On Saturday, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak issued a New Year’s Message that was an attempt to shore up the Labour government in the face of increasingly diminishing support amongst the working class.
His message was a plea to the Starmer government to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that is driving millions of workers into poverty, insisting it must be the government’s ‘number one priority’.
Nowak’s call follows new polling by the TUC which laid bare the extent of this crisis.
This poll, conducted by Survation, revealed that:
One in five people (21%) are skipping meals every day or most days to make ends meet;
One in three (36%) are cutting back on heating every day or most days;
Four in five (79%) reported that their financial circumstances are either stagnant or getting worse.
What has caused fear amongst Nowak and the TUC leadership is the fact that millions of workers are turning on the Starmer government which, since its election in 2024, has revealed itself to be the government for the bosses and bankers determined to impose the full weight of the capitalist economic collapse on the backs of workers.
The TUC itself reports that recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation showed that people who feel financially insecure are leaving Labour in greater numbers and that the loss of support for the Labour government is rooted in economic insecurity much more than any anti-immigration sentiment.
The Starmer government is being ripped apart by the requirements of bankrupt British capitalism to inflict savage austerity cuts on the NHS and all public services along with dealing with unemployment that is increasing by the day.
The failure of Starmer to carry through even comparatively modest cuts to benefits, in the face of a massive rebellion from Labour MPs, has sharpened this crisis to the point of civil war amongst the top leadership of the Labour government.
Nowak has now stepped into the civil war in an effort to shore up support for Starmer and a Labour government collapsing by the day.
In an interview with the Guardian paper on Saturday, Nowak backed Starmer saying: ‘He is the man doing the job at the moment’ and issuing a warning to those intent on ousting him not to get distracted by politics, insisting: ‘Frankly, the public will not thank you for parliamentary manoeuvrings and political shenanigans when the big job at hand isn’t being delivered.’
The ‘big job in hand’ for Nowak and the Labour government is how to keep British capitalism from diving over the cliff into a debt-fuelled recession while at the same time keeping the working class submissive.
Nowak’s only solution to the economic crisis is to urge Starmer to seek out close relations with Europe, including a customs union, as a way of ‘growing the economy’ saying it had become more urgent than ever because of Donald Trump’s trade war on the world.
Nowak said Labour ‘needs to do whatever it can to build the closest possible positive working relationship with Europe economically and politically’.
There will be no growth from closer ties with Europe where the two main economies of France and Germany are in the same debt crisis as the UK.
French public debt is reaching 112% of GDP while Germany’s debt is projected to rise to 120% by 2027.
There will be no revival of growth from closer relations with equally bankrupt nations each attempting to shift the burden of their crisis onto the backs of the working class.
Nowak ended his interview with the Guardian saying that it wasn’t the job of the TUC ‘to carp from the sidelines, it’s to try and engage the government and lobby them.’
For Nowak and the TUC, the main issue is to attempt to hold back the working class from using its power to bring down the Starmer government.
Workers must demand an emergency recall of the TUC conference to immediately organise the strength of the working class in a general strike to bring down this collapsing Labour government and bring in a workers government and socialism.
This is the only way forward.
