LABOUR Leader Corbyn, launching Labour’s manifesto at Bradford University yesterday, sought to launch a gradual Fabian ‘revolution’, at a snail’s pace, to begin to change things for the better for the many at the expense of the few, as featured in the Times Rich List.
He said: ‘We are ruling out rises on VAT and National Insurance and on income tax for all but the richest 5% of high earners. Labour will boost the wages of 5.7 million people earning less than the living wage to £10 an hour by 2020.
‘Labour will end the cuts in the National Health Service to deliver safe staffing levels and reduce waiting lists. Labour will scrap tuition fees, lifting the debt cloud from hundreds of thousands of young people. Labour will move towards universal childcare expanding free provision for two, three and four year-olds in the next Parliament. Labour is guaranteeing the triple lock to protect pensioners’ incomes.’
He added: ‘And we will build over a million new homes, at least half for social rent’ and that ‘Labour makes no apology for offering new protections to people at work, including ending zero-hours contracts.’
The manifesto does formally recognise that there is a capitalist crisis stating: ‘A decade after the devastating international financial crisis, our financial system is still holding back too many of our small businesses and local economies.’ Labour speaks as if the capitalist crisis is over! It adds: ‘Labour will transform how our financial system operates . . . we will establish a National Investment Bank that will bring in private capital finance to deliver £250 billion of lending power.’
It adds that the National Transformation Fund ‘will invest £250 billion over ten years in upgrading our economy, where necessary, compensating communities.’ It however adds: ‘Labour will therefore set the target of eliminating the government’s deficit on day-to-day spending within five years,’ and also that the National Debt will be lower than it is today at the end of the next parliament.
That this can be done only by a huge expansion of the economy is obvious. However, we are living in a time of great capitalist crisis when the system is staggering from crisis to even greater crisis, with worse to come.
Labour intends to bring back public ownership even at a snail’s pace. The manifesto pledges to
• Bring private rail companies back into public ownership as their franchises expire.
• Regain control of energy supply networks through the alteration of operator license conditions, and transition to a publicly owned, decentralised energy system.
• Replace our dysfunctional water system with a network of regional publicly-owned water companies.
• Reverse the privatisation of Royal Mail at the earliest opportunity.
On energy Labour will: ‘Take energy back into public ownership to deliver renewable energy, affordability for consumers, and democratic control. We will do this in the following stages’. A number of these stages are then outlined.
On Brexit it states: ‘Labour accepts the referendum result and a Labour government will put the national interest first . . . We will reject ‘no deal’ as a viable option and if needs be negotiate a transitional arrangement to avoid a cliff-edge for the economy.’
If the EU leaders will not accept a transitional arrangement – Labour has no answer since the only answer is a socialist revolution and the socialist reorganisation of the UK and Europe. On higher education the manifesto states: ‘Labour will reintroduce maintenance grants for university students, and we will abolish university tuition fees.’ Unlike the leaked version of the manifesto there is no mention of phasing out tuition fees. Labour has had a rush of blood to the head!
The manifesto also pledges to Repeal the Trade Union Act, and hold a public inquiry into blacklisting.
The manifesto does however pledge that a Labour government will ‘immediately recognise the State of Palestine.’
The WRP stands for a Labour victory because it will signify the beginning of the British socialist revolution. We say vote WRP where we are standing because what the working class in the UK requires is a revolutionary leadership to win its struggle for power, since Fabianism is organically incapable of providing such a leadership!
