THE ‘Wolf’, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, at yesterday’s TUC Congress, sought to explain to the ‘sheep’, the working class, why they should accept the need of the bankers to cut their throats, in return for the chief banker, himself, being really decent about things, and admitting the obvious, that the current crisis of capitalism was created by the bankers and that the trade unions are in no way responsible for it.
The sheer preposterousness of his approach was breathtaking. Its delivery will only harden the determination of the working class that the bankers, and capitalism, must pay for the crisis, and not the working class.
Indeed King’s admission leads directly to the conclusion that since it is capitalism and the ruling class that have caused the crisis, only an idiot would accept paying for the crisis in order to continue with a completely bankrupt system.
He began his speech with a stomach-churning tribute to the TUC General Council, and its general secretary, Barber, declaring: ‘I want first to thank you for inviting me to address Congress. Members of your General Council have made a huge contribution to the Bank of England by serving on our board – the Bank’s Court. Carrying on that tradition today is Brendan Barber. By bringing a distinct and important perspective to our discussions, Brendan has helped us through some extremely turbulent times. I am grateful to him.’
Brendan’s head will not be turned by such a fulsome tribute from the ruling class. He has got a folder full of them.
Gate Gourmet, when owned by venture capitalists Texas Pacific, went public in an equally over the top praise of the general secretary of the TUC, when along with Tony Woodley, he betrayed the struggle of the Gate Gourmet sacked workers in 2005.
King’s confession came directly after this praise when he said: ‘We let it slip – we, that is, in the financial sector and as policy-makers – not your members nor the many businesses and organisations around the country which employ them.’
He added: ‘There was nothing fair about the financial crisis. It was caused not by problems in the real economy; it came out of the financial sector. But it was the real economy that suffered and the banks that were bailed out. Your members, and indeed the businesses which employ them, are entitled to be angry.’
He continued: ‘In 2008, banks were bailed out not to protect them but to protect the rest of the economy from the banks. That may not seem fair – and it isn’t – when other companies, such as Jaguar, had to stand on their own feet or go to the wall. So banks too must face market discipline.
‘But we need to do more than reform our banking system.’
What ‘we’ need to do turns out to be ‘to reduce the deficit steadily over five years’, under conditions where ‘Of course, no one can forecast the gusts – or indeed storms – the economy may face looking ahead. . .
‘Nevertheless, the road ahead is unlikely to be straight.’
He concluded with an example of how useful the Labour bureaucracy is for the bankers. ‘Our contacts with experienced union officials in touch with a range of companies and sectors are the best source of intelligence on labour markets. With your help, we are determined to understand what is happening in every region and country of our economy so that we can set the right monetary policy.’ The union bureaucracy is a source of intelligence for the bankers!
The essence of his speech was that the working class must pay the bill for the capitalist crisis, despite the fact that the workers have no responsibility for the crisis, and the leading bankers, such as King, are unable to say what storms are ahead for capitalism.
The working class will resist paying the bill for the crisis. It will make a historic class decision, that out of date capitalism must be overthrown and replaced by socialism.
King went to the TUC yesterday because the capitalists rely on the TUC to keep the working class in order and to betray it as necessary.
To go forward to socialism, the Brendan Barber type of treacherous leadership must be removed and be replaced by a revolutionary leadership prepared to bring the coalition down with a general strike and bring in a workers government to go forward to socialism.
