At the weekend, Labour’s new prime minister Andy Burnham announced he would be undertaking a ‘national tour’ of the country to improve the government’s ‘connection’ with the British public.
Burnham is expected to use this ‘vanity tour’, as the Lib Dems have christened it, to unveil a set of policies to help the millions of workers across the UK who are struggling with the rapidly escalating cost of living crisis.
Last month, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported that the cost of living crisis had exploded, with 7.4 million low income families unable to afford even essential items in the last six months.
Almost half (47%) of all low income families surveyed said they had gone hungry, cut down the size of their meals or skipped meals in the last 30 days because they didn’t have enough money for food.
The rapidly escalating cost of basic food items coupled with the convulsions in the energy market leading to a massive increase in the cost of energy is forcing millions into extreme poverty.
With the cost of energy continuing to soar as a result of the illegal failed war waged by the US and Israel to destroy Iran and recolonise the region, the only solution offered by Burnham is to cut VAT on household energy bills reducing the typical household bill by a paltry £3.75 a month.
Last Friday, the general secretaries of ten leading UK trade unions published an open letter to Burnham calling on him to tackle the cost of living crisis by doing more to oppose ‘the US and Israel’s devastating illegal war on Iran’ which is ‘deepening the cost of living crisis faced by our members and the British public.’
The ten unions signing this letter – Unison, National Education Union, Communication Workers Union, RMT, University and College Union, Equity, TSSA, Bakers Union and the FBU – represent over 2.3 million workers.
The letter said the unions were ‘encouraged’ by Burnham’s pathetic measures ‘to make life more affordable’ but said they were ‘deeply concerned’ that the Labour government had ‘authorised US airstrikes to be conducted from bases on British territories as part of the escalating war against Iran.’
Right after Burnham took office last month, he authorised the use of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and the UK Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia for the US Airforce to carry out attacks on Iran, maintaining the policy established under former Labour leader Keir Starmer.
These bases, the letter notes, have become ‘increasingly important to the US due to the impact of Iranian counterstrikes on its Middle East bases.’
The letter continues: ‘Revoking permission for the US to use these bases would have a significant impact on the US’s ability to further escalate a war that has been a catastrophe for the people in the Middle East and an economic disaster for the world.’
An economic disaster for the workers and masses of the world but the source of billions in profit for the oil companies who are making a fortune out of the squeeze on supply after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Labour foreign secretary Ed Miliband, speaking after a meeting in Washington with US secretary of state Marco Rubio, responded by trotting out the usual defence that ‘We’ve allowed our bases to be used for the defence of our allies, our Gulf allies, and that’s absolutely the right thing to do.’
Miliband added: ‘But the most important thing we need to do is not escalate the rhetoric’.
In other words, don’t dare criticise the US and remain complicit in all the war crimes committed by US imperialism and Israel.
This letter from ten unions, including Unison, the biggest in the country, represents the overwhelming opposition to imperialist wars amongst workers and youth and their refusal to passively accept being forced to pay the cost of these wars.
The time has come for the working class to demand that its trade union leaders stop relying on letters but take action, by demanding the TUC call a general strike to bring down the Labour government and bring in a workers government and socialism.
This is the way forward.
