippling bills and massive debts as their governments increasingly push for ending Russian oil and gas imports, and stepping up the ongoing military action in Ukraine.
Russia’s oil and gas trade has not been sanctioned directly. Instead, the stiff sanctions target Russia’s finances, the banking sector as well as its Space and Aviation industry. Their target is, in fact, regime change.
Germany’s leader, Chancellor Olaf Schulz, has spoken of a ‘historic turning point’. Schulz has announced his country will now offer real military aid to Ukraine.
The German Chancellor has now pledged to spend 100bn euros (£84bn) more on defence. This means that Germany is once again seeking to become the biggest military power in Europe and the third biggest in the world – behind only China and the United States.
The US has now warned China against helping Russia in any way, the White House confirmed this on Monday, following a meeting between President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and a senior Chinese diplomat.
If China provides ‘military or other assistance’ to Russia, ‘there will be significant consequences,’ White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki threatened. As to what that might entail, Psaki only said the US will ‘coordinate with our partners and allies to make that determination.’
On Sunday, ahead of the meeting, Sullivan told the US media that the White House was ‘communicating directly, privately to Beijing, that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them.
‘We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country, anywhere in the world,’ he added.
An unnamed Pentagon official told reporters on Monday the US has seen China ‘basically give tacit approval to what Russia is doing’ and will ‘watch very closely’ if Beijing provides any military aid to Moscow.
One thing is for sure, and that is that the working class of the US-UK-Germany and France will massively resist all of the attempts that are being made to force the working class to pay for the crisis of the bosses.
Capitalism is moving into its greatest ever crisis where it will only be able to survive through pauperising hundreds of millions of workers worldwide with new wars and counter-revolutions.
For the working class there can be only one response and that is to organise general strike actions to bring down the crisis-ridden capitalist governments and to go forward to workers’ governments and socialist revolutions that will expropriate the bosses and bankers, and bring in rule through workers’ soviets and creating the conditions for rule through workers’ soviets in Russia and China.
Vital for this victory of the world socialist revolution is the building of sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International in every country.
