YESTERDAY, the TUC published the results of a survey of workers, taken in the immediate aftermath of last week’s vote to break with the EU, regarding the threat by the Tories that this vote would result in massive retribution by the bankers and bosses in the form of an austerity budget designed to pauperise the working class.
The results of this survey showed conclusively that, far from being cowed by these threats, the opposite was true: the vast majority of those polled were prepared and willing to fight any austerity measures imposed by the Tory government.
58% reported they would fight a ‘Brexit cuts budget’, with opposition highest amongst those who voted to leave the EU (65%). According to the TUC, just one in six voters (17%) would support an austerity budget of further cuts to spending.
While this survey proves that the working class is in no mood to accept further attacks on wages, jobs and pensions along with the destruction of the NHS and Welfare State, the same cannot be said of the leadership of the TUC.
They merely report their own findings, refusing to issue any call for action against the cuts that will surely take place regardless of whether Gove, May or any other Tory wins the leadership contest.
Instead, the TUC follows the same line it has relentlessly pursued throughout the years of austerity imposed to bail-out the banks, the line of impotently pleading with the Tories to be kinder and not so ruthless in hammering workers and their families.
This pleading is accompanied by the usual reactionary drivel of begging the Tories to ‘do something’ to save jobs and protect workers’ rights.
The sight of the leaders of the TUC reduced to begging for help from a government that has smashed manufacturing industry and introduced anti-union laws that make strikes illegal exposes the complete bankruptcy of this reformist leadership and lays bare the reality that they will not lead any fight to defend their members from a Tory government that barely exists as a result of all the splits caused by the referendum.
With the Tories at their most vulnerable, weak, divided and at war with themselves, the only thing keeping them in power is the treacherous refusal of these leaders to stand up and demand they go.
Instead, the TUC compound their treachery by offering themselves up as willing allies to keep bankrupt British capitalism staggering on even deeper into crisis. On the same day as they published their survey, the TUC published a joint statement with the bosses’ organisation, the CBI, calling for a joint effort to save the country: ‘This is not a job for the government alone. It will require a national effort from businesses large and small, trade unions, the Westminster government and devolved nations, and a wide range of stakeholders at local and national level.’
This call for unity between workers and bosses for the survival of capitalism at the expense of workers, echoes the moves towards a crisis coalition-type government being pushed by the Labour Party right-wing.
Indeed, it is significant that the TUC, when reporting on the coup plans by the Blairite-led right-wingers to oust Corbyn, has assiduously avoided calling for a victory for Corbyn, despite the fact that he is overwhelmingly supported by Labour Party and trade union members.
Ten unions, including Unite, Unison, GMB and CWU, have issued a carefully worded statement this week which denounces the ‘deeply regrettable and unnecessary’ crisis caused by the attempts to oust a democratically elected leader but which stops short of calling for an outright Corbyn victory.
The working class has demonstrated its determination to fight for its future but it is clear that the leadership of the TUC is refusing to lead any struggle against the Tories or the Blairites who support them.
What is urgently required is to drive these class traitors out of the leadership and replace them with leaders who are prepared to take on and bring down the Tories and go forward to a workers government and socialism. Only the WRP is building the leadership that is demanded by this crisis. Join today.
