Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials, 6 February 2007

A QUESTION OF "HONOURS" - WHILE BLAIR GETS AWAY WITH MURDER?

Of course, the "cash for honours" debacle confronting Blair today is really a case of Blair flouting his own legislation, since it was his government which imposed financial transparency on political parties. As it turns out, it seems that in Blair's book, such legislation only applies to the others!

That being said, this kind of wheeling and dealing has always been common practice by all ruling parties, more or less hidden - and was even an open policy under prime minister Lloyd George, after he became PM, way back in 1916!

However, one has to ask if the media storm generated by this "scandal" today is actually proportionate to its real consequences? After all, who cares whether some wealthy parasites buy themselves one of those honorific titles of "Lord" or "Sir", or the like? For the rest of us, such antiquated adornment belongs to the past, and is just as irrelevant as the monarchy!

The hot talk in town today, is whether Blair will be forced to resign or not, over the sleaze issue. But wouldn't it be ironical - and in fact a cynical twist of politics - if a question of ancient symbolic "honours" was to achieve what the opposition to Blair's bloody slaughter of the Iraqi and Afghan peoples, failed to achieve?

Of course, what is at stake on this score, is the authority of the state. Blair can afford to resign over sleaze, which only implicates himself and some of the high fliers in his party. But he cannot afford to resign over his war policy, which implicates the entire state machinery, all the main parties and the capitalist class as a whole.

Research by the trade union Amicus, almost two years after the final collapse of MG Rover in April 2005, shows that 25% of the workforce is still unemployed.

At that time, 6,100 workers directly employed by Rover lost their jobs. The fate of another 16,000 workers in suppliers and 7,000 in dealerships has not been documented.

Today, according to the Amicus survey, only 66% of the MG Rover workers have found alternative work. But of these, 20% are now earning the equivalent of the minimum wage! Which, of course is now still only £5.35/hour. This means that even if these workers work 40 hours a week, they have dropped from an average of £22,000/year to just over £11,000!

Contrary to what supporters of this government keep telling us, including union leaders, this minimum wage has not actually improved the situation of the working class because it is used as the "benchmark" for wages, effectively pulling all wage levels right down to the minimum!

And by the way, there was no financial support given to those Rover workers who could not afford to retrain. Only 31% had any kind of advice given to them, against the 58% claim by the government.

This is the true picture of Brown's "successful" economy and the truth behind this government's boast of the "highest level of employment in British history"! It claims that unemployment under Labour has been all but abolished! But of course what their fiddled figures actually conceal is the crude reality of casualisation and low pay.

The truth of the matter is that there are just no decent permanent jobs on offer any more. It has become "normal" for many workers to hold multiple temporary and part-time jobs - all paid on the minimum wage. Indeed they have no choice, but to take whatever work is on offer - and as much of it as possible - to make ends meet. Labour's pro-business policies have created a huge and desperate number of "working poor".

But not content with that, this government is also attacking those on incapacity benefit and forcing them into the arms of bosses whose only aim is to exploit them as cheaply as possible. As for Brown's pride and joy, the "tax credit" system, meant to prevent the low-paid from starving, it is nothing but a government subsidy to the bosses who pay starvation wages!

Sure, it is the bosses who slash jobs and close factories at will, to ensure that they and their shareholders continue to get richer, while the working class who made all their wealth for them, gets poorer. But in doing this, they rely on a government which is prepared to aid and abet them at every single turn. And since every main party has exactly the same pro-business agenda, it is not by voting, but only through a concerted fight waged by workers themselves, that this will ever change.